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

[HaloGoddess]

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

The shoulders got a black wash AND the shoulders are NOT made out of the foam. I can't really do a good black wash on the foam. I think I may have to get the plasti-dip first before I can do any good paint jobs on the foam pieces. Those seams are HORRIBLE!! Just disgustingly awful!

 

[alix965]

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.

Ya know, I did read it, but I guess it didn't register*stupid brain*...So the blue would be the THIRD 'color'? In that case maybe just going over where you mean to put the blue with the dark undercoat(over whats already there) may bring the blue out more?

 

[Achilla137]

HaloGoddess, this is AMAZING! GREAT job so far! can't wait to see it all finished! I'm sure you'll figure out the paint issue. And Krylon is an awesome acrylic paint brand. Just curious, how did you scale the helmet? Or did you not do that part yet? I know you said you were going to order the visor part, but did you get it fully put together yet? I'm using Acenat's file (used it a while ago but can't remember if I scaled it or not, and this was way back in august of last year). The circumfrence of my head is 25 inches, so how exactly would I scale the helmet? Thanks for reading and keep up the good work!!

-Achilla

 

[DesertFare]

Squee~! Halogoddess~!!!! long time no talkie and AMAZING foam armor so far :3

 

[Arioch]

Halogoddess! I havent seen you build anything in a long time! You wer a big influence on me to start doing armor. Your work on Kat is looking great, You might try white bathroom caulk to fill in those seams. If you look you can find some that stays flexible when dry and Im pretty sure its paintable as well. I use it to seal in my visors ant works great for that.

You might also try using a piece of foam to test paints on. Id even go so far as to say something other than spray paint if necessary since foam flexes and spray paint will crack/flake if its more than a dusting. Im going to start using foam soon.... maybe I can test paints and let you know about my results.

Regardless, you have a talent for this and Ive seen how resourceful you are, you probly dont even need my advice, lol.

So, in closing, Im thrilled to see you building again, it looks great Ill be back to check your progress and hopefully let you know if I find good paint for foam!

 

[HaloGoddess]

HaloGoddess, this is AMAZING! GREAT job so far! can't wait to see it all finished! I'm sure you'll figure out the paint issue. And Krylon is an awesome acrylic paint brand. Just curious, how did you scale the helmet? Or did you not do that part yet? I know you said you were going to order the visor part, but did you get it fully put together yet? I'm using Acenat's file (used it a while ago but can't remember if I scaled it or not, and this was way back in august of last year). The circumfrence of my head is 25 inches, so how exactly would I scale the helmet? Thanks for reading and keep up the good work!!

-Achilla

In order to scale the helmet for your head, you want to measure from the lowest point of your chin to the highest point on the top of your head. I know the circumference of my head is about 21 inches and the height of my head is about 8 inches, but that gets rounded up to 9-10 inches. I'm guessing that if you want a comfortable helmet, you may want to have your height be 11 inches, but just to make sure that isn't going to be too small, you should still measure the height of your head. The link in my signature is a good scaling tutorial. You should check that out.

And no, I have not started on my helmet yet. I don't know if I can really do a foam build with it so I am just trying to get everything else done for now.

Halogoddess! I havent seen you build anything in a long time! You wer a big influence on me to start doing armor. Your work on Kat is looking great, You might try white bathroom caulk to fill in those seams. If you look you can find some that stays flexible when dry and Im pretty sure its paintable as well. I use it to seal in my visors ant works great for that.

You might also try using a piece of foam to test paints on. Id even go so far as to say something other than spray paint if necessary since foam flexes and spray paint will crack/flake if its more than a dusting. Im going to start using foam soon.... maybe I can test paints and let you know about my results.

Regardless, you have a talent for this and Ive seen how resourceful you are, you probly dont even need my advice, lol.

So, in closing, Im thrilled to see you building again, it looks great Ill be back to check your progress and hopefully let you know if I find good paint for foam!

Well, I DID do paint tests on some scrap pieces of foam with my acrylic paint and it held up pretty good. I believe I even mentioned that in the start of this thread somewhere and talked about the testing I did.

 

[HaloGoddess]

OMG!!! It's SOOOOOO much better now!

In Callader's Kat WIP thread, I had asked what color he used since it was a pretty good match to Kat's color. I decided to take back 3 of the bottles I bought and exchange it for the same color that Callader used. The name of the color is Ocean Cruise by Folkart. It is an acrylic paint in case anyone is curious. Anyway, I just now did a test to see what it looks like and it is WAY better. I will be repainting the entire shin black again and redoing it.

I mean yeah, I COULD just paint over the blue area, but I am going to do it differently this time so I am just going to paint it all black again.

 

[ForgedReclaimer]

Looks really good, you can really tell the difference.

Are you only painting over the shins or are you repainting all the parts you made.

 

[bobvdijk]

jup, that's more like it
Keep up the great work

 

[alix965]

I guess being a perfectionist really DOEs pay off. Nice!!!!

 

[HaloGoddess]

Alright! Here it is!! I present to you the 100% completed right shin!!!

Front:

Outer side:

Inner Side:

Back:

I ended up painting the whole piece black again and did my "silver wash" which allowed a little bit of the black to show through so that it didn't look like a bright, shiny silver shin. I dabbed on the blue with paper towel and I did a dry brush of the black on top of the silver to make it a look a little more dirty. Then I did a dry brush of the white on the front, but since it was too bright, I added a very tiny bit of water and used paper towel to smear it a bit and sort of dab it to make it look more worn.

The other shin already has the silver brushed on so now I gotta do all the extra stuff.

 

[ka5p3r]

looks good to me, awesome job

 

[Arioch]

Well, I DID do paint tests on some scrap pieces of foam with my acrylic paint and it held up pretty good. I believe I even mentioned that in the start of this thread somewhere and talked about the testing I did.

Oops! I guess Im a jackass lol. I was pretty sleepy at the time, I should have known youd have had it covered when I started writing! Nice looking shin btw.

 

[alix965]

These pictures are beyond awesome. I think the most striking part of the whole build is the barely visible seamlines. It almost looks vacuum-formed minus the inherent flimsyness. Your hard work really shows. The complete build will be worth all of that hair you pulled out of your head.

I'm soo jealous.

 

[Liamthedevastator]

What kind of foam are you using that has the smooth back and the textured front? I picked up the 1/4" foam mats and they're textured on both sides....which is 'aight but I don't want to do much sanding considering it saturates my airspace with staticy particles of foam. Helloooo healthy lungs!

Awesome job so far; I always love seeing peoples techniques.

 

[thorn696]

Turn'd out looking really good, The color is great. You're foam work is great.

 

[HaloGoddess]

Okay, both are now done.

I even added some little detail areas which are not to noticeable in the images. I just did something to make it look like there screws or something.

 

[Brandon McClain]

random question... What size shoes/boots do you wear?

 

[HaloGoddess]

random question... What size shoes/boots do you wear?

I wear about a size 6. Why do you want to know?

 

[Arioch]

If I remember right...he molded some boots....