cy
.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2020
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I've decided it's finally time for me to build another Wii. I've had the idea to build a Louii based on Monogatari artwork for quite some time now, I even purchased the colors of paint I'd need to paint the design into the back of it. But it wasn't until recently that I decided to get this thing together. For starters, here's the artwork I decided I wanted in the back of this unit:
Initially I thought this would be too difficult to 3d print into the back of the shell. So I settled on trying to paint this into the back of the unit with spray paint. @That_Random_Guy was nice enough to vinyl cut some stencils for me, and 2 to 3 years later, I finally decided to get up off my lazy butt and get to work on this.
Surprisingly, the paint I purchased 2 to 3 years ago was still good! I did a bit of testing on a cardboard box I had lying around, and it yielded some very encouraging results! So I went straight to the case I had printed back then, and here were my results with the first stencil:
I ended up overdoing it with a few too many coats of paint, and the stencil started lifting causing paint to go under it. This was a big learning experience for me since I'd never really attempted something like this before. Next time I'll be sure to go with fewer coats of paint, and a bit less primer. I also question if the print's textured finish made this any more difficult than it needed to be.
These results aren't really too bad though. I believe they could realistically be salvaged with enough IPA and fiddling around. This was however 2 to 3 years after I originally came up with the idea for this project. Over the course of this time frame, I've gotten my hands on many different colors of printer filament. Initially, I knew 3d printing this design would be very challenging seeing how it has 8 different colors (not including the color of the shell itself) and has many fine details that could prove to be a huge challenge to print especially with a 0.4mm nozzle. I decided to give it a go anyways though since I already had over half the colors of filament I needed to make this happen. It'll lead to better more durable results than paint would anyways.
So I took the artwork, ran it through Waifu2x to remove the JPEG artifacts, and then proceeded to use Wesk's method of turning each color of the artwork into a vector with inkscape. I imported it into my 3d modeling software, spent a few hours connecting the seams to each other, placed it on the back of the console, created a negative of the artwork, and exported everything. From there, I lined everything up in Prusa Slicer, and patiently waited for my printer to print each of the 8 colors. After telling my printer to print the rest of the shell with the negative for the artwork, and going to bed, I woke up to this:
View attachment artwork back.webp
This is by no means perfect, but by golly it's good! For a first try I'll gladly take results like these! Here's what the rest of the case is looking like from the outside:
Something else I went ahead and did was replace the fan intake holes with stars. The blue starry filament, and the stars being the fan intake is a Monogatari reference. Anyways, after getting a few loose parts I needed, I had to sand down the opening for the L button, and I then proceeded to install the USB-C PD board. After doing this, I found the power button I had inserted wasn't fitting the way it was supposed to. It was keeping the power button depressed at all times kind of like me, we obviously can't have this in a portable though. So I went to unscrew the PD board, and then this happened:
If you look closely at the screw driver in the first photo, you can see the head of the screw broke off. What you're looking at in the second picture is the screw post that I ripped out with pliers after words since of course the screw snapped flush with the screw post. I went ahead and printed another screw post for this, and I've gone ahead and super glued it into the case. The glue is currently drying, and here's how that looks:
I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it's glued well enough. Once I'm sure it won't be coming loose, I'll resume assembly. It's frustrating to be hung up on a build this early in because of something dumb. I am grateful to at least have a solution that isn't ordering or 3d printing a brand new shell though. I'd really suck if I had to completely redo this over something stupid like Chinese screws screwing me over. Honestly, screw that!
I'm looking forward to getting this project assembled though. In 2020 I dm'd Ginger about possibly building me a Louii, and after hearing the price tag, I opted to build a G-Boy instead. My desire to own a Louii hasn't gone away since then however, so I'm very excited to build and play my own 4+ years later!
Initially I thought this would be too difficult to 3d print into the back of the shell. So I settled on trying to paint this into the back of the unit with spray paint. @That_Random_Guy was nice enough to vinyl cut some stencils for me, and 2 to 3 years later, I finally decided to get up off my lazy butt and get to work on this.
Surprisingly, the paint I purchased 2 to 3 years ago was still good! I did a bit of testing on a cardboard box I had lying around, and it yielded some very encouraging results! So I went straight to the case I had printed back then, and here were my results with the first stencil:
I ended up overdoing it with a few too many coats of paint, and the stencil started lifting causing paint to go under it. This was a big learning experience for me since I'd never really attempted something like this before. Next time I'll be sure to go with fewer coats of paint, and a bit less primer. I also question if the print's textured finish made this any more difficult than it needed to be.
These results aren't really too bad though. I believe they could realistically be salvaged with enough IPA and fiddling around. This was however 2 to 3 years after I originally came up with the idea for this project. Over the course of this time frame, I've gotten my hands on many different colors of printer filament. Initially, I knew 3d printing this design would be very challenging seeing how it has 8 different colors (not including the color of the shell itself) and has many fine details that could prove to be a huge challenge to print especially with a 0.4mm nozzle. I decided to give it a go anyways though since I already had over half the colors of filament I needed to make this happen. It'll lead to better more durable results than paint would anyways.
So I took the artwork, ran it through Waifu2x to remove the JPEG artifacts, and then proceeded to use Wesk's method of turning each color of the artwork into a vector with inkscape. I imported it into my 3d modeling software, spent a few hours connecting the seams to each other, placed it on the back of the console, created a negative of the artwork, and exported everything. From there, I lined everything up in Prusa Slicer, and patiently waited for my printer to print each of the 8 colors. After telling my printer to print the rest of the shell with the negative for the artwork, and going to bed, I woke up to this:
View attachment artwork back.webp
This is by no means perfect, but by golly it's good! For a first try I'll gladly take results like these! Here's what the rest of the case is looking like from the outside:
Something else I went ahead and did was replace the fan intake holes with stars. The blue starry filament, and the stars being the fan intake is a Monogatari reference. Anyways, after getting a few loose parts I needed, I had to sand down the opening for the L button, and I then proceeded to install the USB-C PD board. After doing this, I found the power button I had inserted wasn't fitting the way it was supposed to. It was keeping the power button depressed at all times kind of like me, we obviously can't have this in a portable though. So I went to unscrew the PD board, and then this happened:
If you look closely at the screw driver in the first photo, you can see the head of the screw broke off. What you're looking at in the second picture is the screw post that I ripped out with pliers after words since of course the screw snapped flush with the screw post. I went ahead and printed another screw post for this, and I've gone ahead and super glued it into the case. The glue is currently drying, and here's how that looks:
I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it's glued well enough. Once I'm sure it won't be coming loose, I'll resume assembly. It's frustrating to be hung up on a build this early in because of something dumb. I am grateful to at least have a solution that isn't ordering or 3d printing a brand new shell though. I'd really suck if I had to completely redo this over something stupid like Chinese screws screwing me over. Honestly, screw that!
I'm looking forward to getting this project assembled though. In 2020 I dm'd Ginger about possibly building me a Louii, and after hearing the price tag, I opted to build a G-Boy instead. My desire to own a Louii hasn't gone away since then however, so I'm very excited to build and play my own 4+ years later!