"Help!" for: Armor Mounting / Costume Assembling

[23Magnum]

This thread will contain general first hand knowledge of how to mount your armor pieces, assemble costumes, and other need to know stuff after basic construction is completed with the finishing process begun or finished as well.

People who don't know: Post questions.

People who know: Answer those questions.

Please be as clear and detailed as possible with your questions and/or answers. Repeated questions or variations of certain questions may be consolidated over time into an FAQ section in the post following this one.

Always ask and answer questions as if you were asking/answering your mother or grandmother. In other words, politely.

Rudeness and/or impatience will be met with an infraction. You don't want too many of those.

These threads are meant to reduce and hopefully eliminated the need for the numerous 'I need help threads' that seem to generate endlessly in this section of the forum.

They are not a be all, end all to all questions that could ever be asked though. Some questions will be project specific and you may need to ask those IN the project's thread itself. However, some may not see your questions there so you may post a link to said project thread in the appropriate "Help!" thread when you need the attention of a few extra eyes.

[23Magnum]

FAQ Section:

[23Magnum]

Tutorials that involve this thread's subject matter and are approved by the site staff will be linked in this post. Please review them as they may already contain the answers you seek.

Tutorial Section:

[JohnRansom]

dont know if this applies to this section- but can i get a brief but complete visor for mark 6 tutoiral? thanks.

[Sean Anwalt]

Ok, maybe I misunderstand your thread's intentions, but I'm gonna ask my ? here and if you don't like it, you can move it. I'm actually refering to the pic in your avatar; how did you get all the armor pieces to fit together so well? Most particularly the shoulders? I got my ODST on shoulder straps and a make-shift belt of sorts, but am having issues making it accurate. Any suggestions, helps, pointers, or comments?

[Chantelle]

I've posted this in another thread that was one of those individual "i need help!!" threads, but am quoting it here for anyone who needs the reference.

I've used various things on different getups - it really depends on how you make your pieces, how snug different areas are, and their proximity to each other - and always wear a zentai bodysuit underneath for comfort and cover.

For breastplates I usually design them as two pieces: front and back; then put hinging in the uppermost sections of the shoulder area to conjoin the two pieces. This makes it easy to slip on over your head. I design the two pieces to both have a shallowed out section in a semicircle, like teeth on jigsaw puzzle pieces. On the front I ADD a semicircle extension, whilst on the back I REMOVE a complimentary semicircle with a dremil. Then I drill a hole through the front extension piece, close the chest armour so that they are locked into each other with the drilled out hole revealing the shallowed out section in the backpiece. While they're closed, use a marker to scribble in the inside of the hole and mark where the hole in the backpiece should be to line up. Drill that. Then secure it with custom-painted bolts and screws.

For my vambraces and greaves I usually want a firm fit near my wrists and ankle so I also break these pieces into two separate pieces. I use my own body's measurements, then cut thick, strong elastic (like the type in pant waistbands) to those lengths, sew the ends together to form a ring. The sewing makes it slightly shorter, but that's what I want because it means it'll be nice and firm. I then staple the rings into the respective armour pieces, then it's just a matter of stretching the elastic and pulling them on.

Faulds and pelvic region can be a total *****. Again, I do a lot of breaking things up, and often break it up like "scale armour" to retain flexibility for sitting down and the like, attaching the separate pieces with knotted wire, pins, chain links, etc. depending on the armour pieces I'm trying to fit together and how well I can hide the different joints.

Gauntlets/gloves can also be done like these. I keep the fingers attached to the back of the hand, and make the palm of the hand separately.

For pauldrons (shoulder pieces) I usually secure them to either (or to both) the rerebraces and breastplate. The rerebrace will act like a strut holding the pauldron up and the breastplate acts as a pivot point. I usually screw or use snap fasteners to secure the pauldrons to the breastplate, but for the rerebrace I usually use military clips (depending on your suit, this may be visible and mightn't be the best option).

I've found joints are usually the most problematic places, especially if you want freedom of movement.

[Sean Anwalt]

Yup! Definitely.

[Shaymin Sky]

I got a big one. In pieces that are really big, such as a chest; that you can't put on as a whole; how would you divide that piece and strap it together?

[Chantelle]

I divide pieces based on the shapes I'm working from (ie, if you have groove shapes in your armour, I break it on the grooves so that there's no impact on aesthetics). I had one chest piece that I broke into two smaller pieces cut along the patterns that were already in it. Then I did my jigsaw trick again but at the top of the two pieces near my neck, with a deeper hole drilled in, slotted them together, and slipped a painted dowel with a little head on it into the drilled hole. I'll draw a rough diagram to try make this make sense...

[Roadkiller]

For Canadians who find that prices on nylon or polyester strapping, "velcro", buckles, etc look great from US sites until you have to pay shipping, duty and what-not, check out these guys:

http://www.jtstopshop.com/products/index.asp

They are a marine supply company located in Ontario, and have a good selection of the materials needed to strap up your armour. They also ship to the US.