Spartan III-Foam

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Traghatti

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Hey everyone, been a while since I posted a build. I've had 4 total, 2 of which have links in my sig. I also have a H4 MC foam build. I've been to SDCC and Wondercon with it. However this time around I've been wanting to update my Spartan III suit so I'm going to try to keep track and update it here. I'm hoping to get this done for Wonder-Con in Anaheim, Ca next month and ultimately San Diego Comic-Con

SPIII Foam Build Guide.png

The helmet I pepped from RoadWarriors MKV-b file (Reach version of the MKV). That's been fiberglassed and sitting on my porch. I'll post pics of it later. The next thing was the chest.
Now instead of pepping this, most of my suit is going to be foam. So instead of printing out and tracing templates onto the foam I took another route that Spacemeat tried and has been doing that's pretty awesome. I took the pep file (after sizing it to me) and Spacemeat took me to a hobby shop that houses some lazer cutters. Long story short I was able to lazer cut the pieces out of the foam in about 5 minutes of cutting time. It took a bit longer to get setup. See video and pictures below. At the moment they're still sitting within the sheet they were cut from. Hopefully this week I'll have time to start gluing some together.

This is the lazer cutter used.
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You can see the little red dot, this is where the cutting is taking place. I put a 2'x2' sheet of Cross Linked Polyethylene foam (closed mini cell foam). This is the foam I've used for all my builds.
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Video:

I'll throw up some pictures of the result when I get home this evening. Just wanted to get his thread started before I forget again.

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SPIII Foam Build Guide.png
 
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THAT IS AWESOME!!!!! A laser cutter would make the cleanest of edges! and it saves time and blades because lasers. I can't wait to see how they turn out for you!
 
I've thought about doing this but the thing I couldn't figure out is how do you get the laser cutter to cut bevels into the foam? If there's no bevels then you're still going to have to re-cut like 80% of the edges with a bevel so it's not saving that much work. Or maybe you guys have solved this problem some other way?
 
THAT IS AWESOME!!!!! A laser cutter would make the cleanest of edges! and it saves time and blades because lasers. I can't wait to see how they turn out for you!

The edges are super clean. I'm almost afraid of messing it up with additional cutting.

I've thought about doing this but the thing I couldn't figure out is how do you get the laser cutter to cut bevels into the foam? If there's no bevels then you're still going to have to re-cut like 80% of the edges with a bevel so it's not saving that much work. Or maybe you guys have solved this problem some other way?

I will still have to trim any angular edges to make things angled, etc. However the time I saved was drawing out any templates by hand, then tracing it out on foam, and then cutting by hand. Even without using templates and free drawing on foam I would still have to draw it out, then cut it out by hand. Instead I had lunch while it was cutting. Now it's just like puzzle pieces I pop out of foam and glue together. I use my on screen pep model as a guide, but everything is laid out next to what it needs to be attached to. Pics below .

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Yeah I get that but I think you'll find that having to cut the angles is really tedious - nearly every edge needs to be cut at an angle and I find that trying to cut an angle is much harder when the piece has already been cut out of the foam. However, I guess it does save you having to cut out and re-trace the templates on the foam.
 
So far it hasn't been tedious at all. I have a very large pair of sharp scissors I use to make the angles. Takes one (careful) snip and it's done. But yes, for now the lazer cutter was useful to just get the shapes cut out. I personally like to cut out the shapes and then bevel/angle the edges so I'm not doing two things at once. To each their own.
 
Ok, been a while since I updated last because, you know, life. Anyway I was able to put together the chest that I had laser cut. Also was able to throw together the following in 2 weekends: Thighs, Biceps, Waist, Half the helmet. Currently still sanding/bondo-ing the helmet. I don't really like to bondo my helmets these days (just fiberglass inside, resin outside) but because of the pattern I have I kind of wanted to reinforce it when I add visor, fans, and other stuff later. I have a few pics here of the mostly finished foam pieces. You can't really tell from the lighting but they're all the same dark green color I've used for my last build. Currently I'm working on the LEDs for the chest and legs, pics of those to come soon. I'm also going to try to close up some of the gap in between the panels. Cheers.
 

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