My first big 3D printing project: Guardian Sword++ from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Backstory
I went on vacation to Japan in December 2018 and I impulse bought a Nintendo Switch because I it was a pretty good deal ($300 USD including Super Smash Bros Ultimate). I didn’t really know what I was going to play other than SSBU but a few months after I got the Switch, I bought Zelda BOTW and I never looked back. I LOVE THIS GAME. This might arguably be the best game I’ve ever played. I was hooked after my first thirty minutes of playing and have logged over 170 hours in this game.
Being a maker, I naturally wanted to make something from the game, but my 3D modeling and 3D printing skills weren’t that great at the time. That’s when I discovered there was a free model of the Guardian Sword++ and a tutorial to light it up on Adafruit’s blog and Youtube channel. As soon as I saw this I thought: I’M IN, LET’S GO.
Following the tutorial
I followed this tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/breath-of-the-wild-guardian-sword-led-3d-printed.
Honestly, there isn’t very much to talk about this build since I just followed the tutorial step by step. If you can follow directions, you can pretty much make anything. The REAL fun is designing and making something yourself. The REAL adrenaline kicks in when something doesn’t exist in real life, and you MAKE it real. Nobody else would have what you have; it’s unique to you.
This simple little project kick-started into what I know today. It got me 3D modeling my own creations. Barely anything I print nowadays will come from a premade STL file that I can download online. I prefer to design things myself so that I not only improve my skills, but can tailor my designs to be unique to me.
Things to improve upon
So after printing the entire thing, I realized that the design isn’t really that great (No offense to the original creator of the 3D model! It’s a great idea, but I feel like there could be improvements). The individual pieces of the sword are held on by tiny little screws, and the PLA that I printed it with cracks under even the slightest pressure.
I plan to recreate my own model using a more robust assembly system so that the sword isn’t as fragile as the one in the game (the one in game breaks way too easily). This is a project for another day though. I’ll get back to this eventually!