A055 Recluse Ambition Build (Micro Update, 24 Feb 21)

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TheTAB01

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Hello everyone! First ever build post, this is going to be fun as there is a TON of details going into this suit.

Alright, so a tiny bit about my history in cosplay for context.

Estimated project cost: 2,000-3,000 USD
Status: Broke
Project Ambition: Very high
Experience: One EVA Mater Chief suit for myself and a WIP comission.
Knowledge: Wiring, foam-smithing, and a high attention to detail.

With that out of the way, my 3rd ever suit I plan on building will also be my first 3D printed suit of armor. The recluse armor that made it into Halo 5 I found to be lacking some details when compared to the original concept armor. Part way due to normal mapping and part way due to changes in the design.

This is the concept are that I am basing this project off of.
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This is the 3D rip that was in-game.
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Yikes, this is going to be a lot of work!

After realizing the amount of detail missing, I imported the armor and it's textures into Unity and started to get a better idea of what needed to be fixed and added.
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With Medibang open on my left-hand monitor, Unity on the central, and the concept art on the right. My set-up look like this, except with unity and not crappy programs on the center.
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Yes, this is a dorm-room build.

While marking the noticeable details, I ended up color coding what needs to be done where, with a fixed concept sheet noting these changes here.

Key
Green: Rise
Orange: Recess
Blue: Sharpen

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After getting this out of the way. I then headed onto Fiverr and found a guy to commission for a reasonable price and we began doing fixes of the suit's in-game model. He did a quick job to get the brief fixes out of the way before we moved onto more detailed work.

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After that outline work was done, I started helping and pulling some of my own weight and (much to the appreciation of the 3d modeler) I marked out all the parts of what needed to go where. Color coding (yet again) with the grease pencil. This process isn't 100% complete and it will be a while longer until it is. But it looks fairly messy from afar. Due to how it X-rays.

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The back is also missing an entire piece that was in the concept, but didn't make it in-game. Which will be designed and integrated into the suit. The thrusters will be detachable for transport and will have red glowing "vents."

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Okay, enough with the stuff already done, now it's time for the juicy stuff! What I hope to add to the armor.

This is where it gets fun, time-consuming, and expensive, very expensive.

Alright, where to even begin... The features in this suit of armor are going to be rather complicated, and ambitious, to say the least.

Helmet and vision

With additions to the suit I have plans to make the helmet open and close like a clam shell, using hinges or buckles to secure the helmet and make it all contained. I want to try and make it so that the helmet will not have any wires that run down the length of the suit and can keep the batteries within it'self. The helmet with also have magnets to seal with the under-suit, to prevent skin from showing. The blue-cyan dot is where I'm thinking about putting the hinge. The orange sketch is the preferred slicing spot to be used to open and close, seamlessly. however, I may need to cut on the green line as that one circular part may be in the way.
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Now, you may be asking yourself "how the hell is he going to see out of that thing?" Welp, I got an experimental answer that is going to (hopefully) work once I do some testing with a group of people who, guess it, fly drones.

The idea of this helmet is to see through it, using a micro camera used for drone racing, with a low-profile FPV goggle hard-wired directly to the camera for lower response times and to save space.
Im currently looking at the RunCam Split 3 Micro.
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The camera will be inside the helmet, with the tiny lens popping through this area marked in blue.
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For referencing, I marked the approx size of my head inside of the helmet.
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This design also allows enough extra space for making a breathing slot to be place directly out the front underside of the helmet without it being obvious to people looking at the suit. and plenty of space for the electronics (it is to be determined whether or not batteries can comfortably fit with some small fans).

Part Mounting and Magnets
This beast alone is going to be complicated, in which I will eventually explain the plans for the crazy undersuit in another post. However, to sum it up. I will be doing some silicone casting of the suit for hard details, and there is some mounting points that will be using purely friction fitted details that clamp onto the suit itself, and another quick release system. This will be discussed in a separate post. But for magnets, I will be integrating magnets into the thighs for props holstering.

Character Design
Okay, I think to begin with the rest I need to explain a little bit about myself and the character more before continuing. This character, as seen in the armor, has a lot of the human aspect removed from the element. Normally you can get an idea of where the face is at by looking into a visor, while this camera should be discrete and not very noticeable, some people will likely see it. While I, myself, love hugs and being a welcoming and kind person. This character will be the more "bad ass soldier type," but not the type you may be thinking of. I am still trying to come up with a name, and I think Akeno-647 may be a bit too light of a name. However, with this character they will be having a tall and commanding presence, almost threatening in nature. Over looking the area constantly on guard. This is not a difficult transition for me to act upon as I do have a more professional, almost sentry-like, part of my personality. However there are parts of myself that I cant really do on my own to enforce this aura of experience in the character. This is where the next few things come into place, sound design and height adjustment.

