ODST WIP - Been Years in the Making

[Hikuro]

This is a W.I.P. project that truly started 3 weeks ago but really wanted to persue 4 years ago. It's a slow progress due to not being to familiar with the build process and constantly second guessing myself.


4 Years ago I acquired a set of Sean Bradley's ODST armor kit. I've put it aside for a very long time due to my limited knowledge of armor building and lack of time. I really didn't want to go screwing something up that was very pricey for me at the time. But now I've kinda gone and completed 2 suits and a number of props so I'm feeling fairly ballsy to begin.

Progress was pretty slow at first when I finally decided to undergo the process. I spent a couple hours drawing out the excess flash that needed to be removed. However after doing it in my garage with horrible lighting I decided to instead take it too work where they have the tools and facility space where I could just drop it off there and work on it during my early mornings and lunch breaks.



And as always safety first! the smell was nasty with a regular old dust face cover so I borrowed one of these more heavy duty mofos from a co worker. I call this my broke ass kylo ren cosplay Pretty much my get up the last 3 weeks.

Honestly it took maybe a week and a half to cut and sand my parts. Some need some additional trimming to fit better, like the forearms, back legs and thighs. Everything else seems to be pretty decent despite my large size!


Pretty much this is where I get nervous and start to second guess myself a lot on how I want to proceed. I really don't want to screw these parts up and there's no solid way for me to make sure this was even goign to fit me until after the fact. However I said F it and I went for it. I like to use a product called 2P10 which is a super glue and an accelerate. I need to lay down just a thin layer of putty then sand and I'm pretty much done with these parts. I did test fit them and for the most part they fit. I'll need to trim the top a bit as I don't have a nice bend in the leg....maybe 45 degrees which is decent it just feels a little tight though.

Final pic of the day was finishing my ODST's basic cut. This was a helmet given to me by a friend of mine who's a bigger halo nerd than I am and I always love seeing what he's working on. He's same guy who helped me with a recon helmet I finished a month ago.
Sadly t hough it looks like I need to trim a lot more on the insert of the helmet. Far to tight to fit even for those with smaller heads when a co worker tried to put it on thinking he was going to be cool as f about it. NOPE!

 

[KIsmay]

You're off to a good start so far!

 

[Hikuro]

Slow start of my weekend....I trimmed the insert a little wider so now the helmet fits much better. In doing so though I had to completely rewash and scrub the helmet last night and let it dry. This morning was kind of a late start too but that's due to insanely cold weather. But primer has set and I got a coat of aluminum put on at this time. Another coat on the underside and I can throw on a coat of clear coat to help it settle better before I try to do the main color tomorrow.
I haven't decided yet if I'm using the Charcoal or gunmetal. Charcoal feels more realistic while gunmetal will certainly make it more armorish. Not entirely sure at this time. Probably charcoal cause the paint is easier to get.

 

[Hikuro]

Actually weather is fairing a lot better and the paint is drying fantastically today so I kept going. I clear coated the silver to add a little extra layer of protection incase I want to do any kind of weathering with a light touch of sanding to create the metal look.
But I do like the main color I'm using though it's a little lighter than I'd of wanted. I'm using a rustoleom charcoal color which looks okay. Still think it should be a little darker but I feel Gunmetal is just to metallic for my tastes. I'm pretty sure it'll darken a lot better once I do a black acrylic wash on the helmet. But I still need to finish painting this, another clear coat and add my yellow trim.

 

[Hikuro]

Wow it's been 3 years almost on the nose since I did a post.....gosh. Okay so I guess it's time for a major update as to what's been going on!

1) I've actually moved recently, and there's been a lot of stuff going on since I started working on this project. I actually have gotten a lot further along since my last posting and I just never updated anyone on it!
2) The majority of the suit has been assembled and since that time it's gotten dirty and stained and all kinds of crap has happened to it resulting in some cases a little warping that I'll have to play with and fix. I only had 2 areas needing assembly which was the front collar to the back and the midsection to the chest plate. That was really it. But since assembling this I've learned a lot and decided to make some changes.
3) In the last year I also purchased Sean's backpack but because I was in the process of moving I didn't have time to open the box and didn't even want to lose any of the parts which I've been very notorious at home for doing....I didn't wanna stress out about that so I just never opened it.
4) A large portion of the suit has been painted and might undergo another slight repaint because I can't remember what colors I initially used....there was some gunmetal and bronze involved and a lot of silver but I can't remember which order I did certain things to provide a more armor-istque look.
5) I found all my 2 and 1 inch buckles, more than what I'll really need. However I can't find any of my strapping that went with it, I'm sure if I dug around a bit more I'll find what I need.

