Update #1

Baby steps....
Since scratch building from foam is so new to me, I decided to start with one of the more basic pieces of the armor, the hip plates.


Here are the two peices. The base and the trim. For the base I used EVA foam, and for the top trim I'm using some craft foam, since it's a considerably thinner.



Since the hip plates are curved, I figured I'd cut some channels, one inch apart, in the back side of the plate that will allow it to hold the curve easier.


I ran a bead of hot glue down each channel, one at a time, and then bent the curve into it and braced it while it dried. Again, I did this five times each base plate. The result is....


...this.


Once the base was curved, I hot glued the top trim on, starting at one end and stretching it across to the other side as needed, gluing about an inch at a time.

I'm happy enough with them at this stage. Next I'll seal them with a few thin coats of Sobo and then, once I figure out how they'll hang, paint and complete.

I'm shooting for getting a piece/pair done a day, but we'll see what happens, so no promises.

I still need to get a helmet and I'm not certain I want to make that out of foam, so I'll likely be in the market for one in the next month or so.

Comments welcome!

Update #2

Not a whole lot to report, but I have begun the process of cleaning up the Silenced SMG I picked up a few years back. This thing needed a lot of clean-up, and while it's not 100% finished, I think I made some decent progress.


Here's the SMG mocked up to check how well all the various parts fit. I'm liking how it looks and am excited to see how she looks once I get her all painted and assembled!

Thanks to a visit from Phoenix 405th members Roxy and Rosh, I got some decent progress done on the armor itself, as well as some great insight and motivation to keep me chugging along.


Chest core armor cut and partially assembled.

Building it in foam is tricky because there are parts we literally had to invent as we went along since the pep files don't always include them. For example, note the width of the back and chest plates; in the pep files these don't offer as much coverage since the shoulder strap guides cover the areas, hence, they aren't included in the pep file. Thankfully, Roxy was on hand to help me figure out how to do this and so far, everything's coming together nicely.

I also completed assembly of the front lower abdomen plate, so it's slowly but surely coming together.

I really love that idea you used to curve the hip plates. Perfect for those who don't have a heat gun, like me hahaha. (:

I got started making a mold of the belly box thing tojight- I was going to start on the chestplate but I don't have enough silicone. Baby steps anyhow, this is my first mold using this technique.

Aster Tea - Thanks... Just came to me as an alternative to heat guns. Although, with Roxy and Rosh's tutelage, I did manage to heat and curve the torso bits without burning anything. The channel technique on the hip plates is really only effective when you have one curve going in a single direction, like the hip plates. On something more concave like the back plate, it's limited, so your mileage may vary.

Rosh - Awesometeen! Keep me in the loop, man. There's still a few Guinness with your name on them next time you're over.

I've been looking over the SMG and there are two areas that really concern me. First is the retracting stock that is designed and constructed backwards, with the stock sliding into the receiver and not into the butt stock as it should. This is not only wrong from a 'reality' standpoint, but it compromises the strength of the weapon, putting a lot of leverage on the very back of the receiver when fully extended.

The second is the silencer and more importantly, how it attaches to the firearm. My fear is that the sheer weight of the silencer, combined with leverage point is going to snap the muzzle of the barrel off completely. The answer to this is a simple matter of chopping off the muzzle now, drilling into the receiver from the front of the gun and sliding in a copper or aluminum pipe that is resined permanently into place inside the receiver. The hic-up there is that the struts of the retractable stock are in the way. The way around both of these problems is to do some chopping, drilling and re-purposing to get the butt stock where it's supposed to be; with the struts retracting into IT and not the receiver. That of course means coming up with a way to lock the butt stock in place when extended and I haven't figured out how to do that yet without compromising the aesthetics of the stock and keeping it as close to game accurate as possible.

...so... The SMG might take a while to complete since it's no longer a case of clean and JB Weld... I need to redesign and reconfigure the whole damned thing.

Fun. Bleh.

You got so much done even though we were messing around half the time. haha. Keep building like that with Rosh and you'll be done pretty quick. Time flies when you have friends building with you. It was fun. I'd like to come over again to build with you, but we'll see.

WOO!

Update #3

Tonight I got the Shoulder strap guides attached to the back plate and added a few details and the lower back arch. Might do a bit more tonight, but not sure yet.


Standard OVA foam for the base.


For the actual guides, I used the thinner craft foam. This stuff is good because it stretches a little which is great when you forget to take into account curves and the like that change your distance when stacking like this.


I noticed in the pep and other references that there is a little lip that sticks out on the exterior of the shoulder guides, so I added a little to the width of the trim pieces to represent that. I'm not overly thrilled with how much it sticks out, so I'm probably going to trim it in a bit later.


Since the back plate is pretty much constructed from one piece, I decided to dremel in the grooves on the back that indicate the small gaps between these plates on the armor.


Lower back arch being glued in. I had to modify the original pattern and made this one a little wider than it was so that it would have that nice convex curve that's so identifiable as an ODST back plate.


All done...for now.

I can't wait to be able to paint this thing all one color.

More to come.

Comments welcome!

That back groove is my favorite part of the odst chest piece. It's kind of iconic. Looks like you got the hang of the "some assembly required" part of foam. haha.

wow dude....looking great!!

Looks really nice! I am sure this will look great when completed

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement, folks! It helps keep an old dog like me motivated.

Mustang, I'm especially honored that you took the time to type out a comment with a smashed finger. Thanks!

Looks like an odst! Reminds me that I need to get to work on mine. I'm hung up making a mando helmet currently though, still need to make the mothermold for that ab plate too. Maybe I can get that done at work tomorrow.

looking good

Update #4

Tonight I thought I'd work on the chest assets, primarily the main chest box....
(Don't worry, Rosh.. I'm not making the abdomen box until I hear from you!)


Here's most of the parts of the main chest box.


Looks good, right? One problem.. The "wings" aren't attached and I'm not entirely certain how they do yet. Ah, the fun of taking proven, tried and true Pep files and then modifying them for foam. A snip here, a cut there. Sometimes it works, and sometimes you start to wonder if perhaps you cut out something you actually needed...to connect the wings to the box. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but it's late and my head hurts, so I'll tackle this tomorrow.

On the plus side, I did figure out something rather clever and thought I'd share with anyone else making foam armor...

OVA foam is pretty thick.. sometimes too thick for some of the details bits that make Halo armor Halo armor, like the schweet detail bits on the chest box, pictured below:


Maybe there's a better way to do this, or I'm not the first person to think of it, but whatever the case, I share with you what I figured out.


Since these schweet details are close to the edge of the pieces, I realized that I could go in with my blade from the edge of the foam, about half way down the thickness. I carefully and slowly slice across the foam beneath the detail bit, extending the incision past both sides.


I then carefully cut out the shape from the top, going just deep enough to reach the incision I made.


Then I just pop out the throw away and....


Schweet Detail Achievement Earned!

Anyhow.. If you're building foam armor and run into that problem, I hope that info helps.

More tomorrow, and as always, comments are welcome and appreciated.