How do I get started with my first build?

[TriAngulum]

I've been wanting to start making a suit for a while but I have never known where to start. I really want to commit this summer. My main problem is, I have no idea where to start at all. I've done a lot of research, but none of it has helped too much. I just need to know how to start making a set of armor, like what materials should I use, what should I build first, cost expectations, etc. Anything I've found so far has either been for specific things in the process or too broad of "start cosplaying" tips to narrow down for a set of Mjolnir. Is there anywhere I could look for a comprehensive get started/first build guide, or can anyone give me actually helpful tips for this?
Some other info:

• Based off my Halo: Reach armor (EOD, Sniper, MkV, Tac/patrol, Bracer, Trauma Kit, FJ/Para, Steel/Maroon) (see attached image)
• I own an Ender 3 V2 3D printer already, which is pretty small for most pieces.
• I'm 6'1", ~160lb, and fairly skinny

 

[SgtSaint]

===========
My regular 'new armorer' post:
===========

Two people the same height still may not have same measurements.
One can have a long shin and the other a long thigh. One is built like a power lifter and the other like a slim swimmer. You have to match each armor part to YOUR body part. Blindly saying that a uniform scale of 103% or whatever is a fairly sure way to have a big pile of recycling. It's really, really common to have to go (as an example) 103% around because you have muscular legs, and only 99% in length to avoid joint conflict. So you have to scale part by part to your body. The most common way to handle this is a program called "ArmorSmith". There's lots of chatter around it still being functional (it is), but there's a summary post for it here:
Armorsmith Discussion | As this is coming up every day, it seems like - let me try to create a compressive post | Facebook
Armorsmith is for both foam and 3d printed sizing.

Not saying: Don't ask
Am saying: There are so many experienced armorers that have poured collective man-years into really good build threads, articles and tutorials filled with do's and don'ts and wish-I-had-knowns that you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading them. A casual afternoon of reading the tales of those that came before you would put you MONTHS further ahead, save you time, money, effort, wastage and exasperation. Not to mention after all those people's hard work making the articles it would be a shame for them to not get read.

Next build your skills. Don't use your helmet or real armor as test parts to learn on if you've never done this before, don't know sanding plastic printed parts etc. Maybe print 20 test XYZ cubes at like 60mm. Use those to learn good sanding, smoothing and painting techniques. If you can't make a flat cube look like metal then you know you aren't ready to tackle armor. Plus you have 6 sides per cube to test painting on and use as a visual record of "This is silver over gloss black" etc.

After the simple cubes move on to a "speed shape". These are commonly used to test paints on over various contours. This gives you a good model to practice sanding more complex shapes with curves and grooves on. Again, you're working up towards the complex shapes of helmets and armor. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4826498

Helmet probably should be last, not first. Yeah yeah, everyone wants a helmet to drool over. But it's the thing everyone stares at so you want to do it AFTER you've developed a process, techniques and skills.
Personally I always recommend starting at the feet & hands then working up & in to the body.
• You're going to weather and distress the boots more than anything else... and they get looked at with the least critical eye.
• Then shins which have to ride on the boots.
• Then thighs since you have to avoid joint conflict so you can sit etc.
• See how this goes? Up from the boots, and inward from the hands to forearms to biceps to shoulders.
• By the time you get to the chest and helmet; the parts at eye level that everyone stares at, looks at first, is right there in your face in every photo - you can make them look stellar.
And if you start at the boots you're looking at parts that are only a day or two per part not 6 days per part. So you can hone your scaling skills.

If you've never done an armor build before you might want your first armor to be one without the really tight tolerances of a Spartan or Ironman. I confess I made about 3 Spartan armors to get my first one right. It was very Goldilocks of "This is too big, this is too small, this is just right" with every part. If I had known then what I learned through the process I would have made The Mandalorian (least actual armor) then an ODST then Spartan and actually gotten 2-3 good wearable costumes instead of a lot of waste. I mean, if you're going to print 3 costumes either way, might well have 3 costumes- instead of 1 + a pile of wrong-sized prints, right?
Least tight of tolerance first, and work towards tightest tolerance.
So like:

1. The Mandalorian
2. Aliens Colonial Marine
3. ODST
4. Spartan
5. Ironman

If you are new to 3d printing or considering buying your first 3d printer just so you can make an armor:
3d printers have come a long way since I started with them in 2009. But they still aren't fully plug-n-play like a department store inkjet: But some of the newest & smallest ones are getting there. There's a lot more to 3d printing than just hitting print: Like knowing your different materials and when to use them. Or knowing when more walls and less infill, or more infill and less walls is the right choice. You should expect there to be a learning curve and at $20/spool that curve comes with a cost. I'm just saying walk into 3d printing with your eyes open.
"What's your printer?" thread on the 405th forum:
What's Your Printer?
I wish I knew this about printers before buying discussion:
"I wish I knew" Tips When Starting to 3d Print

• My favorite section of any YouTuber's channels is the recent post by Frankly Built who is well regarded in this genre - about taking some time to learn before doing:

• He also just added this one about sanding and smoothing where it leans in to the same thing I keep saying: Just sand it (as opposed to the 'slather with thinned bondo magic shell' approach).

