Master Chief Mark IV build - first build

[swisherteets]

I am fairly new to the site I have been lurking for a couple of months reading up on the stickies and browsing threads of other peoples work before I started my own.
I found you guys through you tube. I saw some videos of armor there and thought it could make for a fun hobby.

I have posted in the introduce yourself thread also

As far as my build goes I plan to start with a Master chief build first. I chose to start in a different spot than others: the undersuit. (As I was waiting on my craftrobo to show up (which I am having a few issues with now that it has but I will post a help needed thread for that) and I wanted to be sure that I could make a decent undersuit to go with the armor. Here are some initial pictures of the work I have done. Some parts are a little crude the way I do them but it seems to be working out so far.

So here goes:

Before anything if you do not have a sewing machine dont even try this. It would be a nightmare to hand sew and you really couldnt super glue an entire suit it just wouldnt work lol

The first thing I did was find a shirt that was old and kind of tight that I could destroy.
I drew out roughly what I was looking for in the undersuit patterns.

Then cut it in half

Then I cut up the patterns and laid them out on tagboard (folders) and traced them out (these are great because you can use the fold in them to cut out the symetrical pieces)

I then took those patterns and traced them out on the back of the material I am using. I used a "pleather"/vinyl that I found from Walmart. I had gotten some at Jo'Ann fabrics but it was expensive and really really heavy. this stuff was like a tenth of the cost lighter and looked the same.

Make sure that you also rough out a "border" around each piece and cut on those lines not the actual size of the piece. This is so that you have tabs to sew (or superglue) the piece to the chest.(you will see what I mean later on)

I then found another donor shirt and cut it up as seen below then used that to cut out the main section of the undersuit and sewed it as seen below

i will be posting more soon, If you guys have any questions please feel free to ask, I dont have any patterns electronically unfortunately.
it is nice to finally be posting some progress

thanks

 

[AceNat]

interesting, i haven't seen someone start a build with the undersuit first!
im looking forward to seeing how this turns out.. i like seeing how people do their own custom undersuit. so good luck!

 

[The Black Hatter]

Yeah, gotta agree with AceNat. Never seen anyone start with this, never-the-less make it them selves. Pretty cool. Will the Pleather be bulky enough to be a under suit or it is more looks.

 

[swisherteets]

Yea I like to be different lol but my thoughts on it were that for me it was the part I was most concerned about being able to make So I figured I would get it out of the way and it would alow me to better scale my armor too.

The pleather itself is pretty thick. but for the armor pieces themselves I will either pad it or layer the material.
it will give it that tiered look.

I do have some more progress pics that I plan to post when I get back home from work.

 

[swisherteets]

I am not sure how well these pictures show it but I have began to sew some of the underarmor pieces together

And then I added just some pieces of t-shirt in the sides of the chest to attache the 2 and give it a little bit of stretch until i figure out how big it needs to be

and the shoulders sewn up

for some reason i didnt take any pics (or cant locate them) of attaching/sewing the armor sections onto the chest
But heres what it looks like with them attached partially and padded

A side note on sewing this material, especially when you have layers of it and padding. It becomes a terror to sew and deal with. It does what it wants and goes where it wants. It is very difficult to keep lined up in the machine. Also the machine feed dogs do not move the material well when it is layered/padded and you have to pull it through. This starts to casue problems because if you pull to hard then you break sewing machine needles and not hard enough and it wont feed and it jams up and knots up.

Any queations or comments please feel free to do so.
the rest of tonight I am going to be working with the dang craftrobo trying to troubleshoot.

 

[Scrub]

Amazingly put together, can't wait to see the finished look!

 

[swisherteets]

Thanks for the compliments

heres some more pics

this is with it on me...dang beer gut

and here is the start of the back padding, a lot of this padding had to be superglued on as like the front i really wanted to try and have no seems showing for this padding.

and a shot with it on.
its tight but not really tight

And i couldnt sleep last night so I started in on the neck too. Surprisingly a lot easier than i thought it would be.
I did this one a bit different to sart as the tag board folders you cant really fold around the neck for test fitting I used the material for dialing in the pattern I needed

here is some of the mock up pieces pinned in place

Final pieces done up:

I will get more progress pics up as I get more done and get the time.

Comments and critisism and suggestions are always welcome.


So far there is several Rookie mistakes but I have been able to replair most or mask them and the rest will probably be covered by the armor.

As far as using superglue on this vinyl pleather stuff it works REALLY well but dont use very much at all when you are glueing seems. It will make the material stiff and actually crack if you try to bend it. Less is definately more here.
Also the CA glue that I use gets SUPER hot when it cures on the stuff and to much has actual deformed/melted the material.

 

[Tyvern]

Nice job man really digging it!