Now that I'm pretty much moved in, and got some things sorted out I decided to bust out the backpack and give it a look-see.

It's pretty simple to put together if I don't want to use it to store anything, and given that it's not very big, I don't think I would want to store much except car keys, a wallet and possibly a cell phone while I"m out on the con floor or anything.
However I DID lose something important and that was the instruction PDF to the suit which I believe also contained instructions on how to assemble the backpack. I'm about 80% sure I have the PDF file on a hard drive, but I can't get the USB to plug into the drive port for some odd reason.
I've asked a buddy of mine, a fellow Halo nerd, if he still has the PDF file even though he's sold off his ODST suit years ago.

If anyone else sees this post and has the PDF please let me know I'd really like to get back into gear on this and get it finished and prepped when con season hits back up and I get stabilized financially to go back out.

 

[Hikuro]

OKAY! I was working at it today for an hour and I feel like I made some good progress.

I do NOT like return edges, I hate them. Just having a tiny bit of that crap can cause a failure to properly fit my armor to my body, I'm a hefty guy still, I work at it, but I'm still hefty. So return edges just piss me off royally. In this case I wanted to make sure I had enough room to not only to get my neck around safely but to start working at a butt joint for one end of my torso armor and then use a velcro method on the opposite end. This will help me get in and out safely and still be able to properly secure my armor. I might also shave away on the sides where I'll have a strap on each end to help secure my shoulders.

You can see it actually meets up pretty nicely and I'm just gonna give it a little fine sanding to even out the edges around the collar and it'll be time to join the parts up and begin painting.

Again, I despise return edges.

but in eliminating that little bit of plastic around my thigh armor I've gotten it to fit much better around my leg. And I can go ahead and shave a bit off the top so I can get my leg up a little higher when I walk.

Then we got the boots. I've actually had to significantly trim and sand down the boot covers....my feet are very narrow and small in comparison. So I've trimmed off maybe 3 or so inches in length and about an inch or inch and a half from the bottom to get these to fit better onto my boots. Think for now I'm pretty satisfied.

This is one of the front shins I'm going to have to repair a bit, one side slightly warped from the Texas heat over the summer as it was fine back in oregon. Shouldn't be to difficult, but as you can see it's gotten a mess of paint and grime on it, but that at least gives it some weathering right?!

I'm not tremendously happy with my forearms, my rivets are to long for this type of assembly which is entirely my fault and it's become some what uncomfortable for me to slide my hand inside, but I CAN get them inside. Once I have my undersuit these will be nicely secured in place and no worries.

And of course the helmet is pretty much on the verge of finishing. I wanna add some mesh inside the cheeks where airflow can come in, and it'll need padding inside. The helmet and visor was provided by my friend Glider here on the forums. He's always awesome on giving me a hand in areas I have troubles with.

I managed to find 1 inch black webbing and a crap ton of buckles in 1 inch and 2 inch. I sent a DM to Sean Bradley for another copy of ODST instructions and will wait to hear back. I need to buy some 2 inch webbing and D rings. After that I think I can get the majority of this thing ready to go....

 

[Rusty 714]

Looking good

 

[ButterBacon3000]

That looks awesome!

 

[he4thbar]

That suit is looking clean, good job

 

[Hikuro]

Thanks. Since I started this project I've had way more experience in ABS than when I started this 3 years ago....it shows too. I mean the big gaps in the forearms due to poor clamping, not being able to rivet and shim correctly and such. But it is what it is and I can only get better from there.

I do have some progress pics coming up later. The last couple of days I've managed to get some aluminum rivets and washers, new 2 inch webbing, found some clamps buried in the garage, and most importantly my damn Gunmetal paint. That part worried me the most....I use to be able to find the paint in homedepot or lowes quite easily....either they've changed the name to be more PC or it just isn't made anymore in Krylon or Rustoelum. So I got some duplicolor at the "local" autoshop and it'll work just fine.

