Hey there 405th, I've had a loooong hiatus, and a lot of you probably hadn't even joined the forums when I made my last post, but I've loved looking through all the AMAZING work you people have been putting out while I've been gone. But I'm back, even if just for a little bit, to do a... progress thread. Not so exciting, I know.
A bit about this build: I bought a full vacuum formed ODST kit from Mr. Sean Bradley almost two years ago, but due to a job, several moves, tiny apartments with nowhere to work, family obligations, and the unpredictable weather of the pacific northwest, I haven't been able to finish it. Until now! Summer's ending, I'm currenly jobless, and I'm in a race against time and weather to get this all done before a local anime convention (Aki-Con, October 7-9) here in Seattle. So it's time for me to get to it! (It's not going to take me the whole time, but I want to get this done, dang it!) This thread is mainly here so you guys can keep me accountable and help me get this stuff done!
NOTE: I didn't make the originals for these parts! Sean Bradley is responsible for the excellent sculpting and shape of these parts, I'm just putting them together and painting them up. So really, there's not much here you couldn't learn more about by checking out his ODST build. I don't know if he's still making these ODST kits (although I would find it highly likely that he is NOT). I also don't recommend bugging him about it (unless he says otherwise).
The helmet cast (which I also got from Sean Bradley) was finished last summer (so long ago!), and has been sitting on my shelf ever since.
Still looks good! Let's move on.
The rest of the armor has been sitting around in various states of disrepair for a while, and the past week has been spent reinforcing it, sanding out issues, and putting pieces together. Unfortunately, I almost completely forgot to take pictures, so.. oops. Here are a few though.
The armor in it's beginning state, nearly two years ago. Sheesh.
Assembly. Do you know the secret to assembly? It is clamps. All clamps, all the time.
Here are the forearm pieces and the chest piece all trimmed up with a coat of primer drying.
Major respect to Sean Bradley, these pieces start looking amazing once you get the primer on and you can really see all the detail. Almost a shame they're going back to dark grey. You can see (sort of) that I added a plate of sheet styrene on top of the seam. My vacuum formed forearm pieces ended up warping in the heat of the sun (because I left them outside for a week last summer, oops) so they didn't line up. 5 minutes with a box cutter and some screws fixed that right up, and it doesn't look half bad either.
Do you know the secret to spray painting? It's one of these.
Prevents grief, makes application easier, and keeps all the junk off your hands. I thought it was gimmicky at first, but it's really a nice thing to have around. And only a few dollars, too.
Now we're getting somewhere! This is nearly the entire suit, all primed and just about ready for some paint. It looks like a lot when you get it all in one place. Sheesh.
So I've got everything primed, and next it's time to start painting! I have... 2 small cans of the color I'm using, but I'll probably need more. And after that, it's strapping and undersuit. The undersuit should be more interesting, as I'm hoping to build some foam stuff for it. Tomorrow's Labor day so I'll probably end up being busy, but I should be back to work on this on Tuesday!
A bit about this build: I bought a full vacuum formed ODST kit from Mr. Sean Bradley almost two years ago, but due to a job, several moves, tiny apartments with nowhere to work, family obligations, and the unpredictable weather of the pacific northwest, I haven't been able to finish it. Until now! Summer's ending, I'm currenly jobless, and I'm in a race against time and weather to get this all done before a local anime convention (Aki-Con, October 7-9) here in Seattle. So it's time for me to get to it! (It's not going to take me the whole time, but I want to get this done, dang it!) This thread is mainly here so you guys can keep me accountable and help me get this stuff done!
NOTE: I didn't make the originals for these parts! Sean Bradley is responsible for the excellent sculpting and shape of these parts, I'm just putting them together and painting them up. So really, there's not much here you couldn't learn more about by checking out his ODST build. I don't know if he's still making these ODST kits (although I would find it highly likely that he is NOT). I also don't recommend bugging him about it (unless he says otherwise).
The helmet cast (which I also got from Sean Bradley) was finished last summer (so long ago!), and has been sitting on my shelf ever since.
Still looks good! Let's move on.
The rest of the armor has been sitting around in various states of disrepair for a while, and the past week has been spent reinforcing it, sanding out issues, and putting pieces together. Unfortunately, I almost completely forgot to take pictures, so.. oops. Here are a few though.
The armor in it's beginning state, nearly two years ago. Sheesh.
Assembly. Do you know the secret to assembly? It is clamps. All clamps, all the time.
Here are the forearm pieces and the chest piece all trimmed up with a coat of primer drying.
Major respect to Sean Bradley, these pieces start looking amazing once you get the primer on and you can really see all the detail. Almost a shame they're going back to dark grey. You can see (sort of) that I added a plate of sheet styrene on top of the seam. My vacuum formed forearm pieces ended up warping in the heat of the sun (because I left them outside for a week last summer, oops) so they didn't line up. 5 minutes with a box cutter and some screws fixed that right up, and it doesn't look half bad either.
Do you know the secret to spray painting? It's one of these.
Prevents grief, makes application easier, and keeps all the junk off your hands. I thought it was gimmicky at first, but it's really a nice thing to have around. And only a few dollars, too.
Now we're getting somewhere! This is nearly the entire suit, all primed and just about ready for some paint. It looks like a lot when you get it all in one place. Sheesh.
So I've got everything primed, and next it's time to start painting! I have... 2 small cans of the color I'm using, but I'll probably need more. And after that, it's strapping and undersuit. The undersuit should be more interesting, as I'm hoping to build some foam stuff for it. Tomorrow's Labor day so I'll probably end up being busy, but I should be back to work on this on Tuesday!