My Noob Tale

[Kissker]

Been nearly a week. No photo updates , keep forgetting my camera. Today was a good day, was about 70's out so glassin was smooth. Tomarrow is supposed to be about the same so yay me.







Mark VI suit progress:

Pepped : 100%

Resin : 100%

Glassed: 23%

Bondo : --

Prime : --

Painted: --

Wired : --

Extras : --

/Overall/ 28%



I found the best little speakers for use in my extra fun set up - they are from HMDX audio and I got em free. (like a lot of my stuff lol)

Rewired them a bit so they would reach each shoulder and the MP3 unit planned to be on the left wrist, the speaker on/off will be located inside the chest with it's 2AA batteries Or possibly in the collar area so it's all on one part.



So far the cod/crotch, one shin, and the left thigh are Matted with fiberglass, however it's really thin and I may do a layer of cloth over it as well to give it some more thickness and strength.



once I get the chest/back matted and clothed for extra durability I'll figure out how I am going to mount the speakers, but here's a picture to show you what I mean.

 

[j0ker11]

reading this makes me think.... maybe i can make a full suit in the 11 days left until haloween(with help of course, working 7 hours a day at max capacity while calling off work sick) just maybe... :rolleyes

 

[Rosh]

reading this makes me think.... maybe i can make a full suit in the 11 days left until haloween(with help of course, working 7 hours a day at max capacity while calling off work sick) just maybe... :rolleyes

I wouldn't count on it dude, the sheer scale of this project is massive. I started building a month ago and have everything glassed and bondoed and I'm afraid I won't make it.



Back on subject, ambitious build kissker- I like the speaker idea and was thinking about it myself. Are you doing lights too? GL with you last week of building! Oh man it's too close.

 

[Kissker]

Yea starting now would be pushing it - even if you didn't order parts online (shipping and handling factor) it still took me like some 14 days to actually PaperPep it, the helmet was 10.5 hours, the torso was 20 hours thats over 30 hours just for the 2 "major" parts - and that's just with paper. (oh and thats 30 hours of working on it straight.) Considering you'll probably have to order some parts - they can take up to a week to get here, and not having them is troublesome. My bookbind screws showed up today - roughly 12 days after I ordered them, I am still missing my ultra bright LED's, but that is a "finishing touches" project anyway, getting the suit up and wearable is the main priority.



My undersuit has still not arrived, I am giving up on it coming in time and will find some black sweats or something to wear underneath. Won't fit quite like I planned but will have to do. Currently waiting for temps to hit the 70s were predicted and cleaning my room/work center to help organize the mess that has happened in the last 22 days.





and yea i plan LEDs, speakers, mp3 player and all that jazz.

 

[Rosh]

I have a personal PA that I found on eBay (10 bucks)- that's what I'm doing Instead of mp3. For my undersuit I'm using se black trackpants and an underarmor shirt and I'm cutting a cheap floormat from walmart for the details (a la bluerealm) and gluing it to both.

 

[Kissker]

Got some pictures of the resin stuff in case anyone was lookin for emor interested.





the work, all layed out-

.



Helmet:

inside

Chest-front

You can see the resin soaked right into the paper,and a little through it, adding a second layer inside seems to have helped hold things in for abusive matting (kinda get a little firm and wild when you do this step, or at least I did)



Helmet on desk:

Yea it's a little lop sided, the visor is kinda curved and the width caved in a bit (snags my ears on the lower part, but roomy inside once past that) got a little spotting putty on it to help smooth/fill areas, gonna check if my bondo putty works after 4 yearsor not..it was in a better sealed container...



**EDIT**



Just wanna say - Hey, thanks guys, for putting up with me in my Noob adventure, helping out, and giving all that wonderful cheering to keep me going, some days I thought I'd never get anything done. Projects shaping up real well now, might have some issues fitting properly but hey, whatever,I am happy so far.





Oh and thanks for not banning me with my rediculous amount of edits/multi posting. Lol, most forums don't like that, at all.















Oh and one of the biggest mistakes I have made, and will learn from, is seperating the parts to have "easier access" for fiberglassing - not only was this foolish but downright stupid. Now I have parts that are weighted funny, collapsed, and require a bit of "breaking" to get back to a normal shape. *rolls eyes* oh well, first try and all that, so I still say it's lookin good for first-time pep project.



So... to sum up a few things, tips if you would:



1. Take your time. Don't rush. Period.

2. Never seperate the parts to fiberglass/harden.

3. ...

 

[Kissker]

Well I can't stay long on here but I figured I'd give you guys an update.



Earlier today I finished some detail resining, and layed out the parts, and got to bondo on some other parts, I decided it would be pretty nice to give a primer coat to some of the parts I couldn't finish before halloween - so I could see what kinda detail they needed for a faster process.



So I cracked the garage door enough for a cat to get in/out (that size, not that one was going to get in) and set up a fan to vent the fumes out, locked the inner garage door from habit and left.



