First time EVA Foam ODST

[Begocer]

His videos are awesome for beginners, only downside is that his plans are all I think scaled to A3 paper sizes whilst I use A4 and haven't found the proper size to up scale which was why my DFT helmet was smaller.

...aka I haven't looked.

Plus his battle rifle plans are something I want to attempt if time permits me to and I can get it to the right scale.

For my own suitsI've got some 1" back pack strapping...or whatever it's called coming in soon which will be used for rigging everything up.

And with the upper arm I'm gonna just custom make a cuff, as I wanted to have a mounted plate rather than just an elastic strap to keep it down for something that is more game accurate. Still going to put a strap attaching it to my chest via the clasps for ease of disassembly and transportation.

That's just my preference but if worse comes to worse I'll just go for the elastic.

 

[PaiganBoi]

DFT'S weapon templates are simple and easy to build. Plus easily customizable to add more details.
I used his templates for the SMG & AR.
Halo weapon props
Then added my own touches.

 

[Begocer]

That SMG is gorgeous

The thin foam really makes the difference for details!

Did you print the files as they came or did you tweak the PDF scales before printing? As I felt the SMG was a little short for me when I printed the files last year and taped up the side view.

I had to laugh as I had the exact same thing in mind for having swappable tech if I were to make an SMG before I chose to settle on the BR. Man my mind really does like to over complicate things all for the greater good of accuracy.

 

[PaiganBoi]

The SMG I left as is. It fits nicely in hand. For the AR, I think I scaled it down between 10 to 15 percent.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

The SMG I left as is. It fits nicely in hand. For the AR, I think I scaled it down between 10 to 15 percent.

That's only because your short!!!.........I left the AR files as is and they fit me and my boy, who's only 13, just fine.

 

[PaiganBoi]

That's only because your short!!!.........I left the AR files as is and they fit me and my boy, who's only 13, just fine.

*grumble*... Not gonna rebuke that cuz I know you'll just slap me with that 'poor baby' GIF again.....

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Nah......I'll slap you w/ reality......My 13 year old is taller than you. Here is my take on the DFT AR. And I agree, adding craft foam is makes the piece much cooler.

 

[TurboCharizard]

Dirtdives we all know your son is a giant in comparison to us Canadian average folks. I hope the shotgun I'm printing fits him.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

I'm sure it will.

 

[Begocer]

Never thought I'd see the day a duckface would be paired with an AR hahaha!

I say go a step further:

Who needs an energy shield when you can have Blue Steel blocking all shots/ninja stars coming your way!

Good to know the DFT plans work with shorter people lol I'll just print the plans and Google up some specs of what the in game dimensions are approximately.

 

[Begocer]

Not much progress to report (again). I've been battling the curse many of us know as "This armor looks cool but would suck to be worn if it were real".

ODST's certainly have a lot of pieces that rub together that is reflected on how my shoulder pieces love to mingle with my chest mount.

A few days ago I made some cuffs to mount the shoulders onto.

The angled wedge serves to keep the shoulder piece on (most important step) and hopefully keep it at an angle that is enough to prevent the tops of the shoulders from wedging themselves under my chest loops whilst keeping true-ish to in game fashion.

Whilst I'm semi-satisfied, the perfectionist in me is shouting at me that they're too sharp an angle. This is literally the 4th time of remaking an angled wedge for the cuff, with the pictured ones being the ones I feel are closest to whats needed: an angle to seem snug whilst being off my body enough for some improved movement as currently with the upper arms I have terrible range of movement when it comes to crossing my arms.

The picture below was after the upper arm slid down to my elbow which ended up being the best positioning which is why I feel it could be finally the right angle vs position. I'm going to have strapping on the upper point going to my chest to keep it at that height.

I feel its OK with where it is and how far off it is from my arm but that perfectionist within me is someone who needs an outside opinion for my work. Whatchuallthink??

Side note: To make it look like I didn't waste tons of glue sticks on this I'm going to apply craft foam on the cuff in the form of "Intentional detailing" and to possibly hide the underside of the foam on the shoulder sectons....

 

[PaiganBoi]

Since we are building from the same templates I'll elaborate on what I ended up doing with mine. I hade the same issues with range of movement and the pauldrons getting snagged on the vest rig.

