Helmets & Headpieces
Printed in sections where needed, joined and finished so the seam disappears. Say early if it has to be worn rather than displayed, so we can plan weight and padding points.
INDUSTRY · PROPS & COSPLAY
Film Props & Cosplay — Detail You Can Photograph, Rigid Enough to Wear
Smooth surfaces, crisp edges and a finish that survives a close-up lens, on something that also has to be carried around for a weekend. This is the sector where the printing is the easy half and the finishing is what you are actually paying for.
600 mmLargest single piece
±0.1 mmResin tolerance
RALColour matching
1 pcMinimum order
OVERVIEW
How a prop gets from a file to something you can wear
Almost every prop job is two jobs. The first is printing, and it is genuinely the easier of the two: SLA holds fine detail and smooth surfaces better than any other process we run, so a helmet or a blaster body comes off the machine with the panel lines and the small chamfers intact. The second job is finishing — filling the layer lines, sanding up through the grits, priming, and then a topcoat that reads as moulded ABS, brushed aluminium or aged brass. That second job is where a prop either looks like a prop or looks like a 3D print, and it is the reason this page is on our site rather than a download link.
Size is the question that decides the plan. A single resin piece has a real ceiling, and the specification for SLA on this site is the honest figure. Anything larger — a full helmet with a crest, a shoulder pauldron pair, a two-metre staff — is printed as sections that we join, fill and finish so the seam stops being visible. Splitting a model is normal work for us and it should be planned before printing, not discovered afterwards, because where the seams land decides whether the finished piece looks right.
Somebody always asks about FDM, and for a prop it is a fair question: it is the cheapest way to put a large shape into your hand, and for a mock-up that only has to read correctly from across a room, a cheap large part is exactly what you want. It stops working at the surface. FDM builds in visible steps, and on a curved helmet or a bladed weapon that step is a texture rather than a layer line you can sand back — filler and primer will not flatten a staircase on a compound curve, and a compound curve is where a prop gets looked at. So the honest split is this: if the piece is a throwaway stand-in, a paint stand, or something a camera never comes near, FDM is the right call. It is not a process we offer here — the two on this page are resin and nylon — so we will say so when a job belongs somewhere else, rather than quote you a finished SLA part you did not need.
One thing worth saying plainly: we print what you send. If the model is your own design, or licensed, that is your call and we will treat the file as confidential. If it is a recast of somebody else's work, that is between you and them, and we would rather you told us upfront than found out at a convention.
WHAT WE PRINT
What We Print for Props
Most prop work lands in one of these seven buckets. Everything here can be printed, finished and shipped as a completed piece.
Armour & Pauldrons
Large curved plates, printed in a resin that holds a shape or in PA12 nylon when the piece has to take real knocks at an event.
Prop Weapons & Hardware
Blasters, hilts, grips and mechanical hardware with crisp panel lines and small features that survive finishing.
Collector Figures & Statues
Fine-detail resin prints of sculpts and busts, including the small undercuts that would need supports in any other process.
Castable Masters
Smooth patterns for silicone moulds and lost-wax casting, printed in a resin that releases cleanly and burns out without leaving ash.
Wearable & Costume Parts
Buckles, clasps, clips, greebles and attachment hardware, printed in batches so a costume has spares.
Set Dressing & Signage
One-off objects, lettering and background hardware for a shoot, where the camera sees one angle and the budget is finite.
See the parts gallery for examples across SLM, SLA and SLS, grouped by process.
PROCESS FIT
Which Process We Would Use
Numbers are read from the process pages rather than repeated, so they cannot drift out of step with the quote engine.
| Process | Why it fits this sector | Typical tolerance | Typical lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLA Resin 3D Printing | Detail and surface, always. Fine panel lines, sharp edges, smooth curves and transparent or castable parts. The default for anything that will be photographed up close. | ±0.1 mm | 2–4 days |
| SLS Nylon 3D Printing | Durability. PA12 nylon armour and hardware that will be worn, dropped and packed into a car boot, with no support marks to sand out. | ±0.3 mm | 3–5 days |
These are typical values we hold routinely, not absolute limits — send us the drawing and we will confirm what is achievable on your geometry. Compare all processes, or see post-processing & finishing for what happens after the print.
MATERIALS
Materials for Props
Two families cover nearly all prop work: photopolymer resin for detail and surface, PA12 nylon where the part has to survive handling.
