mupchurch ODST First Build

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mupchurch

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Hello everyone - new guy here. This is my first time making a cosplay, let alone a foam armor. I've done some papercraft and miniature painting in the past so I feel like I've got some skills that will transfer but I'm looking forward to giving this a shot.

Anyway - I figured the best place would to to hit up a tutorial and came on Andrew DFT's templates. Three bucks later and I'm helmet building for the first time. I finished my first piece and wanted to follow all the way through to painting first.

Anyway, the helmet came out a little ... lopsided? Any suggestions on how to even it up at this point would be good to hear. I tried to heat gun it and shape it some more to even it up, but no dice. I'm considering just living with it until I finish the build and then come back and get another helmet made once I've got more experience? Worst case the kiddoes have a sweet helmet. Anyway - advice would be great!


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We'll work continues and I tried to correct some of the lopsided top by really aggressive bending and cutting a little out of the connection to the side plate on the left side and then hot glueing it back down to try and pull it a little. Still lopsided but not as bad now? Anyway I'm in the first stages of painting with the rattle cans so I thought I'd drop a pic.

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First I sprayed the area's I wanted red then I used painters tape to block them off . Then I came in with the lighter grey and pealed the tape.

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Next steps are washing highlights and weathering .
 
Painting is done waiting on the seal to dry before I install the face plate .I'm starting with the plastic folder visor till I can work up the courage to try for something fancier. I think I like the color scheme. Used stipling with a lighter color, washes for seams and cracks, and then drybrushing to get the final effect .

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Okay. Helmet is finished now and I'm ready to move on to the chest piece.

I used my Silhouette to make some stencils for the lettering I added to the helmet, then installed the visor I cut our of plastic folder material. Used some paint on the edging of the visor to give it some "pop." All said and done, for my first build I'm pretty proud of it, and only expect things to get better as I progress.

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Well some disappointment tonight. I build out the chest piece tonight and my suspicions regarding the tightness of the helmet fit were confirmed - this suit is too small for me. The good news is that it fits my wife just fine, and I'm having a good time building it. So instead of starting over - I'm going to finish the build and mark it down as practice for my next project (and it feels like there will be a next project).

Anyway here are some pics of my progress:
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So instead of starting over - I'm going to finish the build and mark it down as practice for my next project (and it feels like there will be a next project)

That's the spirit! We don't make mistakes, we make Fireteams!

Mis-scaled armour just means you have to find appropriately sized friends and family.
 
Finished the chest plate build and got my new armor recipient to do a test fit. Going to start the painting process on it tomorrow - and I've got a long weekend where the family is headed out of town so I intend to make lots of progress. Also - my hobby knife sharpener arrived in the mail, and boy did it make a difference. I was able to get some really clean cuts by sharpening more frequently. I'm getting more accustomed to different ways to get angled cuts and really feel like I'm getting better as I go along. Hopefully lots of updates to come this weekend.

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Well progress continues. Decided to make a last ditch effort to see if I could wear the costume by cutting open the side panel of the chest piece and installing a strap. The strapping went well, and the chest piece fits very very snugly ..... but there is no way in hell the arm guards are fitting on my arms even with adjustment so looks like I'm still giving the suit to the wife.

In any case, I finished painting the ab and butt plates, and constructed the arm guards last night. I've got the base coating down on the shoulders, but I'm going to wait and finish painting those at the same time I finish off the arm braces. I'm in the home stretch with everything from the waste up being completed today. I've got thighs, knees, shins, and feet left to build. If I'm really cool I can get all that constructed today and complete the painting tomorrow. Then when my wife returns from her trip I can strap and fit the costume and start to shop for undergarments.

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Hoo boy what a day. Finished building all the parts, and painting everything from the waste up. The rest of the parts are drying from the plastidip and I intend to have everything painted tomorrow so when the fam jam get's home we can start fitting the armor and strapping it up. After I'm done painting I guess it's time to make some weapons. I'm really pretty happy with how it is turning out, and more than a little jealous that I won't get to wear it.

