Dispatches from Nowhere

Replica Props Forum (RPF) user Talaaya built the Varia suit from Metroid Prime 3 by 3D printing many of the pieces.

Talaaya spent several months working on the project and initially planned to make the armor using the pepakura method. Pepakura is essentially fancy and sturdy paper craft, and as you can imagine, folding the paper into place is incredibly time consuming. It’s also not precise. Luckily friend Matt Serle bought a couple of 3D printers – specifically the ZPrinter 450.

She only had to pay for materials but estimates that still cost around $1,200 just for that. Still worth it since there’s nothing like the accuracy you get from a 3D printer. Matt spent hundreds of hours on the project. That’s only the beginning of the build though. Talaaya documented the entire process at RPF and at Reddit. She only 3D printed the helmet, shoulders, chest, arm cannon, and forearm armor pieces. The rest of the suit was made from craft foam and covered in Worbla. She used a magical combination of Bondo, gesso, and Apoxie sculpt to coat the Worbla and smooth it out before adding paint. x