Height Adjustment
Alright, this is going to be seemingly pretty straight-forward to explain. Basically, I'm about 6 feet tall, or about 182cm for our friends who haven't landed on the moon. Spartans, are inherently tall. Stilts suck for proportions and are uncomfortable. So, boots have thick soles, and there is an internal wedge to give me another 2-4 inch (5-10cm) boost, not including how much the helmet adds. I'm trying to make this a noticeably increase in height, while not hurting or stressing my feet out too much. I already naturally rest and balance on the balls of my feet, so boosting that up just a bit shouldnt cause issues, but I will be testing this out to make sure for good.
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Voice Recording and Sound Design
Finally, the cherry-on-top. This will most likely prove to myself to be the most difficult part, as trying to perfect a voice that you imagine in your head, and putting it into reality, are two topics of different genres. The plan with this is to use what is called the MiCom Sound Rig, which basically has 8 buttons that are placed on your hand and can be worn under a glove (two buttons per finger, minus the thumb), and each button can have up to ten different sounds programmed into them. This means you can have a button for different responses, but not make the responses the exact same each and every time. This is awesome for a few things, dialogue, lore, the sound effects of some props that you plan to use (if they cant fit a speaker inside), and even for meme potential. Basically use this and have a speaker under the chest plate.

The voice itself I'm looking at to sound like the voice of Locus from RvB, minus sounding like chronically being inside of a toilet. However, I aim for the voice to be a little more tense and almost have that straight-to-the-point-dead-inside-I've-seen-some-****-I-want-to-unsee voice. With perhaps an AI sounding something along the lines of Freckles from RvB. As well as a few sound effects for the props I plan to make, which will likely be either (most likely) the M99 Sanction Rifle or (less likely) the ARC920, and without a doubt I'll eventually be making an SRS99-AM Sniper Rifle.

Anyways, that's pretty much all there is for now. Thanks for reading this far if you haven't lost your mind from the logic plague, that is my writing.

See ya on the other side,
TheTAB01 (aka Akeno)
 
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Can’t wait to see it! I’ve also been wanting to do this armor before and even implement the moving faceshell for this and a gungir helmet. Also glad you figured it out with the legs, it’s clear that spartan boots ain’t small. I’m currently doing the same concept with all my builds by elevating the heel 4-5 inches (relative to my height), it completes the superhuman proportion to my already long legs. It’s also technically lore accurate since Spartans are taller when armored.

Good luck! Looking forward to it.
 
Recluse is definatly an armor set that I really like that doesn't get enough love. It is definatly different, but not a bad different. I also think the helmet somewhat resembles the halo 4 flood. The suit looks amazing, and I love how it is modular. I cant wait to see this progress!
 
Can’t wait to see it! I’ve also been wanting to do this armor before and even implement the moving faceshell for this and a gungir helmet. Also glad you figured it out with the legs, it’s clear that spartan boots ain’t small. I’m currently doing the same concept with all my builds by elevating the heel 4-5 inches (relative to my height), it completes the superhuman proportion to my already long legs. It’s also technically lore accurate since Spartans are taller when armored.

Good luck! Looking forward to it.
Thanks, and that's awesome! Do you have a build thread or tutorial that you are following to help with making the boots make you tall like that?
 
If the FPV goggles you're using have an HDMI input, you could also hook up a raspberry pi, use a pi camera module (either the official one or another compatible one, the official's image quality isn't too great), and overlay a HUD if you want. If you don't want to do anything complicated on the HUD, a Pi zero W could work, and that one's pretty small.
 
Thanks, and that's awesome! Do you have a build thread or tutorial that you are following to help with making the boots make you tall like that?

I'm currently working on the Halo Infinite Master Chief which you can check here in this link: Halo Infinite GEN III Mark VI BUILD. However, I haven't posted much details on how I'm building the boots since I mainly post on instagram, but I'll def share more details on the boots and the heels here in the coming weeks.
 
If the FPV goggles you're using have an HDMI input, you could also hook up a raspberry pi, use a pi camera module (either the official one or another compatible one, the official's image quality isn't too great), and overlay a HUD if you want. If you don't want to do anything complicated on the HUD, a Pi zero W could work, and that one's pretty small.
I sadly am FAR too dumb to work a pi, I suck at working with anything I cant physically touch and manipulate. But that would be freaking awesome to do!
 
