I have long been a fan of the 1991 film The Rocketeer, and especially the iconic design of the hero’s jetpack and helmet. A few years ago, I thought “why do I even have a 3D printer if I’m not going to make a replica jetpack?” So, I found some decent free STL files and printed them out using metallic-looking “silk” PLA filament. The proper approach to something like this would involve a ton of sanding and painting to get a realistic metallic look, but I wasn’t going to commit to that kind of effort. The end result was pretty satisfying and well-received:
That’s them hanging on my office wall. I filled in various seams on them with metallic-looking hot glue that did a reasonable job imitating welding lines. The harness was pretty rudimentary, just consisting of some woven nylon straps and metal buckles.
Towards the end of that project, I found a much better-designed 3D printable model of the jetpack, but it would have required actual sanding and painting — the silk filament looks reasonably metallic at a distance, but not if you put it next to actual metal, and the better design used a number of metal components. So I purchased the improved design and filed it away for the next time I felt the need for a really obsessive project. A couple of months ago I decided it was time, and I’ve been very pleased with the results. So now it’s time to start documenting the project.