Hexagonal rubber-banded armour plate

thingiverse

As part of an outfit I'm working on for a festival, I've been looking at various printable plate/chainmail offerings floating around Thingiverse and other places for a while now. Unfortunately, nothing quite fit what I needed - some print-in-place stuff takes forever to print and is difficult to connect separate sheets together afterwards, or relies on precision levels I couldn't always be confident of through my printer. As such, when designing this outfit, it's been aimed for a reasonably solid print with minimal cleanup afterwards. Each panel connects to others via loom bands (or something similar in size), which are cheaper than orthotic bands generally. The central pin is large enough to take connections from 6 plates surrounding it, but if things get fiddly or connections keep springing off, the push-lock plate should snap into the back of the hex and securely clamp everything down. I've done lots of static assemblies of this with no problems, but haven't tested it in an actual worn outfit yet. Panels of various sizes have happily survived hanging and flexing, but this may be updated if tweaks are required. I recommend printing out 7 plates and arranging them as a hex to confirm your print state and bands are compatible. A 5-side version is also available for those who want to do geometries where the natural flow of the plates doesn't support it as they flex. Please note that these are untested live, and are in a "weak" configuration as far as the movement of the rubber bands go, so your success will depend very much on the quality of your rubber bands. They're also quite fiddly... A half-plate has been added to neaten up edges and prevent edge panels from getting caught on things. A pentagonal locker is also available by request, along with a composite 2x2x2 hex-plate for those who need... I don't know, a solid surface or something.