cylonchaney's custom figures

[Padrino]

9 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

My latest Invincible creations were a gift for a buddy who is collecting my mail and watering my plants while I'm away on vacation. He collected his gift on his first visit and made a little AI animation. Thought I'd share as I find this amazing!

 

Love this! Amazing!

[THE_CRIPPLER]

Well, I bought the Minimate design from Cults 3d and gave it a try. Unfortunately it was not 2 inches, it was around 3 inches. Everything was loose, or doesn't even stay together. I did print in PLA to see what it would look like. I will probably try again in PETG some day to see if that helps with all the parts being so loose. The file for the Minimate may work for a large scale one, like a Sentinel. The shoulder joint will definitely need to be tweaked though. Time to pull out the old digital calipers and design my own Minimate I guess...

[Padrino]

closely following this conversation with one browser window open to wikipedia so i can understand what you are talking about, lol. this is like a foreign language to me but i desperately want to get into 3d printing. 

[THE_CRIPPLER]

2 hours ago, Padrino said:

closely following this conversation with one browser window open to wikipedia so i can understand what you are talking about, lol. this is like a foreign language to me but i desperately want to get into 3d printing. 

This is all new to me also. I have been researching about 3D printers for about a year now. I finally bought one a few weeks ago since Bambu is having a great sale on their printers at the moment. I'm also working on how to use Blender so that I can create my own parts, weapons, and hairpieces for Minimates. Blender is pretty amazing, but seems to have a pretty steep learning curve if you have never tried to create anything in 3D. I will figure it out with time though.

[Padrino]

51 minutes ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

This is all new to me also. I have been researching about 3D printers for about a year now. I finally bought one a few weeks ago since Bambu is having a great sale on their printers at the moment. I'm also working on how to use Blender so that I can create my own parts, weapons, and hairpieces for Minimates. Blender is pretty amazing, but seems to have a pretty steep learning curve if you have never tried to create anything in 3D. I will figure it out with time though.

I am really interested in the accessories also. Hairpieces, capes, skirts, weapons, all of it. 

Have you (or anyone else) tried 3D scanning? Is it of any use or even accessible, costwise?

[THE_CRIPPLER]

I have not looked into 3D scanning. Maybe Cylonchaney has? He is years ahead of me when it comes to this sort of technology. I have seen people use a 3D scanner to make busts and statues, but that is about it. 

[Liney]

On 9/16/2025 at 6:32 AM, cylonchaney said:

The blue is darker than I wanted. But the lighter blue plastic I had was old and brittle and kept breaking in the colour changing hardware. I put a chest sticker on one but it didn't look right. I'll have to make one custom for these guys if I want them to have muscles. I might go with the uniform on the right and just leave it like that. The guys on the left need some detail if I'm going to continue down that road. I'm quite pleased with the results of my first effort at multi-colour printing though.

The base face I modified was Wizard from our decals thread. I don't want to search through the whole thread to figure out who to credit but my gut says Dave based on the art style. If I stumble across who it was, I'll edit the thread. In any case, thanks!

 

I think that may have been one of mine? Glad it's been useful to someone

 

 

I've also jumped on the 3d printer wagon so am keen to see your progress.

My goal is a pair of seated legs for Uhura, so she doesn't have to stand at her comms station all the time. But do like the idea of a few 3" sentinels 🤔

[THE_CRIPPLER]

On 11/22/2025 at 3:41 PM, Padrino said:

I am really interested in the accessories also. Hairpieces, capes, skirts, weapons, all of it. 

Have you (or anyone else) tried 3D scanning? Is it of any use or even accessible, costwise?

It looks like you can use your phone now for 3d scanning. Here is a great video looking at different 3D scanning app.

 

[THE_CRIPPLER]

Cylonchaney, what program are you using to design your minimate parts: hairpiece, parts for chest, arms, legs, etc.

