Re: ODST build with EVA foam
Definitely looks like an improvement to use packing tape, its thinness yet toughness are clearly winning over the duct tape. Maybe people use duct tape in order to build in a quarter inch or so leeway, I dunno. I love the idea of the skeleton, it makes perfect sense.
Getting everything together for the first time is totally postworthy! I keep putting all of my parts together hoping, but the one thing that doesn't hold (other than the grip, which isn't a problem) is the stock skeleton since it's a butt join to the UR/rail skeleton, and since I haven't done the front barrel end yet, playing with it now is more like a scifi shotgun. Coming together enough now that I plan to have a picdump/blog link thread up in the next few days.
Anyway, overall, it's looking pretty magnificent. I kinda think you're gonna have to rework the M6C/S a little so its plainness doesn't seem incongruent with the armour. It's very matte black at the minute, though maybe you're intending to dry brush silver all over it and haven't got that far yet.
I don't know if this is a thing, but I tried it as a cost-cutting measure on my last project and it worked very nicely, but instead of using Rub'n'Buff or metalizer laquer on edges, just spray some cheap silver spray paint (the kind with aluminium dust in) into a cut-off drink bottle top half and then cotton bud the resulting puddle in the lid over the edges you're wearing. Works better when you physically alter the edge too, like a slight dent or scratches (I whacked it with coarse sanding belt).
It is a good thing to be semi-metallic though, I think. After H2- and ODST in particular, being a neonoir- everything's "glinting". I'm coming to terms with that on my BR85. Even parts that look matte or textured from one angle are very shiny from another.
