Saber's Second Project- Agent Texas Style! (PIC HEAVY)

[Saber]

it looks awesome, you have made progress

I suuuuurrrre have! hahah

I may continue on with the bondo today but I also have a friend who is coming over. It's up in the air at this point but I'll be sure to keep you guys posted as soon as I get more progress done!

[Saber]

Good evening everyone!

Here's what I got for you today...

A lit up Shoulder! *YAY!*

Here is a test run of the light with the lights off (Sorry for the poor picture quality...)



As you can see, I clearly did not do the wiring for the light. That is because I found the LED "Booklamp" at the Dollar Tree!!!!! CRAZY! :-P All I had to do was cut off the clip with my dremel and then glue it in! The battery life is a full year (atleast that's what it says on the packaging) but if the battery were to die, there is a screw that I can *err...* unscrew and replace it.

For the plastic to cover the hole for the light, I just cut out the clear plastic from the packaging! Since I didn't want the light to be so pure, I just covered it with hotglue and smeared it up, giving it a fogged up appearance!

Now here is what I have gotten done on the AR...

Far away...

CLOSE UP!


I know, I know... It looks like it was puked on by Ronald McDonald! But I have a very clear explanation for this!!!!

It is REALLY hard to Bondo pepwork that doesn't have fiberglass reinforcing it. That's why I resorted to using craft foam to help smooth out curves. It's working very nicely!!! What's more, the foam is actually adding a realistic weight to it so when it's finished, it will feel like I'm actually holding a gun and not just a prop.

For now, I just have the front end of it covered in foam and I started putting another thin layer of resin on the foam to stiffen it up.

A soft, feathery Assault rifle is not very menacing, folks...

But I'll keep the foam on the handle as is... ;-P

And lastly, I have finished with the bondo work on one of the shins! Hooray!





The detailing was a pain in the arse, but I'm REALLY happy with the results! Some parts looks a little rough, but I was planning on battle damaging the paint so it wouldn't look so bad.

I was able to get the silver and the top coat of black on the shin this evening. I don't really like this can that I'm using, so the paint might be a little patchy. I'll prbably have to fix it in the morning.



Also, I might be trying out a new painting technique that I saw on Hyo's thread for her Reach Armor to give the color a little more depth. Don't know how it'll turn out, since my armor is black. But it's worth a try!

...

Okay, that wasn't the last thing I had to say... I lied... *You fiend!*

I don't have pics for these, but I glad I remembered so I could update you further.
I have pepped the second shoulder (finally...) and I have also pepped the left thigh. The thigh now has two layers of resin and the shoulder has one. They should be fully glassed or mostly glassed by the end of tomorrow or the day after.

Also, the other shin and gauntlet are nearing being done in the bondo stage. The bondo that I didn't put enough hardener in has finally dried and I've started sanding them more.

Heehee... I've dominated the front half of my dad's shed with my armor build... :-P


Okay, folks. There you have it.
I hope you've enjoyed my silly banter within all this awesome costume-buildiness!

Please comment and critique and have a good night!

It's a good night chicken! :-P

[TheBearMan]

Great work so far!

I have a quick question though. With the foam on the AR, isn't the resin eating through the foam? Usually resin reacts kind of badly with that stuff lol

Anyway excellent build so far, keep up the good work!

[Saber]

Great work so far!

I have a quick question though. With the foam on the AR, isn't the resin eating through the foam? Usually resin reacts kind of badly with that stuff lol

Anyway excellent build so far, keep up the good work!

Thanks for the compliments!
As for the foam, when I was outside, the resin was on the foam for a good two hours. In that time, I didn't see any "resin eating" going on. I was reading on other cosplay sites, looking for a way to harden the foam and a person suggested resin. They didn't have any problems with the foam, so I figured, "Hey, I'll see if it works!"

Another method I knew of was clear nail polish... But that would be too expensive to buy ALLLLLL of these little bottles of clear nail polish to have it soak up and not fully harden the foam.

