#ciosplay

Using 3D Printing to Make This Amazing Star Wars: The Force Awakens Kylo Ren Helmet

It is probably safe to say that the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, is one of the most anticipated movies in decades. Our entire generation has grown up on Star Wars, and everything that we’ve seen from the movie so far has exceeded expectations on almost every level. One of the stand out new characters that has a lot of Star Wars fans excited is the film’s primary antagonist, the mysterious Kylo Ren. We have only caught brief glimpses of him in the trailers and production art that has been released so far. But the sight of Kylo Ren with his Darth Vader-inspired helmet and ragged, self-built lightsaber (the one with the lightsaber hilt) already has fans and cosplayers excited and eager to dress up as him.

For 28-year-old engineerLuke Daley, 3D printing and 3D design are hobbies that he uses to fill his free time at night, after coming home from his day job with Siemens. Currently he’s a member of several Star Wars costuming groups with his wife, and heavily involved with the 99th Garrison and the UKG ( part of the world wide 501st Garrison). So while Daley is heavily involved in the Star Wars cosplaying community, it turns out that this is actually the first helmet that he’s designed and built all on his own. However it certainly doesn’t show based on the finished product, which is only the first part of Kylo Ren’s costume that he’s going to be working on.

Daley started his project back in April 2015 after the Star Wars Celebration Anaheim showed off the complete Kylo Ren costume. Unfortunately he was unable to attend the event, but after seeing some of the pictures posted online, he knew exactly what his next costume project was going to be. Using every bit of reference material that he could lay his hands on, Daley spent almost 100 hours designing in Solidworks getting the helmet details just right. After posting the digital files on MyMiniFactory, where anyone can download them for free, Daley was kind enough to walk me through the entire process of designing, printing and the finishing of his fantastic prop helmet.

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