Photopolymer Resins
Six resin families covering detail, toughness, heat, transparency, casting and medical models. The finest surface finish we offer, and the only process that reaches class-A straight off the machine — and the most sensitive to picking the right grade.
Full material data →Nylon PA12
Tough, chemically resistant and dimensionally stable, and it prints with no supports to remove. The default material for functional prototypes, brackets, housings and low-volume end-use parts.
Full material data →Castable and transparent grades come from the same resin family — the full list of grades, with the burn-out and optical notes, is on the material page.
QUALITY
What We Check on a Finished Prop
A prop is judged at arm's length and in a photograph, and both are unforgiving. These are the checks that decide whether it passes.
- Layer lines filled and sanded back before priming — a visible print line is a fault, not a texture.
- Section joints aligned, filled and sanded flush so the seam does not catch the light in a photo.
- Primer coat inspected for pinholes and re-filled before the topcoat goes on.
- Paint cured fully before packing, and a colour reference kept on file so a second piece matches the first.
- Wear points reinforced or thickened where you tell us the piece will be handled most.
HONEST LIMITS
The Limits, and How Big "Too Big" Is
Props are the sector where a client most often asks for something that will not fit in one piece. Here is what we can and cannot do about it.
Strengths
- Detail and surface quality that no other process we run comes close to
- Finishing in-house, so the print and the paint are not two suppliers blaming each other
- Large pieces printed in sections, joined and finished so the seam is not visible
- Castable masters for short-run reproduction of the same prop
- One-piece minimum, which suits a single costume or a single shoot
- Colour matched to a RAL or Pantone reference, with a sprayed coupon on request
Limits to know
- There is a hard ceiling on a single printed piece — bigger means sections and a visible join risk
- Resin is brittle: a part printed for display will not survive being thrown in a suitcase
- Solid resin is heavy — a full helmet can be uncomfortable without hollowing planned in advance
- Finishing is hand work, so the lead time is dominated by the paint shop and not by the printer
- Transparent and chrome finishes show every surface flaw, so they need the most preparation
- We print what you send: the rights to the design are yours to hold, not ours to check
FAQ
Film, Props & Cosplay — Common Questions
How large a prop can you print in one piece?
The specification column on this page is the honest answer, and it is the largest build envelope we run. Above that, the model is split into sections that we join, fill and finish. Where the seams fall is a design decision, so tell us the model is oversized before you send it and we will agree the split with you rather than after the parts exist.
Will a printed helmet be wearable, or just displayable?
Wearable, if we plan for it. That means hollowing the shell rather than printing it solid, thickening the points where it rests on you, and choosing a resin or PA12 nylon for the parts that flex. A display piece and a wearable piece can be the same model printed two different ways — say which one you need.
Can you make it look like real metal?
Yes, in two ways. A painted metal-effect finish is convincing at any normal viewing distance and is the usual answer for a costume. A genuine metal part is a different route: printed in titanium, stainless steel or aluminium by SLM, then polished, brushed or anodised. For a small hero prop that is carried on camera, the real-metal version is worth the premium; for a full costume it is not.
Can you reproduce a prop so I can sell copies?
We can print a master and deliver it for you to mould, or print small runs directly. What we cannot do is give you rights you do not have: if the design is licensed, that is a matter between you and the rights holder, and we are not in a position to check it. Send us the file and we will treat it as yours and as confidential.
How much does finishing add to the lead time?
More than most people expect, and it is the honest driver of the schedule. A sanded and primed part is quick. A fully painted, weathered or chromed piece goes through several coats with drying and inspection between each, and that queue does not compress. If you have a hard date — a convention, a shoot — tell us at quoting and we will tell you whether it fits rather than hoping.
Can you print from a sculpt I made in clay?
Yes, indirectly: the sculpt is scanned, the scan is cleaned up into a solid model, and the model is printed. Scanning a hand-made sculpt is often the better route for a figure, because the digital repair work is cheaper than re-sculpting. Send photographs of the piece and we will say whether a scan is realistic for it.
GET STARTED
Send the Model, Say the Deadline
Tell us whether the piece is for display or for wearing, how big it is, and what finish it needs. We will tell you how it has to be split, what the finish will cost, and when it can realistically ship.
Built for global product teams · Worldwide shipping via DHL / FedEx / UPS