MxRacer476
Jr Member
Lookin awesome my man!! Def awaiting more pics!!
Thorssoli's MkVI Costume Buildup
- Thread starter thorssoli
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tubachris85x
Well-Known Member
Apologies for the lack of updates. Work continues, but today this was the only picture I got:
Look closely and you can tell what a good idea the respirator was:
Stay tuned, more to come.
LOL Good thing for Eyepro too
Can't wait to get some pieces in!!
I really like that digi paint.
I think it'd look better in blue, light blue, grey, and black.
But that's just me.
Hoorah!
Funny, I was thinking I'd make one kinda like that. Only I was planning on Navy blue, haze grey, deck grey and black...
My brother-in-law also asked me to make him one in MARPAT woodland digital. We'll see.
kupokitty
Well-Known Member
Actually, I think those are the colors on my uniform. That haze grey looks blue to me, but I might just need a new hat and pants because mine are faded.
I'm assuming you've already got color references for that paint scheme?
project003
Well-Known Member
^^^^my mind being blown
I've been needing a kick in the motivator for a while and it just doesn't seem to be happening. Today was a slow day with not a heck of a lot of progress. I did manage to smooth out the inside of the chest mold:
It probably doesn't look much different than it did in the previous picture. The main difference is that there are now no undercuts that will lock into the plug that I'm building tomorrow to hold the inside of the mold in place.
The last thing I did before calling it a day was to make a throwaway casting of the shoulder boxes and the pack piece:
The next step will be to pull these out of the mold, shape the insides to my liking with a grinder and some clay, then place them back into the mold so I can make the inner rubber piece just like I did with the chest mold.
In other news, I've been getting a lot of help from my ten-year-old niece. Yesterday she decided that she wanted to try on my gear:
Since my rig doesn't fit her, she's started building a helmet of her own. I'll start a thread on that once I've got a few more pictures to share.
It probably doesn't look much different than it did in the previous picture. The main difference is that there are now no undercuts that will lock into the plug that I'm building tomorrow to hold the inside of the mold in place.
The last thing I did before calling it a day was to make a throwaway casting of the shoulder boxes and the pack piece:
The next step will be to pull these out of the mold, shape the insides to my liking with a grinder and some clay, then place them back into the mold so I can make the inner rubber piece just like I did with the chest mold.
In other news, I've been getting a lot of help from my ten-year-old niece. Yesterday she decided that she wanted to try on my gear:
Since my rig doesn't fit her, she's started building a helmet of her own. I'll start a thread on that once I've got a few more pictures to share.
Yodajammies
Well-Known Member
Nice work Thorssoli. I've really enjoyed following this thread these past couple months.
What kind of silicone is that you're using for your molds?
What kind of silicone is that you're using for your molds?
Castellan Craft
Jr Member
Your ultimate accomplishment... corrupting them young. *Applauds*
kupokitty
Well-Known Member
Oh yes. That's the best thing you've done thus far; recruiting a new Spartan!
Your niece looks like one of those tiny but ridiculously buff dudes that I've seen wandering around my boat in that armor...
Mind status: Blown
In the brain...
"Brain command we have come across a thread full of just... total... WIN!!"
"Are you totally sure about this scouter?" Scout sends pick of armor, "HOLY BEJEEZUS WOAH!!! WOAH!!! WOAH!!!!!!!!!!"
"Command! COMMAND!!!! YOUR SCREAMING IS DESTROYING THE MIDE SECTION OF THE........." and the scout was never heard again...
(Forest Gump voice) And that is all I have to say about that.
In the brain...
"Brain command we have come across a thread full of just... total... WIN!!"
"Are you totally sure about this scouter?" Scout sends pick of armor, "HOLY BEJEEZUS WOAH!!! WOAH!!! WOAH!!!!!!!!!!"
"Command! COMMAND!!!! YOUR SCREAMING IS DESTROYING THE MIDE SECTION OF THE........." and the scout was never heard again...
(Forest Gump voice) And that is all I have to say about that.
Quite honestly, as huge an inspiration as this entire thread has been to me, this bit actually brought tears to my eyes. Seriously.
If you'd like to read a more fluid narrative about the making of the chest mold (without my pauses between updates) you can read about it in my blog[/URL].
Picking up where I last updated, the next step was building a block of mothermold material to hold the inner rubber jacket in place. Here's what it looked like once it cured and I'd wrestled it back out:
Here's the rubber jacket mold without all of the rigid mothermold elements in place:
Once everything was bolted back together all that was left to do was to pour some resin into the mold and make sure it works. Here's the first pull coming out of the mold:
Here's what the inside looked like:
Picking up where I last updated, the next step was building a block of mothermold material to hold the inner rubber jacket in place. Here's what it looked like once it cured and I'd wrestled it back out:
Here's the rubber jacket mold without all of the rigid mothermold elements in place:
Once everything was bolted back together all that was left to do was to pour some resin into the mold and make sure it works. Here's the first pull coming out of the mold:
Here's what the inside looked like:
Here's my friend Matt (Griff) wearing the improved chest armor:
And finally, here's a picture of me testing it for strength:
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the chest piece took 110 fl.oz. of material to cast. So it looks like it'll take around two gallons of resin to make one set of torso armor including back, chest, shoulder boxes, and ab plate. The chest piece pictured above had microballoons mixed in to save on weight, so it came in just over 5.5 pounds. Not too shabby.
With the chest molds fully functional, the next step was to make a throwaway cast of the back and shoulder boxes and repeat all of the same steps. Here's the one-piece molds with the rotocast copies poured in:
And finally, here's a picture of me testing it for strength:
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the chest piece took 110 fl.oz. of material to cast. So it looks like it'll take around two gallons of resin to make one set of torso armor including back, chest, shoulder boxes, and ab plate. The chest piece pictured above had microballoons mixed in to save on weight, so it came in just over 5.5 pounds. Not too shabby.
With the chest molds fully functional, the next step was to make a throwaway cast of the back and shoulder boxes and repeat all of the same steps. Here's the one-piece molds with the rotocast copies poured in:
Here's the back piece with clay molded in to fine-tune the inside:
And here's the back mold with silicone brushed in:
I still have to make a mold plug to keep the inside of the mold in place, but the process for the back and the shoulder boxes will be exactly the same as the chest piece, so it's hardly worth writing about. Suffice it to say that I should have pulls coming out of the back mold tomorrow and then the shoulder boxes on Wednesday.
Stay tuned...
And here's the back mold with silicone brushed in:
I still have to make a mold plug to keep the inside of the mold in place, but the process for the back and the shoulder boxes will be exactly the same as the chest piece, so it's hardly worth writing about. Suffice it to say that I should have pulls coming out of the back mold tomorrow and then the shoulder boxes on Wednesday.
Stay tuned...
Are you sure that cast isn't titanium?
Ha! Nope. That was just plain old urethane casting resin with microballoons mixed in to make it weigh a bit less. If I'd filled the mold with just resin and no fillers, it would've been stronger still. No reason for that though, all it would do is weigh (and cost) more. I'm also going to be making one or two pulls in flexfoam as well.
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