Jumping right to armor is really not the best way to go when beginning 3d printing. You really want to work up to something this big and specialized. Work up to things so big that a 3% goof can mean added costs, joints that lock up and you can't bend your elbow etc. Little easy things first… Things with no supports to start. Move up to props like pistols. And keep moving upward over time.
• A few settings differences can be the difference between a part too weak to be used and printing your armor so heavy it's exhausting to wear. The difference between a $10 part and a $40 part adds up to a significant difference over an entire armor.

If it's your first printer taking a hybrid approach can actually save money. Get the small bed printer for home use and see if you even like doing this. Large 500mm-1000mm machines aren't cheap and take up space and fails are proportionately expensive. If you love doing it and can justify the big printer as your second or third machine, go for it. But if you want to make the smaller things at home and outsource the big stuff to a print farm like www.starbase3d.com (mine for transparency) the extra-large printers mean being able to have big armor pieces like legs/chest/back done in strong seamless single-prints instead of several pieces to be glued and blended into invisibility.


From <First build - Noble 6 male armor>

 

[SgtSaint]

There are also a huge number of YouTube channels dedicated to cosplay.

• https://www.youtube.com/@KamuiCosplay
  Amazing foam work.
• https://www.youtube.com/@HawkWorley
  Sewing for cosplay
• https://www.youtube.com/@pandapropsncostumes
  A mix of skills for cosplay
• https://www.youtube.com/@punishedprops
  Foam, printed, metal, leather, modding toys to props

 

[TriAngulum]

===========
My regular 'new armorer' post:
===========

Two people the same height still may not have same measurements.
One can have a long shin and the other a long thigh. One is built like a power lifter and the other like a slim swimmer. You have to match each armor part to YOUR body part. Blindly saying that a uniform scale of 103% or whatever is a fairly sure way to have a big pile of recycling. It's really, really common to have to go (as an example) 103% around because you have muscular legs, and only 99% in length to avoid joint conflict. So you have to scale part by part to your body. The most common way to handle this is a program called "ArmorSmith". There's lots of chatter around it still being functional (it is), but there's a summary post for it here:
Armorsmith Discussion | As this is coming up every day, it seems like - let me try to create a compressive post | Facebook
Armorsmith is for both foam and 3d printed sizing.

Not saying: Don't ask
Am saying: There are so many experienced armorers that have poured collective man-years into really good build threads, articles and tutorials filled with do's and don'ts and wish-I-had-knowns that you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading them. A casual afternoon of reading the tales of those that came before you would put you MONTHS further ahead, save you time, money, effort, wastage and exasperation. Not to mention after all those people's hard work making the articles it would be a shame for them to not get read.

Next build your skills. Don't use your helmet or real armor as test parts to learn on if you've never done this before, don't know sanding plastic printed parts etc. Maybe print 20 test XYZ cubes at like 60mm. Use those to learn good sanding, smoothing and painting techniques. If you can't make a flat cube look like metal then you know you aren't ready to tackle armor. Plus you have 6 sides per cube to test painting on and use as a visual record of "This is silver over gloss black" etc.

After the simple cubes move on to a "speed shape". These are commonly used to test paints on over various contours. This gives you a good model to practice sanding more complex shapes with curves and grooves on. Again, you're working up towards the complex shapes of helmets and armor. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4826498

Helmet probably should be last, not first. Yeah yeah, everyone wants a helmet to drool over. But it's the thing everyone stares at so you want to do it AFTER you've developed a process, techniques and skills.
Personally I always recommend starting at the feet & hands then working up & in to the body.
• You're going to weather and distress the boots more than anything else... and they get looked at with the least critical eye.
• Then shins which have to ride on the boots.
• Then thighs since you have to avoid joint conflict so you can sit etc.
• See how this goes? Up from the boots, and inward from the hands to forearms to biceps to shoulders.
• By the time you get to the chest and helmet; the parts at eye level that everyone stares at, looks at first, is right there in your face in every photo - you can make them look stellar.
And if you start at the boots you're looking at parts that are only a day or two per part not 6 days per part. So you can hone your scaling skills.

