What's up, guys!
My name is Ruby Perez, I currently live in Portland, Oregon, I will be 21 in October, introduction stuff, yeah. I figured since I finished my suit for Emerald City Comic Con I should probably post my progress on the 405th. My boyfriend, Joseph, and I built our armors together and helped each other in bits but we mostly built our own armors. Before the photos, I got the files from Preston Thorne, I'm 99% sure his name on this site is weephun, and I definitely watched a bunch of videos online, some from Jeremie Sloan (I don't know his name in the forums) most from Punished Props and Evil Ted Smith. YouTube is the best. So yeah! It took a little less than a year from start to finish. I could not work on it every day because of school and also there wasn't any real deadline I had set so I did it at a leisurely pace. This is my first ever time working with EVA foam and Bondo and resin as well.
The beginning! I honestly had no intention of making a suit at this point.
View attachment 31068View attachment 31069View attachment 31071 View attachment 31070
This is pretty much the only non-helmet progress pic I have, the shoulder. The helmet is the coolest so I didn't want to take a bunch of pics of everything else. Also, foam, before it is painted doesn't really look as clean as Bondo and sanding so I wasn't happy with how it looked pre-paint. I was originally going to make my whole suit in fiberglass resin and Bondo but some friends at Rose City Comic Con gave some excellent advice to switch to foam.
View attachment 31072
Well, I don't know how to rotate pictures, but this is the full set, without the shoes and helmet, completed! In this moment, I was extremely happy!
View attachment 31077
This was the paint job I decided on, and honestly, I had Joseph paint this for me. I was too nervous of messing up and if Joseph messed up then I could be mad at him and not myself
The visor is heat gun formed, definitely need to make a vacuum former because this was a hassle. Joseph helped with this part as well. I held the heat gun to the front of my helmet and he pressed the PETG plastic sheet against the helmet to get a nice fit. It's stuck in with epoxy and it is actually coming off so that is something I need to re-epoxy or figure out another way to get it in place. Also, another side note, the helmet didn't fit in the first place. The neck hole was too small to fit my head so I just used a Dremel to open the hole up and that worked pretty well.
View attachment 31080
Sorry for the sideways photo, but this is the final look! I wish I had made the BR, but Joseph bought that from Etsy. And another photo in action at the ECCC photoshoot!
This was a grueling project. It was very time-consuming and very expensive, however, it was well worth it for me! It is nowhere near perfect and there is still a lot I wish I could have taken more time on or added, especially the details on the top of the helmet but there wasn't a way I could figure out how to get that small detailing in with the time I had before ECCC which became the deadline after we had started the full suit. Other information: the foam is secured with snaps (got the idea from Jeremie from his youtube armory props), the undersuit is just some athletic under armor, my shoes are old running shoes that were worn out and the foam pieces are actually drilled into the shoe (Joseph's idea), my suit actually doesn't get that hot... I think I've only sweat in it like once or twice, but I've also only worn it for two days at a con. So, in general, I am very happy with the outcome with it.
If this doesn't format how I currently see it, I apologize, and also if this is the wrong place to post this, again, I'm sorry. This is only my second post! I guess the time frame for this suit was May 2015 - May 2016. Since then, I am working on a marine set for my boyfriend's friend, and I'm currently cutting out the foam files. The marine files are from Andrew DFT and I highly recommend looking there if you want an easy first build or any build.
Anyways, no new propping or building although I would like to get back into it. I haven't seen any other armor like mine (scout with the paint scheme) so if you see me in person or on facebook say hi! If you have any other questions about how I made my armor or materials I used, ask away. If you have any criticism please share with me! I probably won't make any changes to this armor since it's done, however, I would love critiques so I can improve my skills in the future! Thank you for checking my post out!
Best,
Ruby
P.S. I know there is a hate against reds so if you think I should be blue just remember #RedsLivesMatter. Too soon? Maybe, but red or blue or any other color, everyone is awesome and I can't wait to be friends with everyone here!
