Ghost Fett ODST

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Ghost Fett

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hey everyone, I’m excited to be here.im Zach and I’m from Alabama in the USA. I’ve been a member of the 501st legion for a few years now and want to expand into some of my other fandoms. I’ve loved the ODSTs since the game came out and really dived into their character.
My first steps were to buy Sean Bradlys “Dutch” style helmet with a silver visor and gloves. I’m currently trying to make a sale on another costume to fund the rest so once that goes through I’ll buy the rest from Sean and try to strap it up and paint it myself.

As far as what I’m concered with is obviously the prep of all the armor, what I should do before painting and is their any good spray paints you guys recommend? I’m wanting to go for the dark gun metal grayish look (ODST classic) with dark red accents.

Would love any paint advice anyone can give me!

Also does anyone have intimate knowledge of Sean’s kit? Is it large? I’m 5’6” 150 pounds so I’m not the largest guy around. Do you think I’ll need to mod anything?

Where does everyone get these cool decals or how do I do the wording on my chest plate and that kind of thing?

I’ll sure I’ll have more questions and I do but I’ll leave it at that to get the ball rolling. Glad to be here!
 
If you go with Sean's kit, it will be vacuum formed plastic. Which being a 501st member, you'll be familiar with, and you know will mean not a whole lot is needed to prep the armor for paint. Sean does recommend reinforcing some of the pieces with fiberglass or some "Rondo," approximately 1:1 mix of Bondo and Resin, for extra durability.

If you buy the lot from Sean it comes with a great step by step instruction booklet.
 
Would love any paint advice anyone can give me!

If you can get your hands on it the Krylon Camouflage line of primers are fantastic. A quick scuff up with a high grit sand paper and then a spray of that stuff and you'll be hard pressed to ever have bare plastic show through.

If you have access to an airbrush, I'd highly recommend the Vallejo Model Air line of paints. The "Black Metal" is a good basecoat for ODSTs and can easily be edge highlighted to look awesome. I've used it on my NCR Ranger kit and the stuff is just fun to work with. For the crimson highlights, definitely mask off to do your colour splashes and do a white base to make the red more vibrant, as for a specific tone of red, I like the Vallejo Mecha Color line for it's selection of paints.
 
Thank you guys for he tips! I’m considering doing some foam pieces vs Sean’s armor but I’m not sure. I’ve never worked with foam and as a 501st member like stated above I’m very comfortable with the hard plastic like Sean’s stuff. I suppose it’s money vs time. A lot of the foam stuff I’ve seen can turn out great.
 
Thank you guys for he tips! I’m considering doing some foam pieces vs Sean’s armor but I’m not sure. I’ve never worked with foam and as a 501st member like stated above I’m very comfortable with the hard plastic like Sean’s stuff. I suppose it’s money vs time. A lot of the foam stuff I’ve seen can turn out great.

I know the 501st aversion to foam but it's definitely a solid building material, it just takes a bit of finesse to make it look the part as armour. If you need any tips and tricks I suggest starting in the Tutorial Index and checking out things like this Foam Techniques tutorial to start getting the conversion between thermoplastics and foams in your builders toolbox. If you have any questions, ask away good sir, the 405th is super friendly and there's a great wealth of knowledge among the ranks.
 
I’m getting married in June and so funds are just real tight. One of the biggest reasons I’m thinking about all my options. I’ve been watching the Andrew ODST videos on YouTube and it doesn’t seem too hard I feel like I could do alright with that. But I won’t know until I try I suppose. Any tips as far as prep for painting foam? And isn’t there a way to harden foam or protect it? Wood glue I think Andrew uses?
 
I’m getting married in June and so funds are just real tight. One of the biggest reasons I’m thinking about all my options. I’ve been watching the Andrew ODST videos on YouTube and it doesn’t seem too hard I feel like I could do alright with that. But I won’t know until I try I suppose. Any tips as far as prep for painting foam? And isn’t there a way to harden foam or protect it? Wood glue I think Andrew uses?

You could harden it with a PVA mixture, there's also the option of using SmoothOn's Epsilon to make a thin shell.

One of the benefits of foam is that it does flex so hardening isn't always the best choice, it depends on your purposes. A lot of people use something like PlastiDip/FlexiDip/Frog Juice to get a flexible primer layer down and then build up colour off of that. You can also look into leather paints, latex or neoprene that will flex with the foam.
 
You could harden it with a PVA mixture, there's also the option of using SmoothOn's Epsilon to make a thin shell.

One of the benefits of foam is that it does flex so hardening isn't always the best choice, it depends on your purposes. A lot of people use something like PlastiDip/FlexiDip/Frog Juice to get a flexible primer layer down and then build up colour off of that. You can also look into leather paints, latex or neoprene that will flex with the foam.

Is this how you avoide cracking on foam? I see it occasionally where the paint veins out like cracks. I have also been reading with foam it’s a mentality that it isn’t gonna last so people don’t seem to take it as seriously? I just read a lot of things saying foam will only last so long before you will need to redo one piece or another due to age paint crack or whatever else. I guess my purpose was to figure out how to make it last as long as possible if I’m gonna put all this time into making it.
 
Is this how you avoide cracking on foam? I see it occasionally where the paint veins out like cracks. I have also been reading with foam it’s a mentality that it isn’t gonna last so people don’t seem to take it as seriously? I just read a lot of things saying foam will only last so long before you will need to redo one piece or another due to age paint crack or whatever else. I guess my purpose was to figure out how to make it last as long as possible if I’m gonna put all this time into making it.

I went the PlastiDip route for my ODST and the only section that shows any folding is a hip plate since I folded it while getting into my car. Lightly heating it from the back can actually remove some of the visible "veins" if pieces are pressed back into shape.

For reference I've had the suit on at least 25 times and it's one part that shows damage from flexing/folding.
 
I know Sean uses duplicolor perfect match gunmetal, I was working on a Sean kit and using gmc duplicolor gunmetal grey and it was $8 For a small can, I was only able to pick it up at AutoZone. Also if it helps it fits rather well I am 5'7 and was about 200 and it for great. I recommend re-enforcing the Ab parts those were the first things to go on me.
 
Ok here’s my first try on the chest plate basic shape. Hate the glue spill over but it’s just me not knowing what I’m doing.

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Well if this is your first time working with foam you’re doing great. Yes you do have some spillage but that gets better with experience. If you have a hot knife or a heat gun you can clean that up. Just scrap it smooth and try and pull away any excess you can. The edges could use a little help as well. Keep your blade sharp and some sanding down to get rid of the pull marks. Keep it up and your cuts and joints will improve in time.
 
Well if this is your first time working with foam you’re doing great. Yes you do have some spillage but that gets better with experience. If you have a hot knife or a heat gun you can clean that up. Just scrap it smooth and try and pull away any excess you can. The edges could use a little help as well. Keep your blade sharp and some sanding down to get rid of the pull marks. Keep it up and your cuts and joints will improve in time.

Thanks for the tips! I’m thinking I’ll wear a ammo pouch belt on my stomach and that’ll hide some of this. Hopefully the chestplate design will come out better when I work on it later. That’ll hide some of my glue too. Burnt my fingers pretty good a few times with the hot glue haha.
 
Continuing work. I have finished the ab plate and the butt plate and the shoulders. The shoulders were pretty hard..

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I kinda asked this before but I think a lot of the answers were focused on Sean’s kit. What about painting foam? And any tips on getting that ODST metal black/grey look on foam? I’ve heard that some paints will eat foam so I definitely want to stay away from that.

I don’t have an airbrush so I’m kinda stuck with basic spray cans unless I go get an airbrush.
 
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