image from GoT S3-4 behind the scenes book
If there is a TV series that I have become obsessed with over the last four years, it would be Game of Thrones. The fantasy drama, which takes its viewers back several hundred years in time to a period when royal dynasties still took part in ravishing battles, has piqued my interest more than any other show I have watched in the past decade. In less than 3 months — April 12 to be exact — Season 5 of Game of Thrones will premiere on HBO, and my anticipation leading up to it will continue to build until this fifth season officially kicks off.
Within the 3D printing space, we have seen numerous attempts at recreating costumes of characters from movies, video games and TV shows. The customization aspects of the technology allow for unique fabrication of such. For one avid fan of Game of Thrones, named Nimi Becza, 3D printing gave him a way of creating, not a costume from the TV series, but a replica of one of the show’s main characters’ weapons.
For those familiar with Game of Thrones, you are most likely also familiar with Oberyn Nymeros Martell. This is the character that Nimi Becza takes a liking to the most, so much so that he has created an entire costume for himself of Martell. Recently, however, he decided that he wanted to add a weapon to his costume, a blade that Martell himself carries on him.
“I created the blade with the intention to add it as an accessory to my Oberyn Martell costume,” Becza tells 3DPrint.com. “The most difficult part was actually finding a reference image for his dagger. The best I could gather is an image collage from the new GoT S3-4 behind the scenes book and a split second screenshot from Oberyn’s first scene in season 4.”
Becza’s 3D printed replica dagger
Evidently this was enough for Becza, whose replica turned out extraordinarily accurate. After creating his base model in SolidWorks, he then sent the design to his friends at a company called Print My Props, who printed the dagger out in 3 separate pieces. Then, in order to create small details on the weapon’s hilt, a mix of 2-part epoxy clay was used.
Becza’s dagger modeled in Solidworks
“Finally I sanded the whole piece down, painted it with chrome (blade) and charcoal (handle) spray paint,” Becza tells us. “Once everything was sealed and dried, I glued the tiny red teardrop shaped plastic gems on it. My dagger’s sheet follows the same pattern I initially created for my belt. Both are tooled vegetable tanned leather, dyed and antiqued. My necklace for this costume is also 3D printed actually.”
Becza and his spear
Becza outsourced the 3D printing to Print My Props, simply because they do a great job with their printing, and because of the simple fact that he doesn’t yet own a 3D printer himself. That will soon change though, as Becza tells us he has a 3D printer on its way, and he intends to use it to 3D print Oberyn’s sword as well as redo the spear that he had already created.
This is just one more example of how creative some people have become when given access to 3D modeling software in combination with 3D printing. Becza created a replica of a weapon which many people hadn’t ever saw before.