Pip-Boy 3000 prop build – 3D printed and detailed

Pip-Boy 3000 mine all mine!

It’s not often I get to make myself something, because I’m always making other people things, but this, this is all mine. The Fallout video game series is one of my favorites. The post-apocalyptic setting, the in-depth stories, wonderful characters, it’s just magical.

The Pip-Boy 3000 is an iconic piece of kit from within that universe. It is instantly recognizable to most gamers as being a sort of post-apocalyptic tri-corder, keeping track of your health, inventory, navigation and various other handy things the player character needs.

Before I get into the meat of this build, I want to give credit to the creator of the 3D print model I used. Although I put all the work in on printing and finishing it, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the hard work of ‘Dragonator’. I know he’ll probably never see this post, but credit where it’s due, his work on this model is just sublime… many thanks to him for making it available to fans like me. Also credit to DA users Jloli and TheLoneLouTenant for screen and gauge.

3D Printing the Pip-Boy 3000
My 3D printer is pretty tiny, so needless to say this took a LONG time to print (days), it also used a fair bit of print material, but so worth it.

All printed, time to glue it together, sand it, prime it, sand it, prime it, until we get to this… Already looking the part!

I wanted the Pip-Boy to look quite grungy, but still metallic, so did a black base with loads of different metallic shades over the top (brass, copper, silver, pewter), also some green shades in places over the top. I also added the LED’s, gauge decal and further on, the screen.

Next up the screen. None of this is fancy, just a printed image with green tinted plastic over it. Perfect for display. Next up, more green, some browns, black inks, more metallic and, we’re done! The 3D printed Pip-Boy 3000 is complete and ready to put on display. Which brings us to this…

And a few different angles….

Just a little thanks to my friend Christopher over at Hypercats for his help with the PipBoy font logo and other wording. You can check out his amazing work at Hypercats.net.

Till next time people… what do we say?! ….
DO GOOD THINGS!

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Originally written for GirlyGamer.com.au home blog of Nerfenstein / GirlyGamer / BoardGameGran. Catch up with me on my Facebook page, or if you Tweet… there’s always Twitter and guess what, I actually reply!