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i will be watching i like the look of this armor think maybe in the future you might release the files?
I might be releasing the 3d printing files, still deciding on whether or not to do so in due time. But the undersuit that I will be using is going to be a mix of hand-done temples for "soft" materials and 3d printed molds for "hard" parts.
 
I might be releasing the 3d printing files, still deciding on whether or not to do so in due time. But the undersuit that I will be using is going to be a mix of hand-done temples for "soft" materials and 3d printed molds for "hard" parts.
nice the tech suit is what i think makes the armor pop. yeah 3d printed ones would be awesome...
 
Alrighty, second major build thread post. Here we go....

MJOLNIR GEN2 TECH SUIT

Okay, so this is going to be a VERY ambitious part of the suit as I aim to make this a stand-alone cosplay. This suit is going to be incredibly intricate and will take the longest to develop/create. This will not be made to 100% accuracy, but to look accurate as possibly while also keeping the suit cool and making it look good enough for a stand-alone cosplay. Parts of this suit are subject to be changed as I find new obstacles and issues that I will run into. something as form fitting as this is bound to run into issues.
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Here is a slight core overview of the requirements.

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Skills Involved

Sewing: This is completely out of my element as this includes sewing and casting of flexible materials that are washable. I have some experience sewing, but nothing extreme outside of sewing together bags from scratch, invisible zippers, and common repairs of clothing and luggage cases.

Flex-casting: I have never casted stuff. My limitations to casting is watching people do it on YouTube and looking at the techniques.

3D Printing: Attaching hard-surface pieces into parts of the armor and making them blend in somewhat fluidly. Needed for molds.

3D modeling: Yeah, I'm completely useless here and I need help, I can use a grease pencil and mark what needs done, but lack the know-how to do it myself.
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The very first step I took was looking at the suit's overall design and how the armor would overlay the suit. I used Medibang Paint Pro and I make the armor transparent over 343's design of the tech suit, and then I carefully aligned the suits and I drew in red where the under suit is hidden by the armor. If worst comes to worse, I could just make the hard parts of the armor everywhere else, and connect them with thin and very breathable parts of clothing where the armor covers the gaps.

Red= Hidden by armor.
Purple=Partially hidden, and will be edited heavily to fit the armor properly.
Green= Hidden enough for a mounting system to be fitted in for the butt plate.
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With that out of the way I now know where the most important pieces of the armor will be visible.

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Okay, so this armor will be using a mix of fabric and casted parts, with some very minor pieces being 3D printed. This is with the goal to make this armor washable and somewhat breathable.

Casting and negative molding
Parts of this suit, which are the most visible, will be casted in a flexible material, such as silicone (Dragon Skin), rubber, or Flex Paste (yes, like Flex Seal).
The plan for casting is that I will be hiring someone with some 3D modeling experience and can help properly size the pieces so that they can be printed as a negative mold. I know that some people use vacuum pumps to bring out the bubbles, however, I sadly do no have access to this type of machine and nor am I adding one into the budget unless I need to, I'm looking at potentially a heat gun and wiggling the pieces in the mold to work out any bubbles that could form on the surface.

Another alternative to making negative molds is using a clay called Monster Clay (Linked Here) and putting it around a positive mold of the 3d printed part, after sanding, and putting silicone into the negative mold that I would make with the clay, this would help to save 3D printing material and make sanding easier as I would layer on the clay for smaller pieces and even sculpt the pieces of details by hand and then cast them, if they're simple enough to not mandate 3d printing a mold first.

The majority of the parts that are in white are going to be made out of the casted parts, with the darker pieces that are in high-detail also being possible parts for casting. Such as the neck area, the elbow, parts of the thighs/knees, and calves.
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Sewing
The few parts that will be sewn will be using a light and breathable material that I haven't yet settled on. Parts of the inner thighs and crotch area will be using fabrics in a hand-made template which will be formed similar to how duct-tape dummies are made. I learned this technique in my costume/crafts class where we wrap the area in plastic wrap, use duct tape strips, and then trace the template lines directly onto the tape layer, take off the duct tape/plastic wrap layer, cut out the trace-on templates, and transfer them to fabric for cutting/sewing. Pretty simple concept, but it helps to have someone who is good at tracing on body parts, and making sure your comfortable to work with them while you're half-exposed.

In addition to that area, the sides of the torso area and arm-pits will be done with fabric. Possibly the butt and side of the back area, and the neck.

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A picture of my dog and my cat for reading relief :D

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Cooling

Now, you may be asking, how the hell could someone stay in that for the duration of a con and not have a heatstroke? Well, after doing some research I've settled on three different options to be integrated and swap able within the suit in a semi low profile manner that wont be obvious from the outside.