I trimmed back the area where pauldrons would snag about quarter inch. The pauldrons themselves angled down as much as they should be. That was dumb luck since I am terrible at getting proper angles for bevels.
As for the cuffs, I just put a 10 mm piece of scrap foam on the bottom part of the pauldrons so there is a contact point to glue the cuffs on.

 

[Begocer]

Hmmm...I'll check out trimming as an option.

And all it takes is a simple piece of foam...and here I was struggling to make sure the angle of my shoulders were all good for over an hour...simplicity is a word my mind has not learned yet.

Tonight is forearm night. Have to buy a bundle of glue sticks first then cut out the pieces. Really not looking forward to gluing these up, I'm already having flashbacks to my upper and lower leg pieces.... but I must proceed! I feel the stress levels creeping up due to the fast approaching con...

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Slow and steady is totally the best way to go. Put on some of yor favorite music or a show/ movie that won't draw you in too much, and just go step by step. Little piece by little piece.

Or you can listen to motivational speeches or religious talks, as well. They both build you up and keep you going, which is important in this kind of project.

Just don't give up, it'll take forever to get back into the swing of things. Let the momentum go and you're toast!

We're all pulling for ya, man! You got this!

 

[Begocer]

Oh I'm trying Sean Anwalt... I'm trying.

Got them tunes blasting and cut out all them pieces. I'm kind of relieved this part didn't have as many sections as I was expecting. Even managed to tape some parts together to form larger pieces to save on cutting.

That came back to bite me as *insert off tune announcement trumpet*: My scaling was off in Armorsmith and I just spent my night making my own Mega Man arm cannon.... into the trash she goes and queue loss of motivation until Sunday which is my next day I can work on these bloody things.

That taping of the plans together even when heat formed didn't form a nice enough roundness to the arm piece as well. Going to reprint the *hopefully* better scaled plans and go nuts on Sunday....

This was even after I sliced nearly 2 inches off the top section to see if bringing it in would help. It didn't...

Time for bed... I'm le tired...

 

[PaiganBoi]

Oh I'm trying Sean Anwalt... I'm trying.

Got them tunes blasting and cut out all them pieces. I'm kind of relieved this part didn't have as many sections as I was expecting. Even managed to tape some parts together to form larger pieces to save on cutting.

That came back to bite me as *insert off tune announcement trumpet*: My scaling was off in Armorsmith and I just spent my night making my own Mega Man arm cannon.... into the trash she goes and queue loss of motivation until Sunday which is my next day I can work on these bloody things.

That taping of the plans together even when heat formed didn't form a nice enough roundness to the arm piece as well. Going to reprint the *hopefully* better scaled plans and go nuts on Sunday....

View attachment 257448

This was even after I sliced nearly 2 inches off the top section to see if bringing it in would help. It didn't...

Time for bed... I'm le tired...

I had scaled my arms wrong as well. I k ew the opening for my hand was going to be an issue so I scaled it slightly larger. Turns out it was too large. I was lucky though and was able to do some reconstructive surgery to fit them better.

 

[Begocer]

That's good you were able to salvage them, its always handy to save time and not get too frustrated.

I kind of want to finish the one I have sans foam detailing only to see how it turns out against the rest of my armour... But for now I'm going to struggle with proper scaling in Amorsmith.

 

[PaiganBoi]

But for now I'm going to struggle with proper scaling in Amorsmith.

Oh the trial and tribulations of a cosplayer. The struggle is real.
I'll dig up a photo of what I did for the surgery of my arms. Maybe you can attempt to do the same thing for yours.

 

[Begocer]

That would be awesome, thanks!

I have a feeling I'm going to restart it completely from scratch as I'm kind of leaning towards beveling the edges vs having one large piece just for getting the right shape.

Who knows?! Maybe the Properly Scaled Fairy will bless me with its presence on Sunday??

 

[PaiganBoi]

That would be awesome, thanks!

I have a feeling I'm going to restart it completely from scratch as I'm kind of leaning towards beveling the edges vs having one large piece just for getting the right shape.

Who knows?! Maybe the Properly Scaled Fairy will bless me with its presence on Sunday??

Alrighty. Found a pic that shows the scars of my adjustment surgery.

As you can see I am wearing the arms the wrong way. What I ended up doing was removing a our an inch or material right down the middle. And then a wedge to keep the opening for hands wide enough for them to slip through.

Also you can see a cut out bit at the top. That was to allow me to bend my arms. When I realised that I was putting them on wrong, I just filled it with some scrap foam.