I just hope what you say isn't true, or I'll be a very unhappy camper... :/

We'll just have to see till morning...

And thanks again for your kind compliments!

[Saber]

Here's what I got for you tonight.

I've finished the first shin!!!







Again, sorry about the poor picture quality... I'm tired... hahah
I have the padding all installed and I also put a LED light in the back. It doesn't compromise any comfort whatsoever, so I'm happy with it.



My dry-brush technique needs some improvement, but I'll probably get a hang of it by the time my suit is finshed. I kept catching myself putting on the pieces that I have finished and walk around the yard and house all giggly. My parents think I'm wierd, but oh well... :P

This isn't all that I have done today. I only had time to take pics of the shin tonight...

I glassed the left thigh and 1/3 of the right shoulder is glassed. I'll finish glassing the shoulder (after buying more fiberglass) and start sanding the thigh.

THE AR IS SAFE! I checked on it first thing this morning and there was NO resin hole burning in the foam at all so I'm super happy that it worked out. Today the work that I had done on the AR was to slowly (in tiny squirts at a time) fill it up with expanding foam. So far, there's no bulging or any other issues and tomorrow I'll probably start bondoing the seams in the foam to finish it.

I did more sanding on the right gauntlet and second shin. I was really sloppy on my last layer of bondo that I applied on them so it might take a while before I get everything smoothed out.

Tomorrow will include a lot of bondo and sanding. I'll keep you posted as I progress.

Please comment and critique.
Have a good night!

[Saber]

Hey boys and girls,
I have a little update for you that I would like to share.
Sorry for the double posting, but it's an update so...... Blah.

For starters, I added some extra little details on the shin that I have already done. I bought some hex head bolts from the Home Depot, cut off the stems, painted 'em black, battle damaged 'em a bit, then glued them into the indents in the shin.
Here's what it looks like. Needless to say, I'm happy with whatI looks like. :0)



Next, the right gauntlet is completely finished! All of the padding is installed and there are no missing pieces either! Some pics were taken before I actually finished, so don't get confused.

Pertaining to the pieces in the bondo stage... They're still in the bondo stage. The second shin and the left thigh are almost finished, but the AR is being a little tempermental right now... So that may need to be finished at a later date.

Some problems that I did encounter though with the thigh was that a small section indented while it was curing during glassing. It actually preventing me from getting my leg out of it if I were to put it on. When I tried the first time, I almost panicked a bit when I saw that I could get my leg out. So what I'm doing right now is adding a bunch of bondo on the outside to round it out and then dremel out the inside to make it a perfect circle again. Once that's done, I'll add a layer of fiberglass to make sure that it doesn't crumble after two uses (unlike my last one).
Here is the indent in the thigh. You can see it on the upper right.


Back onto weapons, I have started a sliced Reach M6 Pistol.
As of right now, I have traced out all of the parts that I need and I have cut out and glued the magazine clip, the trigger, the data link (that connects to the bottom of the front part of the gun), and the top attachment.



You can pretty much say that I have hardly put a dent in the darn mat board. To glue this monster together, I evolved from hotglue to Tacky glue. I knew that hotglue wouldn't work for this project and the tacky glue is working fairly well.

Kudos to carpathiavh99 for slicing the file.

Last thing, I have pepped the chest piece. I made sure it fit me around the waist on the LD file. But now in HD, the shoulders are a little broad. I may have broader shoulders than most women, but not THIS broad.
I'm just gunna live with it though. It fits me A LOT better than my last one (which actually fit my dad perfectly). I'll be adding the support struts later (when I have the time).





I also have the Helmet printed out and sitting on my desk right now. I don't know when I'll get to it, but once the temperatures drop to the oh-so-normal-Oregon 50-60 degree range and resining and other parts relating to that are out of the question, I'll probably get it done within a few weeks.

