3D Printed Glowing Mace Prop

The Morning Star

More commonly known as a "mace", this medieval weapon has been popularized by one of DC Comics heroines, Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl carries a mace made of Nth metal, which generates electric currents and repels magical energies.

From Wikipedia:

A morning star is any of several medieval club-like weapons that included one or more spikes. Each used, to varying degrees, a combination of blunt-force and puncture attack to kill or wound the enemy.

3D Printing & Electronics

This project is uses 3D Printing and electronics to create a cosplay prop that lights up. The head of the mace is an icosahedron with 18 individual spikes. Inside the head is a NeoPixel Jewel that glows bright and animates a color wheel. The handle houses an Adafruit Trinket and 2200mAh battery. On the bottom of the pommel features a metal pushbutton with a red LED ring.

There's a total of 28 3D printed parts, most of which screw together via custom threads. This project utilized some special filaments such as Wood and Steel composite PLA materials, making an interesting combination.

Get Inspired & Remix

If a Moring Star isn't your jam, you could easily use this tutorial as a guide for making a number of different cosplay props. The components and circuit can totally be used in lots of different ways, for example, this could be a sword, battle axe or even a wearable gauntlet.

The goal of this project is to inspire cosplayers and prop makers to use electronics in their builds. By incorporating micro-controllers and NeoPixel LEDs, you're giving your props that extra dimension, adding value and depth that makes it stand out.

Prerequisite Guides

We suggest walking through the following guides to get a better understanding of the components and Arduino IDE. We also have great tutorials on learning how to solder.

Parts

All of the components used in this project are listed below and in the right hand sidebar.

Tools & Supplies

You'll need some tools and supplies to complete this project, but feel free to improvise and use any materials you like.

3D Printer & Filament
Soldering Iron & Solder
Wire Strippers / Cutters
Panavise Jr. / Helping Third Hands
USB Cable & Wire
Super glue / E6000 Adhesive

Lighting Effects

The photos shown here are not photoshopped, they're just taken with a long exposure. This results in the "Light Painting" effect that's a common photography technique. NeoPixel LEDs can get pretty bright, enough for the diffusion to be visiable even in well lit environments.