i have plans to make a xenomorph costume with animatronic parts. so far, i’ve designed tail segments in 3ds max along with guidelines for the holes that need to be placed in the segments.
i’m wondering if i can get help or advice for things
what kind of material should be used?
how can i make it more cost efficient?
can i get help with making the holes in the models?
can i get help cleaning up clipping polygons?
what could be an appropriate spine?
do i need separate material for the holes where the wires will go?
can i get help with housing for 4 medium servo motors at the base of the tail?
can i get help with a harness to hold everything in place?
i know this is perhaps a lot to ask but its a project i’ve longed to do and i’m all for collaboration.
thank you in advance for any help, advice, tips or simply taking the moment to consider my requests.
3 Likes
Hello Priest_Pyrce
I can’t answer all your questions, just a few:
what kind of material should be used? I would go for ABS with a light-medium infill, since your pieces are not going to suffer from extreme conditions (I assume).
how can i make it more cost efficient? By reducing layer height (resolution) and infill level. This way you get a rougher piece that can be postprocessed by you, reducing costs. You can apply many finishes to ABS, including sanding, epoxi putty, acetone vapour smoothing, all kinds of coatings, paint… It is up to you.
can i get help with making the holes in the models? What do you mean?
can i get help cleaning up clipping polygons? For this I recommend you to use Dynamesh and Zremesher tools in Zbrush, they are life savers for me. If you don’t have access to Zbr_ush I would use Meshmixer (free software), there are free tutorials in youtube 
.
what could be an appropriate spine?_ I don’t understand the question
do i need separate material for the holes where the wires will go? No, I think, they are just holes. Maybe supports will be required, but removed afterwards so no need to use another material.
can i get help with housing for 4 medium servo motors at the base of the tail? Sorry not from me
can i get help with a harness to hold everything in place? Not from me either, but good luck!
I hope I could help a little!
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thank you very much for the tips and advice. it’s very appreciated.
for the things you were unsure of or cannot assist me with, that’s perfectly fine. they may be details i need to determine myself, maybe even when the prints are done.
Enza3D
4
Hi @Priest_Pyrce!
Lucika29 gave you some great suggestions, and that should help get you going!
I’d also suggest googling animatronic tails/tentacles and taking a look at what other people have done for cosplay (this is a pretty popular prop with the advent of Arduino’s/Pi’s and 3D printing). For example, here’s one for Slenderman tentacles (http://www.instructables.com/id/Animatronic-Tentacles-with-Arduino/?ALLSTEPS).
How complex do you want the movement of this to be?
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well i have it planned that i’ll use 4 servo motors. two are going to go up half the length of the tail, and will pull it either up or down, or left or right. two more will run up the entire length the same way. this should give me a bit of a dynamic with the tail so i can make S curves as well as C curves.
the design of the segments SHOULD be able to help keep my restrictions on how much it can articulate. i’ve already done up some fixing with meshmixer and the cost reduction looks very promising but at the size i’m trying for, it appears to be too big to get a quote. i might try cutting it in half and trying that.
segment1 refined.stl (11.5 MB)
Enza3D
6
Your parts are fairly chunky, so that should help mask the servos a bit, how strong are you with electronics? 4 servos is not an insignificant power draw, and you’ll need to pull decent current to get them moving. Most micro-servos need at least a couple hundred mA of current each, and some high torque motors will pull more than 1 A each when moving. Currents this high are dangerous enough to cause serious damage, so please be careful!
The model file you uploaded here seems really small, what units is the model in?
unfortunately, due to budget, i’ll need to minimize the structure of the segments to a very basic skeleton piece or less and build more ontop of it with other materials. perhaps a pool noodle. and yeah i noticed the sizes were weird and found out how small i scaled it. it’s supposed to be about 12" top to bottom. that’s just for the largest segment, they get smaller from there. but yeah it needs to be changed anyways to something more affordable. 160$ a piece is not practical lol.
as for the motors and wiring, i have a friend who will help. i’ve seen it done, and some systems like the arduino allow you to adjust the speed of the motors so that shouldn’t be too much trouble. i also always take extra precaution, maybe too much sometimes, so i know i’ll be careful. i know i’ll need to make sure sweat and such can’t reach the wires, i need to keep systems cool, and i need to make sure wires don’t snap off and that no wires touch anything they shouldn’t. i’ll have an abundance of laytex and tubes for the project anyways so hiding the wires within the suit itself may be advantageous.
i’m still doing all my research though and this isn’t something i’ll be jumping into without considering all the costs and practicality. if i could figure out a way to do it without the electronics and without a bunch of different wires to tug from somewhere, i would. (thought about putting a “chain” around the costume’s neck, so another person could walk around with me like some kind of pet, and they control the puppetry, but that seems arduous for the second person involved)
do you have any suggestions? something like more smaller motors as opposed to 4 large ones? or an idea to reduce the weight of the tail entirely? or a suggestion to puppetry in place of electronic?
