3D Printed Chip on Shoulder Costume

Halloween always has a way of sneaking up on me. In a panic, I found myself fumbling to throw together a clever costume before the big day and fell back on go to classics such as “Lumberjack” and “Businessman”. But this year I wanted to step up my Halloween game by exploiting Tinkercad and 3D printing!

Using Tinkercad, I created a 3D model of a chip that I could fasten to my shoulder…To do this, I took advantage of Tinkercad's new “Scribble” feature. Start by creating a scribble that looks like a wavy frown. It might take a few tries before landing on something that you’re happy with. Once you have this shape, rotate it 90° to the work plane.

Next, pull on the shape to make a long squiggly rectangle-like shape.

To create the curved ends of the chip, you must first create a shape that you can transform into a specialty shaped hole. Start with the cube tool to create a rectangular prism. Then, using the “Round Roof” tool create a hole in the rectangular prism by first aligning the flat side of the “Round Roof” shaped hole piece with one of the rectangular prism’s sides. Proceed to then group the pieces together. Finally, transform this new shape into a hole.

Now, duplicate this specialty hole piece and flip one of them so that the concave sides face each other. Next, align each specialty hole piece with each end of the squiggly rectangular like shape. Group the three shapes together to create the finished chip shape! Change the colour to see what it will look like once painted!

Export the 3D model as an “.obj” or “.stl” file and import the file into your preferred slicing software (I’m using Cura). To achieve a chip-like texture, I chose a low-resolution print setting with only 20% infill. I also generated support material for under the curved sections of the chip.

Once the chip is printed, start by painting it a dark yellow (I chose Yellow Ochre) as a base coat.

After it dries, apply a medium yellow to the ridges (I used a Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue).

Once dry, apply a dry brushed highlight coat of a light yellow to make the ridges pop (I used Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue).

Last step is to hot glue a large rubber band to the underside of the chip. If possible, try to find one that matches the colour of your shirt to conceal it!

Happy Halloween!

Mr. Ham