Have you ever wanted to go back to the time of chivalry, mead, and honor? Well, jump on your noble steed and ready your sword because it’s possible to 3D print your own chainmail armor!
With all the tiny pieces, it may take some patience to get an awesome sheet of this plastic fabric. Luckily, we’ve saved you some time by compiling a list of some of the best 3D printable chainmail we could find.
While we can’t say that this chainmail will protect you in battle, it does come in a large variety of shapes and sizes, and some are even equivalent to scale mail! Conveniently, each of these models can be printed on budget 3D printers and should hold up for most cosplay-related activities.
And if cosplay isn’t what you’re after, other options to put chainmail to good use include fashion accessories like bracelets and wallets, a shirt for action figures, a table tennis net, coasters, and placemats.
Looking to cover yourself in 3D printed glory but don’t have the means or the materials? A plethora of materials, finishes, and technologies await you at Craftcloud by All3DP.
But for now, let’s get to the list!
NASA (Squared)
When it comes to 3D printing chainmail, you may be surprised to learn that even NASA finds it useful. The organization’s space chainmail is strong, light, and flexible. This fabric can be 3D printed in metal and may even protect astronauts and spacecraft from harmful impacts in the future.
Unable to find a printable version, Thingiverse user ConnorMPrints took to Fusion 360 to design his own. The resulting model was recreated to be printed with standard FDM printers. Regardless of its potential for use in space, we think it looks great and would be an excellent addition to a cosplay.
- Who designed it? ConnorMPrints
- How printable/popular is it? This model features an impressive 55 makes and 6 remixes!
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Dragon Scales
Scale armor is both functional and stylish. Ancient Romans used scale armor to protect their legions, and scales remain a popular type of accessory today. This chainmail fabric design is a set of scales connected by interlocking rings that make a great addition to costumes, dragon-themed props, or really anything with scales.
You can increase or decrease the size of the scales, and the model can be printed without supports.
- Who designed it? richmitch
- How printable/popular is it? This model has more than 100 downloads and 3 makes on Printables.
- Where to find it? Printables
Quick & Flexible
One of the absolute worst things about making proper chainmail is the time it takes to put all the individual pieces together to get a decently-sized sheet.
This mail is based on a knitted pattern that can be interlaced one layer at a time, allowing a significant amount of material to build up in minutes. Conveniently, this build can be laser-cut from EVA foam and printed in flexible filament.
- Who designed it? BenE
- How printable/popular is it? Apart from the creator, two makes and one remix have been shared, and the file has been downloaded over 6,000 times.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Customizable H-Links
This particular type of chainmail works with Thingiverse’s Customizer app. This can be particularly helpful if you don’t have access to your own modeling software but you’d like to tweak a chainmail design anyway.
The creator came up with the H-pattern after viewing other types of 3D printed chainmail. The goal was to reduce the issue of rotating links in the previous chainmail design.
- Who designed it? Revar
- How printable/popular is it? Owing to its customizable nature, this design has 24 makes and a whopping 534 remixes!
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Spikes
Who says armor is only for defense? This spiky chainmail will make you look like an orc ready for battle; nobody will want to mess with you.
A remix of a triangular mesh design, this chainmail features spikes on one side, scales well, and should print easily enough on FDM machines.
Alternatively, the creator suggests it could be used as an animal brush, ya know, if you’ve already slain all your archenemies. Despite its spiky appearance, the chainmail appears to conform well to irregular surfaces.
- Who designed it? dfyler
- How printable/popular is it? Oooo, spiky! This chainmail model has been downloaded around 2,500 times with 1 make shared.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Modular
When it comes to 3D printed chainmail, one advantage this model has is its ability to switch individual links so that multi-color patterns can be obtained, even on a single color 3D printer.
Multiple colors can even be chained together to create a unique image. To achieve this, it’s a simple matter of positioning, twisting, and repositioning, as shown in this YouTube video. With that in mind, you should be able to create any pattern you like.
- Who designed it? flowalistik
- How printable/popular is it? The design has been downloaded around 1,700 times and 16 makes have been shared across both sites.
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory, Printables
Snap-Together
3D printed chainmail is scalable; a 3D printer can print a sheet of chainmail up to the size of its build plate. However, if you need a larger sheet of chainmail, these sheets need to be linked together.
This snap-together design makes this process easy because you can snap together the links. This means you can make any sized sheet out of this chainmail design without fusing or gluing parts together. Simply remove the links from the build plate and combine them to make any shape for your project.
- Who designed it? kylemakesstuff
- How printable/popular is it? This model has over 30 downloads and 1 make on Printables.
- Where to find it? Printables
FlexMesh 2.1
Let’s say you don’t want to make an entire chainmail set, but you still want to play around with something that looks like chainmail. This FlexMesh 2.1 chainmail set can be made into different functional shapes, including a bracelet, a ball, and wavy designs.