Option One: Low-profile hydration packs and making a home-made carry pack. (Like this one here)
Pros: Easy to refill/add in ice, cheapest option, flexes with the body (especially when lower on water), custom-made holder for it can make the pack face towards your body for cooling, good surface area for cooling.
Cons: Significant condensation, can be too cold with too much ice, gravity makes the bladder ticker at the bottom, away from the upper back.
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Option Two: The Ice Plate cooling/hydration system. (Buy/View it here)
Pros: Plenty of surface area for cooling, once ice melts can be drank with a hydration tube, or can be filled with a cooling gel to last longer and remove the option of drinking.
Cons: not flexible and needs you to create a mounting system from scratch for the under suit (easy enough).
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Option Three: PCM Cooling Vests and Collars (Vest can be bought here) (Collar can be bought here)
Pros: Cooling over the greatest surface area, long-lasting cooling, flexible, swap able packs that are tough and easy to change out, different colors of packs for different levels of cooling for different durations of time.
Cons: Very expensive and doesn't hold water for hydrating.
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I would personally like, if the budget would allow it, to go for Option 3 and just use what I have been for drinking, out of a hose that is build into the armor's under suit.
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Now for the extra features that I will touch kind of briefly on.

Wire/magnet integration
The under suit will use a combination of wires and magnets to hold pieces of the armor into place for my ambition build.

Pieces like the forearms will use magnets or buckles to clamp them into place, while the helmet will be using magnets to connect to the neck-seal of the under suit, causing no skin to show, without the use of a full balaclava.

Then comes the complex parts that will move moving around and rubbing up against other parts the most... The Biceps would use a simple buckle and tension system to hold them into place at he desired height, while magnets may be introduced to prevent the armor from flopping around or wiggling.

Then the thighs, knees, and calves come into place..... Oh boy.... SO, for the thighs I'll basically be using wire that would be used on a quick-release plate carrier system, where if you pull the wire, the entire vest will come apart to allow someone to get out in a timely manner, or for wounds to be attended. But in this scenario I'm using this to hide the armor mounting points and making it less obvious to the naked eye. So imagine a door hinge, the loops for both hinge sides line up and then have a bolt slide through the holes, which locks them in place, unless you pull out the bolt. Now put this theory into the armor, use a 3D-printed hinge that would line up the armor to the under-suit and then slide a wire where the bolt would go... That's how it would lock the piece into place, while using EVA foam that is shaved to hug any gaps against the armor and look like "padding." This wire would slide along the side of the body, next to the magnetically mounted knee armor, into a similar system at the calves.

Here is a high-tech drawing for the mounting of the thigh and calve armor.
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Extra Features
One thing I learned would come in SUBSTANTIAL convenience is a zipper to allow myself to not need to take off an entire suit of armor over the course of 15 minutes just to go pee.

Drinking tubes would run against the inside length of the arm and stick out of the glove or wrist area for the tube to go inside a drink to hydrate and cool off, I have this in my current suit of armor and it works absolutely amazing for this function of an over-length straw.

Tube details will be added onto the suit using rubber tubing of the appropriate diameter.
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Adding a 3D-printed spine for greater depth and more hard details to flex with the body's movements.

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The hands will using pre-made gloves and adding silicone parts on that are visible for the armor. I'll be making two gloves, one glove with the armor pieces perm-attached, while the other being only for the tech suit.
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Alright, I'm amazing if Y'all read this and didn't have an overload of information, but this is it thus-far for the GEN2 Tech Suit. Hope y'all stay healthy and safe.

See ya on the other side,
TheTAB01 (aka Akeno)
 

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For getting boubles out, you may be able to use a pressure chamber as well. If you let it cure under a higher pressure, the bubbles ges compressedand should be smaller, although that might lead to an ugly surface as well. You could also use an old fridge compressor as a vacuum pump. Depending on the coolant it was for, you may have to replace the oil in it, but other that that, it should be relatively easy, you'll just have to occasionally put some oil into it. If it does break though, they usually aren't too expensive depending on where you get them (about 30€ on ebay, scrapyard if they have some or some recycling center may be cheaper).
 
For casting, you could go w/ a vibrating table. I used to do a lot of mold casting using dental stone. The best way to remove bubbles from inside the piece, is to vibrate it and use a surfactant. Check it out HERE

Thanks for the info! I guess making a vibrating table would be pretty simple? Like adding two 12V motors on a quarter-inch thick piece of wood, bolting them on, and putting a slightly off-balance attachment directly to the motors shafts would do it? Just enough to make them want to jiggle a bit and spin at a good rate, but nothing out of control to where it would slow down the motor and shake violently?
 
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