My Custom Build (Armoury Spartan)

[Toacrabman]

Well so far youve got the easy parts pep'd.
The helmet and arms are easy to scale, but the torso and legs just suck to scale.
Thats why im gonna use EVA foam and scratchbuild.

 

[Spitfire22V]

I've read up on the cloth, and it's stronger but about twice as costly. I'll try tomorrow using the fibreglass the other way wound, but I think I can further improve the neatness by stippling rather than "painting" it (As suggested in the sticky threads).

Where are you getting your fiberglass from? When I did my suit, I used the Bondo-brand of fiberglass packets available at Wal-Mart and Lowes, etc. As I recall, the cloth packets were the same price as the mat packets. I personally greatly prefer cloth to mat; it's just neater.

When applying resin to the fiberglass, I tend to use short quick, but gentle, jabs at it. Not a lot of painting strokes until the cloth is saturated with resin and I'm evening out the layer.

 

[Toacrabman]

Yeah dont really try to brush fiberglass after its been put in place, because that will move it. Just dab it, and that actually keeps it in place. I actually like to glue down the corners, then resin, and it all stays in place, so i dont have to position the fiberglass, i can just resin it and im done.

 

[thorn696]

Yeah dont really try to brush fiberglass after its been put in place, because that will move it. Just dab it, and that actually keeps it in place. I actually like to glue down the corners, then resin, and it all stays in place, so i dont have to position the fiberglass, i can just resin it and im done.

Toacrabman gives very good advice, This is one of the best ways of doing the cloth.

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

Where are you getting your fiberglass from? When I did my suit, I used the Bondo-brand of fiberglass packets available at Wal-Mart and Lowes, etc. As I recall, the cloth packets were the same price as the mat packets. I personally greatly prefer cloth to mat; it's just neater.

All the stuff I have so far has come from a GRP composites company that molds things like bath tubs (I'm guessing anyway.. I dont actually know what they make), so I'm unable to identify the brand, although the fibreglass seems very low gsm (A 15cm by 500cm section weighs just 24 grams, putting it at just 32 gsm). I'll leave it at one layer for the handplayes, but either get some stronger fibreglass or many layers for the helmet and torso in particular. This is probably why it disintegrates so easily!

The helmet and arms are easy to scale, but the torso and legs just suck to scale.

I re-scaled my old bicep piece, to 85%, and I'd rather have gone with 90% now (It's a bit tight near the elbow). I havent been scaling anything up till now, but luckily the default thigh piece was my exact size! It's a shame not all modellers use the same scale (Ie, everything in its default state is perfect for an average build 6' person). Do you have any tips for scaling the torso, because at 38 pages of A4 (Default size) I do NOT want to have to re-size it!

In the instances where I have scaled things, I've usually uesd my player model to work out the scale factor between pieces I allready know are correct, but this is a bit tricky for the torso.

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

Another method of scaling that I forgot to mention was to slide the "angle viewer" in pepakura viewer all the way to the right, then zoom out till the model is about 200 pixels across (This reduces the perspective to a minimum while giving a high enought resolution to take following measurements). I then work out the internal diameter in pixels, the overall diameter in pixels, and use the ratio of them both to find the inner diameter in cm.

Once I determine the size I need it to be on the inside, I can scale it appropriately. This means I can be sure it will actually fit me, and not just look the right size on the outside.

On the topic of the torso piece, I haven't been able to find any mention of how to actually put it on. Unless people make their own detachable under-arm segments, it seems it would be very difficult to put it on, as it has no flex in it (Even more difficult with files that have the black "padded" section around the arms as part of the pepakura, eg L3X BLU3R1V3R's model).

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

Apologies for triple post, but I just thought I'd say I've upscaled L3X BLU3R1V3R's torso V3 from 443 to 470 mm high (Correct scaling for me I think), while managing to reduce the page count from 37 to just 34. Two of the pages have items that can barely be fit on the paper, and throughout the rest of it all pieces border very close to the margins (several mm spare), so may cause printing issues).

If anyone's interested in this send me a message. May save you a couple of hours of resizing and rearranging!

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

Okay... right bicep and shoulder resized, so the WIP picture is actually correct for now. I've downsized the bicep and enlarged the CQC shoulder, which looks pretty huge now (Although on my arm it matches my spartan perfectly!

What do you fellow 405th'ers do with redundant pep piecs? It seems an awful shame to throw them away given the time that goes into each piece. If there were a local pepakura club it would be great to give random bits to people for free or for a small donation and save them being wasted, but there's nothing like that here. Might put them on Freecycle or something!

 

[thorn696]

You're new parts look great. As to what to do with all the spare parts. I'm holding out on mine to take a pic on how much work I did to get were I'm at. (and I have allot of them.)

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

You're new parts look great. As to what to do with all the spare parts. I'm holding out on mine to take a pic on how much work I did to get were I'm at. (and I have allot of them.)

Thanks, and that sound's like a good idea. I'll keep them at least until the build is complete so can show them all together like a mini armoury. On that note, here is everything so far including the old bicep and shoulder: The good bicep, shoulder and thigh still need resining, and the helmet is partially fibreglassed.

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

An update on the previous picture, both the correct biceps have had their exterior coat of resin, and I'm about 3/4 done with fibreglassing the forearms and the helmet, as I have to let some sections dry to avoid pulling away pieces I've laid down, or getting tangled up in overhanging fibreglass.