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Your weathering makes this build stand out and look so amazing! What is your weathering process ?
 
Thanks pipninja! My painting process consists of coating the foam with Plasti-dip, then once that dries I paint on a darker red color where I want the red to go. I wait for that to dry nicely then tape it up with painters tape and spray on a slightly darker grey.

One those have both dried I have a lighter red and grey acrylic paint that I apply by "stippling" which is what give is the faded weathered look. Basically I've got a stiff round brush about 1/2 - 1 inch in diameter that I apply some paint to the tip of and then bat off some to a towel. Then I essentially stab the foam a billion times with the highlight color focusing on more coverage away from the join lines.

Once that is done I get some silver on a big brush and wipe most of it off before drybrushing the edges and seam lines of the costume to get the silver weathering on the edges. Then I apply whatever stencils are needed by stippling them on with a smaller brush.

Hope that helps!
 
Well that's done and dusted - final parts painted and now it's down to fitting the straps and accessories. This is my first full sized - adult foam costume. I started the build on the 8th, so that puts me at a week and day to get all the armor built and painted. Once my lucky recipient get's home from her trip I'l start fitting it on her and getting some shots of the armor being worn. In the meantime - here is what I've got:

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My armor bearer has returned home so I got the straps installed and we did a test fit. Some of the straps were a little long so we stuffed some t-shirts in for the picture. Without knowing how much the underclothes we select will bulk her up I think we will wait to shorten the straps. I've also got a helmet mic and voice amplifier in the mail so that should be pretty cool as well. Once she had it on she said "I fell pretty bad ass" so I'm going to take that as a win.

I've got the assault rifle plans printed out and I'm going to start working on her armaments. Meanwhile I've started a side project of making my kids some swords - so that should be fun. My youngest girl wants a red power ranger power sword, and my eldest girl wants Nella the Princess Knights sword. So I'm taking a detour to sword town and then I'm back at this to finish the accessories and underclothes. Then I've got to pick a project for myself ;)
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Well I've been a busy bee this week. Family got home from their trip and I promised my girls some play ready swords - the Red Power Ranger Sword, and Nella the Princess Knight. After freehanding up those patterns and building them early in the week I started making the assault rifle to arm my wife. Friends came over and had to see everyone kitted up so I got a dangerous looking family photo.

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Next I got to finishing the prop weapon. I ended up repainting the middle section as I didn't like the messy scratched look and went over it with a silver sharpie to really make the detail lines pop. All in all for my first prop gun it's passable, but I'm really feeling like I need a band saw and belt sander to smooth things out. I tried sealing it up as best as I could but in general I'm not happy with the cleanliness of any of the props - even with a dremel sanding for the swords I feel like I'm missing something. More sealing, more sanding, more finishing? Dunno.

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Anyway my headset mic came in and we took a trip to the army supply store and got some tactical pouches, some BDU bottoms, then a turtleneck, golves, and boots from the thrift store. Hoping to do a full fitting and get a "finished" picture some time later tonight.
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Well, now that the first suit is complete I'm continuing on to try and scale one to fit me. I'm applying my learnings from the first suit as well as adding in some additional details pieces. I'm going to try and snatch an airbrush and try some new paint techniques this time around before moving on to a pep build of some kind.

Previous helmet included for comparison .
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Well, now that the first suit is complete I'm continuing on to try and scale one to fit me. I'm applying my learnings from the first suit as well as adding in some additional details pieces. I'm going to try and snatch an airbrush and try some new paint techniques this time around before moving on to a pep build of some kind.

Previous helmet included for comparison .View attachment 260363 View attachment 260364

Getting an airbrush is game changing! Being able to add in gradients and highlights based on direction of air is fantastic. The only downside is the increased amount of painters tape and more time spent on masking off sections.
 
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