XCOM 2 Ethereal Statue

[Jay]

The grand folks at Firaxis games produced a winner for me. They updated the classic XCOM game and produced XCOM 2.

I thought it stayed true to the feel of the original game while adding great looks and good game play.

The plot is Aliens have invaded Earth and are trying to take over. You have to stop them and save the human race.

In the second release you failed and your team are now a rag tag bunch of terrorists trying to bring down the one world government.

 

One of the nice things they did was to throw the game open to modding. If you purchased the game on steam you can also subscribe to the XCOM to developer package free of charge. They make the tools and ALL the assets from the game available.

 

I wanted to see if I could extract game assets and print some mementos for my self. I found out you definitely can extract the assets. The only issue with printing them is they're optimized for visual presentation and not for 3d printing. I started with something simple and edited it for FDM printing.

 

I present the Alien overlord statue! (You show your love for your overlords by blowing it up in the introductory trailing mission)

 

FDM has issues with "overhangs". You can't draw molten plastic with nothing under it. Gravity pulls the molten plastic and it doesn't just hang in mid air. Darn gravity!

I split the statue in half so there are minimal overhangs. The arms are built up vertically from the bottom to the top:

Each mirrored half was printed:

 

Then a test fitting:

 

Slapped on some one part bondo (for fixing scratches on cars):

 

a bunch of sanding:

 

Then some spray painted gold paint:

 

A 3d printed base:

 

And it's done!

 

I'm happy with the result. The surface texture is still not wonderful. I'm still experimenting with methods to improve that.

 

It's supposed to look like this:

 

Have a great weekend, See you at ReaperCon!

 

Jay

 

[Werkrobotwerk]

looks good to me! Would totally let Bradford bomb it!

[Ludo]

10/10 would bomb again

[Glitterwolf]

Cool!!!!

 

*** Prepares explosives***

[Chaoswolf]

I'm not familiar with the source material, but I think you produced a very cool statue there!

[Jay]

It's a computer game (PC). About $30 on sale these days. The soldiers fly to the ufo crash sites in a troop ship called "The Avenger".

I think it would make a great model to do as well.

[CorallineAlgae]

Very nice. I loved playing the original XCOM games way back in the day. If you want to get the statue to look a little more like the picture wash it with some thinned down Vallejo transparent Smoke. It'll add a little bit of warm slightly reddish brown, and a couple of coats in the recesses will help shade it without killing the metallic sheen. 

[Crowley]

Very cool!!

[Jay]

I should probably do a mesh smooth on it too. When you get close you can see the polygons. A successful experiment.

[FluidFire]

As a lifelong XCOM fan (who still occasionally plays the original), THIS IS SO FRIGGING AWESOME!

 

You have my absolute respect and admiration for pulling this off.

 

As a side bit of trivia; the newest XCOM actually inspired the current D&D campaign I'm running. I'd bought the 5e campaign sourcebooks, Out of the Abyss, Rise of Tiamat, princes of Elemental Evil, etc.

 

Then after playing the newest XCOM it hit me.

 

What would Faerun be like if all of those campaigns FAILED?

 

And such, 50 years after Tiamat, demon lords, and elemental princes of evil arrived and began carving out sections of Faerun to call their own, our campaign started. The bad guys are in a multi-way stalemate against one another, the entire population has been assimilated and subjugated, the landscape altered to fit their evil ways... 

 

And the players are the core of the resistance movement.

 

That campaign has kept us occupied every weekend for 6 months now, with no end in sight. :)

 

Anyway, just wanted to explain why this had a special, and very awesome meaning to me. You've done absolutely wonderful here. 

 

If you can kick out an Avenger that looks the part, I'd actually be interested in hiring a commission.... ;)

[Jay]

 

If you can kick out an Avenger that looks the part, I'd actually be interested in hiring a commission.... ;)

 

The campaign sounds awesome. Good idea to turn things around the other way!

 

Of course the avenger would need moving parts at least. Making it into a drone would be quite a project

[FluidFire]

Oh my. 

 

"Your party lands on the table."

 

No really, it lands on the table to start the encounter.

 

Like, flies in to the room, and lands.

 

That would be epic.

Edited September 17, 2016 by FluidFire

[Jay]

Rappelling action figures is probably a little too much to expect ;)