Halo Reach Kat - Foam Armor *FINISHED* 10/31/11

[BLACKULA727]

Let me just say that I’ve been lurking through this build and I really enjoy watching this beast go together. The chest looks fantastic, you can tell that you took the time to cut each piece out being careful to not make it jagged. The seams don’t look to noticeable too. It’s really going to look great when finished. Looking forward to seeing this through.

About the hole on the calve/shin armor, can you try putting a tiny piece of foam to fill the hole, then use flexible auto glaze to hide seams and such (cover with flex primer). It’s sandable. The flexible auto glaze (like spot putty, but stronger and self leveling to a degree) is used on car bumper covers, so it can flex pretty good. Evercoat makes some, but there are many other brands. Anyways, great work so far. Looks good.

 

[HaloGoddess]

About the hole on the calve/shin armor, can you try putting a tiny piece of foam to fill the hole, then use flexible auto glaze to hide seams and such (cover with flex primer). It’s sandable. The flexible auto glaze (like spot putty, but stronger and self leveling to a degree) is used on car bumper covers, so it can flex pretty good. Evercoat makes some, but there are many other brands. Anyways, great work so far. Looks good.

Thanks for the tip, but I already managed to cover the hole and it worked out perfectly. If you look at my pics of the finished shin, you will see that the hole got covered.

Anyway, here are some more updates!

Started work on the 2nd shin....

Once again I added some scrap pieces to hold the shape for the bend in the back:

And for those of you wondering about how the pieces look when I need an angle:

You can see that when I cut the piece to begin with, I cut it out at an angle.

And these are what my pieces look like after cutting out the pieces from the cardstock then tracing them on the foam for my templates:

The 3 pieces that are at the top go around the top back side of the shin.

This 2nd one is starting to turn out better than my first one! XD I feel like making a 3rd shin so that it looks about as good as this one! XD haha

 

[calladar]

looking good. i know the feeling the more i work with the foam the better i am getting at the technique and the more resent pieces look better than the first so i have thought the same things. lol

 

[HaloGoddess]

looking good. i know the feeling the more i work with the foam the better i am getting at the technique and the more resent pieces look better than the first so i have thought the same things. lol

Well I feel that I did just fine with the torso, but the shin seemed to be a bit tricky and after making the first one, it's like I figured out what to do and what not to do and how I should go about by building it so after starting on the 2nd one, I kept it all in mind and this one is starting to turn out better. XD haha

 

[alix965]

Bravo Halogoddess.

 

[BLACKULA727]

@ Halogoddess, well now I feel stupid. Sorry, for some reason, when I'm in the directory and I click on someone's comment, it brings me to the middle or even the begining of the thread. I just realized that was like your 4th or 5th page. Again, I'm sorry. But the flexible glaze/putty may be an option for something else. Who knows. Anyways, the build is looking great and your fix to the shin looks great.

 

[RoxyRoo]

This is cool so far. It looks like you have a good handle on foam. Those shoulder pieces are really good. The paint job looks like it's really been through battle.

 

[HaloGoddess]

Guess what!!!??!!??!!!???!?!?!!

The shins are done!! Although the one I just finished needs like 4 small pieces to be added on still, but it still came out good.

I still got a lot more to go though. My deadline is May 14th.............will it happen!? D:

 

[calladar]

look good. which file did you use? if you already said sorry i missed it.

 

[HaloGoddess]

look good. which file did you use? if you already said sorry i missed it.

I used the female shin by ForgedReclaimer.

 

[HaloGoddess]

Ah, a double post, but I come bearing updates!

I went out and bought some more paint. I think I have all the paint I need to fully paint everything now.

(keep in mind this is ALL acrylic paint)

Sterling Silver Metallic by folkart (came in a large bottle, 8 oz.)
4 bottles of Heaven Blue by Delta Ceramcoat (2 oz. bottles)
Then just a large bottle of black paint (8 oz.) Brand doesn't really matter. Black is black.

Although, I totally wasn't thinking and forgot to go buy some plasti-dip!!!! D: I want that stuff to try and fill in the seams of my pieces!

I have some of that bondo brand spot putty that is red in color........will that stuff work? I don't know how well that stuff can be used on foam. But then again, I know I put the stuff away, I just don't know where it's even at! XD

I don't know if I should take chances on just painting it as is or if I should wait to get something to fill in the seams/gaps on my armor pieces. :\

 

[calladar]

i tried the glazing putty by bondo and it has absolutely no flex to it and it will crack and chip off. the best i have found is a flexible spot putty. works the same as the bondo glazing putty but is good and flexible. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007LTXF0.. so far i have had good luck with it.

 

[clayton 87]

excuse me I'm just a nooooob from other country but,
using hot glue is a good idea for assembling the parts of this type of armor, only for temporal assembly only in some points for maintaining the assembly ....
for long term assembly also you can use silicone sealant, it's used in different types of materials, and in a variety of works for example: plumbing, or glass or window work !
it really work very well in textiles and plastics with pores... you don't need to heat the glue and takes 20 minutes to dry to the tact and 24 hours to dry completely ! ( BEFORE IT DRY ! )you can quit the residual layer of product with a spoon and clean it only with antiseptical alcohol !
I think it would be a good idea, considering it's cheap, stronger (it's really strong) , flexible, and the best: water resistant ! NO PROBLEMS WITH THE RAIN !

