Complete Reach Recon Build-Duckster18 Official

[Duckster18]

it's a little late now but when scaling it's as simple as this: look to where the peice begins and ends on the spartan, measure that distance on yourself, Add maybe and inch or 2 depending on how much padding you plan to use, make sure when you scale you use only one dimension, usually this is length, or height. i think using a overall scale is a bad idea because all these files are made by different people and the scale will never match. Anyways keep it up

yes i understand that now. I just can't believe that there are SO many scaling tutorials yet none of them work, unless the person is a girl(usually proportional, no offense to anyone). Anyway, i finished the forearm today(prolly 3 hours max for the whole thing). I took a pic of everything i got done so far so you can see the suit laid out. I have just 3 more files to get done(one boot, COD, and chest). The boot i might just save for last since i know it's scaled correctly, but is so small in certain places that it became incredibly tedious. I'll move to the COD piece either tonight or tomorrow, then chest, and then the boot. Tell me how the suit looks!

 

[Duckster18]

finished COD piece! just boot and chest left to pep.

 

[Duckster18]

and if anyone recognizes, thats Majin Buu vs. Vegito there at the bottom on my dresser...epic

 

[Duckster18]

Hey everyone,sorry for not posting any new info or pics.im on vacation at myrtle beach with my girlfriend so i have been able to work on the suit.i will be back on the 26th.i will start resining the suit that day.hope everyone likes my pep work and hopefully like the work i will out into everything else.

 

[Duckster18]

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!! Once i return from my trip,i have until august 11th before i return to school for preseason football.thats roughly 2 weeks or so.i will be resining everything on friday,second coats on friday if i have enough time or saturday and continue with rondoing,unless i find another cost effective method.

 

[Duckster18]

UPDATE:Finished the chest piece today so all i have to do is finish the boot tomorrow and I'll be all set for resining.I was wondering about methods of stabilizing the pep during the resining. Most people I've seen use the chopstick/popsicle method(gluing those to the inside of the armor to have it keep its shape as it cures). I like this method and am interested in other ways to do this so please share any methods you can think of or have used. Anyway, here's the chest:

"Belly" Armor

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Size looks good

 

[Duckster18]

Finished the boot today. Didn't bothering taking a pic because it's just the same pep work I've done before. I ordered cheap brushes from Harbor Fright Tools on tuesday and I'm hoping they will arrive tomorrow so I can start. I've also come up with the idea to use velcro straps on my build, rather than the traditional strap system that I have found so prevalent on the forums. The velcro would allow for me to move around freely and not worrying about my armor moving around alot in the process. I am also going to attach a buckle system to my boots(to snap the shins to the boots), so that them shins will move in accordance to how i move.

 

[Duckster18]

These are possibly the straps i will use:

Also, I found some military pouches(since I'm doing the recon chest piece) that I can attach to it. They'd also help carry my wallet and cell phone when i go to cons:

 

[Duckster18]

Resined EVERYTHING today. Resined all my pep work. I was fairly impressed about how stiff my first layer was that idk if i should do a second coat of resin on anything(maybe on chest and cod). I did have complications when the resin began to deteriorate the glue i used to hold the pep together, but i will re-glue those sections once the resin dries. Here's the picks:

Chest

Thighs and COD

Everything else

Helmet

I would love to hear any and all feedback/advice!

 

[TheRabbit]

Nice! Things are starting to look solid!

 

[Sealgair]

I second that. As i'm building a recon too it is always interesting to see other peoples' progress. Keep it up man! Looking forward to seeing the whole thing!

 

[Duckster18]

Almost everything is rondoed. All but the chest and COd. MY GOD. I hatttteee resin. It just east away at everything, even when its mixed with bondo w/fiberglass strands.Remember how my chest came apart yesterday? well it did that again after i glued it back together, as I was rondoing the inside. Somehow there's enough room between pieces for the rondo to get in. I had to prop the chest piece in the correct position it should be in once hardened with a coat hanger. The Cod is also still weak so it makes it difficult to rondo it. Everything else, however, is rondoed, beautifully if i might add. I even put 1 layer of BONDO on the helmet, shoulder attachments and knee guards. I'll prolly go back out later on and add another layer to those or the first layer to the shins,forearms or shoulders. If i just concentrate on the helmet, i could prolly have it done tomorrow.

 

[Duckster18]

rondoed helmet

my rondoed pep work

my chest plate that lays in 2 pieces right now

first layer of bondo on helmet

 

[Duckster18]

I put another layer of bondo on the helmet, shoulders and knees. I'm having INCREDIBLE difficulties with the chest and cod. Keeping the chest in the right position as it dries is taxing, same goes for the Cod. worst thing is, the resin in the rondo keeps eating away at the glue in some sections of the chest. I'm almost to the point of scrapping the chest completely and starting over, which can make me set back 2 days. I'm not sure what to do other than try to wait it out or scrapping the chest.

 

[TheRabbit]

It must be the type of glue that you used, it's reacting badly to the chemicals in the resin. Are things totally falling apart or is it salvagable?

 

[Duckster18]

so far it's only like a few pieces and it's just regular glue stick from a hot glue gun. Oddly, its only three pieces that it's doing it to. The Cod, chest and one of the thighs. I tried to re-rondo the thigh and it began to dry in an awkward way. Oddly though is i used the same batch of rondo on that thigh as i did the chest and cod since i re-did sections of them today and the thigh is fairly dry yet the chest and cod seem nowhere close. It's the same exact batch so idk how thats possible. I may have to scrap those three pieces and re-do them, which would make me unable to finish the costume until Christmas, when i come back home from school...I'll post pictures later tonight to show you guys what i mean

 

[Duckster18]

Glue being eaten away=(

rondoed back of the chest

fing thigh..

OKay so one of my friends suggested i just STAPLE the chest together so it will hold together as it rondoed. Idk if this is even possible with the layer of resin I have on it, but it seems like a novel idea since my bondo will just go over it. The reason i have the knives in the thigh is because the side of the thigh began to solidify before the thinner part(i did them at the same time, so idk how one part cures faster than the other) but it started to shrink onto itself. If i'm lucky, the thigh will be cured and in perfect proportion and I'll be able to bondo the imperfections out. The COD is coming together, it's just still soft compared to other parts of the armor. If my chest holds(i might be forced to use staples) then everything should be savagable. Regardless, I have put bondo(2 layers) on the helmet, shoulder attachments, handplates, and half of the boot parts. I should bondo the shins, one of the thighs, forearms and shoulders tomorrow.

 

[Duckster18]

So i haven't really done anything with the build today. It's raining out and really muggy. Then i thought to myself, "maybe that's why everything isn't curing quickly. I found that, ideally, bondo should cure at roughly 80 degrees. It's been roughly muggy and humid out this week and even dropped to 65 degrees F yesterday. I think thats the reason the resin is also not curing quickly either, that its muggy and wet, along with cold. To fix that, i put a space heater in the garage and set it at roughly 85 degrees. The bondo SHOULD cure quickly. I know it's not a problem with the bondo hardener since i put a LARGE amount on the first layer and it took awhile to dry(bout 2 hours), so it's safe to assume that it's the temp. I put a small amount of hardener for the layer on the handplates and they still aren't dry either. The bondo is in a waxy, pasty like state, so i researched it and found that, in this case, it's most likely the temperature the bondo/ resin is curing at.

 

[Duckster18]

I'm still very hard at work, but i want to get the simple things out of the way. Here are the handplates: