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title: Hairy Armor For Combat Robot? It’s Not Terrible! | daily.dev
description: A combat robotics builder tested whether a 3D printed mane of bristles could work as lightweight armor. Angus of Maker's Muse redesigned his plastic antweight...
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og:description: A combat robotics builder tested whether a 3D printed mane of bristles could work as lightweight armor. Angus of Maker's Muse redesigned his plastic antweight...
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# Hairy Armor For Combat Robot? It’s Not Terrible!

**[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A combat robotics builder tested whether a 3D printed mane of bristles could work as lightweight armor. Angus of Maker's Muse redesigned his plastic antweight robot, a 150-gram class limited to plastic chassis and weapons, to swap its outer shell for a thick wad of bristled 'hair'. The hairs are made by bridging filament between the model and a support structure that's later cut away. Past robots in this class got their shells broken up in combat, but the hairy robot seems to have come through quite intact, suggesting the idea might not be as silly as it first seemed.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://hackaday.com/2026/10/26/hairy-armor-for-combat-robot-its-not-terrible>

## Questions this post answers

### How do you make a 3D printed hairy or lion's mane texture on a part?

Bridge filament between the model's surface and an outer support structure during printing, then cut the support away afterward to expose the resulting bristles as 'hair'. This technique, previously used for a 3D printed lion's mane, was adapted to create a bristled outer shell for a combat robot, acting as lightweight impact-resistant armor.

_daily.dev surfaces maker projects like this for builders experimenting with unconventional 3D printing techniques._

### What are the weight and material rules for the plastic antweight combat robot division?

Plastic antweight, nicknamed 'plant', limits robots to 150 grams with both the chassis and weapons required to be made of plastic. This weight class constraint is why lightweight solutions, like a bristled mane instead of a solid shell, can be competitive, since every gram counts toward both armor and weapon mass.

_daily.dev helps robotics hobbyists keep tabs on builds and techniques across weight classes like this._

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---

Tags: [#robotics](https://daily.dev/tags/robotics)

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