 

[HaloGoddess]

Crap.

Now I am VERY disappointed.

My blue color is HORRIBLE! It seemed to look perfect on the shoulders, but now........it's just awful! It's too light! If I change my blue now, I will have to repaint my shoulder pieces! I don't know what to do now. I'm not too happy about this at all.

I took pictures of the half completed shin with and without using the flash:

With flash:

Without flash:

You can hardly see the blue and it's definitely NOT like Kat's armor.

@ clayton_87: The hot glue works just fine with the foam. It holds up pretty well and even everyone else that has done foam builds have not had any problems with the hot glue as far as anything falling apart. The hot glue is pretty cheap. I can get a pack of 20 glue sticks for $1. Also, waiting 20 minutes for it to dry is TOO long. I don't want to have to hold something in place for 20 minutes to wait for it to dry until I can do more. Sounds like it would be too much of a pain. The hot glue dries MUCH quicker and holds up pretty darn good.

 

[LongShot X]

Crap.

Now I am VERY disappointed.

My blue color is HORRIBLE! It seemed to look perfect on the shoulders, but now........it's just awful! It's too light! If I change my blue now, I will have to repaint my shoulder pieces! I don't know what to do now. I'm not too happy about this at all.

You can hardly see the blue and it's definitely NOT like Kat's armor.

@ clayton_87: The hot glue works just fine with the foam. It holds up pretty well and even everyone else that has done foam builds have not had any problems with the hot glue as far as anything falling apart. The hot glue is pretty cheap. I can get a pack of 20 glue sticks for $1. Also, waiting 20 minutes for it to dry is TOO long. I don't want to have to hold something in place for 20 minutes to wait for it to dry until I can do more. Sounds like it would be too much of a pain. The hot glue dries MUCH quicker and holds up pretty darn good.

Actually I can see the blue... Rather than scrapping the whole thing, I would try a 2nd coat of blue and see how it turns out. Might have to add a gloss coat. It looks good to me. Nice to see pics with a flash and without a flash. It really does help.

@ clayton_87: I can vouch for HaloGoddess. If applied properly, hot glue works VERY good on this type of foam. I cover the entire contact surface of my pieces with glue. In fact the foam itself will rip before the glue does. I tested it myself. As mentioned hot glue sticks are cheap and the glue hardens at a good speed.

 

[alix965]

The problem I find with hot glue is sometimes the gun nozzle oozes excess glue. Those stringy things are a pain in the A$$* The high end glue guns have a HOT setting as well as a HOTTER(?) setting with a no drip nozzle.
Also, some tips that I haven't seen mentioned for foam. To fill in the gaps after assmebly, I use gorilla glue. It comes in two colors and EXPANDS when dry. All those little seams that don't quite mate, BEGONE! It's semi-rigid and sandable when it dries. The drawback is it's kinda runny and may expand past where you need it to. For this I use some scotch tape and or electrical tape over the seam to contain expansion. If done right you can get some pretty clean right angles whne it dries. Just make sure it has room to breathe. Get the narrow tip white bottle "2x Fast Drying formula".

As far as the color on your shins. Before you go the repaint route, try going over the shin with some dark coloring perhaps gray or black, to act as a primer for the silver and blue. Folkart makes EXCELLENT metallics, but the secret to getting that authentic metal look with these translucent paints is depth which translates into multiple coats. As Longshot-X mentioned, when in doubt apply MOAR COATS. At best this method will solve the saturation problem, at worst it will look 'worn and faded'

I hope this helps.

 

[Rosh]

Plasti dip will totally change the feel of the foam and make it less foam-like on the surface. It will also make the paint sit on the surface more appropriately. Also, its only like 7 bucks a can.

 

[Unity]

I think it looks fine!

 

[HaloGoddess]

As far as the color on your shins. Before you go the repaint route, try going over the shin with some dark coloring perhaps gray or black, to act as a primer for the silver and blue. Folkart makes EXCELLENT metallics, but the secret to getting that authentic metal look with these translucent paints is depth which translates into multiple coats. As Longshot-X mentioned, when in doubt apply MOAR COATS. At best this method will solve the saturation problem, at worst it will look 'worn and faded'

I hope this helps.

I take it you didn't read about the paint I got? I got the silver metallic paint AND I had no problem with getting the silver to show through. The shins were painted all black and then I rubbed the silver on them to allow a little of the black to show through.

My ONLY issue right now is the blue. I won't have to repaint the entire shin! I will just have to paint over the blue areas. But, if I get a different blue for my shins, that means repainting my shoulder pieces.

Plasti dip will totally change the feel of the foam and make it less foam-like on the surface. It will also make the paint sit on the surface more appropriately. Also, its only like 7 bucks a can.

Yeah, I know about the plasti-dip stuff and when I finally got the car to go out somewhere, I totally forgot about getting that stuff. I onlh like a month left to get this build finished IF I want to make it in time for that convention.

 

[Condor4]

well i think the shins look fine, kat's shins are mostly silver battle damage anyway. the shoulders look like a blue coat painted over a black coat. on the shins though, did you paint the layer under the blue coat silver? that could be why the blue isn't showing as well as on the shoulders