JudgemetDays Reach ODST (WIP + Pics)

[JudgementDay]

Hey Everyone and by everyone I mean PaiganBoi, because hes the only one that cares xD

But anyway Updates timeeeee.

So even though the title says Reach ODST. I have gotten distracted......oops. (And its my thread? So what you gonna do about it?)
So had an eventful weekend helping out the girlfriend with her costume (Need to get a picture of what we have done so far) but She will be cosplaying as Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy, and managed to convince my brother to dress up this year to come to Armageddon.
Last time we went he didn't dress up, while my girlfriend and I did (As Captain Rex and Jun respectively). He got quite annoyed at everyone asking him to take photos of us that this year he wants in on the action So I am in the middle of designing his Red Hood costume from the Batman/DC Universe for him, Which is also taking up quite a bit of my time too. No pressure to finish all this by mid October or anything lmao.

So for the pictures that I do have, I have caulked out a few more lines in my helmet to try to make it have nicer seams. Im not going for an invisible seam but a nice smooth looking seam to still add the effect of it being planned (That made sense right?).



Its coming along nicely, I am excited to seal it up and paint it and see how it all comes together

Next up we have the Red Hood Mask/Helmet. This was a real change in what I am used to as this design requires it to fit quite close up to the face and snug around the head as to not to make it look bigger than about head size. So that was interesting. Anyone go any thoughts on what my brother should add? Hes pretty much designing it from here I just cut and made the mask (I was wearing it in these photos incase anyone cared).



So thats awesome

Whats next? Body armour hell yeah!

So got these a few years ago, got 2 sets (one for my brother and one for me) it looks really awesome and I think will make a great under suit for my ODST and an awesome Red Hood armour for under his jacket.



Its got a really nice placement of padding and plating, and I really like how the have done the spine (pic 2&3) so hopefully looks and works well under my ODST armour

Lastly, this is probably even more off topic than most of this already was, but anyway, I found some old pictures of my first Cosplay as Jun with my girlfriend as Captain Rex



Man shes a keeper need to put a ring on that soon I think haha
But actually, apart from the helmet, she made it from cardstock with zero SAY AGAIN ZERO!! Pepakura files or help. She looked at reference pictures from the CARTOON. She scaled it perfectly to herself and I am beyond proud of what she did (Thats so crazy man)

Oh and thats my brother xD

I was pretty proud of my Jun Helmet, but thats about it really, wasnt really happy with finished outcome. But got quite a few photo requests so that made it feel alot better haha


So thats pretty much me for now Enjoy the read lmao



PS. I BOUGHT THIS THE OTHER DAY

This is my childhood. In DVD format. I used to come home from school (Im 21 now) and record this show ON VCR TAPES XD so I am currently on this nostalgia trip and happiness is running high!

Thanks for all the support

- JD

 

[PaiganBoi]

I can't be the only one replying...
Hmmmm... I guess I'm your own personal stalker.
The Red Hood helmet looks sweet. The only thing that would need to be fixed is the seam down the middle. It has a pretty large gap and some filler would fix that right up. Of course you would have to repaint.

 

[JudgementDay]

I can't be the only one replying...
Hmmmm... I guess I'm your own personal stalker.
The Red Hood helmet looks sweet. The only thing that would need to be fixed is the seam down the middle. It has a pretty large gap and some filler would fix that right up. Of course you would have to repaint.

That seam was the only part that I was frustrated with :/ using hot glue made it nearly impossible to create a smooth seamless gap. Will have to figure out exactly how I want to fill it to make it look like it was never there haha.

And I appreciate you stalking me so that's fine

-JD

 

[blackout11c]

That seam was the only part that I was frustrated with :/ using hot glue made it nearly impossible to create a smooth seamless gap.

Had you heat-formed the foam first?

 

[JudgementDay]

Had you heat-formed the foam first?

Yea I had heat formed it with the heatgun before I glued it, made it soft and to shape, but after I glued I heated up around the eyebrows and cheeks to shape them out more too. Give it more distinction but probably should have not used hot glue for this seam :/

-JD

 

[JudgementDay]

Right ladies and gentleman

Things that are going on in my world.....Not a whole lot xD I am just lazy :/

But lucky, I am not lazy enough that I havent done actually nothing so here we go.


First up, paint job. I have been tossing around a few ideas on what I would like to paint my armour as. The colours of the shoulder pieces (pictured in the above posts) will be staying like that and that colour scheme is what I will most likely be keeping for my armour. That being said I realllllly love this image that I found online

And being Ex New Zealand Army, I really loved the camo pattern on the forearm gauntlets and the thigh pieces of these ODSTs, while still keeping it plain colours on the rest of the armour.

So here is the results of my attempt at my own camo pattern



Now this was really tricky, as personally I like things to have a symmetrical way about them (while I do like camo patterns personally, I struggled creating my own) and because of this I took me a while to loose the mindset of that Blob doesnt look quite right, it doesnt line up ect. So you need an element of controlled chaos when creating camo because it still needs to have a plan, or a design too it. I cant be completely random, the colours have to have separation, you dont want blobs of the same colour being too close together and so on

I do love the way it turned out though thoughts from anyone out there?

Lastly, I finally remembered to take some pictures of my girlfriends Starlord Helmet from Guardians of the Galaxy, that she will be cosplaying as this year too



Thanks for your time all look forward to hearing from anyone and everyone always open to any questions, ideas or critics from anyone

Thats all for now
- JD

 

[PaiganBoi]

I like the idea of the camo on the forearms and thighs. One criticism I have about your pattern is that it doesn't 'feel' like camo. The blobs seem too large for the part and doesn't have any movement to them. Did you use any references when you dropped your colours? Something like this?

