Creating An Original Armor Suit: Sketches Of Full Suit Now Up

[Maverick 17]

Okay, Its not that I don't like the spartan armor, but as i've been working on it, its crossed my mind that most of the suits you see put together are mostly split between master chief, iron man, and clone troopers, with some people going other routes. (gundam, power rangers, etc) Anyways, I thought, with these tools available, like pepakura and 3-d modelling and such, how hard would it be to create an original suit of armor? I've got some ideas for one, because my cousin and one of our friends kinda started to get me into rp (mostly just to fill in when they needed an extra character) Anyways, a character I created for an rp was a guy who built a suit in his garage, nothing too terribly fancy, just basic shapes for the panels, and simple features like hydraulics for movement, no super-soldier program or multi-billion dollar budget or secret alloys that deflect bullets or shielding systems. I've got a vague idea in my head of what it looks like, but I'm no artist, and I've tried 3d programs like sketch-up, but no dice there either. I have been working on getting the general idea on paper (drawing, not pepakura) but having no artistic talent makes it a rather long process, but I'm really liking some parts. If nothing else, I may settle for making some parts almost halo-esque so I can just tag them onto my spartan armor. I guess what I'm really looking for is advice. Is it even worth going into? If so, whats the best route to take? I do like to make things with my hands. If I do end up creating the suit in my head, I'll share any presentable progress here. I really would like to be able to see the suit in front of me in 3d, full-scale, wearable form. Thanks for reading, and any help, advice, criticism, etc. is not only welcome, I look forward to it with great anticipation.

*Note: If I did something wrong in posting this, please tell me and I will attempt to fix my mistake. This is the first time I've posted a topic, and its likely i did something wrong.

 

[HaloGoddess]

You could always try scratch building and use some carboard or even the carboard from cereal boxes or something similar to it since the thin cardboard used for cereal boxes does seem to be a little easier to work with than your average thick cardboard.



If you can see the image in your head, just try scratch building it. At this point, it might be your best bet if you are unable to model it and seem to not be able to really draw it all out on paper.

 

[Maverick 17]

hmm. Now theres an idea. It would help to reduce the pile of boxes in my room from printer, tv, videogames, etc... Seems like being a pack rat might work out for me after all! What im trying to do is get a general idea on paper so I can see what i like and what i want to change about it. Then once i have a part im happy with was where I was stuck. I think I'm about happy with the shoulder piece, I'll give that a try I suppose. Oh boy, getting the measurements when the reference points are in my head is going to be SO much FUN. lol. Thanks for the input. To the cardboard pile, away!

 

[Maverick 17]

This post brought to you by: Frozen pizzas. The food that fuels my armor.

Anyways, I gots the first part of the armor done. This is the shoulder plate section. (I haven't worked on how it attaches to the arm or the plates around it)

This is probably my favorite part of the concept I had originally in the rp. I looked around a bit and found some very rough sketches i had made to show the basics of the armors shape and help decide its limitations. I saw the shoulder piece and was like "I want that one for sure." So I cleaned it up, measured my arm for comparison, marked out my square on cardboard, and went from there. I gotta say I'm happy with the result.

This is the view from the side of the part. Gives you an idea of the general shape and what not. [attachment=15785:04050647.jpg]

This is a view up through the "turbine" part of the part. (No, the suit doesn't rely on two arm-mounted turbines to fly. These are for control during flight. [attachment=15786:04050647a.jpg]

This is a view from the side to give you an idea of the depth and angle of the flared part around the top and back. Probably my favorite part aesthetically of this piece of the armor. [attachment=15787:04050648.jpg]

I know its not the most creative armor piece, but i like how its simple shapes look. I didn't want a form-fitting piece, but I also didn't want a flat panel for it, hence the sloped parts. It also is in part thanks to the backstory in the rp, but I won't go into that here. Anyways, the simplicity of the part lent itself perfectly to cardboard. I estimate no more than 2 hours actual work time on it, and that includes drawing out the design on a notecard to get proportions right, measuring my arm, marking the size, cutting out the shapes, and gluing. I would do the other shoulder, but its seven o'clock in the morning. Time for bed.

(the only thing that worries me is the back portion of the armor, where I have to place a generator, and most dauntingly, the main turbines that get the suit off the ground. All those rounded shapes + cardboard kind of worries me. I don't want square turbines, lol. The casings on the arms are fine as squared shapes, but the back has many compound curves. I may have to find another way to do that part, but then again, the back was always the part I was least satisfied with. Maybe I'll have a redesign idea while I'm asleep that both looks better and lends itself to cardboard better.)

Anyways, thats it for me until I wake up. Criticism and advice are welcome as always. I'll check back first thing when I wake up. Let me know what you think, and good night, lol.

