Voltron is kind of a big deal in this house. So, it’s natural that, come Halloween, I needed to print a Blade of Marmora so one of us could be Keith. The blade, along with a few other costume bits, will also serve well as cosplay for upcoming Cons.
The model for this blade is by Billy the Brick, and cost $9.95 – well worth it for a high quality model that is incredibly easy to print and fit together.
Printing
I’ve picked materials for the various components of this model that eliminate the need to do any painting, or at least minimizes the amount of painting required on the finished blade. Eventually we’ll build a version with an embedded battery and electronics to make the gem stone glow, but for now a non-glowing translucent blue gemstone will need to do.
Sanding
All of the printed pieces required sanding; the blade pieces so that they would align and fuse tightly, the blade guard so it would form a snug fit with the pommel and blade shaft, and the gem so it would seat properly:
Constructing
The blade is aligned by a 0.25″ wood dowel run through the center of each piece. All of the components are held together with KrazyGlue, which should provide more than enough strength for the shear forces that will be applied to the blade.
Finishing
To even out some of the print layer striations, and add a bit of gloss, I used XTC-3D as a finish coat, which took about 4 hours to dry, and overnight to full set.
For future prints I may try combining the two models that form the blade to see if I can get a solid blade with no visible join.
- Maker: Billy the Brick
- Source: Voltron Prop – Keith Galra Dagger
- License: Commercial
- Model: –
- Materials:
- Blade Body: Inland Silver PLA 1.75mm
- Blade Guard x2: Inland Silver PLA 1.75mm
- Blade Tip: Inland Silver PLA 1.75mm
- Gem x2: Gizmodorks Translucent Blue PLA 1.75mm
- Hilt Head: Prusa Black PETG 1.75mm
- Hilt Pommel part 1: Prusa Black PETG 1.75mm
- Hilt Pommel part 2: Prusa Black PETG 1.75mm
- Hilt Shaft: Prusa Black PETG 1.75mm
- Print Date: 2017/10/24
- Print Time: 15 hours 52 minutes
- Blade Body: 3 hours 24 minutes
- Blade Guard x2: 3 hours 15 minutes
- Blade Tip: 1 hour 47 minutes
- Gem (with and without cut out) x2: 2 hours
- Hilt Head: 1 hour
- Hilt Pommel part 1 & 2: 1 hour 49 minutes
- Hilt Shaft: 2 hours 37 minutes
- Estimated Print Time: 14 hours 3 minutes
- Blade Body: 3 hours 12 minutes
- Blade Guard x2: 2 hours 59 minutes
- Blade Tip: 1 hour 39 minutes
- Gem (with and without cut out) x2: 1 hour 13 minutes
- Hilt Head: 48 minutes
- Hilt Pommel part 1 & 2: 1 hour 29 minutes
- Hilt Shaft: 2 hours 43 minutes
- Estimated Filament: 32.7 meters total
- Blade Body: 5 meters
- Blade Guard x2: 9.4 meters
- Blade Tip: 2.2 meters
- Gem (with and without cut out) x2: 2.6 meters
- Hilt Head: 1.4 meters
- Hilt Pommel part 1 & 2: 4.6 meters
- Hilt Shaft: 4.9 meters
- Slicer: Slic3r
- Slicer Settings:
- 0.15mm layers
- 10mm brim
- 20% infill cubic
- No Supports
- Blade Body
- Blade Tip
- Hilt Shaft
- Supports
- Blade Guard x2
- Hilt Head
- Pommel 1 & 2
- Gem
- Printer: Prusa i3 mk2