Half-Life 2 Hev Mkv Suit
- Thread starter eternallydusk
- Start date
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Gaming Geek
Jr Member
Huh. I mean, I get that some parts you really want to cover up the lines, but there were details in the arms, legs, and torso. :/
Heh, sorry. Noob question I know. I'm just about to get started when I get some free cash, so I'll figure out what I need to know.
eternallydusk
Member
Afternoon, folks. I'm at work right now, where I'm a pool cashier for the Naval Academy. It's a private pool in a secluded location, so most of the time the pool is dead. I may not be able to work on my suit out here, but I can always plan. Plan, plan, plan!
I made a convoluted plan for the rest of the week and posted it here, but literally the moment I decided to submit the post, the site went down for an hour and my massively-long post was gone forever. So you guys will be getting the abbreviated version!
I've made steady progress with bondo and spot putty. Seven pieces are completely prepped for painting. The torso is currently halfway through the bondo stage, and it's pretty easy work. The bondo is doing wonders for it's appearance, as most of it the bottom parts were incredibly complicated thin pieces that did not look good pushed together. Bondo smoothed that right out!
The bicep is resinned, but not glassed. The belt is resinned, but I think that may be as far as I go with it. I'm going to take some of the 1/2-inch high-density foam I got from Joanne Fabrics last night and fill in the interior, like someone at the beginning of this thread (three months ago, can you believe it?) suggested.
The kevlar-chest area will probably be the most challenging part of this suit for me, because the instructions are not cut and dry as the rest of the suit is, and my sewing skills are rusty at best. Eight years too rusty. In any case, my mom has some skill in the area, so she'll be assisting me best she can. When I was at Joanne's, I picked up more than enough black spandex that looks the same shade as the black kevlar on his armor. With the rest of the high-density foam, I'm going to cut out sheets to form the pattern that his kevlar has and then sew the spandex to cover the front and sides. I'm thinking the foam will need to cover half of the circumference of my waist, and 1/2 inch-thick foam isn't too thick so as to make the terminating sides seem bulky.
An alternative to sewing my mom suggested was spray-on-glue, but I'm not too sure how spandex will react to such a glue. I'll have to do a test piece or something.
The rest of the suit is pretty much set. I have my lyrca undersuit, the gloves and the glasses. The SAP gloves I picked up gave me enough room so I can also wear the gloves that came with the undersuit, which is awesome because it'll allow for a seamless connection of gloves and undersuit. Hurrah!
In less hurrah-worthy news, my grandfather's alleged dremel might be a lie- er, a miscommunication. I'm going to try and confirm it tonight and pick it up if he indeed has one. If he doesn't, I'll have to locate another one to borrow or spring for a new one, which I really can't afford.
I'm already in possession of 100 4 pound pull-force magnets which I've been using as a pocket toy for a couple of weeks now, much to the chagrin of my now demagnetized credit card, ATM card and ID. Protip, kiddies, magnets may seem like a bundle of fun but they are secretly out to rob you of all your money. They should be enough to hold together all my pieces, but if I need more, I can always spring for another hundred. They're dirt cheap and the company is based one shipping's day away.
Sorry to provide you guys with another picture-less update, but my netbook doesn't have any of the pics on that. This'll have to do for now.
Zero hour is in precisely one week. I'm sure I'm going to make it, just perhaps at the cost of my sanity.
Looking even further ahead lies the prospect of a secret project. I'll let you guys know about it when the time is right. :3
I made a convoluted plan for the rest of the week and posted it here, but literally the moment I decided to submit the post, the site went down for an hour and my massively-long post was gone forever. So you guys will be getting the abbreviated version!
I've made steady progress with bondo and spot putty. Seven pieces are completely prepped for painting. The torso is currently halfway through the bondo stage, and it's pretty easy work. The bondo is doing wonders for it's appearance, as most of it the bottom parts were incredibly complicated thin pieces that did not look good pushed together. Bondo smoothed that right out!
The bicep is resinned, but not glassed. The belt is resinned, but I think that may be as far as I go with it. I'm going to take some of the 1/2-inch high-density foam I got from Joanne Fabrics last night and fill in the interior, like someone at the beginning of this thread (three months ago, can you believe it?) suggested.
