Mass Effect 3 Foam build WIP

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi all!

Just wanted to show y'all my new build that I am going to be working on. Granted I haven't actually started, still in the process of developing some patterns and getting reference shots to go on. But my foam pieces just got in today. They were a little bit thinner than I wanted, due to the fact that the pic on eBay showed 1/2 inch while it's actually less, but figured I'd work with it.

Also ordered some EL wire to add some lighting effects to armor, as well as use in an omni tool that I will hope to make out of some plexiglas shaped with heat gun. (which by the way, has anyone tried this? Or even know if it will work?)

But anyways, I built a halo set with pep and figured I'd try some foam out. Part inspired by Indy moguls video awhile back on how to make sic fy armor as well as EvilFXs mass effect 2 build (his stuff is amazing!)

But anyways, I will be taking lots of pics and hopefully will have some progress up soon. Will be making a run to home depot for a few supplies later today. But for now I'm just hoping to get a good build started that everyone can enjoy!

Edit: I know it's probably self explanatory but if you click the pictures it opens up bigger, I just didn't want to upload the full thing here cuz it takes up so much room. And if you're like me and view the forums on mobile some times, it's hard to see the full picture. Anyways, thanks for reading!
 
OK Hi everyone, I have a few pics showing the progress of my stencils. They might be a bit hard to see due to the fact that they are in pencil on posterboard, but I will outline in sharpie later tonight.

th_b46c1ab1.jpg
Part of Side, trying to see how far down to go etc. Also need to work on belt piece soon.

th_acee74cd.jpg
Hard to see, but due to my lack of a light table, I just traced one side with a piece of printer paper, cut it out, fliped it over, and traced it to get more of a symmetrical feel.

th_c6fcbe37.jpg
Here is the upper chest pieces drawn out. They are a bit bigger, trying to compensate for the curving around with the heat gun.
 
Day 2-3

Ok so I have finished the chest pieces, minus the front belt, but here are some update pics. I modded my soldering iron to use a small xacto knife, which makes cutting a breeze... even on my dull blade I had, need to get some new ones.

th_8b534262.jpg
Modded soldering iron with xacto

th_e4b172d9.jpg
side by side foam and stencil

th_6f7ec784.jpg
Foam close up

th_c27169ca.jpg
Chest stencils with abbs

th_afb025b0.jpg
Chest piece finished cutting out, minus belt
 
Ok so I have begun using the dremel and the heat gun to form the chest pieces... however, ran into a snag with trying to connect the neck guard and the upper chest part, so I'm going to have to redo and make them 1 piece. But will still use the pieces, might make another suit with it or something. Here are some pics of using the dremel and heat gun.

th_57a6d80a.jpg
Initial heat forming test. Works pretty good! And holds that position quite well, even for my foam which is not as thick.

th_aab1e5f2.jpg
Some testing with the dremel tool on how it works with the foam. Quite easy I might add, just takes some patientce to not go too deep.

th_a33b2ba1.jpg
Here is the heat formed upper chest piece, with the smooth parts. But I am going to have to redo this one, but now that I have had practice can make smoother and cleaner lines with dremel.
 
This is looking as though you have mastered the knack of this perfectly, I can't wait to see how this turns out, keep us posted!

Thanks man! It's been interesting and will be sure to update as much as I can! Which speaking of I have one right now!

I pretty much have all the front chest pieces done, minus the belt on the front.

th_1ca60328.jpg
Old chest piece, though turned out ok when I glued on the neck piece.

th_f7107bff.jpg
Vacuum piece roughly where the belt will go

th_cf087546.jpg
Close up
 
Wow, I really like how you're able to make those areas that smooth with a dremel. Also, keeping such clean lines throughout the different sections.
 
Wow, I really like how you're able to make those areas that smooth with a dremel. Also, keeping such clean lines throughout the different sections.

Thanks, it's pretty difficult to keep my dremel straight at times, which you can see it slipped up on the neck piece and I cut a line in it lol
 
This is looking really good, I'm surprised that there aren't more people posting here. Great detail work. I am especially impressed that you built all your own templates. Keep up the good work!
 
Looks really good so far. I'm kind of in awe at how neat your templates came out. But then again, I'm terrible with math. Keep up the good work!
 
Thanks all for the encouraging posts! Yeah took me a bit longer with the templates than I thought, and that's just for the front chest piece :) I started working on them one night and like took me 3 hours or more later to get them how I wanted. Quite a bit oh measuring, ruler usage, and brain power.

But as for today I have hot glued (after buying me a new glue gun) the front all together. If you look at a few refrence shots you notice that the pieces are a bit raised off of each other, and I wanted to get this look. My pieces might be a bit more raised and it's not really the right angle of it, but turned out pretty good I think.. After losing my top layer of skin on my fingers.

th_2f7129f8.jpg
Here is a pic showing the raised surface. Adds a nice 3d feel to it. I just took the border piece of the foam and chopped off the puzzle piece ends and turned out to be a pretty close size to what I wanted.

th_33d36603.jpg
So when I glued the top and middle together it left a kind of gap in the middle so I used some scraps and glued together to stick in the holes to add stability.

th_ad687f82.jpg
Here is where they went

th_984fe7c4.jpg
Also added a piece on the middle for support as well as to give the Abbas something substantial to be glued on to.

th_e8cbe8dd.jpg
Here is the upper part put together

th_c39bdf90.jpg
Trying to get a feel for where abbs should go

th_1a915327.jpg
 
Well back again. Not too much to show, just been designing the back pieces. But did get the neck guard all sketched out and stenciled.

th_182d789b.jpg

th_ee48543f.jpg

th_21f236b9.jpg
 
Day 9

Ok update! I think I'm at like day 9 now. I was out of town last weekend and so did not Do much last weekend. But I have now cut out and designed the neck guard.

What I did was take one piece then cut out another that was a bit bigger. This way when I heat wrap it around it will be the same length. I went with two piece design in order to have the textured side on both sides as well as have it look like two pieces as in the ref shots I'm looking at. Also not to mention my foam is a bit thin lol

But anyways ran into some complications at first and had to splice some extra parts on my 1st attempt, but it worked out pretty good. Here are the pics!

th_2694381d.jpg
You can see i had to add an extra 3 inches to each side

th_0fd5aeaa.jpg
Back design, I didn't color in the parts on side due to the fact my sharpie was dieing

th_08cba155.jpg

th_27ff6752.jpg
Pics of double pieces. Haven't sanded down edges yet

th_2e78d031.jpg
Template for next piece
 
Well worked a bit more on detailing the neck guard so here are updates. I was toying around with how to do the spine pieces, and think i came up with a good idea. I plan on cutting them out and flipping it over so it shows the smooth side. Then Hot glueing them raised a bit to give a little bit of depth. Im posting two pics so you can see the difference.

th_fc2dc16b.jpg
Before

th_f9f31358.jpg
After :D
 
Got my EL wire in for the omni tool. It's pretty legit. I want to work on making the omni tool now! Though I need to make the right gauntlet, because I want it to be able to go over it :)

th_be471e2b.jpg
 
Oh, nice idea of using EL wire for the actual Omni-tool, I've seen EL wire used on the back/torso, but never an Omni-tool. I look forward to seeing how that turns out!
 
i absolutley love the detail you are getting from your own templates... its absolutley stellar. and thats a good idea with the EL wire, i really want to see how this turns out :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top