Reach build (first build): Operation Torolf-024

After enough lurking and post reading I've decided to start my own build thread. I've done costuming in the past but nothing like this, but I'll get to learn a lot of fun new skills, so it'll be an adventure.

Here's the plan, rig wise:

Helmet: CQC
Chest: U/A Counter
Shoulders: U/A Multithreat
Knees: Grenedair
Wrist/Forearm: Tactical TACPAD
Tigh: Tactical hardcase

Aka, this:


We'll call it Torolf-024, to keep somewhat in the spirit of Spartan naming.

Also planning on using my sewing skills to make an under suit that looks a bit more padded than a black "green man" suit. Luckily, my girlfriend is a costuming guru, too, so that'll make life and design creating a bit easier. I'm still working on a design but it'll probably be mostly some form of tough mesh for air flow mixed with leather padding by the joints/shoulders/thighs/etc. The mesh swatches are in transit as I write this.

So, I decided to start off with something small, thinking that would be easier, so I did the hand guards first. They were a bit trickier than expected, but came out not bad (but not perfect) for a first time at pepping. Here they are (Ruze789/Zero2o2)


(Pics are from my iPhone, so the quality is kinda meh)

And here are the hand guards with the gloves I'm using. For those wondering the gloves I'm using are called ICON Twenty-Niner. They're pretty comfy and have that armorish look to them since they're motorcycle gloves.




I'll be putting some conductive thread in the fingers so I can use my iPhone/TACPAD with the gloves on. Woo, science!

And here are the forearms (Rhinoc/HaloGoddess):





My pepping could definitely use some work though. The bottom of one of the hand guards is warped a little and the forearms aren't perfect either. I may go back and fix them or maybe not. We'll see how I feel when I've finished pepping everything else.

Exhibit A of first pepping attempt:


Could be better but it's minor and part of the hand guard, so I'm not overly worried.

I'd take a picture of me wearing the forearm protection but the openings aren't big enough for me to fit my scrawny arms through, so I'll be grinding away at those edges after it's been hardened. This is the closet I can give you at the moment.



And here's my first attempt at the TACPAD. I was hoping to fit my iPhone in there but it doesn't fit (I scaled the TACPAD to fit the forearm length better). So I'm gonna work an a second attempt based on the phone's width and see how that turns out.



Next up is redoing the TACPAD and the bicep. And then the shoulder attachments.

For the hardening process I plan on using AquaResin. I live in an apartment in Boston w/no real workspace so I have to go the non-toxic route whenever possible. I need to reread those AquaResin threads again to make sure I'm understanding how it all works and stuff, but if anyone who's use it has some quick tips/advice to throw my way it'll help my brain from frying out while I reread, ha.

Question for you all: For pieces that overlap (i.e., the TACPAD and the forearm, and the bicep and the shoulder extension, extra chest protection), do people typically attach those after the hardening process (say, with screws/bolts/whatnot) or before the hardening (with glue)? I'm assuming the former of the two, but curious as to what others have done.

Feedback, advice & insight are welcome.

More as I keep working on this.

For overlapping parts, yes. Harden them first then attach them otherwise its a pain. Especially for parts like that tacpad because the forearm will seal off the inside and make it very difficult to do.

I figured that one out the hard way with an early pep experiment

Also I used alumilit resin on mine. Its expensive but it's non-toxic, sandable, sets in about 3 minutes and is fairly strong. Don't know anything about aquaresin, sorry.

Also your off to a great start. Its looking good, keep going!

GothX said:

Also I used alumilit resin on mine. Its expensive but it's non-toxic, sandable, sets in about 3 minutes and is fairly strong.

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They do say so in their FAQ, but keep in mind that they want to sell their product. Personally, I doubt that PUR resins are anywhere near non-toxic. There's a difference between "non-toxic" and "not listed as toxic".

Have a look at my safety guide. Source 3.6 will be interesting for you.

you're doing the CQC helmet!! YAY!! i remember you said on my CQC helmet thread you were gonna! everything looks good so far, i like the forearms. whose model are they? and you did the same handplate as me. BTW, im making a TACPAD too, mind if i try your iphone/ipod idea?
can't wait to see more!

GothX, thanks for the heads up.

ventrue said:

They do say so in their FAQ, but keep in mind that they want to sell their product. Personally, I doubt that PUR resins are anywhere near non-toxic. There's a difference between "non-toxic" and "not listed as toxic".

Have a look at my safety guide. Source 3.6 will be interesting for you.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the guide link. Gonna DL it tonight and give it a look. Wouldn't labeling a product "non-toxic" when it's toxic be false advertisement? Or will I learn all the nuisances of the chemical industry in the PDF?

philosoraptorr said:

you're doing the CQC helmet!! YAY!! i remember you said on my CQC helmet thread you were gonna! everything looks good so far, i like the forearms. whose model are they? and you did the same handplate as me. BTW, im making a TACPAD too, mind if i try your iphone/ipod idea?
can't wait to see more!