The kevlar-chest area will probably be the most challenging part of this suit for me, because the instructions are not cut and dry as the rest of the suit is, and my sewing skills are rusty at best. Eight years too rusty.
In any case, my mom has some skill in the area, so she'll be assisting me best she can. When I was at Joanne's, I picked up more than enough black spandex that looks the same shade as the black kevlar on his armor. With the rest of the high-density foam, I'm going to cut out sheets to form the pattern that his kevlar has and then sew the spandex to cover the front and sides. I'm thinking the foam will need to cover half of the circumference of my waist, and 1/2 inch-thick foam isn't too thick so as to make the terminating sides seem bulky.An alternative to sewing my mom suggested was spray-on-glue, but I'm not too sure how spandex will react to such a glue. I'll have to do a test piece or something.
The rest of the suit is pretty much set. I have my lyrca undersuit, the gloves and the glasses. The SAP gloves I picked up gave me enough room so I can also wear the gloves that came with the undersuit, which is awesome because it'll allow for a seamless connection of gloves and undersuit. Hurrah!
In less hurrah-worthy news, my grandfather's alleged dremel might be a lie- er, a miscommunication. I'm going to try and confirm it tonight and pick it up if he indeed has one. If he doesn't, I'll have to locate another one to borrow or spring for a new one, which I really can't afford.
I'm already in possession of 100 4 pound pull-force magnets which I've been using as a pocket toy for a couple of weeks now, much to the chagrin of my now demagnetized credit card, ATM card and ID. Protip, kiddies, magnets may seem like a bundle of fun but they are secretly out to rob you of all your money. They should be enough to hold together all my pieces, but if I need more, I can always spring for another hundred. They're dirt cheap and the company is based one shipping's day away.
Sorry to provide you guys with another picture-less update, but my netbook doesn't have any of the pics on that. This'll have to do for now.
Zero hour is in precisely one week. I'm sure I'm going to make it, just perhaps at the cost of my sanity.
Looking even further ahead lies the prospect of a secret project. I'll let you guys know about it when the time is right. :3
eternallydusk
Member
Hey guys, I don't have time for a full update full of pictures I've taken, but I'm in desperate need of advice. The signature piece of Gordon Freeman is the crowbar and I'm at a loss for how to make it. I had a copy of the pep file before it was taken down on 4shared, but I recently reformatted due to a rootkit infection and I neglected to save that file. Nintendude doesn't have it anymore, either. I don't have access to a woodshop, so making one out of wood is out of the option. Please help!
(My current back-back-back up plan is to modify a hospital cane as best I can and repaint it to appear like a crowbar- but it'll look like crap)
(My current back-back-back up plan is to modify a hospital cane as best I can and repaint it to appear like a crowbar- but it'll look like crap)
eternallydusk
Member
Thanks, Gallard, I appreciate the thought but I couldn't use a real crowbar, or even modify it. The Baltimore Convention Center considers them weapons. Lunar Lord helped me out, though- he had a copy of the pep file for the crowbar lying around and sent it to me. It's about halfway done, I'm probably going to kind of cheat on it and just wrap the main part in duct tape to save time.
I've been working nonstop for the past two weeks to finish this in time, and I believe I can. Maybe a bit later than I planned, but it's cool. Again, no time for a picture update because of my internet's slow nature at the moment, sorry. Even so, six pieces are completely done, painted and ready to be put on me. I only have one problem. It's not a big one, I might be able to get out of it alright, but if you guys could offer advice, I'd be grateful.
A few of the pieces have problems staying up when I move about. They slide down, and it doesn't really look too great. I'm going to put velcro on the undersuit for it to stick to, but so far it's resulted in a bit of a unsightly sag in both the suit and the placement of the piece. I don't have time to order any strapping materials online, it wouldn't get in on-time, so I was curious if you guys know any retail places that might carry strapping material or something I can use to make the pieces hang off of me rather than stick to me.
Thanks in advance, guys, I appreciate all the help you guys have given me over the last three months.
