TPU head base (findings)
Added 2024-11-06 04:55:06 +0000 UTCThis turned out to be a huge success and a lot of learning in the process. I had initially tried to print heads in TPU but it was hard to strike a balance between thick enough walls, weight and size of holes. Either I was making the holes too dense meaning the head was going to be too heavy or too wide making it impossible to glue fabric too. Tinkered with a few different percentages and found that worked for me. So not every percentage will work the same for every project. For example if I used 8% like I did here on a head the size of my hand the holes would be too big. But if I used a higher percentage on a big head it would be denser and much heavier.
Seeing people just print one thickness all around didn’t really work for me. I do that with my hard head bases but it makes sense when the head isn’t going to be soft and flexible. I decided that printing TPU with varying thicknesss would mimic a foam carved head a lot closer. So I went into the model on nomad sculpt and thickened areas such as the cheeks, brows and muzzle. Making it a whole lot easier to fit a human head without needing much or if any extra padding during the liner stage. Will explain this in detail with a video.
This is my first test print and overall it is a success. So where do I go from here? I plan to create eye inserts and teeth that will work for this base very soon. For now I will create ear variations and print a few to offer here on Patreon.