I have been watching Blender tutorials and am working on the donut one. I have been able to measure and get the dimensions to create the head and chest piece for Minimates. Im just wondering if there is an easier program to use to sculpt hair and other parts for Minimates. You can do so much stuff in Blender, You can do everything from sculpting to animation, but 90% of it will not be needed to make Minimate parts. Surely there is something more simple that focuses more on sculpting.

[Padrino]

1 hour ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

It looks like you can use your phone now for 3d scanning. Here is a great video looking at different 3D scanning app.

 

Thanks!

[cylonchaney]

6 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

Cylonchaney, what program are you using to design your minimate parts: hairpiece, parts for chest, arms, legs, etc.

I have been watching Blender tutorials and am working on the donut one. I have been able to measure and get the dimensions to create the head and chest piece for Minimates. Im just wondering if there is an easier program to use to sculpt hair and other parts for Minimates. You can do so much stuff in Blender, You can do everything from sculpting to animation, but 90% of it will not be needed to make Minimate parts. Surely there is something more simple that focuses more on sculpting.

I do all my stuff in a program called openSCAD. It's free. But it's sort of a programming language. You write a script that describes how to create your object. The nice thing is it's easy to tweak things. But it's horrible for organic shapes like hair pieces. You can see my self-designed hair pieces are ridiculously simple. My male Trek characters all have simple hair pieces designed by me. The ones that have any texture are upscaled Lego designs that I've found on the internet. Invincible or any female characters, for example. Here is the code for the sword CC is holding in some of the early pics.

module sword() {

    //blade
    difference() {
        cube([1.4,3,25],center=true);
        
        // cut to make it pointy
        translate([0,-2.75,-13.5])
        rotate([30,0,0])
        cube([5,5,15],center=true);
                
        // other cut to make it pointy
        mirror([0,1,0])
        translate([0,-2.75,-13.5])
        rotate([30,0,0])
        cube([5,5,15],center=true);
        
        
    }
    
    //hilt
    translate([0,0,12.5])
    cube([1.4,9,1.75],center=true);
    
    //handle
    translate([0,0,15])
    cube([1.4,2.1,8.5],center=true);
    
}

sword();

I think you'll find Blender is the best free tool out there to sculpt organic shapes like hair pieces. You might look into some tutorials on Blender for 3d printing. There are some videos specific to that. I've still not gotten into this yet but plan to use Blender where my CAD program is not a good fit. I find it quite good at modifying existing stl files. For example, I sometimes upscale Lego hair pieces. I then use Blender to cut the minimate head shape out of the hair piece so it fits better.

Learn the boolean modifier. It's the one you'll need to merge objects or carve one from another.

To directly answer your question, I'd say Blender is probably the easiest free tool you'll find for sculpting organic shapes like hair pieces. There exist easier to use CAD tools appropriate for designing the body parts and other blocky objects. 

[THE_CRIPPLER]

Thank you for your help. It looks like it is going to take me a while to learn what I need, but I have plenty of down time at work this time of year so I will keep up with watching Blender tutorials. With the boolean modifier can I sculpt right to the head of a minimate that I have in blender, and then when I am done with the sculpted hairpiece just remove the head and be left with a perfect shaped Minimate hairpiece that I can then print?

[cylonchaney]

14 minutes ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

Thank you for your help. It looks like it is going to take me a while to learn what I need, but I have plenty of down time at work this time of year so I will keep up with watching Blender tutorials. With the boolean modifier can I sculpt right to the head of a minimate that I have in blender, and then when I am done with the sculpted hairpiece just remove the head and be left with a perfect shaped Minimate hairpiece that I can then print?

I'm no Blender expert. But that's basically correct.

[buttheadsmate]

I may well commission my first custom-made pair of 3D printed Minimates .....not Batman & Robin , not Cap & Bucky ....no !

I want the " Boolean Modifier & Blender " 2 pack  

 

Amazing stuff .

Edited November 25, 2025 by buttheadsmate
grammar

[cylonchaney]

6 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said:

I may well commission my first custom-made pair of 3D printed Minimates .....not Batman & Robin , not Cap & Bucky ....no !