My name is Ruby Perez, I currently live in Portland, Oregon, I will be 21 in October, introduction stuff, yeah. I figured since I finished my suit for Emerald City Comic Con I should probably post my progress on the 405th. My boyfriend, Joseph, and I built our armors together and helped each other in bits but we mostly built our own armors. Before the photos, I got the files from Preston Thorne, I'm 99% sure his name on this site is weephun, and I definitely watched a bunch of videos online, some from Jeremie Sloan (I don't know his name in the forums) most from Punished Props and Evil Ted Smith. YouTube is the best. So yeah! It took a little less than a year from start to finish. I could not work on it every day because of school and also there wasn't any real deadline I had set so I did it at a leisurely pace. This is my first ever time working with EVA foam and Bondo and resin as well.
The beginning! I honestly had no intention of making a suit at this point.
View attachment 31068View attachment 31069View attachment 31071 View attachment 31070
This is pretty much the only non-helmet progress pic I have, the shoulder. The helmet is the coolest so I didn't want to take a bunch of pics of everything else. Also, foam, before it is painted doesn't really look as clean as Bondo and sanding so I wasn't happy with how it looked pre-paint. I was originally going to make my whole suit in fiberglass resin and Bondo but some friends at Rose City Comic Con gave some excellent advice to switch to foam.
View attachment 31072
Well, I don't know how to rotate pictures, but this is the full set, without the shoes and helmet, completed! In this moment, I was extremely happy!
View attachment 31077
This was the paint job I decided on, and honestly, I had Joseph paint this for me. I was too nervous of messing up and if Joseph messed up then I could be mad at him and not myself
The visor is heat gun formed, definitely need to make a vacuum former because this was a hassle. Joseph helped with this part as well. I held the heat gun to the front of my helmet and he pressed the PETG plastic sheet against the helmet to get a nice fit. It's stuck in with epoxy and it is actually coming off so that is something I need to re-epoxy or figure out another way to get it in place. Also, another side note, the helmet didn't fit in the first place. The neck hole was too small to fit my head so I just used a Dremel to open the hole up and that worked pretty well. View attachment 31080
Sorry for the sideways photo, but this is the final look! I wish I had made the BR, but Joseph bought that from Etsy. And another photo in action at the ECCC photoshoot!
This was a grueling project. It was very time-consuming and very expensive, however, it was well worth it for me! It is nowhere near perfect and there is still a lot I wish I could have taken more time on or added, especially the details on the top of the helmet but there wasn't a way I could figure out how to get that small detailing in with the time I had before ECCC which became the deadline after we had started the full suit. Other information: the foam is secured with snaps (got the idea from Jeremie from his youtube armory props), the undersuit is just some athletic under armor, my shoes are old running shoes that were worn out and the foam pieces are actually drilled into the shoe (Joseph's idea), my suit actually doesn't get that hot... I think I've only sweat in it like once or twice, but I've also only worn it for two days at a con. So, in general, I am very happy with the outcome with it.
If this doesn't format how I currently see it, I apologize, and also if this is the wrong place to post this, again, I'm sorry. This is only my second post! I guess the time frame for this suit was May 2015 - May 2016. Since then, I am working on a marine set for my boyfriend's friend, and I'm currently cutting out the foam files. The marine files are from Andrew DFT and I highly recommend looking there if you want an easy first build or any build.
Anyways, no new propping or building although I would like to get back into it. I haven't seen any other armor like mine (scout with the paint scheme) so if you see me in person or on facebook say hi! If you have any other questions about how I made my armor or materials I used, ask away. If you have any criticism please share with me! I probably won't make any changes to this armor since it's done, however, I would love critiques so I can improve my skills in the future! Thank you for checking my post out!
Best,
Ruby
P.S. I know there is a hate against reds so if you think I should be blue just remember #RedsLivesMatter. Too soon? Maybe, but red or blue or any other color, everyone is awesome and I can't wait to be friends with everyone here!