Edit: Before anyone asks, no I dont intend to make the turbines functional. BUT, if a way to do so comes along and is within my budget, I most certainly will.

 

[AceHigh]

the only thing that worries me is the back portion of the armor, where I have to place a generator, and most dauntingly, the main turbines that get the suit off the ground. All those rounded shapes + cardboard kind of worries me. I don't want square turbines, lol. The casings on the arms are fine as squared shapes, but the back has many compound curves. I may have to find another way to do that part, but then again, the back was always the part I was least satisfied with. Maybe I'll have a redesign idea while I'm asleep that both looks better and lends itself to cardboard better.

If you make the rounded bits low poly at first, like octagonals or so, you can use bondo to smoothen them out. As an alternative, make them low poly and then use thinner paper that you can wrap around the part without the paper folding. Glued to the low poly part it will make things really smooth and round

Edit: Before anyone asks, no I dont intend to make the turbines functional. BUT, if a way to do so comes along and is within my budget, I most certainly will.

I'm thinking placing a fan in each turbine. It won't lift you off the ground or anything, but it would make for a cool effect. Depending on the shape of the armour it might even help make it cooler inside.

 

[Maverick 17]

Yeah, i thought about using the turbines for cooling purposes, but when I posted I was heading to bed and that slipped my mind. I don't know how well those would work out on the back for me. I mean, I know thats how round surfaces are dealt with in pep and so forth, but 3d is one of my many weak points it appears. It seems I am not very good at plotting out how to cut and fold a piece so that it will become a 3d shape. In other words, i suck at designing armor, but its so much fun, i don't want to stop at just the arm piece.

 

[Jay123way]

Keep going at it bud, you can only get better

 

[blue2k]

If you posted some concept art or your suit, perhaps a modeller would be interested? I think suit choice though is an entirely personal thing. Some people love the Halo concepts or Ironman etc. To others they prefer more obscure concepts. Some would choose to make difficult concepts, based purely upon the perceived challenge of doing so.

 

[Maverick 17]

I certainly hope I get better at it... I am working on improving, just kinda comin along slowly.

If I had concept art I'd post it. But all I have is crappy sketches and vague descriptions. Mostly the sketches were to get the size of the plating more than the shape. The arm was an exception because it was a side view and it ended up looking vaguely like what I have posted. I cleaned it up and re-drew just the arm plate on a note card to use as a reference. I'll try to get to work on re-doing the sketches and cleaning them up, though. Can't promise anything though.

 

[blue2k]

I certainly hope I get better at it... I am working on improving, just kinda comin along slowly.

If I had concept art I'd post it. But all I have is crappy sketches and vague descriptions. Mostly the sketches were to get the size of the plating more than the shape. The arm was an exception because it was a side view and it ended up looking vaguely like what I have posted. I cleaned it up and re-drew just the arm plate on a note card to use as a reference. I'll try to get to work on re-doing the sketches and cleaning them up, though. Can't promise anything though.

It would be nice to see what you have envisioned. Any sketches provided could help with feedback from the forum members.

 

[shoalindiciple]

I certainly hope I get better at it... I am working on improving, just kinda comin along slowly.

If I had concept art I'd post it. But all I have is crappy sketches and vague descriptions. Mostly the sketches were to get the size of the plating more than the shape. The arm was an exception because it was a side view and it ended up looking vaguely like what I have posted. I cleaned it up and re-drew just the arm plate on a note card to use as a reference. I'll try to get to work on re-doing the sketches and cleaning them up, though. Can't promise anything though.

i love working with cardboard buddy you can manipulate it so much, and with the right curved exacto blade you can do almost anything. lookin good so far, check out my stuff in profile and see if it gives you any ideas dude, willing to help. i love the 405th.

 

[Maverick 17]

Well, sorry to let this sink this far and dig it back out, but i figure its better than starting another thread, and I kinda wanna get some opinions on the helmet. Truth be told, its not for the same armor as the arm pieces I made. (the armor went through a few different versions, yay rp inconsistency!) Only problem is, the helmet that goes with those arm pieces is really nothing more than a suped up welding helmet. Plus, this design kind of just came to me slowly as I was trying to picture a helmet from the rp, so basically, its a new design that I came up with as I drew, and as you can tell from the post dates, it kinda took a while for that to happen. Partly due to distractions, like finding Nintendude's awesome file collection thread (I now have a slade mask for me and my 5-yr-old brother and a sub-zero mask) And partly because I just didn't know what to draw. Well, I'll quit ramblin and post up the scanned pic. Sorry for the wonky proportions of the pic, but I had a stack of notecards and decided to use them, since I could scrap it if i didn't like how it turned out and not waste a lot of paper. Again, I ramble. Okay. Heres the pic, tell me what you think (hopefully it doesn't look too much like something that already exists :unsure [attachment=15868:scan0001.jpg]