I've been working nonstop for the past two weeks to finish this in time, and I believe I can. Maybe a bit later than I planned, but it's cool. Again, no time for a picture update because of my internet's slow nature at the moment, sorry. Even so, six pieces are completely done, painted and ready to be put on me. I only have one problem. It's not a big one, I might be able to get out of it alright, but if you guys could offer advice, I'd be grateful.
A few of the pieces have problems staying up when I move about. They slide down, and it doesn't really look too great. I'm going to put velcro on the undersuit for it to stick to, but so far it's resulted in a bit of a unsightly sag in both the suit and the placement of the piece. I don't have time to order any strapping materials online, it wouldn't get in on-time, so I was curious if you guys know any retail places that might carry strapping material or something I can use to make the pieces hang off of me rather than stick to me.
Thanks in advance, guys, I appreciate all the help you guys have given me over the last three months.
eternallydusk
Member
Hey folks. Otakon 2010 was a blast and Gordon Freeman was much more popular than I could have imagined. My friends haven't uploaded their photos yet, but one guy took one as I walked into the convention center. Kinda akward on my part because many of the pieces were sagging and I hadn't fixed them since I got off the train, and horrible angle to take a picture at, but- tad-a!
More pictures, more info, more updates tomorrow. Right now, I nap.
More pictures, more info, more updates tomorrow. Right now, I nap.
eternallydusk
Member
This project was pretty exhausting in a broad sense, so I'm taking a hiatus from armor-making for the rest of the summer and maybe do something next year. In terms of touch-ups, I'd probably just fill in the cracks of the flaws in my costume if I wear it again next year, do some battle damage and definitely make it more comfortable. The damned thing kept digging into my shoulder. I would *ABSOLUTELY* redo the crowbar- I fell asleep the night before I unveiled it as I working on finishing the crowbar. As a result, it's just the papercraft with part of it covered in duct tape. It's small, too, so I have to increase the scale a buuunnch.
For a next project, well, probably a set of armor from a game or anime series that's more influenced by East Asian culture. They're few and far between, but perhaps I can change that.
grenadesonfire
Jr Member
Wow, only Freeman suit I've seen and wow did it come out great, epic pepping and sanding!
eternallydusk
Member
Thanks, I appreciate it. :3
djbunce
New Member
HEV suit
Hey man, for the LIFE of me, I cannot find the peps for a HEV belt anywhere. I have the rest of the suit and it's just the best I need now. I saw you posted them before, but is there any chance you could hook me up with a link to a page that's still active?
Appreciate it
Nic Bunce
(nic_bunce@hotmail.com)
Hey man, for the LIFE of me, I cannot find the peps for a HEV belt anywhere. I have the rest of the suit and it's just the best I need now. I saw you posted them before, but is there any chance you could hook me up with a link to a page that's still active?
Appreciate it
Nic Bunce
(nic_bunce@hotmail.com)
THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN FINISHED- FINAL PICTURES HERE
Original thread is below
Summer has sprung upon those fortunate few high school seniors lucky enough to graduate this early, and with it comes plenty of free time. I've been interested in armor-making for awhile, but recently, a friend showed me this- (null).exe's valiant, but apparently doomed dream of building the HEV suit that Gordon Freeman wears in Half-Life. That link led me to hours of exploring the topic of Pepakura armor-making, and as a result, it has become my goal of crafting this suit myself, with a deadline of the end of summer, that being the time when I head off to college in Boston, where I'm sure my dorm-mates won't approve of my armor-making in their vicinity.
The main problem with crafting this suit is that everyone connected with the project seemed to burn out midway. To try and improve my chance of success, I'll be going at it slowly, so please don't take my slow pace as lack of interest. :3
Here's a ref (stolen from null's thread) of the suit in question:
Here's the peps I'll be using: http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12691&view=findpost&p=301912 (modeled by Nugget, scaled by null)
To start off, I'll be acquiring the most basic of essentials (cardstock), pepping sections at a time, and ensuring they are scaled to my size. null seemed to be roughly the same build as I, but he was quite a bit shorter, so I'll be adjusting everything accordingly after I try it out once.
If you have any words of advice as I go through this project, please share them. I'll need all the help I can get.
-Connor
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