The next thing I need supply wise is a little more glue, 2 inch elastic for the legs, small zip ties and gray fabric for the shoulder straps.

Right now though it's pretty cold in the garage despite it being Texas, and very wet. So I'm just gonna play with my chest piece and get that area done today. paint is curing and the next thing I'll do is design what I want on the center and I'll show that off on my ideas.

 

[xXDashIVXx]

Thanks. Since I started this project I've had way more experience in ABS than when I started this 3 years ago....it shows too. I mean the big gaps in the forearms due to poor clamping, not being able to rivet and shim correctly and such. But it is what it is and I can only get better from there.

I do have some progress pics coming up later. The last couple of days I've managed to get some aluminum rivets and washers, new 2 inch webbing, found some clamps buried in the garage, and most importantly my damn Gunmetal paint. That part worried me the most....I use to be able to find the paint in homedepot or lowes quite easily....either they've changed the name to be more PC or it just isn't made anymore in Krylon or Rustoelum. So I got some duplicolor at the "local" autoshop and it'll work just fine.

The next thing I need supply wise is a little more glue, 2 inch elastic for the legs, small zip ties and gray fabric for the shoulder straps.

Right now though it's pretty cold in the garage despite it being Texas, and very wet. So I'm just gonna play with my chest piece and get that area done today. paint is curing and the next thing I'll do is design what I want on the center and I'll show that off on my ideas.

Awesome. It stinks that you cant find the right paint anymore, and there is a chance that it did go out of production, but it you can find a color that is close enough, a good weathering job will blend it just fine with previous colors and you eont notice a difference.

 

[Hikuro]

Playing around with the graphics idea....traditional UNSC eagle....this'll act as a stencil so I'll just clean it up, slap it on and spray the paint over it to give the worn look. I'm trying to research the best font for the UNSC to go below and to add my name on the top. So far nothings looking close to what I want.
I also was tempted on adding instead of the Eagle to do a simple Lion for my astro sign and call my name is Lee and first letter of my last name is O so it adds a little personal flare. I could though add that to my helmet as well which might actually look cooler! I think I'll play with that idea!

 

[ButterBacon3000]

Dude, awesome! I hope you find the font you need though... good luck.

 

[Hikuro]

Okay back from Hobbylobby and did a little designing....I

I got some kind of netted looking gray material that had that feel of canvas but much lighter. I'll need to double up on it when I wrap the EVA foam for the shoulders. BUT, it was really cheap and I got enough of it to do the job.
Sadly I just couldn't find the right kind of font. So I ended up downloading an image and copying it to get what I needed and it went fine.

I'm very happy with the result and gonna get it prepped later today for cut and cleaning, get it applied and spray it down.
I'm torn between doing a flat black or a white....not sure which just yet.

 

[Hikuro]

Alright! Another day another dollar you could say.

Torso is done and linked and painted. It's got some "natural" weathering that I'll touch up a bit like I did with the helmet. Basically I give this thing a quick and dirty wipe down and then paint it. This creates cracks and flaking paint which I'll dab up a bit in silver or charcoal to give it the chipped look. Overall it fits really well and even test fitted my helmet to make sure it didn't bonk against the neck seal and it was fine.

Thighs are painted, next will be getting them strapped but need to finish the hip and belt parts before I do so! That's tomorrow....

dug up these old Jakk's laser tag covie pistols in the trunk all this was stored in. One needs to have its batteries replaced but they still light up and have sounds for the most part.

Shoulders are curing with the silver paint right now and will get their final coating tomorrow morning. Then I need to pick up another can of primer now that I'm about out....get the waist parts assembled, that'll be exciting! Maybe work on getting the strapping to the shoulders done as well. I'll have a loop around the bicep and a strap going from the top of the shoulder armor and have it button or velcro under the collar like I do with my star wars armor. Should be easy.

I'm curious though to any of you other ODST's out there, how exactly did you strap your shins? Did you just do a loop of elastic or something else? I'm sorta needing some ideas on how to clearly do it.

 

[TurboCharizard]

Two things from the past two posts that may come in handy in future.