 

[JudgementDay]

I like the idea of the camo on the forearms and thighs. One criticism I have about your pattern is that it doesn't 'feel' like camo. The blobs seem too large for the part and doesn't have any movement to them. Did you use any references when you dropped your colours? Something like this?
View attachment 249385

It was mostly my imagination, I looked at images for basic inspiration, but not for a template or references, just drew on some blob like shapes until I was happy.

I dont really know how I would use a reference like that. How would you do it PaiganBoi? Could you explain abit more indepth? Are my shapes not shapely enough? Too much blobby?

Appreciate the reply man

- JD

 

[PaiganBoi]

Hmmmmm.... How to explain it....
I will try my best to explain my method if I were to do a camo pattern. Using the image I posted as a reference, I would paint in layers. One layer for each colour. First layer would be the OD green. It will the base colour and the next 3 layers will be the shapes. Notice too that the blobs flow in a horizontally. None of them are vertical. The second layer is the tan/beige colour. This layer has the largest sized blobs. The amount of blobs should cover roughly 50% of the area. The next layer will be the lighter green. The blobs should be smaller than the tan. Looking at the reference there are two sizes of the colour. This colour should cover maybe 25 - 30% of the area. Then the last colour is the Dark green and this one will have the smallest blobs and cover 15 - 20%. All the while you have to make sure the layers overlap.
I would paint up an example but, I don't have any paints other than black, grey and white. Lol.

 

[JudgementDay]

Hmmmmm.... How to explain it....
I will try my best to explain my method if I were to do a camo pattern. Using the image I posted as a reference, I would paint in layers. One layer for each colour. First layer would be the OD green. It will the base colour and the next 3 layers will be the shapes. Notice too that the blobs flow in a horizontally. None of them are vertical. The second layer is the tan/beige colour. This layer has the largest sized blobs. The amount of blobs should cover roughly 50% of the area. The next layer will be the lighter green. The blobs should be smaller than the tan. Looking at the reference there are two sizes of the colour. This colour should cover maybe 25 - 30% of the area. Then the last colour is the Dark green and this one will have the smallest blobs and cover 15 - 20%. All the while you have to make sure the layers overlap.
I would paint up an example but, I don't have any paints other than black, grey and white. Lol.

Thats a decent explanation visuals would also be helpful but I will survive I am sure.

So layers aye? So with the gray that you can see on my forearm, that is the base coat. So that part looks correct right? But the black and the light grey/white ones arent because I need to choose which one to do as the second layer?

And with the vertical vs horizontal. Does it matter which one it is? Or that they all flow in the same direction?

- JD

 

[PaiganBoi]

If I were to choose a colour order, I would go with obviously the grey as the base. Then the white next, light grey and the black last. For the vertical vs. horizontal pick one direction and stick with it. That way the flow isn't interrupted. It wouldn't make sense to have the blobs going in different directions.

 

[JudgementDay]

If I were to choose a colour order, I would go with obviously the grey as the base. Then the white next, light grey and the black last. For the vertical vs. horizontal pick one direction and stick with it. That way the flow isn't interrupted. It wouldn't make sense to have the blobs going in different directions.

Didnt realise Camo was so complicated xD

Thanks for all the advice man, appreciate all the help. How much smaller do you think my blobs need to be? I know you gave me some percentages on the last page for the colours, but approximate sizes of individual blobs? So there would be more of the earlier layers colours and less of the top layers correct?

- JD

 

[PaiganBoi]

Okay... So I made an attempt at a camo pattern using Copic markers since I don't have any paint to mock up an example. Please excuse the crappiness of it.
First pick is the first two layers. Base colour and the layer of blobs.

Next layer is a brownish green overlapping the previous layers.

Then the last layer I used a dark grey for the smallest blobs.

Hope this helps give you ideas on how to approach your camo painting.

 

[JudgementDay]

Okay... So I made an attempt at a camo pattern using Copic markers since I don't have any paint to mock up an example. Please excuse the crappiness of it.
First pick is the first two layers. Base colour and the layer of blobs.
View attachment 249397
Next layer is a brownish green overlapping the previous layers.
View attachment 249398
Then the last layer I used a dark grey for the smallest blobs.
View attachment 249399
Hope this helps give you ideas on how to approach your camo painting.

The fact that you did that just for me brings a tear to my eye D: <3

That is a good example I will try to replicate that onto my forearm piece

- JD

 

[JudgementDay]

Doooooooo you think that I need to restart my whole forearm paint? Repaint it all the same base gray and start fresh or somehow incorporate what I have already done?

Cheers PaiganBoi my No.1 fan xD

- JD

 

[PaiganBoi]

Doooooooo you think that I need to restart my whole forearm paint? Repaint it all the same base gray and start fresh or somehow incorporate what I have already done?

Cheers PaiganBoi my No.1 fan xD

- JD

That would be best. Trying to rework what you have would be a pain.

 

[JudgementDay]

That would be best. Trying to rework what you have would be a pain.

I was afraid you would say that D: oh well, I wont hold it against you




much xD


I will report back once it has been done

- JD

 

[JudgementDay]

Greetings mortals, I have returned to grace you all with my presence!

So here is a sweet update I have disregarded PaiganBois advice D: with the camo for now. So dont worry I will address that one day soon.

But I have currently been painting my helmet and it looks siiiick



The white looks a little messy, but that was because it was only one coat on top of the base coat of the gray. Its more of a just to see what it looks like with the colours

Thoughts peoples?
The green foam bits are pieces of 2mm foam that I am using for extra details to add some more depth to areas that seem a little bland.

And here is my tidied up workstation

Here we are

Enjoy everybody

-JD

 

[TheAstroBot]

Lookin' superb so far. Helmet paint is really nice.

 

[JudgementDay]

Lookin' superb so far. Helmet paint is really nice.

Thanks man any improvements?

- JD