advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

While you wait for Half-Life: Alyx 3D print this 1:1 scale Headcrab

With a new Half-Life game finally coming out soon the franchise is once again in the public consciousness… well, more so than usual. Because of this people are returning to the franchise in creative ways, such as this 3D printed recreation of the Headcrab at life size scale.

Maker Luke Blackford is behind this project but he did not create the original files that his print is based on.

Thingiverse user Skimbal created a high quality version of the Headcrab back in 2012. Blackford remixed this to make one that he could print at such a large scale.

Using Microsoft’s 3D Builder the original model was sliced into eight parts so each could fit onto an Ender 5 Plus. Here the body is sliced into four separate pieces, and each leg is printed separately too.

Once all the parts were off the printed they were joined together super glue and their gaps were filled with Bondo. After two rounds of sanding, one at 80 grit and then another at 120, the painting could begin.

Starting with a heavy coat of filler primer some regular spray paints from Home Depot were used for the rest of the colouring here. While the Headcrab looks like it has a relatively simple colour scheme, it’s more detailed than it looks and it was the most difficult part of the project.

“The biggest challenge in the process was definitely the painting. It’s something I’m not very skilled at and I was afraid I was going to fumble at the goal line. Lucky for me, once primed and sanded the process was very forgiving. If I went a little dark in one area it was easy to go over it with a lighter color until I got what I was looking for,” Blackford tells us.

The completed version of the print you see on this page is 21″ / 53.34 centimetres long. You can see how terrifyingly large this is once it’s on someone’s head in the gallery below.

Those looking to make their own 1:1 scale version of this can find Blackford’s sliced version available for free on Thingiverse. The original version by Skimbal is also free and in the same place.

If you’re reading this out of curiosity and have not played any of the Half-Life games before, you’re in luck. They are all, like the files mentioned above, free to download on Steam. This will be available until Half-Life: Alyx launches in March.

Previous 3D Prints of the Day:

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement