Attack on Titan: The Ackermans

Another year, another cosplay project for comic con. This was a multi month project that my son and I built over the summer. He loves Attack on Titan and I love to make fun of it for being confusing. I am used to animes that have perfectly simple plot lines e.g. Slam Dunk – they play basketball, Dragonball Z – they fight bad guys. So when he convinced/forced me to watch all the episodes of the AOT series from the start all the way to the penultimate episode I had to oblige. To be honest it was more interesting than I thought it would be considering this is the first the author Hajime Isayama put together.

During the course of the whole summer we decided that we should go to the next comic con as the Ackerman duo Levi and Kenny. The Levi build was rather complicated compared to the Kenny one where I just had to put on a hat and practically wear my office attire 😂. I originally thought we could just source most of the designs online considering AOT is not exactly a new anime show. It’s been around for almost a decade now so I thought there would be a lot of decent 3D model designs that I can easily find and modify as needed. Turns out I was wrong as usual. We did find some decent free designs for the swords which was functional. The ability of the blades to be replaceable while keeping the handle was unique to the show. There a lot of designs for this ranging from solid models to ones that do the blade detach action. I decided to use this one because it had triggers that are clickable and have a hollow inside where I can fit some switches and wires to make it do stuff.

Swords

I had to use 2 different 3D models for the swords though and redesign the blade hilt so that it fits on the blade handles. We wanted to make the blades anime accurate so we chose a multi segment design so we can print multiple parts to get the length right and still have it fit the handle and be removable. We also wanted it to be functional so we can use it to trigger sound effects from the sword handle. This meant we had to find a sword handle that was hollow enough that we can put switches inside.

We chose the blades from this 3d model because it had a segmented design. Having multiple segments allowed us to choose the length we wanted. The problem though is that we wanted to use the functional blade handle with the segmented blades design. Because of that I had to remix the base of the blade to fit into the blade handle. Below are the designs for the parts I used. Many thanks to these contributors for sharing their work on thingiverse!

Blade Handle by Garuda1: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4285497

Blades by Davidsson: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2555105

My remixed blade plug and extended blade catch: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6467702

Lower ODM Gear

For the lower ODM gear I decided to actually purchase CrystalLatticeStudio‘s design: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/attack-on-titan-levi-odm-3d-maneuver-gear-season-4-3dmg-stl-files

It had all the parts needed for a Levi cosplay. He also has great video tutorials on how to build all the components. I also liked his design since it was modular and had a lot of hollow space for electronic guts to pack in 😁.

I decided to fit a raspberry pi zero in the ODM gear with an Adafruit speaker bonnet for audio. I then hid two 4w speakers on each side of the ODM gear.

Also created a simple circuit with a JST connector for the wire that would be connected to the blade handle to control the audio. I also added a pinhole on the top cover and just tape a pi camera on the underside. Now Levi literally has eyes on the back of his head! (or bum?)

Power Supply

Had to find a way to hold the battery that’s going to power the pi. I could have just strapped it on the belt harness but where’s the fun in that? Let me design an entire belt clip and removable battery holder from scratch!

Blade Boxes

Walking around the con holding two blades is cool but impractical. The blade box from CrystalLatticeStudio‘s design was a bit too bulky and involved. So? Just design one from scratch!

Created a segmented design that comes together with a brace for each segment. I had holes through the segments but it wasnt strong enough to hold the thing together. So a lot of JB weld was used to put this thing together. Also designed a wall mount so that we can hang it on the wall once we’re done with the cons.

My design of the AOT Blade Boxes: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6483850

Kenny Ackerman Blasters

My son demanded that I cosplay as Kenny Ackerman but considering the amount of effort already involved in his Levi cosplay, I decided to take the easy way out by putting on a hat and printing out an AOT anti-personnel blaster then calling it a day.

AOT Anti-personnel blaster by Breeon: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3728557

Harnesses

CrystalLatticeStudio‘s design already comes with harness blueprints. These were a lot easier to understand and put together compared to the Amazon store bought AOT harnesses that I could never understand how they’re supposed to be worn. This might explain why in the anime they keep forgetting to put on their gear when a titan comes rumbling down to eat them.

Why did Anakin hate Sand people?

Sand, so much sanding… then painting.

Test Fit (one out of many…)

Typical Friday Night

Bookends for the Ending?

Couldn’t help but print some AOT wall inspired book ends for the manga collection my son is putting together. Very nice modular design by pdor_projects. Love the design because you can pick and choose which parts you like. Check out his design here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5037128