 

[RoxyRoo]

It's interesting to see someone else's method. About the glue stuff, fabric glue is the best. It may take a while to dry, but it won't ever come off like hot glue. Since it's near october, I would suggest looking in the halloween fabrics for this stretchier, thinner pleather. It gives easier to the sewing machine and is much more forgiving, and also doesn't have that hot, cotton fuzz on the back. Which reveals another problem, how are you planning on venting? Vinyl doesn't breath at all so something must be done to keep you from overheating.

Overall, it looks quite nice. Keep up the good work!

 

[swisherteets]

Yea i tried the fabric glue and didnt feel like waiting for it, then I saw some you tube video where someone used super glue so I tried out the CA (Cyanocrylate sp?) glue I had lying around from my table top gaming i do and it has worked out quite nicely. The heat from it comes from how it cures. It is an exothermic reaction (I am definately not using hot glue though)

as far as the venting That is a VERY good question. I am not totally sure yet. I do have some underarmor which will help a lot. It will also keep from having to deal with the itchy cotton backing to the vinyl I used underarmor back in high school for football and man it made life a lot easier. I am thinking that the arm pits I will use a mesh material in and I plan to cut the center of the chest out (same with the back) I am also thinking that once I will make the sleeves completely and then make the armor for them and see where I can patch in mesh material where it wont be seen.

In the end too I probably wont be wearing the suit for long periods of time (to busy with work to go to conventions)

Thanks for the input guys I really apreciate it.

 

[KeXun]

interesting u know i think im goin to do the same thing with my undersuit

 

[swisherteets]

Ok so here goes I have sewed the neck pieces together. I did this by sewing another piece between each neck pattern.

I sewed the bottom "triangular" sides together first and then sewed the smaller vertical components together (the best way I can explain it) what this does is give the "conical" shape to it that will wrap around my neck.

Here it ispinned onto the suit, This is from the back side
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g115/swisherteets/Master%20cheif%20suit/2010-08-25_18-33-58_686.jpg[/IMG]


These next set of pictures I have started to work on the "pleated"? sides that will run down the side of teh suit and up the sleeves.
i started out pinning them and sewing them but didnt like the look.

So i chucked that idea and went with the superglue and it gave me the effect I was going for

I then folded over the edges of these pieces and sewed them down.
Here is where ya gotta be really careful because if you have any major areas of heavy superglue and you try to sew over them along with it being 4 layers deep you WILL break your needle

Here they are pinned to the suit in position.

Here it is very painfully tried on..... man those pins hurt

here I have cut out some strips for the sleeves.....
these have proven to be EXTREMELY difficult to put together and get the look I am going for.

After some more Very painfull trying on attempts (those pins really do suck lol)
I have come up with a way that I think will work for me.

in these pics you can also see the neck has been sewn on and the top hem line of the neck has been trimmed and shaped (I thought I had more pics of this I will get more up later) And the zipper has been added in the back.

The side stripping has also been sewn on

Front

Back

 

[swisherteets]

Sorry for 2 posts in a row guys but the pic limit yelled at me. Hope its ok for me to double post to get everything in:

On one side of the suit I only sewed (sp? looks weird) one side down and the back part of it will use velcro. This is because I have removed the stand in t-shirt pieces now that the size is right and I have added in a zipper. I wasnt to concerned with this area being "pretty" as it will never be seen when worn. The Zipper goes up the entire length and makes it ten thousand times easier to put on.

this is where I am at as of now because i have broken all of my needles. this fabric really needs a 90-16 needle not 90-14.
So i have gotten my Craft robo working and I think the rest of the day will consist of cutting out a test chest piece that I have scaled. Or more sewing if I pick up some more needles at walmart.

please feel free to ask questions as always

thanks for looking

 

[MC847]

awesome! I need to try this method of armor making and see where it will go. I thought I would have to find and buy the armor before I found out about this site. Really awesome. I want to see how it turns out before I make my own suit. Thumbs up!

 

[pendy]

This build is amazing. I love the originality of it and good luck with the rest of your project

 

[warlickjacoby]

there is an art to undersuit making!

 

[swisherteets]

sorry for the couple days without updates guys.
Had to buy a new printer, Buy new sewing machine needles, Preorder the new Reach system and go to the movies and wash my new car...

I got some pep work done and tried my hand at the HD chest, I didnt take any pics cause it was about 3 inchs to large in the waste and I made it out of regular paper as it was just a test piece. Over all though i got the hang of pepping it I think and am much more comfy now.

As for the undersuit, heres a few picture updates

The sleeves are TERRIBLE to SEW, like really really difficult but I got them sewn together and sewn onto the suit. As far as any scematic or rhyme or reason to them they were just a lot of trial and error and I am still not 100% happy with them but they will do.
Right now they are purposefully short as I am not sure how much I will be adding onto the end until after the armor pieces are on.

 

[Pipinacan]

zomg nice stang! the undersuit is looking awesome! wish I had the patience to sew me up one lol

 

[cr1tterp0wer]

Great work man! lots of skill here

 

[AceNat]

nice undersuit!
and even nicer car !!

your undersuit looks like its going to get very hot though..