Foam Air Assault and Sword Builds for Me and My Girlfriend (Comic-Con 2012/2013)

[GlazedDonutHoles]

Loving your work! I'm getting ready to start my first build (also using foam), and from everything I've read, a heat gun seems to be really useful. Your pics definitely prove that! I'm glad I got my hands on one. I just hope I'll be able to get results as clean as yours! Can't wait to see the finished product...

 

[Spacemeat]

Loving your work! I'm getting ready to start my first build (also using foam), and from everything I've read, a heat gun seems to be really useful. Your pics definitely prove that! I'm glad I got my hands on one. I just hope I'll be able to get results as clean as yours! Can't wait to see the finished product...

Thanks! And the heat gun is certainly my new armor building best friend. I wouldn't have been able to get this next thing done without it...

So mega update time, it's probably gonna span two posts again, sorry :$

First, it's been a busy busy week for me armor and work wise. I took a little break and stopped by the LA convention center during the week...

Look who I found!

I did try vacuforming last week, but I didn't have enough heat sources, so I couldn't evenly heat the sheet of plastic. Just waaay to much surface area. So I ended up getting an additional heat source:

The whole thing is wrapped in an emergency blanket for insulation:

Anyhow, it finally worked! (though the heat sources were still kinda insufficient and I needed to keep running the heat gun over it to make sure the plastic was consistently heated, and I still had to keep the heat gun pointed at trouble spots in the plastic once it was on the table)

I had just enough plastic to make one sword, so I'll be running out to the plastic supply to get more to make another sword

I had a slight mishap with the handle, it got stuck in one of the earlier pieces I tried vacuforming. Cutting it out or forcing it out is probably going to damage it, so I've decided to just replace it.

 

[Spacemeat]

In foam news, I got the ab pieces done for me and my girlfriend:

I also embedded some rare earth magnets in one of the chest plates in an attempt to attach the front piece. They do attach and make a very satisfying "chunk" noise when snapped together, but they come apart when you put too much weight on them so I'll integrate a center release buckle at the attachment points

And finally, I've whipped up a replacement sword handle that I'll be resining tommorow. I'm just going to forgo vacuforming this piece and just harden it with resin and fiberglass. I've still got to make one more handle for the second sword...

 

[Kroforce]

Looking good, looking good
Really want to make myself a energy sword later on so looking forward to seeing how u make the whole thing

Keep it up!

 

[DefineLuck]

Your making some good progress man keep it up

 

[Annanymous]

sweet progress, the ab details look great !

 

[captaincaliflour]

I've been looking into using Rare Earth magnets for my own connectivity problems with my Ironman Armor. How much force is too much on them? Are we talking the force of bending over? or like just the force of standing up...

 

[Manix]

Nice work Spacemeat, your foam builds really are second to none.

On that note I was wondering if you could put a vote in for my request to have a Foam Sticky put up. I would really value your input there as Im sure all new foam builders have alot they can learn from you.

Hope I don't get lashed for linking you to the thread but like I said I would really appreciate your vote here:

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/37020-Requesting-foam-building-sticky

 

[Spacemeat]

Looking good, looking good
Really want to make myself a energy sword later on so looking forward to seeing how u make the whole thing

Keep it up!

Trying to figure it out as I go along. I actually managed to mold three more blades over the weekend. Then I blew a fuse :$. I've got enough to make two swords total with a spare blade left over. I'll probably post some pics up later

Your making some good progress man keep it up

sweet progress, the ab details look great !

Thanks guys! I've got a little over 3 weeks left and I haven't even started the undersuits! Wish me luck, because at this rate I think we'll be glued into our armor the morning of the con again...

I've been looking into using Rare Earth magnets for my own connectivity problems with my Ironman Armor. How much force is too much on them? Are we talking the force of bending over? or like just the force of standing up...

Well, they barely stayed on, and whenever I moved, the magnets would just pop off. So I ended up sandwiching another magnet in between the two embedded in chest plate. So there's a total of three magnets in each connection. The additional magnet really increased the holding strength and I haven't been able to pop off the chest plate without some degree of force. The only real drawback is that I've got 30 magnets per chest plate at this point. The poor people at Harbor Freight keep running out because I keep running by and cleaning them out!

Nice work Spacemeat, your foam builds really are second to none.

On that note I was wondering if you could put a vote in for my request to have a Foam Sticky put up. I would really value your input there as Im sure all new foam builders have alot they can learn from you.

Hope I don't get lashed for linking you to the thread but like I said I would really appreciate your vote here:

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/37020-Requesting-foam-building-sticky

Sure! I've been doing this foam thing for nearly two years now and I'm always glad to lend a hand.

 

[TD0013]

Bloody beautiful work!

I can't wait to see the completed swords in particular!

 

[runcornstuntman]

Gotta say man loving the build. For your magnet problem have you considered ordering a different sized set off the world wide web? Cause i know you can get the thicker types for a few bucks each. Cheaper in massive orders. But maybe thatll help with our chest problem.

Keanu/ runcornstuntman

Ps im going to inbox you to and spam you for all your foam info

 

[Spacemeat]

Bloody beautiful work!

I can't wait to see the completed swords in particular!

Thanks! I totally can't wait to get them done . Sadly, I'm not that satisfied with the blades so I'll probably go back and retool the mold after comic-con and make another set

Gotta say man loving the build. For your magnet problem have you considered ordering a different sized set off the world wide web? Cause i know you can get the thicker types for a few bucks each. Cheaper in massive orders. But maybe thatll help with our chest problem.