Click to expand...

Hell yea. Love the CQC. I started Reach with it and probably won't change it haha. It'll probably be the last item I pep since I want it to be near perfect. I'll sharpen my pep teeth on the other pieces of armor.

Forearms were modeled by Rhinoc and unfolded by HaloGoddess (like it says on top of the forearm). It's a really nice design and very detailed. Issue I ran in with the first one I made was trying to connect the top and the bottom half together. My hands were too big to fit through the hole to properly seal it all the way around as well as I would've liked. It was... challenging. I built the second one bottom up. That was a little bit easier to dp.

By all means, do the iPhone/TACPAD thing. Even though I came up with the idea before reading the threads I know plenty of other people have done it already. I might pick up the Black Ops throat mic from ThinkGeek to be able to take calls while in the suit, haha. We'll see.

I'm not sure what Ventrue is getting at with the toxic non-toxic thing but I been using Alumilite in a 10x10 basement with no window and no respirator for the past 5 years with no ill effect. But who knows, maybe I'm immune to it like teargas...

Also I had planned to use my phone as a tacpad also but I discovered that a gloved hand won't operate my touch screen which I know was a problem with a lot of the iPhone model so it may be worth testing model with the gloves you intend to use.

theTavernKnight said:

Hell yea. Love the CQC. I started Reach with it and probably won't change it haha. It'll probably be the last item I pep since I want it to be near perfect. I'll sharpen my pep teeth on the other pieces of armor.

Forearms were modeled by Rhinoc and unfolded by HaloGoddess (like it says on top of the forearm). It's a really nice design and very detailed. Issue I ran in with the first one I made was trying to connect the top and the bottom half together. My hands were too big to fit through the hole to properly seal it all the way around as well as I would've liked. It was... challenging. I built the second one bottom up. That was a little bit easier to dp.

By all means, do the iPhone/TACPAD thing. Even though I came up with the idea before reading the threads I know plenty of other people have done it already. I might pick up the Black Ops throat mic from ThinkGeek to be able to take calls while in the suit, haha. We'll see.

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thanks dude! i really like those forearms, i think im gonna give em a try. and i just spent the last hour and a half cuttin out ruze's tacpad
the throat mic would be prety awesome, good luck with it.

looks pretty good so far especially for your first attempt, little parts are warped but nothing a little spot putty can fix and for future references, you can put cardboard to reinforce it so it wont warp as much =D

good luck and hope this helped

theTavernKnight said:

Thanks for the guide link. Gonna DL it tonight and give it a look. Wouldn't labeling a product "non-toxic" when it's toxic be false advertisement? Or will I learn all the nuisances of the chemical industry in the PDF?

Click to expand...

Well, some chemistry background knowledge can't hurt to understand the problem I guess :-D

Let me try to explain: Molecules consist of atoms that are stuck together in a very specific way. If you exchange one atom for another, or even change the angle at which they are connected, you get a different molecule (i.e. a different substance!) that may (but doesn't have to) have very different properties. The bigger the molecules, the more room you have for such changes while keeping the properties that you need.

Now, there are organisations that keep track of substances that are dangerous (toxic, carcinogenic, etc.), but there are uncountable numbers of different substances and not nearly all of them have been tested for any, even fewer for long-term health effects. You can imagine how much work and how expensive that would be, not to mention that the results would often be undesireable from the manufacturer's viewpoint - if they don't know, they can say: "we don't know of any bad health effects". That means a substance can be very toxic, but without anybody having determined that in a study, it won't end up in any list anywhere and consequently, you don't have to stick any warnings on the bottle whatsoever. It also means that manufacturers can just kick around a few atoms in their product to change it in such a way that it drop out of all the lists without being any less dangerous.

GothX said:

Also I had planned to use my phone as a tacpad also but I discovered that a gloved hand won't operate my touch screen which I know was a problem with a lot of the iPhone model so it may be worth testing model with the gloves you intend to use.

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Get a spool of conductive thread. Sew it into the fingers of your gloves. you'll have to play around with how much you need so it carries a current from your skin to the phone, but it'll let you use your touch screen. My gf and I have done that with our winter gloves. Huge game changer.

Road Kill said:

looks pretty good so far especially for your first attempt, little parts are warped but nothing a little spot putty can fix and for future references, you can put cardboard to reinforce it so it wont warp as much =D

good luck and hope this helped

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Definitely. Always appreciate the insight/constructive feedback. The guard model I used had a reinforce but I don't think it worked with one of them, haha.