Soft Parts Mission: Make as accurate a Suit as possible.

[tsau mia]

I don't mind at all. I should have even thought of it sooner and done a men's design. If you guys want I can probably work on that next week (this week is really busy!) and that way there is a men's design as well as a women's design.

 

[Erikm1811]

@Ubu-036 - Sure, go ahead man, that's why I threw that pic up, I'm not really sure how much more I'm going to do on the pic myself. And no need to give me any credit on that, I only spent about 1/2 hour in Gimp cutting and pasting and doing a lil fill in on Tsau-Mia's excellent concept, she deserves the credit. Eventually I may color code the drawing a bit for my concept. I plan on making mine out of a combination of Spandex, Cordura, pleather and foam and rubber molds.

@ Mia - If you want to, go ahead, I won't stop you...LOL. No really, it's your concept, so what you come up with will likely be much better than my hack job. Oh, and as a total side q, you say you're in Washington, is that Wa State or D.C.?...Just curious, because I'm 6'4" and 270 or so, I think it would be great to get a pic of us side-by-side in armor. I'm not done with my kit yet, but I expect to be 6'8" tall or more with it all on. If I remember right in one of your posts you said you were like 5' tall or something right?

 

[tsau mia]

Yeah, I'm super-short, so I'll make anyone look a lot taller in their armor. I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve, so I may come in at a 5'8 spartan come Halloween, haha. I'm in Washington State.

 

[smallluke172]

I don't mind at all. I should have even thought of it sooner and done a men's design. If you guys want I can probably work on that next week (this week is really busy!) and that way there is a men's design as well as a women's design.

If this doesn't get in the way of anything i would love to see the male design! i know you would make a better design than i would anyway :L i don't mind waiting for the design if you are busy, thanks anyway

 

[smallluke172]

I have a motorcycle back home where I had a suit of full leathers and it is true that they are designed to keep you cool, that design really only applies to when you are riding at speeds around 30 kmph and above. Wind chill happens at any temperature and leathers or padded motorcycle jackets and pants are used to keep the wearer warmer than they would be without it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't give it a try, but you may want to test it out before altering the leathers for your undersuit, that coupled with the weight could make for some hot armour.

Then again, maybe your dad's leathers are much cooler than mine, I'm from Canada and many companies here tend to insulate stuff more than they need to be. Just my 2 cents....

...Thanks!

yh im in the uk so i dont think they would be designed to insulate too much, but they wouldnt be the ones i would use anyway, he would go mad if i did :L i only put them on i havent worn them for a ride yet, but in a warm kitchen with jeans and a t-shirt on i wasnt hot.

 

[Ubu 036]

Thanks Erikm1811, the design looks good, I wish that my drawing skills were better than they are but I'm working on it. Practice makes perfect and all that.

tsau-mia, That would be great if you could do a male design as well, the more reference material out there the better! I'm not in any rush at the moment as I still have a while to wait before my build starts.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

 

[Satchmo III]

I really like the attention you're giving to the under-suit...I'm in the concept stages of doing a build and intend to follow suit (pun the first). Although it sounds like you'd be cool with it I'm asking for permission to use your sketches to help me develop a plan for my under-suit (and would like to share any ideas I come up with here).

The jump-suit/jacket/tactical-vest idea is great. The ability to customize the Spartan non-armor wardrobe would be cool. If you have any other ideas for a male design please share. If you wind up designing one my main suggestion for the jump-suit lies with the open-back style...there's simply not enough open-back for a guy. Just kidding...I saw Erikm1811 filled in the lower-back area that would be visible with the jacket on and I'd concur that the open-back wouldn't be my preference (filling those spaces with mesh might be an easy enough compromise). The only other issues I see with the multiple layers would be heat and mobility. I know you're looking into breathable/flexible material but I think it's inherent that more layers will add to any existing issues with temperature and movement. Maybe it won't be a biggie, if it is I'm looking forward to seeing how it gets tackled.

I'm slightly vexed about whether to focus on the under-suit before or after the construction of the armor pieces. You mentioned earlier that you're going to figure out how to hide strapping and zippers, I'd like to have an under-suit that effectively integrates armor-mounts and wonder what thought you've given to this. I'd hate to design something cool on the under-suit only to have it rendered ineffective because something doesn't line up quite right with the armor (which is why I think it might be nice to have the pieces made to reference for the under-suit construction). I suppose it's give-and-take either way and everything should work if it's planned out well.

You have a good thread weaved thus far (pun the second).

 

[turtle509]

I really like the attention you're giving to the under-suit...I'm in the concept stages of doing a build and intend to follow suit (pun the first). Although it sounds like you'd be cool with it I'm asking for permission to use your sketches to help me develop a plan for my under-suit (and would like to share any ideas I come up with here).

