How do all of you secure your armor to your bod?

[Phauxelate]

Yup, it's about that time... More research and questions for a new upcoming build!

How do all of you secure your armor to your body?

Thighs, shoulders, shins... You got it, I wanna know it! I'm looking to top my janky nylon strapping that's a pain to put on, and is totally not invisible.

Come forth my little titanium armored dudes of death! Come forth and share your wisdom!

 

[DefineLuck]

My shins and forearms are all secured by foam padding, enough that it secures it in place without twisting or falling out of place. My thighs are secured by loops that attach from the top of the thighs to a belt I wear around my waist. My chest piece, which is in two parts are held together by strong magnets and small bungie rope that connects to the opposing piece where there is a hook. My biceps have a buckle at the top that attaches to the shoulder side of my chest piece, my cod piece is pop riveted on nylon strapping with a parachute buckle.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Magic and unicorn tears.

But for my Master Chief halo 4 build I attached most things directly to the undersuit using a combination of velcro and sew-on snaps. The snaps themselves are invaluable and I strongly recommend them to help with holding things in place. Make sure you get big sturdy ones, though. The weak little ones don't hold up well.

Forearms and shins have padding, like DefineLuck mentioned, though my shins are attached to the thighs as well with elastic.

My helmet is attached to my head with more velcro and snaps drilled into my temples. Nah, I'm just kidding, it's held in place by gravity. ;P

 

[Phauxelate]

Magic and unicorn tears.

For your MLP cosplay?

 

[DefineLuck]

The material you use to make your armor is what will determine how you attach it. I’m not a fan of foam, so both my suits are a mix of pepakura / resin/ 3D print - I just like the hard feeling of the armor. So while it’s much harder to strap than the foam, I like the outcome more

 

[Phauxelate]

The material you use to make your armor is what will determine how you attach it. I’m not a fan of foam, so both my suits are a mix of pepakura / resin/ 3D print - I just like the hard feeling of the armor. So while it’s much harder to strap than the foam, I like the outcome more

I want to at some point mess with 3D printing and fiberglassing... It's just.... 3D printing my suit will take about 45 days of straight printing, and I don't have the proper utilities for fiberglassing. At some point I'll figure out when and how I will.

Also, great pointer of the type of securing is dependent on the type of material. I guess I thought it all boiled down to personal preference. I'm thinking about it, and I don't see where it would matter. Like, would you use elastic for a 3D print, or would there be something better to use such as sew on snaps?

 

[DefineLuck]

I want to at some point mess with 3D printing and fiberglassing... It's just.... 3D printing my suit will take about 45 days of straight printing, and I don't have the proper utilities for fiberglassing. At some point I'll figure out when and how I will.

Also, great pointer of the type of securing is dependent on the type of material. I guess I thought it all boiled down to personal preference. I'm thinking about it, and I don't see where it would matter. Like, would you use elastic for a 3D print, or would there be something better to use such as sew on snaps?

3D printing takes FOREVER, but it’s so rewarding. The pepakura method is even more daunting. Foam will always be the most cost effective, the fastest and easiest...for some reason I just can’t get with it. In the mean time, your gonna get better with foam, and you will find more ways to strap it. If I can give you a piece of advice, make a foam undersuit that your armor attaches too. It will make you look bulkier, one of the key pieces to every halo suit that people miss is the undersuit.

 

[Phauxelate]

3D printing takes FOREVER, but it’s so rewarding. The pepakura method is even more daunting. Foam will always be the most cost effective, the fastest and easiest...for some reason I just can’t get with it. In the mean time, your gonna get better with foam, and you will find more ways to strap it. If I can give you a piece of advice, make a foam undersuit that your armor attaches too. It will make you look bulkier, one of the key pieces to every halo suit that people miss is the undersuit.

Hmmmm. Well, I have a lycra diveskin that I got. I could attach, like, 2mm foam cutouts onto it to make it look nicer

 

[PaiganBoi]

For my ODST, the shins are a combo of friction fit and resting on the boots that I wear (it also keeps them from spinning around.). Thighs are held up by straps that are connected to combat belt that is also what the cod, hip and butt plates are attached to. Forearms are friction fit. Shoulders are are attached directly to shirt via snaps. The body armour is closed up with magnets. Unfortunately the magnets don't quite do the job so, I plan to pull them out and use Velcro instead.

 

[Montique]

Everything on my suit is suspended in place by nylon straps and hangs from the chest piece, waist attaches to chest, thighs attach the waist etc. The straps are measured so that everything hangs where it needs to. The biggest downside is the the whole suit hangs from the chest, so pretty much all the weight is on your shoulders. Not too horrible if your armor is EVA foam but still sucks after 6+ hours.

 

[he4thbar]

This thread is gonna help me a lot, thanks for posting it and thank you all for the responses. Now I just need to figure out what my undersuit will be...

 

[Off Earth]

Elastic Strapping, Nylon Straps and Plastic Clips.

 

[RandomRanger]

I have my thighs suspended with nylon hanging of the waist piece. My shoulders are held in place with nylon hanging from the chest (I've found that while this is a little difficult to clip/unclip, I've found the should straps hold very well and are minimally visible). My shins and forearms are free floating, but tight fitting. I built a strap into my helmet so it would turn when I do, rather than bobble-head on me.

If I remember correctly Spidermonkey60 glues bits to his undersuit, but those may just be the Gen 2 decals.

 

[Elcorio]

The end goal on my ODST was "no straps at all". For my shoulders, I made a simple sleeve modeled after tactical body armor and used velcro to simply attach the shoulder pieces to the sleeve. The sleeve itself was velcroed to my shirt and the bicep strap wrapped around my arm and attached to itself making it it's own stand alone unit. Chest is one complete piece that I slip on like a shirt. Thigh pieces have two 10" strips of 1.5" velcro on the inside and the matching dimensions sewn directly to the pants I wear. Like PaiganBoi, shins rest on top of the boot covers and don't move. Forearms are similar. They slide on and ride against my gloves.

Wore my set for the better part of 7 hours and never once had any discomfort and I loved the idea that no one piece was being supported by another. Except for my feet. Yeah, they hurt after being on them for that long, but Sketcher Memory foam slip ons were a godsend!.

 

[Beemo8bit]

I'm strongly considering having, for want of a better description, squares of cloth with the armour attached to them for all my limbs, and around my stomach and lower back, for my next build. Each will close around it's body area with Velcro. The armour will be attached to these, and where visible, they'll be decorated to look like parts of the undersuit. When these armoured parts unwrap off me, some armour pieces will be a problem because of their inflexible form; to counteract this, I'll build portions of them separately and these will Velcro into place over the gaps after putting the main pieces onto my body. I'm sick of clips and straps, parts moving around, and this will hopefully make it easier for me to put it all on myself. Hope that makes sense (and hope it'll work!!!)

 

[Kenneth Morgan]

I have just started building a suit and was wondering this same question. Want to say thanks to all that responded. This is a great help.

 

[RUST]

For my ODST cosplay I use a variety of parachute buckles, Velcro and elastic strapping to keep the pieces from moving around too much (the Velcro to keep my shoulder pieces in place saves me ALOT of stress haha) . I also recommend using extra soft Velcro strips or extra foam to prevent certain armor pieces from rubbing a lot during extended wear.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

I have the motorcross chest/arms and a pistol suspension belt. Everything is bolted to those. The armor portion of my suit weighs about 40 lbs.

Things that are not directly bolted to my underarmor (thighs and shins) are suspended by nylon straps to something that is bolted (cod piece).

 

[Justin Ghazal]

I just use straps with buckles and a lot made to fit snug