The thing around the neck is supposed to look akin to that flexible metal cable shielding, but like I said, no artistic talent. Especially on the side view of the helmet. On the right side of the helmet (the left if you're looking at it.) Is a communicator, the mic is inside the helmet, but there is a raised portion to allow for space for it in the helmet. The antenna is that line curving around the right side. I couldn't think of anything to do for the jaw area, but I kinda like it blank from the side view. all the raised areas on the helmet are supposed to meet just past the base of the skull, half meeting on one side after curving towards the chin, the other half on the other side. Don't know if that made sense to you, but it did to me. Anyways, opinions please? Other than art lessons. I don't have a job to afford 'em, and three years of art class in school didn't help me either. oh well. Some are born with it, some aren't i guess. Ideas? Questions? Comments? Call our toll free number... oh wait, nevermind. Wrong line.

Edit: Damn. The more I look at that, the more it looks familiar. I hope i didn't just rip off of something already out there. Hopefully i'm just thinking i've seen it before because I'm looking at it on a screen while I have the notecard here. (fingers crossed.)

Edit 2: I've started making the helmet in the post above. Its not that detailed, since its basically a butchered baseball cap and a cardboard box. Hopin to get it lookin decent later. Right now I've about had enough of this thing for now, so I'm puttin it on hold while I go to sleep. Goodnight 405th, lol

 

[Maverick 17]

Okay folks. I gave up (temporarily) on making it full-scale, and decided instead to try to sculpt a mini version out of clay. I have to say I'm pleased with the results. Clay is fun, but still time consuming. I worked 3 hours non stop on this tiny thing. (I was also texting someone, so that kinda slowed me down) I took pics but I used the wrong memory card, so while my 40 kbps crap internet connection loads this post up, i'll take pics again, resize em, and edit them in when im done.

[attachment=15895:04090907.jpg]

[attachment=15896:04090907a.jpg]

[attachment=15897:04090908.jpg]

[attachment=15898:04090908a.jpg]

Whaddaya think?

 

[Maverick 17]

Triple post... I know, I'm a bad boy, but I've hit a snag, and need advice. I've realized that now i seem to have branched into two different suits, one easy to make with cardboard, but to tell the truth, other than the arm pieces, the rest is either just simple geometric shapes or is like the back plate, not cardboard friendly, and frankly, geometric shapes are no fun to make. The other (the one the helmet is from) is much more fun to create, but other than making miniatures in clay, I don't see the future pieces being cardboard friendly either. Should I continue with the more boring yet easier to construct armor, or just settle for clay models of the more interesting armor and hope I can find a way to create a 1:1 version later? Ah, I don't know. All I know is I don't want to see this armor dry up and wither away. I want to see it through to finished.

 

[adamtlee]

Work on your miniatures to completion so that you can gauge what the finished product will look like then see about making a bigger one. The one thing you should not do is give up. There are people on this site that are good at just about everything you have to find your niche.

 

[Maverick 17]

Well, looks like next I'll be working on the arms for the second suit I guess. Just need some time to solidify a design, sketch it, then sculpt it. May take me a day or two (or three, knowing my luck). Wish me luck. And what do you guys think of the helmet? Anything I should change/add/take away?

 

[Jeff Torres]

Bravo! The helmet looks mostly good, but the one thing that I caught was the side shot, the looked a little squished, I dunno if that was intentional, but you should make it little more relaxed width wise. But it is a miniature so it isn't revalent to the final product. But I like to have a nice solid reference structure, before I move onto the next bit. But the concept and model are very nice. I would use clay but then again I can't sculpt worth a ****.

 

[Maverick 17]

I'm just surprised it turned out as good as it did. I suck at proportion, Royally. So you're saying I should add more to the depth of the helmet? Like add more to the back? That shouldn't be too hard. Thanks for the advice. The only reason I used clay is because if I screw up a part, I can ball it up and re-make it, unlike cardboard or paper or carving mediums, where if you cut off too much, you have to glue it back together or something like that. Also, I happened to have it handy cause it came in a casting kit I got a long time ago, so i figured "why not use this for the helmet?" So i did.

 

[Jeff Torres]

Yeah I work with cardboard, and just roll with the punches, and my conceptual art is found on Google.

Yes just add more depth to the helmet, to make it more proportional and it should be fine.

 

[Maverick 17]

Well, after much forehead slapping and feeling STOOOOOOPID for not looking in the memory card slot on my computer first to find my lost memory card, I will now attempt to upload pics.