The jump-suit/jacket/tactical-vest idea is great. The ability to customize the Spartan non-armor wardrobe would be cool. If you have any other ideas for a male design please share. If you wind up designing one my main suggestion for the jump-suit lies with the open-back style...there's simply not enough open-back for a guy. Just kidding...I saw Erikm1811 filled in the lower-back area that would be visible with the jacket on and I'd concur that the open-back wouldn't be my preference (filling those spaces with mesh might be an easy enough compromise). The only other issues I see with the multiple layers would be heat and mobility. I know you're looking into breathable/flexible material but I think it's inherent that more layers will add to any existing issues with temperature and movement. Maybe it won't be a biggie, if it is I'm looking forward to seeing how it gets tackled.

I'm slightly vexed about whether to focus on the under-suit before or after the construction of the armor pieces. You mentioned earlier that you're going to figure out how to hide strapping and zippers, I'd like to have an under-suit that effectively integrates armor-mounts and wonder what thought you've given to this. I'd hate to design something cool on the under-suit only to have it rendered ineffective because something doesn't line up quite right with the armor (which is why I think it might be nice to have the pieces made to reference for the under-suit construction). I suppose it's give-and-take either way and everything should work if it's planned out well.

You have a good thread weaved thus far (pun the second).

what i did was printed out what she drew and then used the scaling method used on the weta odst in the scaling tutorial, but i just used that for the basic shape of the patterns. I have to adjust some of them for width but so far its working out ok

 

[TsunamiX146]

This thread is very useful

 

[tsau mia]

Here you go guys: men's undersuit design. I tried to be true to the screenshots I have, and did you know the men's and women's are fairly different?

This one includes a zipper running down the back for comfort, because wide straps just aren't that manly, and buttons/snaps would hurt really bad after a while, especially under the armor and other bits of undersuit.

Standard Jacket. Made it longer and little more manly. It should go to your natural waist so that it is covered by both the tactical vest and the hard armor. Also, having the elastic at your waist makes it so it doesn't ride up or down, just stays put without more snaps, buttons or zippers.

Last one. The tactical vest is the exact same as the ladies (no discrepancies there), but is a little wider at the shoulders and lower back.

 

[Saggateron]

Oh my god your undersut design looks amazing, I dont want to steal anyones ideas but exactly what materials are you using I've seen that you're using leather, and some metion of foam, also are you makingone complete baselayer or will it be all different parts stitched to each other as opposed to stitched onto a base eg a rashvest or something similar.

I am a complete noob at all this and starting with the undersuit does seem like the right way to go.

thanks for any help you can send and i hope the project is going well.

 

[ventrue]

did you know the men's and women's are fairly different?

So are men and women ;-)

 

[tsau mia]

Haha, true that!

@Saggateron: Go ahead and use it! I made it simply because so many people seemed to like the female version, but most people on here are male, so yeah,

I am using a combination of Black Elastic (for the thinner stretchy areas), spandex (for the bigger stretchy areas), and leather (light grey spots). I may put stretchy spandex as a sort of bias tape between all of the leather pieces, or punch small holes in the leather to accommodate for being too warm. I don't think that will be much of a problem here in Washington State though, seeing as its rainy and cold outside... still. I'm still brainstorming on the strapping. I'll figure it out when I do my second mockup. (First one is a general fit, second is with similar materials to make a pattern, third is final).

As soon as I'm able to get started, I'll post some progress piks as I go along. The going will be pretty slow, so no chances of anyone missing a step. I'm trying to get my sewing guru friend to come help me out, but we'll see. I may have to go at this alone

 

[Ubu 036]

That's looking awesome, thanks for the male undersuit design! Under closer inspection it is clear that a heck of a lot of work is going to have to go into this, I hope that when I start my suit I will be able to see it through to the end. Keep up the great work on this inspirational project!

 

[Erikm1811]

Thanks so much for making the Male version undersuit pics. They look sooo much better than my hackjob on your original female pics...;-)

 

[tsau mia]

Short hiatus on the suit. The sun is finally out, and my neighbors are complaining about the state of my yard, so I have to use daylight to do that. Nighttime will be used to work on the suit.

I'm glad everyone is finding this thread helpful! My timeline says I "should" have this done in a month and a half. Should is in quotes because it is pending with work and yard and life in general. I can however promise that it will be done this year, haha.

 

[surrealsoldier]

Astounding! Its amazing work like this (and others on the form) that inspire creativity and give others the determination to pursue their own creations. Cant wait to start my own project, keep up the good work!

 

[Starvinartist80]

Awesome work. Your dedication too detail is obvious. Will you be attaching the leather to a base or piecing them together into single section of the suit? (ie. jacket, jumpsuit, ect.) If so what material are you using as a base?

 

[BlueSol]

Those are some great pics thanks! Those will help tremendously with the undersuit I'm working on.

 

[LCBeagle]

First of all, nice drawing. I draw Halo stuff, but not this good. Secondly, do you think I could get away with puting small cold-pacs inside the detailing of the under armor?