Calladar's Kat WIP

[Finelargeaxe]

Calladar! Not sure if it's been noticed, but JoAnn Fabrics has a foam carving tool that may be useful for your foam suit. Basically a hot knife-esque widget that looks like a curling iron with the iron section missing. I haven't used mine yet (waiting to get some time to work on making my own suit, but I need to clean out my room first...I need workspace!), but I will hopefully be testing it soon.

 

[calladar]

Calladar! Not sure if it's been noticed, but JoAnn Fabrics has a foam carving tool that may be useful for your foam suit. Basically a hot knife-esque widget that looks like a curling iron with the iron section missing..

i had seen that but not sure about the blade. looked to me to be more for hard block foam. like the stuff used to make flower arrangements. i use a hot knife that uses exacto blades. works really well for what i use it for. thanks though. have been thinking about making something using a large block of foam and that would probably be perfect for it.

well i think i have the shin sized right.. if not she gonna wear it and like it darn it not making a fourth one.

after attempting two different models for the boots i decided that i don't like either so scratch build it is. i have the heal mocked up and working on the toe now and hope to have one boot done tonight.

 

[calladar]

ok i am not going any further with the shin and boot till the wife can try them on. also i am getting tired so i am going to bed. have to work tomorrow night so won't get anything else going till wed or thurs. here is where i stand now.

Meh... alot of detail left to do to it.. but will have to do.

 

[Deltalead38]

great progress! loving this build, and especially the foam aspect of it. When I see people making foam builds I think Man, that is so cool, taking a big risk and doing a scratch build.......that takes skill Good foam work! I bet your wife will REALLY appreciate fitting in with the rest of the family

-Delta

 

[thorn696]

The lower legs (shin and Boot) are starting to look great

 

[calladar]

thanks guys...

well it's a set.

did some detail work on the boots, painted them and then had wife put them on. discovered that i should have made the top of the boot part a little higher angle, oh well going to go with it. told the wife if anyone says anything kick em with it. lol

now time to Finnish the other shin and knee pieces and just about be done.

 

[Spitfire22V]

thanks guys...
told the wife if anyone says anything kick em with it. lol

But it wont hurt since they're made of foam!

Awesome work, I always look forward to your updates as I am continually impressed with the work you do, especially with foam. Keep it up!

 

[Gamemaster]

This is looking really really good, I hope you get everything done in time for your convention! For the toecaps we used hammered black paint with hammered steel drybrushing and I was impressed with the look.
Keep up the good work, I am sure you have lots of people waiting to drool over your final product, I know I am

 

[calladar]

thanks guys.. well not much of an update. all i have left is the knees and the hands. wife has found an under suit she wants to order. she decided to put it on and do walking around and take some pics. i have not done any padding or strapping so it is just hanging on for right now. not liking the chest piece right now. it is sized right but is still a little deep and wide. going to wait and see how halogodess does with the new one and see if it fits better. may just have to go with it for now and if there is time i may remake it later once i have all the other suits done. but for now here are the pics.

and my favorite:

 

[sandy1973]

Holy that looks soooo......goooooooood. I am so jealous.

 

[soul products]

the chest is a little big. quality wise, its awesome but its still a bit big

 

[HaloGoddess]

Despite your problems with the chestplate, that still looks pretty cool. I'm in the process of cutting all the new pieces out of foam. I've got half of it cut out. Gonna start glueing it pretty soon.

 

[vshore100]

Awesome work Calladar, it looks like everything is coming together very nicely. BTW, the last pic is very cute. Looks like she was having a great time with it.

 

[Spitfire22V]

Amazing work on the suit! It's great to see it all together (except needs more glove! ), and it's hard to believe it's foam. I personally think the chest looks fine size wise. Even if it may be a tad too big, I feel like it blends in with all the other pieces well to complete the effect of a metal suit of armor.

If I may offer one critique, I will say that I'm not a big fan of the boots after looking at the in-game characters. I think that the boots you made are too squared off at the tip, where the in-game boots are much more rounded. Though, perhaps you did this to fit around the real boots?

Here's a render of Kat to show what I mean:
http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/Reach/images/cutouts/Kat_stand_rifle-01.jpg

 

[calladar]

thanks guys..

working on the knees now and will most likely do the hand plate the old fashion way with pep and resin and bondo.

spitfire - yea i know the boot is not dead on. that is "creative license" at work. the problem i ran into was as you described. i had made a rounded toe and then with the thickness of the foam it made the boot freakin huge in order to be able to fit another shoe inside of it. so with this it fits and functions although may not be exactly game accurate.

 

[killerownz11]

I love this, but how do you do foam? do you just cut peices of foam and layer them till they are in the shape you want it? but then how do you paint and harden it?

 

[HaloGoddess]

I love this, but how do you do foam? do you just cut peices of foam and layer them till they are in the shape you want it? but then how do you paint and harden it?

The foam does not need to be hardened. You have to figure out how to create our templates from the model in pepakura, print those out then cut them and trace them on to the foam. Then you just cut out the foam and glue the pieces together with hot glue. It IS a little more trickier to do, but it's not all that hard.

As far as painting it, you will need to use something like plasti-dip as a base coat so the paint sticks and then you can use spray paint. Both Calladar and I have just been using acrylic paint and painting it on with a paint brush. Using acrylic sort of takes away the need for the plasti-dip.

 

[Spitfire22V]

spitfire - yea i know the boot is not dead on. that is "creative license" at work. the problem i ran into was as you described. i had made a rounded toe and then with the thickness of the foam it made the boot freakin huge in order to be able to fit another shoe inside of it. so with this it fits and functions although may not be exactly game accurate.

Yup, I figured that was the reason. Considering how accurate the rest of the suit is, there would be no reason for you to have the boots like that unless required. Don't get me wrong, they still look great. Keep up the great work.

 

[calladar]

I love this, but how do you do foam? do you just cut peices of foam and layer them till they are in the shape you want it? but then how do you paint and harden it?

haloGoddess pretty much answered that. there are alot of people doing foam builds but no real from start to finish tut on the process. i am going to work on my carter build tonight and going to make a gauntlet. was thinking of documenting the whole process and putting up a tut of how i do the foam from start to finish.. would this interest anyone?

 

[tsau mia]

I would be interested!