That's all I got for you today. And hopefully, I'll getmore done before it gets too cold. If you guys happen to know what I can do to help pieces cure faster when I have no warm garage to hide my unfinished pieces in, that would be great.
I recall there being a winter "curing-box" somewhere in the threads, but I can't find it AT. ALL.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my thread.

Please comment and critique!
Cheers

[Saber]

Hey guys and gals of 405th!

i have a little more progress to show you, I see that my thread is just as cold as it is outside- Which is short to say, "FREEZING.

I've pepped a helmet and it fits better than my first one.





You can see that my new one is smaller than my older one. Which is good because even with padding, my old helmet still had A LOT of wiggle room for my head. I know it's a little lop-sided, but I'm working on the struts as I type this.

Before Halo-ween, I finished the right shoulder. Just in time for a few parties. Including a bowling party. The lights, padding and temporary straps were attached to the shoulder and they worked great.

The bowling party was successful and I didn't have any problems with mobility! :-D I actually got the highest score out of the entire party! I even got a few strikes! :-P Even though I only wore the arm pieces and my old helmet (which was repainted black), people were still really impressed.
I also handed out candy to trick-or-treaters (all three of them) with my costume on and the reactions were just amazing! A parent even asked if I could take a pic with their little Gladiator son. What an honor!

Moving on with more progress:

I added the little bumpy things using some tubing on my older helmet. Now I can officially say that this piece is done. I feel so much better about the piece now that I know that everything that was needed is on it.


I finished the left thigh! :-D




I even cut a little bit out of the back to add to the mobility.
It's still a little tight, but I'm getting into a work-out routine a few weeks ago so it should start fitting soon. Actually, I tried it on about a week ago and I'm already starting to see the difference in fit! Whispers: I've already dropped a dress size... ;P

I have the sliced pistol fully glued together. It's just a matter of bondoing to perfection. (Pic as seen above: Sorry for the "divine light" emitting from it. I have no idea why it did that.

As for the AR... It's a progressing failure... Parts keep warping and falling apart and every time I look at it, I want to burn it. (pic at the end... before it went to crap...)

The second shin is almost finished, just a little more fine-tuning with some sanding and bondo. (pic at the end)

I've been looking into foam armor and it looks much easier than the pepwork/resin/fiberglassing method. I'm thinking about trying it out after finishing this suit. A half glassed- half foamed suit may look wierd...
I actually have some foam here at home and I want to try and experiment with it a little!
If any one has any suggestions for foam armor, I'd appreciate any and all input.

Here is everything I have together before I finished the shoulder.
It's slowly progressing, but it's progress nonetheless!


I hope you guys enjoyed the pics and any input will be highly appreciated.

Cheers

[Saber]

Hey all! I don't have much, but I present to you a boot.
Credits to Robogenesis for the 3-piece boot file.









I've also fiddled with foam a little bit and I built an elbow pad from the H3 marine costume. Credits to Vrogy for his pep file.


That's all for now!
Stay frosty, 405th.
Alexis

[sandy1973]

Wow everything looks great. Why don't you use the Low def AR and resin + rondo the inside? I made 2 ARs (1 for my son and 1 for myself). I used modpodge to seal the outside and use smoothcast on the inside.

[Saber]

Wow everything looks great. Why don't you use the Low def AR and resin + rondo the inside? I made 2 ARs (1 for my son and 1 for myself). I used modpodge to seal the outside and use smoothcast on the inside.

Thanks for your compliments!

And I have tried constructing a Low-def AR. Twice, actually. Both of them ended up being garbage before I even got to the hardening stage. I guess I thought that if I tried a HD file, it would turn out better. It did, at first. But it just ticks me off. I don't have the heart to throw it away though. I keep thinking that it'll magically turn into this super-awesome-amazing gun but I'll have it let it go.

I was even thinking of scratch building my next attempt because I'm a real stickler for detail, unfortunately...

But if I decide not to scratch-build, I'll probably try out what you suggested. I've never rondoed anything before so it might take a few more attempts to get that right.