Adding "dents" to plastic or 3D printed (PLA) parts?

Bob A Feet

Jr Hunter
Hi everyone!

Random question here, but has anyone tried adding dents to plastic or 3D printed (in this case, PLA) parts?

I 3D printed the knee armor pieces thanks to RafalFett, but I need to add some ROTJ era dents to them.

I had a scrap gauntlet piece that I used to test out some denting methods. I ended up heating the piece with a heat gun and pressed the end of a ball-peen hammer into it:

IMG_20210814_110918.jpg


I then sanded the pieces to see how the surrounding areas were affected by the heat. Not too bad, but you can definitely see the areas around the 2 circled dents got a little warped.

I might try again with a smaller ball-peen hammer, and maybe taping off the other areas with some foil to hopefully isolate the heat.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks!
 
Hi everyone!

Random question here, but has anyone tried adding dents to plastic or 3D printed (in this case, PLA) parts?

I 3D printed the knee armor pieces thanks to RafalFett, but I need to add some ROTJ era dents to them.

I had a scrap gauntlet piece that I used to test out some denting methods. I ended up heating the piece with a heat gun and pressed the end of a ball-peen hammer into it:

View attachment 214294

I then sanded the pieces to see how the surrounding areas were affected by the heat. Not too bad, but you can definitely see the areas around the 2 circled dents got a little warped.

I might try again with a smaller ball-peen hammer, and maybe taping off the other areas with some foil to hopefully isolate the heat.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks
I started doing an ESB build and changed my mind halfway to a ROTJ build so i needed to change some of mine. I made a rough shape with a pen then hit it up with a dremel (well a cheap dremel replica tbh) i put a small bit of body filler in and sanded it and i think it looks ok. I always use multi fill primer or filler primer as its sometimes called which i find is very forgiving. My armour is 3d Printed PLA and if you go too hard it can melt so steady away in that respect. Good luck with yours.
 
I started doing an ESB build and changed my mind halfway to a ROTJ build so i needed to change some of mine. I made a rough shape with a pen then hit it up with a dremel (well a cheap dremel replica tbh) i put a small bit of body filler in and sanded it and i think it looks ok. I always use multi fill primer or filler primer as its sometimes called which i find is very forgiving. My armour is 3d Printed PLA and if you go too hard it can melt so steady away in that respect. Good luck with yours.
Thanks for the reply! Got any pics?

I think what you're describing would work, however, I'm still playing around with sources of heat to soften the material just enough to put the dents in.

Worst case I might go with the AoSW version of the MoM one, just because the bottom "gouge" in the left knee armor might be difficult to replicate.

 
Thanks for the reply! Got any pics?

I think what you're describing would work, however, I'm still playing around with sources of heat to soften the material just enough to put the dents in.

Worst case I might go with the AoSW version of the MoM one, just because the bottom "gouge" in the left knee armor might be difficult to replicate.

I'll take some pics tomorrow, my gears in storage at my mams
 
Sorry its taken so long. I ended up in hospital after we spoke and couldnt drive for a while but all good now. Im enclosing pics of my armour dents. I'm by no way a professional, in fact I'm a complete novice. Its a first time build, I'm not 100% happy with a few things and if its ever gonna see outdoors I'm gonna possibly change some items. Anyhoo, i moulded all these with a dremel and body filler but im not sure about the shoulder peice, i did it so long ago that memory fails me. Hope you are happy with your end result as and when it happens
 

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Sorry its taken so long. I ended up in hospital after we spoke and couldnt drive for a while but all good now. Im enclosing pics of my armour dents. I'm by no way a professional, in fact I'm a complete novice. Its a first time build, I'm not 100% happy with a few things and if its ever gonna see outdoors I'm gonna possibly change some items. Anyhoo, i moulded all these with a dremel and body filler but im not sure about the shoulder peice, i did it so long ago that memory fails me. Hope you are happy with your end result as and when it happens
Thanks for the reply! No worries, I'm glad you're OK.

Those came out good!
 
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