So I had decided I wanted to do a costume for Dragoncon this year since I hadn’t done one in a while (A few years back I did the Gir in my profile pic). After a little research on the interwebz about the best way to go about this, I stumbled upon this site. Like most people, my first thought was ‘how good can paper armor possibly be?’ but it was hard to argue with the results. The more pics of people’s armor I saw on here, the more convinced I was that this would be the way to go. Unfortunately by the time I started, I had a very aggressive time table to keep if I wanted to make my deadline and there were several points where I was certain I would not make it in time. From the physical start of pepping the armor to finish, my total build time was 9 weeks and 4 days. In the end I had to cut a lot of corners and I’ll definitely be going back and revising my process and improving my armor for next year, but considering the steep learning curve, overall I am pleased with ver. 1.0 of my Fallout Enclave armor. I had never worked with pepakura, fiberglass, or bondo before so it was quite a learning experience which I have you guys to thank for!
First, I did an alien blaster just to make sure the pepakura process was as reliable and appealing as it appeared.... It was:
I did this without color printing, or bondoing the finished piece or anything and it shows. It was more of a ‘proof of concept’ for me than anything. In retrospect, I think I may do a nicer version and cast it because it’s such a simple and iconic weapon of the game.
Onto the armor... just getting the pep files functional was an endeavor in and of itself. There was a lot of trial and error on both scaling it and fitting the pieces to me. I had to teach myself Blender to alter the models since most of the original files are not fit for human physiology. I had to redo certain pieces several times and I will probably go back and redo most of these for ver. 2.0 Unfortunately, I didn’t take too many pics since I was in a time crunch to get it done for the con, but I have some pics of various states of completion.
After finally getting everything pepped:
Notice a few pieces are already resined at this point. I was resining pieces during the day and working on pep at night as time allowed. And I have no reason why I decided to use blue cardstock for the helmet.
Then came the fiberglass:
I have decided I dislike this stuff immensely, but it certainly filled an important function. Sadly, by the time I got to the bondo phase, I was so pressed for time that taking pics was completely forgotten. The next time I was calm enough to think about taking pics of it, I had finshed bondo, sanding, painting, and strapping and was finally at Dragoncon!
So here it is laid out on my bed in the hotel room:
Front
side
And here’s what it looked like once I got it on:
Front
Side
Back
All-in-all, I am happy with how it turned out, but I really half-assed several things and it is clearly incomplete in certain aspects. Note: I’m wearing my work boots because the armor boots weren’t finished enough to be very functional. Also the hoses are connected in the wrong places because they were interfering with the helmet. And a balaclava woulda helped, but I didn’t have time to get one (yes, the hair in the back is my ponytail sticking out). I left the light on the top center of the helm open to allow for a little air flow (emphasis on little) and never completed the round parts on the inside of the horns on the helmet (if you’re very familiar with the game you can tell, otherwise you’d probably never notice). The belt was also not finished since I wanted to do it in foam. And don’t even get me started on the paint job. I didn’t have time to properly weather it or even finish highlights like making the front respirator a lighter shade. But even considering those mistakes and omissions, I think it came out well.
Here are a couple close-ups of the helmet just so you can see how badly it was rushed and thus how half-assed the detailing is:
Front
Side
So, like I said; overall not a bad first attempt. I certainly think it went easier than if I had built a body cast and hand sculpted everything and I think future projects will be easier especially since learning Blender consumed such a large portion of my build time. But what do you all think? Did I do a decent enough job on it? Constructive criticism anyone? I look forward to hearing everyone’s comments and observations…
First, I did an alien blaster just to make sure the pepakura process was as reliable and appealing as it appeared.... It was:
I did this without color printing, or bondoing the finished piece or anything and it shows. It was more of a ‘proof of concept’ for me than anything. In retrospect, I think I may do a nicer version and cast it because it’s such a simple and iconic weapon of the game.
Onto the armor... just getting the pep files functional was an endeavor in and of itself. There was a lot of trial and error on both scaling it and fitting the pieces to me. I had to teach myself Blender to alter the models since most of the original files are not fit for human physiology. I had to redo certain pieces several times and I will probably go back and redo most of these for ver. 2.0 Unfortunately, I didn’t take too many pics since I was in a time crunch to get it done for the con, but I have some pics of various states of completion.
After finally getting everything pepped:
Notice a few pieces are already resined at this point. I was resining pieces during the day and working on pep at night as time allowed. And I have no reason why I decided to use blue cardstock for the helmet.
Then came the fiberglass:
I have decided I dislike this stuff immensely, but it certainly filled an important function. Sadly, by the time I got to the bondo phase, I was so pressed for time that taking pics was completely forgotten. The next time I was calm enough to think about taking pics of it, I had finshed bondo, sanding, painting, and strapping and was finally at Dragoncon!
So here it is laid out on my bed in the hotel room:
Front
side
And here’s what it looked like once I got it on:
Front
Side
Back
All-in-all, I am happy with how it turned out, but I really half-assed several things and it is clearly incomplete in certain aspects. Note: I’m wearing my work boots because the armor boots weren’t finished enough to be very functional. Also the hoses are connected in the wrong places because they were interfering with the helmet. And a balaclava woulda helped, but I didn’t have time to get one (yes, the hair in the back is my ponytail sticking out). I left the light on the top center of the helm open to allow for a little air flow (emphasis on little) and never completed the round parts on the inside of the horns on the helmet (if you’re very familiar with the game you can tell, otherwise you’d probably never notice). The belt was also not finished since I wanted to do it in foam. And don’t even get me started on the paint job. I didn’t have time to properly weather it or even finish highlights like making the front respirator a lighter shade. But even considering those mistakes and omissions, I think it came out well.
Here are a couple close-ups of the helmet just so you can see how badly it was rushed and thus how half-assed the detailing is:
Front
Side
So, like I said; overall not a bad first attempt. I certainly think it went easier than if I had built a body cast and hand sculpted everything and I think future projects will be easier especially since learning Blender consumed such a large portion of my build time. But what do you all think? Did I do a decent enough job on it? Constructive criticism anyone? I look forward to hearing everyone’s comments and observations…
