Half Life 2 ~ Gordon Freeman Armor

[Risu]

Looking forward to your pictures. I wouldn't personally use the black pleather because I think it's too dark, but as you don't really see the suit in the game except when you're about to put it on, it's more about what people think he should look like than perfect SA. Also, pleather is basically airtight, right? I've never worn a whole body suit of the stuff before, but I made my leg wraps for my Luke Skywalker costume out of the stuff and my legs were sweating buckets after 15 minutes. That being said, good luck with your HEV suit and I can't wait to see how it turns out.



EDIT: Also, only print out one of each piece at first. I had to remake both arm pieces and both leg pieces multiple times to get the sizing right. I still might have to remake the belt and chest pieces, I won't know until they're glassed. And don't get me started on the thighs. Big thanks to Nugget for the models, but he screwed the pooch on the thighs. Comparing them to the game model really shows how wrong they are. I still don't even know how (or IF) I can fix them.

 

[Datahar]

ha yes I agree with the one piece at a time, the leg I did was all paper anyway just as a size tester

what was the trouble with the thigh?

I would have to see how the material looked against the finished pieces if it doesnt look right i'll have to rethink.

To counter cooking I was going to only material the bits between armor and not a complete body suit then hopefully I wont end up dying

 

[Risu]

If I were you I'd still go for some cheap light cotton/poly blend material. Your whole backside is gonna be covered, and that area can sweat pretty bad when it's confined to a custom tailored pair of plastic shorts.



The thigh piece doesn't taper at all from front to back, so from the side of the piece, the crest that guards your hip bone and the area just above the knee are the same size. It's like it was made for a lego man (to quote a really angry power ranger costumer flaming another guy on youtube). The best idea I've gotten so far is to cut a straight line up the inside and outside and then make a v-shaped gap, widest at the bottom and meeting together at the top, then glue those two together. The problem with that is that the top and bottom edges as well as the indented piece will all be lined up wrong. The indented piece will probably have to be fixed with bondo and the top and bottom will have to be trimmed and the folded under edges remade to fit the new ends. This would have to be done anyways because the front doesn't slope up smoothly over the knee cap, it has sharp angles, and there's no raised area over the back of the knee at all, which impedes mobility. Needless to say, it's a lot of work, and it will be difficult to get both sides to be perfectly symmetrical. Oh, and also, the indented section isn't lined up properly, as it is that section starts right where the seam should be for the hinge. My recommendation is (when pepping) to make the indented section one piece smaller in the front and remake the edge piece to fit the new indentation.

 

[Risu]

Apologies for the double post, but I just finished glassing my belt and the thing warped, so now it's twisted and the right side points up and the left side points down. Is there any way to untwist it?

 

[null]

Apologies for the double post, but I just finished glassing my belt and the thing warped, so now it's twisted and the right side points up and the left side points down. Is there any way to untwist it?

Not really...once it's solid it's pretty much set.



My suggestion is to do it in small steps. lay one long strip of glass along the whole inner edge and let it set and dry, keeping your hands (gloved of course!) on the pep to keep it straight. Once that hardens, it should be rigid enough for you to glass the rest of the piece without warping.



Hope that helps!

 

[Risu]

So I've gotta hold the belt for 2 hours?

 

[Loess]

So I've gotta hold the belt for 2 hours?

It should set enough to hold its shape in 10 or 15 minutes. If you're careful to glass in symmetric sections, you should be able to lay it out to that it doesn't warp.

 

[Risu]

I was thinking I might tape it down to a cheap balsa board, like one of those 2' x 2' things. I think I can rig up a riser for the back and then tape the ends down to the board. That'll eliminate the need for support struts on that piece, too. The down side is, I have to glass it again. I hate glassing. I hate it.

 

[emofox24]

hmm i guess you could do it bit by bit,and if it starts to warp,i find that if u hairdry it it will harden,and you can continue onward.

 

[Risu]

Well, the tailor showed me the crotch fix on my suit and it looks perfect, now she's just trimming off the excess fabric and adding in a dart on the knees. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the inseam to curve forward, after trying it on today I realized how darned uncomfortable that made it.



Also, I cut open and started bondo-ing the right forearm. It looks great so far, once I sand it smooth and add a bit of glazing putty the back piece of that forearm will be ready to prime and paint. I ordered magnets a while back, but they were stolen from my mailbox or misdelivered, and K&J aren't returning my emails.



And finally, I realized that I messed up big time on my chest piece and have to print out some of the parts and replace them. A note to anyone pepping this, leave out the pieces that make the bottom half of the arm holes stick out. They impede movement and make your arms stick out. The also conflict with the bicep pieces.

 

[Nintendude]

Lower Left Arm and Lower Right Arm files in post #139 are out getting a message from 4shared saying, that the link in invalid.

I'm starting to pep the other files today and will have at least the paper parts done by the end of next week. Then the fiberglass fun begins.

 

[null]

Lower Left Arm and Lower Right Arm files in post #139 are out getting a message from 4shared saying, that the link in invalid.

I'm starting to pep the other files today and will have at least the paper parts done by the end of next week. Then the fiberglass fun begins.

I'll check 'em and fix for you man



OK just checked them all 10 seconds ago and they all download fine for me using the links in #139. not sure what your problem might be.

 

[Risu]

I finished bondo-ing that forearm piece and then realized that the bondo made it warp and the two halves don't fit together anymore. **** my life. I have to say that this project has been the biggest pain in the ass I've ever put up with. So now I've gotta throw that forearm away and pep another one. I believe that since I started I've THROWN AWAY over $100 worth of materials and I still don't have a single piece successfully past the pepping stage. It's extremely frustrating. On Sunday I'll be glassing the biceps, test fitting my pepped but not glassed shin piece, putting it back together for glassing, and pepping a new forearm. Hopefully all of that goes smoothly, or I might just give up.