Keanu/ runcornstuntman

Ps im going to inbox you to and spam you for all your foam info

At this point, I think the magnet problem is solved simply by adding more magnets which you'll be seeing in the update...

So I've got 21 days to finish the build (I said a few months ago I'd try to get this done faster and not rush at the end, I guess I've failed miserably in that respect)

As I said, I molded a few more sword blades, I got three more sets done before I blew a fuse. I guess three 800 watt heaters wasn't the best idea...

I totally managed to get a gigantic piece of plastic to make the swords out of. I just thought I'd share this with you guys

In foam news, I finally finished all the detail work on the chest plates

The front still detaches, and with the addition of the third floating magnet, it stays on pretty well

I've attached less powerful strip magnets to where the arm seals connect to each other. Basically just to keep things neat and make sure the arm seals stay in thier place when i move around.

The part I'm most of proud of are the spinal pieces on the chest plate. I very carefully cut and stacked them so there are gaps for the light to show through

Here's a proof of concept with some leds in the spine area

Well, that's about it for now. I'm totally running out of time. I'm hoping to have all foam work done by the end of the weekend and start plastidipping throughout the week. Forecast calls for some rain this weekend, so I'm going to have a slight delay on finishing the helmets

 

[Annanymous]

it all looks awesome! I love the concept for adding lights to the spine, and I don't even understand how you could make sure thin and exact cuts. Can't wait to see more, I hope it doesn't rain too much for you this weekend

 

[Spacemeat]

it all looks awesome! I love the concept for adding lights to the spine, and I don't even understand how you could make sure thin and exact cuts. Can't wait to see more, I hope it doesn't rain too much for you this weekend

I make the cuts but slicing at a rough 45 degree angle, the piece I cut out doesn't go all the way through the spine plate, it's essentially a small triangle shaped wedge that I remove.

And now update!

So, I should stop paying attention to the weather widget on my phone, because when it claimed there would be rain, it meant that it would light drizzle in the morning hours before the sun even came up...

So I had a sunny time this weekend. I finally cut and sanded all the blades and layed them out:

I'm currently attempting to dye the blades blue with some ryt dye, but I don't think it's working. I had them soaking in 150 degree water and they remained clear. So I left them overnight and nothing's changed. Not sure what's going on there. Going to need to find an alternate way of coloring them I guess.

My girlfriend was kind enough to put spot putty on our helmets again:

I'll be sanding them down again later

And finally, I made one Thigh case! I'll still have to make another, but MAN that was really intricate and time consuming. I've already rigged a hinge with regular foam and it snaps shut with some rare earth magnets

 

[Annanymous]

ahh dude it looks great! The swords turned out perfect, and if the dye is not working maybe you could try painting them for a temporary solution or just put blue leds inside of them instead of adding any other color. Love the tactical case and cant wait to see these builds painted.

 

[Walter Spase]

Nice build you have going here.. Reason for my stopping by is to ask if you happen to take any additional picks of the H4 Chief while at E3... If so I would love to see them.

 

[Spacemeat]

ahh dude it looks great! The swords turned out perfect, and if the dye is not working maybe you could try painting them for a temporary solution or just put blue leds inside of them instead of adding any other color. Love the tactical case and cant wait to see these builds painted.

Thanks! I will be putting blue LEDs in them, but I didn't want the blade to appear clear or white when unlit. It seems the problem is I can't get the water hot enough for the dye to stain the PETG, and given the size of the plastic tub I was using, I don't have any practical way to keep the water heated near boiling for any given length of time. I think I'll be getting some transparent spray paint next.

Nice build you have going here.. Reason for my stopping by is to ask if you happen to take any additional picks of the H4 Chief while at E3... If so I would love to see them.

I most certainly did, the guy in the master chief suit wasn't out very long, so I only got a few pics before he scurried away. I also got quite a few pics of the warthog close up:

http://s1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee464/Benedict_Choy/E3 2012/

 

[Annanymous]

Thanks! I will be putting blue LEDs in them, but I didn't want the blade to appear clear or white when unlit. It seems the problem is I can't get the water hot enough for the dye to stain the PETG, and given the size of the plastic tub I was using, I don't have any practical way to keep the water heated near boiling for any given length of time. I think I'll be getting some transparent spray paint next.



I most certainly did, the guy in the master chief suit wasn't out very long, so I only got a few pics before he scurried away. I also got quite a few pics of the warthog close up:

http://s1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee464/Benedict_Choy/E3 2012/

transparent spray paint sounds like a good choice to me. Just make sure that it is not too strong on the plastic. You don't want to completely remove the clear gloss effect.

 

[Spacemeat]

transparent spray paint sounds like a good choice to me. Just make sure that it is not too strong on the plastic. You don't want to completely remove the clear gloss effect.

You're probably the only person that reads this thread on a regular basis, lol.

Anyhow, I plan on spraying the inside of the blade, so the outside remains smooth and glossy, and it will hopefully look like there's a transparent coating over the blue.

 

[Annanymous]

You're probably the only person that reads this thread on a regular basis, lol.

Anyhow, I plan on spraying the inside of the blade, so the outside remains smooth and glossy, and it will hopefully look like there's a transparent coating over the blue.

hahaha I doubt it, there are a lot of lurkers / lazy posters who check this out I'm sure of it. And thats a good idea, can't wait to see pics!