My Custom Build (Armoury Spartan)

[Shadow Of Intent]

Just bought 5 battery holders, 10 switches, 2 40mm fans, half a m² of reflective gold plastic film and a pair of paintball gloves.

I'm trying to leave as little plain space as possible, because there arent any textured or patterned biking type underarmour suits I can find. I can eliminate open space on the back and stomach with this back protector rather than a full torso suit. The latter would have wasted forearm and lung protection, but I like the underlying material and elbow/shoulder pads more than heatgear, if it were slightly darker.

I also plan to cover the backs of the knees somehow, as well as the neck. Basically, it it involves more than about 5x5 inches square of exposed underclothing, I want another layer to spice things up a little.

Please tell me what you think, especially about the back protector!

[Serepheth]

Nice work man, i've been watchin this for awhile and everything is coming along very nicely. keep up the good work.

[Shadow Of Intent]

Working on the left thigh at them moment, and only just realised it's another right thigh! Luckily the first page is symmetrical enough for me to not need to start over again, but it got me pretty worried. I had to amputate a few tabs and splice some onto the other side in an attempt to mirror it. Found out that the .rar folder they came from (Forged Reclaimer's) has the left and right files swapped around, with a correct right thigh in there, so I just saved the left and righ thighs which were actually both right ones. It doesnt help either that when you choose mirror design in pepakura designer it doesnt actually change the 3D image =(

Anyway... good news is that I now have a proper respirator, not a superfluous dust mask! I would have preferred one of the replaceable filter 3M versions (Like the more stylish 3M 6000 series) but they were a bit too expensive, and a 28 day mask should be plenty long enough. Here are some pics of the one I have... It's got a reallt good fit and I can't smell the fumes at all when wearing it (I realise now that the dust mask had almost no effect!)

[Shadow Of Intent]

More electronics arrived today! First picture is everything that has come so far, with gold reflective foil at the back (Looks silver because it is the inside), five 9v battery holders, ten SPDT switches (Gives me enough components to add LEDs if I wish later on!) and both the 40mm fans from yesterday. The foil is probably 10-15% opaque when viewed by the wearer, but at least 95% opaque when viewed from the other side, provided no light shines through from the wearer's side. Last picture shows the with/without comparison of the foil, although the camera makes it look a bit darker than in real life, especially with a downsized thumbnail.

I think the foil goes on the inside of the visor, which will help protect it from being peeled off, although I'm still figuring out a way of adhering it... best idea so far is to glue around the very edges, because it may not stick well to plastic. Anyhow... I hope that serves as a useful reference for anyone considering a gold visor at a low cost.

[Shadow Of Intent]

I can't decide wheter to fix the visor "inside" or "outside" the helmet. Both would look the same, but they have their advantages and disadvantages. The picture below shows what I mean.

In visor "A", I leave a small lip around the visor cutout section ang epoxy the visor to that. It should be a perfect fit in either case because I'm making a custom visor from a curved sheet of plastic. This method would mean the visor is attached more securely, with no chance of the reflective foil peeling off, although the 2-3mm lip would reduce the field of view slightly.

Version "B" attaches it on the inside, so there is no need to perfectly resize the visor, as the overhang is hidden. Actually securing it could be a problem though, because I need to create a new lip on the inside from bondo or something similar (Marked as adhesive on the picture). The visor would peel of without being glued on around the edges.

Here's the picture, front of helmet is to the left of each diagram, and the inside is on the right:

[spartanx360]

i suggest B, but use bolts to secure the visor, that way you can change the visor more easier if you make an other one (for example, an other color)

[Satchmo III]

If you haven't checked out BLACKULA727's (and company's) tutorial on face-plate mounting it might be helpful (http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/...ail-your-visor). He and a couple of people have detailed how they've approached the task.

[Shadow Of Intent]

If you haven't checked out BLACKULA727's (and company's) tutorial on face-plate mounting it might be helpful (http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/...ail-your-visor). He and a couple of people have detailed how they've approached the task.

I think I have seen that tutorial, but it's more suited for motorcycle visors which hold their own shape. I'm going to be using a 1mm clear sheet of plastic, so I need it to be held with gaps of under an inch, ie, many small bolts under an inch apart (Impractical) or gluing around the whole edge. That putty would be ideal for making a lip, but probably too expensive and not guaranteed to work.

Your JFO looks amazing... I need to look into some dremmelling details and grooves into the pieces!

[spartanx360]

I think I have seen that tutorial, but it's more suited for motorcycle visors which hold their own shape. I'm going to be using a 1mm clear sheet of plastic, so I need it to be held with gaps of under an inch, ie, many small bolts under an inch apart (Impractical) or gluing around the whole edge. That putty would be ideal for making a lip, but probably too expensive and not guaranteed to work.

Your JFO looks amazing... I need to look into some dremmelling details and grooves into the pieces!

you can give your sheet a curved shape by heating it and hold it in position until it cools down (after its curved you can still use window tint sheet to give it color)

[Shadow Of Intent]

you can give your sheet a curved shape by heating it and hold it in position until it cools down (after its curved you can still use window tint sheet to give it color)

Hmmm... I hadn't thought of heating it, but now you mention it, that'll stop it from trying to straighten out as much!