 

[Datahar]

I finished bondo-ing that forearm piece and then realized that the bondo made it warp and the two halves don't fit together anymore. **** my life. I have to say that this project has been the biggest pain in the ass I've ever put up with. So now I've gotta throw that forearm away and pep another one. I believe that since I started I've THROWN AWAY over $100 worth of materials and I still don't have a single piece successfully past the pepping stage. It's extremely frustrating. On Sunday I'll be glassing the biceps, test fitting my pepped but not glassed shin piece, putting it back together for glassing, and pepping a new forearm. Hopefully all of that goes smoothly, or I might just give up.

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

I'm taking some shortcuts with my build, hopefully the only thing I will need to buy to finish is some more card (o and orange paint )

I have not resined the piece nor will I be fibreglassing it, even tho we have 2 buckets of resin and 10 rolls of glass down at the boat we're doing up.

Instead on the inside I am appling fibre-fill (or "glass fibre compund") in little stages, which so far appears to be doing a good job without warping, then I will be putting bodyfiller (the type I have has aluminium in it) over the top and sanding smooth before painting. Even if i did not already have all this is would only cost £15.98 from my local halfords, even cheaper online I'd bet, so if it doesn't work atleast I'm not losing alot.



The pic attached is only half cured but it is already rock solid, I used this stuff on a car project a while ago, it's certainly good stuff,

 

[Risu]

Can't wait to see what that's going to look like. I glassed one bicep today and bondoed half of it. Once that cures I'm going to give it a good sanding and finish the bondo first thing tomorrow before glassing the other bicep. I'm just going to take it slow for a little while and finish the arms before even thinking about the rest of it. Once the arms are done I'll see how badly the pieces are going to conflict with the chest piece.



Does anybody have any recommendations for what to do if the chest piece doesn't QUITE have enough room to fit your rib cage and the foam camp pads for the ab section through the bottom hole? I'm pretty sure if I upsize the chest at all my arms will have no choice but to stick straight out while I wear it. I will repeat that Nugget should have modeled some support struts for this thing. The bottom hole got all warped on mine and now I have to glass the chest with a cut up meter stick inside it pushing the chest and the back apart to get the hole shaped like an oval instead of a trapezoid.

 

[Datahar]

Can't wait to see what that's going to look like. I glassed one bicep today and bondoed half of it. Once that cures I'm going to give it a good sanding and finish the bondo first thing tomorrow before glassing the other bicep. I'm just going to take it slow for a little while and finish the arms before even thinking about the rest of it. Once the arms are done I'll see how badly the pieces are going to conflict with the chest piece.



Does anybody have any recommendations for what to do if the chest piece doesn't QUITE have enough room to fit your rib cage and the foam camp pads for the ab section through the bottom hole? I'm pretty sure if I upsize the chest at all my arms will have no choice but to stick straight out while I wear it. I will repeat that Nugget should have modeled some support struts for this thing. The bottom hole got all warped on mine and now I have to glass the chest with a cut up meter stick inside it pushing the chest and the back apart to get the hole shaped like an oval instead of a trapezoid.

If it doesnt quite fit could you cut it in half along a logical axis then add a spacer to the piece, done subtly it shouldnt be noticeable, I may have to do this to make it a tiny bit wider yet im not sure.

I did the whole neck piece with that stuff and am happy with the result

 

[Risu]

That definitely sounds like a viable solution.



So since my right bicep piece is almost finished, I think it's time to ask: what type of paint should we use? I've looked through Home Depot and the only orange they have is completely wrong for this. I don't have access to an airbrush, so I have to use spray cans. My only other option is to pay $30 a can to have a custom can of spray paint made for me at a local auto paint store. I couldn't really find a good metallic color either. The closest color-wise looked like the hammered iron (I think that's what it was called) but it has that terrible texture to it.

 

[Datahar]

well I don't actually know if it will work, but I was thinking if i sprayed the paint heavily into a container, I would get surplus paint that could be mixed in to get right shade then could be applied with a brush?



Any feedback from anyone who has tried that would be appreciated.



Should get my torso fully "glassed" tonight, finally found the effort to tackle the fiddly bottom bit of the build.



On a different note would it be possible to see the back of the ingame suit? just wondering if theres any detail there that will need adding in



cheers

 

[Risu]

From what I can tell the CG picture I posted a couple pages ago is pretty accurate on the back of the torso. The handle/vent thing on the back of the pep model shouldn't be there and there are two raised ridges down the sides of the orange area.

 

[null]

That definitely sounds like a viable solution.



So since my right bicep piece is almost finished, I think it's time to ask: what type of paint should we use? I've looked through Home Depot and the only orange they have is completely wrong for this. I don't have access to an airbrush, so I have to use spray cans. My only other option is to pay $30 a can to have a custom can of spray paint made for me at a local auto paint store. I couldn't really find a good metallic color either. The closest color-wise looked like the hammered iron (I think that's what it was called) but it has that terrible texture to it.

I found a pretty spot-on color @ Wal-Mart. Its made by Rustoleum. It's that nice middle orange color without being flourescent or too bright like "Hunter Orange". To get the metallic look you should spray each piece with silver spray paint, then go over it with your other color.

well I don't actually know if it will work, but I was thinking if i sprayed the paint heavily into a container, I would get surplus paint that could be mixed in to get right shade then could be applied with a brush?

Any feedback from anyone who has tried that would be appreciated.

The spraypaint will dry too fast to mix color in and then apply to the suit. It CAN be done, but you'll waste a LOT of paint.