14 DAY TRIAL // Swords started out as alternatively frightening and awe-inspiring weapons of blood and death. They aren't much different today, save for them being almost universally considered “cool,” and thus, acting as a truly ironic bridge between nerds and jocks. Some swords are infused with a particularly high level of coolness, like Frostmourne.
Frostmourne is one of the weapons that defined much of the fate of a certain fictional universe. It has also been 3D printed. Just now. Or a very short time ago anyway.
Frostmourne's case is even more ironic than usual cool swords. It's been responsible for the death and suffering of thousands if not millions of people from at least a dozen different sentient races.
But Warcraft III and World of Warcraft players love it anyway, because it looks admittedly impressive, even if in the real world the shape of the weapon would make it unruly and unbalanced. Then again, WOW is a lot about magic, so a lot of leeway can be given.
Suspension of disbelief aside, there are 100 million people who played WoW at least once. Those people might be interested in owning their own version of the runeblade.
Frostmourne has been 3D printed
The sword of the Lich King (sans soul and necromantic powers) has been 3D printed in full scale by My Mini Factory designers Kirby Downey and Elliott Viles.
The Frostmourne they designed and 3D printed is 1.3 meters long (4.26 feet) and is made of several pieces that snap together without the need for glue, thanks to the way they are printed.
Downey designed the blade and the hilt joints in Solidworks, but Viles made the skulls in Zbrush. There is a serious skull and rune theme going on here.
The designs were later combined using Meshmixer (again by Downey) and adjusted so that none of the scale and accuracy was lost.
Printing the pieces took 50 hours. The largest piece was the hilt+ram head, measuring 217 x 206 x 120 mm / 8.54 x 8.11 x 4.72 inches. The whole sword measures 130 x 40 x 20 cm / 4.26 x 1.31 x 0.65 feet.
Why Frostmourne looks like a sword instead of an obvious fake
It's mostly thanks to Catherine Woods from My Mini Factory. While Kirby Downey and Elliott Viles made the actual sword, she was the one who did the painting and finishing work. As you can see, Frostmourne looks amazing instead of obviously plastic, albeit without being as blue as the original.
The designs are available on My Mini Factory for free, but a fully printed sword can be ordered for $499 / €406.
