3d-printer

Making of T-800 Arm

Lukasz

• 4 min read
Making of T-800 Arm

Here's a description of making a 3D printed model of Terminator T-800 arm. Source: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2886923.

I don't remember exactly the printing time but it was moderately long - I'm guessing around 20 to 30 hours. Beside few bigger parts there were plenty of small components. Mostly white PLA was used with some extra parts printed in black.

Bigger parts (here already painted with a primer)
Smaller components ready to be painted with a primer (another layer), here parts of fingers

Since 3D printed parts will have layers visible the prints have to be painted with primer and sanded many times. Even then, layers might (are) be still visible.

Assembly can be divided into four parts: 1) assemble the forearm (bigger parts); 2) assemble the hand (smaller components); 3) assemble the base; 4) final assembly of all parts.

Various assembly steps of the forearm and the hand. Rods from cosmetic buds are used as joints.

To join parts together I used cyanoacrylate based glue (superglue), it holds parts very well.

Next step is to prepare for final painting. More layers of the primer and final painting with chrome paint.

Final layers of the primer and chrome painting

Now to assembly everything...

Assembled arm
Details of assembled arm, still layers can be seen and there are some imperfections

Now to weather it to make it look more real. For this I used a mix of dishwasher liquid, water and black acrylic paint, later I used black shoe-polish paste.

Using brush to "paint" the weather
Dishwasher liquid is used to make the water penetrate all the nooks and crannies

Unfortunately the acrylic paint didn't want to stick to well to the surface and I used black shoe polish to add more weathering.

Now base preparation and painting.

Black matte paint was used to paint the base to which the arm is attached

Final assembly.

Assembled arm under a glass container

Final effect is pretty good, especially if the arm is not looked at from close-by.

Lessons learned:

  1. Even after much time spent on sanding and painting the primer layers still could be visible. Possibly using a normal paint would smooth the surface better. Alternatively surfaces could be smoothed in dichloromethane vapor bath.
  2. Chrome paint didn't look as good as expected. I've heard putting a layer of "normal" paint before should help to have a nice shiny effect. It could be also a "bad" paint used.
  3. Weathering didn't go too well, acrylic paint didn't want to stick to the paint and didn't leave nice dark marks. Possibly using non-water based dilluted paint would have a better effect.
  4. Originally arm has lightning from below, but when turned on it has a poor effect, moderate top-light looks much better.