The closest match I've found for Bungie-era UNSC fonts is the free font "Denmark"

Download free Denmark Regular font | films.DENMARK.ttf

<strong>Denmark Regular font</strong> by DafontFree. File script name <strong>films.DENMARK.ttf</strong> download free for Personal Use.

www.dafontfree.net

Hold onto that Plasma Pistol, those things are hecking collectors items that sell for a pretty penny. I managed to snag one from a thrift store almost 10 years ago and they've only gone up in average value.

 

[Hikuro]

Awesome good to know! I'll get that downloaded.

Yeah I've had these plasma pistols for maybe 6 or more years, infact almost as long as I've had the ODST suit. They sure have gone up in value holy crap! I wonder if I still have my sword....I don't think I do I think it got smashed during the move can't recall.

Well, weather is pretty crappy here in texas today, it's about 28 degrees in the garage go figure on that. I might need to bust out my heater! I think what I might do is get the graphics cut or something for today, maybe the foam on the shoulders, not like I got a lot going on today.

Oh and of course happy halloween everyone

 

[Hikuro]

Yep not much progress! Almost all my parts are painted, but i still need to do final strapping and such, but it's to cold.

Chestplate decal came out awesome, really happy with that!

while watching paint dry I test fitted my legs, I wanted to see how well it would fit together and started making mental notes on putting possibly velcro on the inside and edges to get it to snap together and hold in place. This'll feel more secure for me to walk in versus just using an elastic strap on the top and bottom like rubber bands you know?

Anyways.....that's it, no further updates today but can expect some stuff on the weekend since I'll be busy tomorrow with an interview and seeing Terminator Dark Fate.

 

[Hikuro]

Interview went faster than I expected which gave me more time to see the movie if you guys haven't gone yet, go see it.

Anyways, I didn't get to spend to much time on the build today, I had to clean up all the halloween decor outside and man that was a lot of spider webbing I had remove hah.

So all I did tonight was get the belt buckle shimmed for the groin plate to be strapped. That also means the hip plates and the butt plate are strapped. Sadly I don't have a functional sewing machine so I'm gluing them....they'll be fine for the most part no worries there.
I mis-read the groin plate instructions and cut slits into it but they're small enough that the webbing overlaps so no worries and ended up drilling my holes for the zip ties to go into. Tomorrow morning I wanna see if I can find a cheap padded tool belt to dice up for my shoulder straps, and then elastic for the thighs and shins.

Pictures tomorrow I think!

 

[Hikuro]

Alright I'm pretty much done for strapping today, the mid section and chest are done and will just need some tightening up as I go along. Belt is assembled but I'm not 100% happy with the hips, I think the strapping there needs to be looser by half to three quarter inch longer.

I'm using an old tactical belt I previously used on my old H3 Marine. At first I was a bit confused on how this works once you get to the buckle. I thought it slid inside the buckle infront of the shims but I guess it actually goes inbetween the loop straps so the buckle looks sorta flappy and loose.

Next I focused on doing the mid section and chest. this was a little weird cause it's not very clear how the straps stay in place inside the side connectors, I think they actually loop and velcro onto eachother to keep the female connector in place...I didn't do that though, but I can change that later as well.

I feel overall the chest is to high up when it needs to be a couple inches lower. I'm pretty sure this'll be corrected once I have the shoulder straps complete and then I can tighten up the side straps and properly adjust the positioning so it's not so damn high up. I just gotta remember to account for that.

This leaves thighs to go which I'm gonna hold off on for now. I wanna dig into one of my bins where my Marine gear was kept, I had thigh padding with strapping and all kinds of stuff on it. I might try to gut it and repurposed those, save me a lot of money and time...
Then there's also the shoulders, I have an idea how I'm gonna do it, which won't be like in the instruction pdf cause there's no operable sewing machine available. It'll just be 2 straps, elastic, 1 will be a 1 inch going from the top of the shoulder plate connecting somewhere under the shoulder straps possibly hooked into the collar, then another 2 inch strap will go around the bicept and held with rivets on each end.

I think tomorrow or possibly later today I'll clear my work bench and begin working on the backpack and figuring out what needs trimming and how to assemble it.