If you've never done an armor build before you might want your first armor to be one without the really tight tolerances of a Spartan or Ironman. I confess I made about 3 Spartan armors to get my first one right. It was very Goldilocks of "This is too big, this is too small, this is just right" with every part. If I had known then what I learned through the process I would have made The Mandalorian (least actual armor) then an ODST then Spartan and actually gotten 2-3 good wearable costumes instead of a lot of waste. I mean, if you're going to print 3 costumes either way, might well have 3 costumes- instead of 1 + a pile of wrong-sized prints, right?
Least tight of tolerance first, and work towards tightest tolerance.
So like:

1. The Mandalorian
2. Aliens Colonial Marine
3. ODST
4. Spartan
5. Ironman

If you are new to 3d printing or considering buying your first 3d printer just so you can make an armor:
3d printers have come a long way since I started with them in 2009. But they still aren't fully plug-n-play like a department store inkjet: But some of the newest & smallest ones are getting there. There's a lot more to 3d printing than just hitting print: Like knowing your different materials and when to use them. Or knowing when more walls and less infill, or more infill and less walls is the right choice. You should expect there to be a learning curve and at $20/spool that curve comes with a cost. I'm just saying walk into 3d printing with your eyes open.
"What's your printer?" thread on the 405th forum:
What's Your Printer?
I wish I knew this about printers before buying discussion:
"I wish I knew" Tips When Starting to 3d Print

• My favorite section of any YouTuber's channels is the recent post by Frankly Built who is well regarded in this genre - about taking some time to learn before doing:

• He also just added this one about sanding and smoothing where it leans in to the same thing I keep saying: Just sand it (as opposed to the 'slather with thinned bondo magic shell' approach).

Jumping right to armor is really not the best way to go when beginning 3d printing. You really want to work up to something this big and specialized. Work up to things so big that a 3% goof can mean added costs, joints that lock up and you can't bend your elbow etc. Little easy things first… Things with no supports to start. Move up to props like pistols. And keep moving upward over time.
• A few settings differences can be the difference between a part too weak to be used and printing your armor so heavy it's exhausting to wear. The difference between a $10 part and a $40 part adds up to a significant difference over an entire armor.

If it's your first printer taking a hybrid approach can actually save money. Get the small bed printer for home use and see if you even like doing this. Large 500mm-1000mm machines aren't cheap and take up space and fails are proportionately expensive. If you love doing it and can justify the big printer as your second or third machine, go for it. But if you want to make the smaller things at home and outsource the big stuff to a print farm like www.starbase3d.com (mine for transparency) the extra-large printers mean being able to have big armor pieces like legs/chest/back done in strong seamless single-prints instead of several pieces to be glued and blended into invisibility.


From <First build - Noble 6 male armor>
View attachment 362080

Thanks for the tips. About armorsmith: My parents are pretty hesitant about me doing this and probably won't let me spend much money on it until I'm a decent way through the process. Is there an alternative?

 

[SgtSaint]

Is there an alternative?

There are some other ways to go. You can use Windows 3d builder for example, that's free. But you'll have to find a way to bring in an avatar. A 3d scan of your body for example. But the avatar won't articulate so finding collisions when you are in different poses won't happen. There's CAD programs like Blender that are free. I'm pretty sure there's a sizing tutorial using Blender somewhere on the site here.
For me - here's how I look at it - I think of Armorsmith as free. Its only $40 so when it saves you from wasting 2 spools of filament its already paid for itself. Every bit of waste saved after that puts you further in the black.

 

[valyriel]

There are also a huge number of YouTube channels dedicated to cosplay.

• https://www.youtube.com/@KamuiCosplay
  Amazing foam work.
• https://www.youtube.com/@HawkWorley
  Sewing for cosplay
• https://www.youtube.com/@pandapropsncostumes
  A mix of skills for cosplay
• https://www.youtube.com/@punishedprops
  Foam, printed, metal, leather, modding toys to props

Was gonna suggest Kamui and punished props! They have tons of good info

Figuring out your budget is the first I would do, and then planning out your supplies accordingly.

Then I would dissect the different parts of the costume and figure out how you want to make each one. Make notes on what materials you want to use, and how you're going to attach them (velcro, snaps, buckles, zippers, etc). Rigging and attachments often get overlooked. It helps to plan how you want to get in and out of your cosplay and how you're going to get it to stay on your body before you start working on anything.

Mixing materials is an option, since you said you have a smaller printer. Foam is a common option for cosplay armor, it's comfortable and cheap. There's also pepakura and resin/fiberglass, or worbla/thermoplastics. You can always come back later and improve things.

Take thorough measurements, even if you don't end up using armorsmith or an avatar. Length, width, and circumference for each piece.

Collect any resources you can find online like patterns or 3D models.

Then I'd start actually building. Start with something small and simple that won't be the focal point of your costume. I personally start with legs and work my way up. Be prepared for a lot of trial and error, it's normal.

I always plan my projects out pretty thoroughly and still run into challenges. It's part of the hobby lol, just don't let it discourage you. Cosplay should be fun!