Action figure vehicles

At this point I've printed a ton of custom/stock action figures. I figured they needed some vehicles.

Happy kid for scale.

Motorcycle Jet and Jeep

Parents action figures

Welp... Now he has 3d printed versions of his parents...

Hopefully he goes easy on us lol.

Springtrap DIY Halloween costume

My Son wanted to make this own costume this year. He wanted to be springtrap from fnaf. So we bought some foam, let him pick the outside fabric, and I started "vibe-crafting" with no real plan.

Here is the reference material:

And here is what we ended up with:

Last minute (literally the night before Halloween) I threw together some Led glasses (I knew he wouldn't be able to wear the mask at school, they don't let you cover your face, so the glasses would let him have SOMETHING on his face)

The suit is held together with random wires I ripped out of electronics I salvaged, and everything velcros in the back so he was able to put this on himself at school.

All in all, Im pretty happy with how it turned out.

More custom action figures

 When your son wants an action figure that doesn't exist... You 3d print it!

Here is what it looks like in the game.

And here is what I made.

I intentionally didn't paint it all the way, I figured it'd be fun for him to weather it himself.

Halloween costume

 My son wanted to be Iron Spider for Halloween this year. 

(The photo is from our trunk or treat this year. I literally googled "spiderman trunk or treat" found an idea, and just copied it cutting out pieces from colored plastic table clothes)

Here is what iron spider looks like for reference.

We got an Iron Spider costume, but it obviously didn't come with the arms... So I started thinking how I could make the arms without also having him maim other kids walking down the street.

Then I remembered a last minute Halloween costume by Adam Savage from the Mythbusters,

So I got some 1/4" aluminum armature wire, and the insulation with adhesive on one side you use to insulate door jams. I stuck the insulation to itself on either side of the wire, then shaped it with some scissors, and spray painted it gold.

My wife then got an old backpack from a friend, cut everything off but the back pad, and the straps. She the cut a piece of wood to size, and drilled some holes with a jig to hold the arms in place. We fit the wood to the backpack with some screws (flat on the side that would be touching his back) then used colored duct tape to cover everything and fit with his costume.

He was pretty happy with how it turned out. 

Fully modeled prints

 This is the next level in progress, I took just the joints from the lucky13 action figure model and grafted on the real in-game model from five nights at freddys. This is the only version of this action figure, as I made it, and painted it custom myself. (using thew fancy paint pens I found recently "posca markers")

Im pretty proud of this one and how it came out. 

Painting prints

 My son has been asking for modified action figures that look like his favorite five nights at Freddy's characters. (Hes 5 so he hasn't played the game, he just likes how they look)

So I downloaded the models, sculpted them onto the existing action figures, and got some acrylic markers to paint them.

This is the base model all the other characters are built on. I just used blender to bolt on other models, or sculpt into shape.

My first attempt, I basically just copy pasted the characters' head (his name is Monty) onto the original robot. I also added a guitar from another model.

He loved it, but asked if I could make the legs and arms rounded on the next one. So I used blender and manually moved vertices to make the corners more rounded. This is Freddy.

This was great, but not rounded enough... So my next model, I basically just modeled from scratch and only kept the original joints so it would still work as an action figure. This one is called Puppet

Now these are starting to look better...

Here is what puppet looks like in the actual game: 

Next was a character with similar rounded arms, but he had baggy pants for legs, so I sculpted these from scratch as well.

This character has an "alternate" personality that I made a second version for as well.

I really like this process not only because I'm getting better, but also specifically because I'm getting better in front of him. He gets to see each version getting better and better, and it's showing him that anyone who is good at something, started way worse than where they are now, and its a slow process you have to keep up with.

More multi-color 3d prints

They take longer (separating the model into parts, printing them separately, gluing together)
But they look so much better. (He's been really into Mario lately because of the new movie)

And I always love when friends come over, and I can print things for their kids (They loved the collapsible sword, so I asked their favorite colors and printed one for each kid)

Multi-color 3d print

 Biggest 3d print I've done for him so far: (the bowser)

The gem/crystal is printed in a multi-color filament.

xmas light sculpture 2, electric boogaloo

  This year my son is into mermaids... so we're turning this into a tradition...

Next year Im thinking of using ws2815's and making it animate :)

Personalized action figure

 Im still learning how to make "real" action figure joints (ball/swivel/hinge/etc) But in the meantime, Ive had "make an action figure that looks like my son" on my bucket list for a while.

I used the iphone X face scanner and em3d to scan his face, then put it on a "flexi" robot model https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/flexi-print-in-place-fokobot-2-0

Heres the result:

I used blender, and its built in "3d print" module to make the scan manifold, and joined the models.

Powerwheels project

 My friend Jeremy got his daughter a powerwheels for christmas, but it came missing some parts. Instead of sending him the parts, they just sent a whole new car. He knew I love fixing/modding things, so he gave us the car. 

Here is the before picture of the car.

Our son has no issue with pink, but I decided a fun mod for the car would be to paint it with blackboard paint, so he could draw on it (to encourage art/creativity/etc)

So once I got a battery for it, and spliced some wires to make a custom connector, I started taping.

After it was all painted, you are supposed to "condition" the paint by coloring over the whole surface with white chalk.

After this was done, I decided to use a projector and draw some of his favorite characters on the car as a fun surprise to show that its chalkboard and he can do whatever he wants on it.

Hes been talking a lot about an imaginary movie that involves sonic and paw patrol working together (I'll be making the game adoption of this soon lol)

Ive got some more projects planned for the car, but wanted to let him enjoy it "as is" for a bit, so he can appreciate the mods I'll be adding (tablet mount/animated lights/music system/gps/etc)

Sonic light sculpture

 

So after seeing a local christmas light show, my son asked if we could make a sonic light sculpture, so here we are.

Started with a rough sketch based on a picture I found.

Then we started bending some random wire we got from home depot.

Next we started electrical taping some blue lights to it.

Then we added some white lights.

Then I gave up on swapping colors, and just use sharpie to color the nose/shoes/buckles.

As I was hanging it, someone with their dog jokingly said to their dog "look, its sonic!". 

My son loved it as well, and asked if we could make it move next year... which we will.

Quick Darth Maul Mask

He wanted to be Darth Maul, so I quick threw together a hand-made construction paper+paint+rubber band mask.