I want the " Boolean Modifier & Blender " 2 pack  

 

Amazing stuff .

I was thinking about doing Tattoo and Mr. Roarke.  

[buttheadsmate]

58 minutes ago, cylonchaney said:

I was thinking about doing Tattoo and Mr. Roarke.  

We already have Mr.Roarke  

[Padrino]

2 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

We already have Mr.Roarke  

[cylonchaney]

Four Khans do not make a Rourke.  

For a companion vehicle, do I do with the tent-top red Fantasy Island car?

Or a Cordoooooba with rich Corinthian leather?

[buttheadsmate]

Go for the Plymouth Volare (Road Runner) ... vinyl seats & a canvas roof  ....

......World's fastest tent (Guinness Book of Records ) 1976 .

[THE_CRIPPLER]

20 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

I was thinking about doing Tattoo and Mr. Roarke.  

I would love to see a Tattoo and Mr. Roarke Minimate after watching this season of South Park. Little J.D. Vance is the best part of South Park this season.

[cylonchaney]

On 11/25/2025 at 6:35 AM, buttheadsmate said:

Go for the Plymouth Volare (Road Runner) ... vinyl seats & a canvas roof  ....

......World's fastest tent (Guinness Book of Records ) 1976 .

I doubt these commercials ran in the UK. But in North America, Ricardo was famous for playing Mr. Roarke and Khan. And for his Cordoba commercials.  They invented the term "Corinthian Leather" simply because it sounded cool when he said it. LOL

 

 

[buttheadsmate]

Thank you for your kindness as always 'Cylon' .

I must share with you that ,in my search for knowledge, I always research anything that confounds me ....Cordoba /Corinthian leather etc.   Within minutes of reading your post I was searching.       Check out the Letterman interview with Ricardo .....priceless 

 

Edited November 26, 2025 by buttheadsmate

[cylonchaney]

On 11/23/2025 at 3:42 PM, Liney said:

I think that may have been one of mine? Glad it's been useful to someone

 

 

I've also jumped on the 3d printer wagon so am keen to see your progress.

My goal is a pair of seated legs for Uhura, so she doesn't have to stand at her comms station all the time. But do like the idea of a few 3" sentinels 🤔

I've edited the original post to give you credit. Thanks!! Love your work.

[cylonchaney]

On 11/22/2025 at 8:15 AM, THE_CRIPPLER said:

Well, I bought the Minimate design from Cults 3d and gave it a try. Unfortunately it was not 2 inches, it was around 3 inches. Everything was loose, or doesn't even stay together. I did print in PLA to see what it would look like. I will probably try again in PETG some day to see if that helps with all the parts being so loose. The file for the Minimate may work for a large scale one, like a Sentinel. The shoulder joint will definitely need to be tweaked though. Time to pull out the old digital calipers and design my own Minimate I guess...

Few things will bring as much satisfaction as completing your own block figure design.

Point of note, upscaling will only exaggerate ill fitting joints. Downscaling will reduce the impact. Suppose you have a 1 mm gap between the ball and socket. If you double the size, you double the gap to 2 mm. If you downscale to 50% the gap is now .5 mm. 

My joints hold well enough to hold a pose when the figure is between .5X and 6X scale. My biggest giant man is 10X and i had to shim some of the joints. Giant Man can stand on his own but falls somewhat easily because the hip joints are a little loose at 10X. 

Regarding scanning, you'll still need 3d design skills to clean up your scan afterwards.

Edited December 16, 2025 by cylonchaney

[THE_CRIPPLER]

I have managed to make the head and torso and they work perfectly with official Minimate parts. The arms are next on my list. I have it started, but I know the elbow joint is going to be a pain. I was actually looking to see if there is a different sort of joint that would work well if I were to make an extra large sized Minimate. I want it to still look like a Minimate at the elbow joint though. Any engineers out there that may have any ideas?