Which parts does everyone actually fibreglass? The forearms seem pretty strong even when they were only half fibreglassed, and they will be at least 100 grams each when done. I'm not sure exactly how the fibreglass adds strength, but I think it stops the card and resin from tearing or cracking, gives thickness to the layer of resin (Making it less bendy compared with no fibreglass) and acts as bracing struts if it "cuts" corners.

In short, some areas seem just as strong without the fibreglass but the same amount of resin, so it it possible for smaller pieces to just leave the fibreglass out?

 

[Halfspeed]

Yes but it is strong WITHOUT the heavy bondo coating on it. I would fiberglass all of it just to be on the safe side.

 

[LongShot X]

An update on the previous picture, both the correct biceps have had their exterior coat of resin, and I'm about 3/4 done with fibreglassing the forearms and the helmet, as I have to let some sections dry to avoid pulling away pieces I've laid down, or getting tangled up in overhanging fibreglass.

Which parts does everyone actually fibreglass? The forearms seem pretty strong even when they were only half fibreglassed, and they will be at least 100 grams each when done. I'm not sure exactly how the fibreglass adds strength, but I think it stops the card and resin from tearing or cracking, gives thickness to the layer of resin (Making it less bendy compared with no fibreglass) and acts as bracing struts if it "cuts" corners.

In short, some areas seem just as strong without the fibreglass but the same amount of resin, so it it possible for smaller pieces to just leave the fibreglass out?

I would fiberglass everything. That's what I did. The resin by itself is strong, yes, but it is subject to cracking. The Fibers are in there to help prevent the cracking and if it should crack, then the fibers are there to help keep it all together.

Fiberglass gives the parts the nessessary strength for the next stages. Bondo and Sanding. Granted, not every square inch needs Bondo. But it will need that strength to keep the bondo from cracking and it helps for strapping, padding and normal wear-n-tear.

Missing out on the fibers increases the risk of the pieces breaking, tearing, cracking and falling apart. I know, as I have a few areas on my Armor that did not have enough fibers and those areas have already chipped broken off.

In short: Those parts may "SEEM" strong right now, but may not be good enough for later on.

I found that this was a tedious messy phase. Hunker down and plow through it as best as you can. It's better to do it all now than to have to meet with failure and re-do it in the end.

Otherwise, the pepping looks good. Crisp lines. No warping. Excellent progress so far.
Keep up the hard work. Your doing good!


Cheers

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

@Halfspeed - Bondo shouldn't be too much of a problem... I only plan on using a very light coating, since I don't feel the need to make the surface completely smooth. All the models I'm using are high res, and some are actually meant to have sections that look smooth but actually have a couple of angles to them. I'm a bit unsure where I'm going to go with the forearms in terms of bondo, because the model I used has so many right angles and edges that there isnt much point trying to smootha anything!

@LongShot-X - Okay... I'll 'glass everything from now on. I dont think my question is all that relevant now, because the only bits I wuld have considered not glassing were the handplates and forearms, and they are infact the firs things I have done (With some of the helmet done in between). Fibreglassing is actually rather fun for me at the moment... It gives a nice sense of completion to see a relatively weak piece of card and thin layer of resin be transformed into a rock solid beast in half a day's drying time, and the gauntlets were the hardest part (Aside from the chest I reckon), so things will start to get easier from here on, due to smoother internal surfaces and wider opening holes.

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

Both gauntlets and helmet now fibreglassed, so I'll be moving onto the biceps and shoulders next. My idea of using a balloon to push out all the helmet's "neck" edges at the same time didn't work because the sharp fibreglass or card kept bursting the balloons, so if you try that method, make sure to mask off any sharp edges first, or use a very thick balloon.

In the end I just used a couple of diagonal plant stalks with lolly sticks taped to the end, and two clamps with a wooden bar on each to keep the frontal edges straight. The braces kept slipping out as I was repositioning them, so the fibreglass got a bit messed up, but it was still mostly in place, and I recently gave it a double layer of resin, so all should work out well. Here are some shots of the bracing, the finished forearm (The neater one from 240gsm card), and the bicep I did a few fibreglass strips on because I had spare resin (Waste not want not!).

 

[Neth]

I like your build so far, I'm making up my own custom build for a friend. Doing it all in foam with stencils so I could make more, its close to ten bucks just for this and the shoulder pieces. I still need to make the under plates for the shoulders, going to have to strap the should pads and plates down with buckles.

 

[SquishyShoes]

Wow, I remember back when you were still deciding what type of spartan to build. You've come a long way since, doing a great job mate.
Keep it up, Squish

 

[thorn696]

You're moving along nicely

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

Haha... yeah! I can't believe it's only been 2 and a bit months since then. Before I was in awe of how people could create masterpieces of armour, and now I'm well on my way to creating my own (Hoping it turns out well!)

I've just found some reflective window coating on amazon for about £10 per m². It's more expensive for the gold tinted variety, but as I'd given up on trying to find reflective tinting spray, this is a welcome find, and perfect for visors that only curve in one direction, like JFO or EOD!

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

Just bought 5 battery holders, 10 switches, 2 40mm fans, half a m² of reflective gold plastic film and a pair of paintball gloves.

I'm trying to leave as little plain space as possible, because there arent any textured or patterned biking type underarmour suits I can find. I can eliminate open space on the back and stomach with this back protector rather than a full torso suit. The latter would have wasted forearm and lung protection, but I like the underlying material and elbow/shoulder pads more than heatgear, if it were slightly darker.

I also plan to cover the backs of the knees somehow, as well as the neck. Basically, it it involves more than about 5x5 inches square of exposed underclothing, I want another layer to spice things up a little.

Please tell me what you think, especially about the back protector!