Conveniently, this set has individual links that you can switch out, allowing for the customization of patterns and colors. The links are each connected by a simple snap-in joint for easy modification.
- Who designed it? neobobkrause
- How printable/popular is it? At least 25 Thingiverse users have made their own versions of FlexMesh.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
NASA (Hexagonal)
This chainmail design derives from the square-shaped NASA design mentioned previously. Although this chainmail isn’t necessarily square-shaped, it uses a similar linkage system to produce a flexible yet protective sheet of material.
The flat hexagonal design makes this chainmail simple to print and post-process because it can be laid flat onto the build plate and printed without supports. However, you can’t join sheets of this chainmail without fusing the 3D printed links. While a maker has stitched two parts together, the effectiveness remains unknown.
And if you want to go for the hexagonal design but with a different accessory, a chainmail necktie can be quite the fashion statement.
- Who designed it? Halling Slimta
- How printable/popular is it? This model has 129 makes on Printables.
- Where to find it? Printables
No Support Medieval Style
In order to print most chainmail designs, it’s necessary to model the chainmail links at 45-degree angles. This decreases print strength and increases print time.
Fortunately, ThinkSolutions has designed chainmail links that can be printed with no supports and lay flat on the build plate. According to the creator, this mail fabric uses a 3-in-1 linking system, where one ring is attached to three other rings. Real medieval chainmail typically used a 4-in-1 linking system, but this design looks enough like 4-in-1 mail to be perfect for projects requiring chain armor.
- Who designed it? ThinkSolutions
- How printable/popular is it? This model has been downloaded over 370 times on Cults.
- Where to find it? Cults
Rectangular Grid
This particular type of chainmail is unique in that it becomes rigid when bent one way and loose in the other. This can be quite helpful when a covering requires rigid and flexible pieces made from the same pattern.
The directional nature of stiffness in this model allows you to print many shapes that may benefit from printing in multiple materials. Your prints will have a custom look of their own.
- Who designed it? The_Fan_Zone
- How printable/popular is it? Based on the number of downloads, around 300 MyMiniFactory users have enjoyed this design.
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory
Spiky Hexmaille Fabric
Tessellations are a beautiful thing both in nature and design. This chainmail design tessellates a hexagonal pyramid over the entire fabric to create a futuristic appearance.
Another thing that makes this design unique is that the large, pyramid-shaped links connect with smaller hexagonal links that are printed in place. According to the designer, this means the print doesn’t require supports. The hexagonal rings will lightly connect to the larger pyramidal surfaces. You can shake them free after the print is complete to loosen the rings and create the chainmail effect.
- Who designed it? LoboCNC
- How printable/popular is it? This model has been downloaded more than 80 times.
- Where to find it? Printables
Print-in-Place
One of the limitations of 3D printing chainmail is the inability to print enough in a single piece to make it usable. But this print-in-place chainmail is angled, meaning you can print a large segment on a small build plate.
Additionally, the creator claims that he had no overhang sagging, which is a typical issue when printing chainmail with more complex designs.
- Who designed it? nicholasrrobertson
- How printable/popular is it? While only one other make has been shared, the design has been downloaded around 800 times.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Hexagonal Links
If you’re looking for something different from the other options, you can always try this chainmail made of hexagonal links.
The design was originally created to demonstrate the possibilities of Autodesk’s CAD tool 123D. For this reason, the creator also offers the original 3D files, allowing anyone to tweak the chainmail.
Prismatic
Chainmail is typically associated with medieval armor and blacksmithing, but 3D printers can also print futuristic-looking designs. This model, in particular, captures the 3D aspect of 3D printed chainmail: each link is a rectangular prism connected to four other rectangular prisms.
This model will print on an FDM 3D printer without supports but requires tight tolerances to be flexible. This is because every other link is printed on top of its adjacent links using a 3D printing technique called bridging.
- Who designed it? DsgnPA
- How printable/popular is it? This model has over 20 downloads on Printables.
- Where to find it? Printables
Bonus: Soda Tabs
Plastic chainmail is all well and good, but what if you need something a little more, well, metal?
As luck would have it, there’s a 3D printable tool attachment to make yourself pop-tab aluminum chainmail. This plastic insert for forming pliers helps keep the bend consistent for the soda can tabs so that your armor will look tailor-made for the king.
While the insert isn’t used, Instructables user Scrith shows us how to make the soda tab chainmail.
- Who designed it? JeremyRonderberg93
- How printable/popular is it? While we can’t quite say the chainmail itself is 3D printed, this adapter has been downloaded six times.
- Where to find it? Cults
License: The text of "3D Printed Chainmail: The Best Models to Create Your Own" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.