FWBulldog's vicarious Reach foam suit WIP

Two years ago I built my son a Master Chief foam suit, fiberglass helmet. You can see find that build here: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php...-foam-Mark-VI-build/page2?highlight=fwbulldog

He liked it, but it kind of burned me out, until this year. I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween and he picked Jun from Reach. So, you know the drill. Off we go.
Duct tape dummy: check.
Foam mats: check
Hot glue: check.
Brand new #11 blades : check.

FIles credited to L3X BLu3R1v3r -> http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/33480-L3X-s-File-Database?highlight=L3X+BLU3R1V3R
Completely inspired by LilTyrant's Kat http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/35790-KAT-ARMOR-BUILD-with-custom-undersuit?highlight=reach+foam








And of course my sewing coach. I had literally never used any kind of sewing machine until last week. I was searching around for under suit ideas, found Lil Tyrant's killer thread, and though "hey I can learn to do that". The neck seals and shoulder pads are made from the same marine vinyl Tyrant used. Probably no the best material to cut your teeth with, but I'm getting better.


This build has a been a lot of fun, and I can't wait for my boy to strut around in the upcoming Halloween contests. I won't have enough time to do electronics, except may a couple LEDs in the helmet. If anybody is interested, or has questions I'll be posting at least once a week with updates. I know it's pretty sloppy compared to some of the top notch examples around here, but it's only my second suit, and let's be honest, it's for an 11 year old boy to wear to a couple Halloween parties, and then the next week he'll have outgrown the damn thing anyway. So don't be too harsh in your critique.

Still lots of detailing work, then plastidip, then paint, etc....... It's definitely a WIP thread.

Looks great so far, can't wait to see more!

I like it nice clean lines

Looks absolutely awesome. Keep at it!

Thanks! I'm getting a little behind if it's going to be finished by halloween. Anybody found a good file for Jun's helmet?

Since the chest is split at the top and the bottom, I chose to use magnets to connect the pieces. These are 1/2" by 1/8" neodymium magnets I got from Amazon .

Since these magnets are really strong the force of separating the chest piece will rip the magnets out of the foam if they are directly hot glued to the foam. I used a short piece of popsicle stick to spread out the pulling force. I hot-glued in a backing piece of foam, carved a little pocket for the popsicle stick, and then hot-glued the magnet to the stick. I did one side and then pushed it up against the mating surface to locate where the other side should go. It's surprising how well these magnets hold together. They allow the foam to rotate and pop open if the joint gets stressed, rather than ripping the foam.

Really struggling with the shoulder pieces. Evakura's detailed link has been very helpful, but these parts are pretty hard (for me, anyway). Still cutting away. Gotta be done this weekend.




Forearms ready for paint. Thosse were a little harder than I expected, but they turned out OK.

Wow there is still a lot of work to do, and only 5 days to get it all done. I still need knee pad armor files, and shoe files.



He'll have a costume for Halloween. It might not be as completed as I wanted it to be, but he'll definitely have something people will talk about.

Looking really good, and I'm impressed with the magnet clipping system. Looks like you're good with foam too, so it'll come out nice. Wish I had someone make me cool stuff like that when I was little.

I've never seen a mannequin like that used for armour making, or not that I can remember, but it looks really useful. What did it take to make that?

FoxtrotZero said:

Looking really good, and I'm impressed with the magnet clipping system. Looks like you're good with foam too, so it'll come out nice. Wish I had someone make me cool stuff like that when I was little.

I've never seen a mannequin like that used for armour making, or not that I can remember, but it looks really useful. What did it take to make that?

Click to expand...

Thanks! One thing I learned about the magnets is that they need to be attached using epoxy of some kind. I ended up using JB Weld. I tried hot glue, contact cement, and super glue. All those adhesives failed to attach to the metal. JB Weld is holding nicely.

There are several tutorials here on the "duct tape dummy". Basically you put on some old clothes, wrap everything in duct tape, cut it off, then tape the seam together as you stuff it with newspaper.


Had the first outing with the new suit today. He chose gold. Credit grandma for the photo-bomb.



He wore it to his youth group meeting tonight, and got mobbed.