45-55 minutes later I return from walmart and notice 2 things..



1- the garage door is all the way closed.

2- My armor is missing.





Futher investigation shows some other things also went missing from the garage. I was robbed of my armor. *sigh* I have to chalk it up as a complete loss, there's no way I can finish in time now, but there is a bit of silver lining in this whole situation....



Before I left I decided to take the partially bondo detailed helmet up to my room to photograph it... and I forgot to bring it back down to the garage before working on the other parts, so, by sheer luck.. my helmet is still around, so I may work on it til halloween and make it look real nice.. but yeah..without the rest of the suit it just won't be the same.





I plan to make another thead for precautions in hope it prevents this from happening again...



and I don't normally do this, but given the situation and circumstances - if anyone wants to donate a buck to help re-place fiberglass costs and all that, contact me via PM, I though long and hard before I typed this, and put myself in your shoes, and if I saw someone with a thread of WIP and something horrible happened like it was stolen - I would definately donate $1 to them to help, probably more, so much work was put into it, and to have it just stolen or rendered useless from you like that is just horrid.



Mods/Admins - I know this is probably not allowed to do and all - so if I get banned that's up to you guys, but other then some kinda miracle happening I plan to just curl up and moap for a while (probably until Jan) before I start anything like this again. So I would appreciate it if you let it slide given the situation....



I'am going to go drown my reality in some video games now in hopes to numb the pain a bit....

 

[Dancin Fool]

Dude that really blows. I've been doing the resining and painting in my parents garage, if I headed out there and found my pieces gone I don't know what I'd do!

 

[Kissker]

prolly freak out at first like me.. then realize.. even if police DID find who did it - proving they did it would be a problem. This halloween I will keep an eye out for a rush-finished suit that would fit me and could of been mine but I doubt I will find it, police doubt they will find it too. So much for our neighborhood watch signs.





Oh well... hopefully I can get some more days of work to make up the costs and put that into repairing/replacing my car.. and then I'll just wait until I have something better then a garage to do this in...

 

[ZackyPanic]

prolly freak out at first like me.. then realize.. even if police DID find who did it - proving they did it would be a problem. This halloween I will keep an eye out for a rush-finished suit that would fit me and could of been mine but I doubt I will find it, police doubt they will find it too. So much for our neighborhood watch signs.





Oh well... hopefully I can get some more days of work to make up the costs and put that into repairing/replacing my car.. and then I'll just wait until I have something better then a garage to do this in...

That's brutal.



I've been following your build with hopes you'd beat the clock. I'm not entirely sure what the "rules" are for this, but I'll PM you later tonight and see what I can do to help out.

 

[j0ker11]

wow, i have no idea what i would do if that happened to me,(a rampage through my neighborhood breaking down doors and searching houses i suppose) are you using paypal? i dont have a credit card but i have a couple bucks leftover on some visa gift-cards that should work. ill just pm you if i find anything.

 

[pok3rst4r89]

thats soo weak!! i cant believe u got robbed like that! Sorry that it happened to you, hope you start a new one soon! Also hope you catch those bastards.

Lol i would make anew suit, and seriously leave the garage open again but as a trap, just to see if it happens again. Then when you catch them i would just unleash hell

Hope to see your new progress on your suit!

 

[Kissker]

So after sleeping on it I have come to this.



There is no way I can make another suit,even with mismatch parts from previous fails (yup I kept em, like all the left forearms) even remotely in time. So instead.. I am going to take another approach... start over.



This really sunk in and hurts to have to do, especially with the time and money invested (especially with my finances being very thin) but basically I'll tally all the resin and paper and glue up to a loss, about $60, and keep all my soft parts for another suit. The hours of work lost..cannot be measured in prices, as anyone who has worked on a suit knows, this time is just.. priceless in a way. (although it accounts for the major part of suits when you try to buy them off sites, lol.)



On the bright side I now have near Unlimited time to finish a suit, on a very limited budget ($12 a week.. tops.) Going to be very slow going. I think I may also invest in a dressform or something to put it on so it prevents damage/warping/etc, this way paper parts can sit in place until I can resin them, and resin parts can rest with pressure in "normal" places, instead of letting gravity beat down on them.



This is pretty much the end of this journey, If anyone needs some 9v battery connectors, or 1 inch Aluminum Bookbinding screws let me know in PM - I bought bulk and I can resell cheaply and shipping shouldn't be nearly anything at all.



And you know, it's not a total loss... the helmet's still here.. all wonky and sad lookin. I guess I'll work on it and try to get it done for 'ween. Just gotta do more bondo-ing and more sanding really.



And next time.. HD parts.. more time.. more effort - and once a part is pepped- instant resin/fiberglass it. Although this won't be very soon as I depleted my savings to try to get this done for this year's Halloween, and I needa replace my car since it's a pile of rust on wheels with nearly everything about to go out on it.... like I said, about $12 a week tops and probably 10 hours a week on this next suit- going to be Very slow progress.