My (almost) completely custom 3d printed armor (mk 5 v4)

[Zippyzeek]

Hello everyone!

I'm new here and am very excited to share my passion for building and designing armor just like all of you!

This is a build I have been working of years! (Around 5). I am very happy with how it has turned out and I am very proud of it! The only pieces I didn't design and model myself are the shoulders, forearms gloves, boot armor and sort of the undersuit.

Although I am happy with the costume there is still much room for improvement and that's what I'm working on right now! So, if you have any suggestions or recommendations for any thing go ahead and tell me! I'm always looking for ways to learn and improve.

Some of the upgrades I'm doing are:
I'm redoing the gloves, as of right now they aren't super flexible or very comfortable, they don't have touch screen capabilities and fall apart easily. I hope I can remedy all of these problems while still making the gloves as good if not better.

I'm redoing the helmet so there is fans to cool me down and defog the vizor, speakers so people can hear me better, lights so I can see in the dark, wireless switches and a couple other things.

I'm redoing the entire chest and back pieces as they're simply not well built and designed. (If you have suggestions for how to connect the chest and back together in a way you can take them apart later I would appreciate that)

I'm redoing the undersuit completely! This is the most ambitious as I want to make as photo real as possible while it is still very comfortable and flexible. The current undersuit is fine but it doesn't look great up close, it's not the most comfortable and it's getting pretty worn down.

I'm adding water cooling, that will hopefully help a huge amount with heat because the new undersuit is most likely going to be thicker and therefore even hotter.

Finally, I plan on adding a small touch screen to the forearm piece. This will wirelessly control a large amount of the electronics such as the water cooling, fans in the helmet, LEDs and other things.

I believe that is all of the major upgrades I'm doing, I would love to talk with you guys about this and you're armors and please ask all the questions you want! (I put pictures of the sketches for the new gloves and undersuit if you want to critique those).

 

[PlanetAlexander]

That looks amazing! And your sketches are so detailed too

 

[Zippyzeek]

That looks amazing! And your sketches are so detailed too

Thank You! I was a little worried the sketches would be kinda hard to understand what's going on so I appreciate it.

 

[Cappyace86]

I'm super jealous of the fact you can kneel. Your kit looks awesome though, and I look forward to those upgrades!

 

[Zippyzeek]

I'm super jealous of the fact you can kneel. Your kit looks awesome though, and I look forward to those upgrades!

Haha Thanks! I made flexibility one of the biggest priorities while designing everything. But to be honest, I had no idea if the armor could take the weight of me kneeling so I was stressing hard while that picture was taken. (durability is still something I'm working on).

 

[N8TEBB]

Very cool suit! I’m interested in seeing how you tackle all those electronics. I love all the ideas you have for upgrades!

A lot of members do a clam-shell method for making the back part of the torso piece removable. For myself, the back part can not come all the way off, rather it can hinge up a little bit to allow me to take it on and off. I know that other members however have put clips near the shoulders AND on each side, so the entire back piece can come off. For example, JTF4 (the blue Spartan), you can see the clips on each side of his shoulders.

 

[Zippyzeek]

Very cool suit! I’m interested in seeing how you tackle all those electronics. I love all the ideas you have for upgrades!

A lot of members do a clam-shell method for making the back part of the torso piece removable. For myself, the back part can not come all the way off, rather it can hinge up a little bit to allow me to take it on and off. I know that other members however have put clips near the shoulders AND on each side, so the entire back piece can come off. For example, JTF4 (the blue Spartan), you can see the clips on each side of his shoulders.

Thank you! I'll be sure to post about the electronics when I get to them. Right now we're trying to figure out how the touch screen and water cooling system will work.
As far as the chest attaching/detaching I like the idea of having them completely detachable although I'll do the clamshell method if that doesn't work out. My question for using buckles is how do I attach the male buckle securely on the Armor. The male buckle doesn't have a lot of surface area to grab on to and I'm worried it will come of. Do you have any ideas to make it have a stronger connection? I only have one other idea which is a puzzle piece design but that has its own problems. I very quickly sketched out the buckle problem and my puzzle piece idea.
btw I love your about making a visor vid and tutorial and I'm using your method for my visor, post pictures of it when I've finished.

Thanks again!

 

[N8TEBB]

Hmm perhaps is you connected the clip to a strap that was connected to the inside of the armour?

I know other members also use magnets and such, I think Rock Lobbster explains how he did it in his build thread: Mark VII Spartan V Megurine Luka

 

[Zippyzeek]

Hmm perhaps is you connected the clip to a strap that was connected to the inside of the armour?

I know other members also use magnets and such, I think Rock Lobbster explains how he did it in his build thread: Mark VII Spartan V Megurine Luka

Alright I'll check it out thanks!