Scar The Just -- Kensai's Armor [100% Complete]

[kensai111]

You will have to forgive my silence for so long on this forum but I was learning, studying, and practicing the techniques you have offered me. This forum is filled with many talented people and when helping and sharing this information surely something beautiful can come of the mix. I hope with my post here I can help someone or atleast offer a through covering of the Pepakura armor creation process from beginning to end and how to end up with a quality end result. Please excuse me I will be editing this frequently so that I can give proper credit to the techniques and suggestions that I used in this process. I also apologize for the length but I'm a thorough kind of guy .

Well enough buttering up, let's get down to it:

THE REALITY: Creating your own full set of MJOLNIR armor is going to be expensive for the first timer. Chances you are not going to be prepared or have the tools needed to create your first armor. You will also not be completing this in record time if you want it to look great. I believe the direct formula is the amount of man hours you are willing to put in towards the armor will directly reflect the overall quality and appearance, this is not a weekend ordeal, we're talking up to a year of work for a quality product.

TIME AND LIFE SAVING SUGGESTIONS: Read, read, read.. and read some more. The forums are filled with almost any answer you could have on the subject. The stickies are there for a reason, because they contain important information not only on the creation of your armor but safety information for your health.

THE ARMOR: There are many guides on what Pepakura is and how to use it, take my first set of advice and check out the stickies on the forum and read up on the subject and how to assemble the pieces. I noticed that alot of the stores mentioned on this site are not available in the US of A or atleast in the southeast so I'll make sure to note from which store I got each specific piece.


First thing first I grabbed up was some white 110lb cardstock from Staples along with a Hot Glue gun and plenty of sticks of glue (After a full armor assembly I probably acquired 15 or more blisters to sacrifice myself for the sake of getting the piece to stay still on tiny tabs). With (a size 11 gauge? It's the traditional pen-sized one..) Xacto blade in hand (bought via Staples) I used Iceman29's folding & scoring technique and Frizzlefry's scaling (who is conveniently the same height as me) and assembled the pieces. I ended up remaking the helmet 3 separate times. The first was my eagerness to jump in and I build it out of elmers glue and regular printer paper. The second time I ended up building it from the middle down and due to exhaustion from work combined with the fast cooling nature of hot glue I ended up warping a side and no matter how much I tried I realized it would just be better to remake it and take my time in the assembly stage. The third time I scaled the helmet just out of pure repetition for doing it for all the other pieces when I left I originally left it the default size, too small :\. Forth time was the charm unscaled and a slow assembly. The crotch piece I had to assemble twice, same problem as before I scaled when I shouldn't have out of pure repetition. I remade the feet twice trying to get the scaling right on Robogenesis pep model, my first pair came out the size of my helmet (I'll post pictures for humor's sake).

An interesting thing happened while assembling my armor... Halo 3 was released. I tried to adopt the new parts available into my costume. So half Halo 2 based armor half Halo 3 based. Luckily I did not intend to have the regular Master Chief coloring and look. I decided on a bumble bee yellow with black secondary coloring before I even started the project. With the addition of multiple pieces and permutations available in multi-player it really didn't end up being a problem since I'm not shooting for a 1:1 of the ingame Master Chief.


THE UNDERARMOR: I did my research on the forums and I decided to shoot for the closest look to Master Chief's under armor with as little alteration as possible and to try and keep as cool as possible for the summer wears.

Gloves: Blackjack Full Finger Armored Paintball Gloves ... usually found on ebay for about $8-10 or at your nearest paintball retailer.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Full-Finger-Black-Armo...2QQcmdZViewItem

Chest: SP-2 Pressure Suit, contains blue trim but easy enough to remove and gives you the beefed up look for the skinner people out there. Retail price is $79.95 but the main site usually remains Out of Stock of them minus Small sizes. Ebay FTW. http://www.sixsixone.com/Catalog_661Bike.a...c4-695264f46ec7

Pants: UnderArmour HeatGear Tactical Leggings, Retail: $39.95 -- took me awhile to find these http://www.lapolicegear.com/unarhele.html

Neck: Stormtrooper Neck Seal, hit ebay I bought 5 of these. One for the neck and one for each arm and leg joint that meets the torso for more detail and based on the figures I have of Mr. Chief looks pretty accurate.

Knees: Hatch Tactical Centurion Knee Pads, Black. Retail Price: $23.95
http://www.rstacticalgear.com/pd_hatch_tactical.cfm

Boots: Grabbed some boots from the 511 Tactical Footwear section for $70 I know I could have found some for way less but I really liked the look and feel of the pair I grabbed.

Face: Tactical HeatGear Hood. Retail Price :$19.99
http://www.rstacticalgear.com/pd_tactical_heatgear.cfm

This won't be an abandoned project or another dead thread, this will be a complete and high quality armor. I hope to proudly wear the stamp of the 405th and represent for us at local conventions for the south east US of A. I decided that for the pictures I'm going to grab a mannequin from work to get better pictures and I'll edit this post and add them tomorrow for better clarity and detail in hopes of further helping. Thanks for surviving the read this far...

Cheers,
Kensai

Just got back from work with the mannequins as promised and snapped up photos of the completed pepakura of Scar The Just.

Helmet

Front Chest Piece

Back Chest Piece

Bicep and Forearms

Crotch and Thigh Pieces (Sorry about the boxers, haven't trimmed up the inside scraps, didn't want any tearing)

Butt Plate and Back of Thighs (Looks uncomfortable I know... once again need to trim and get ready for fiberglassing)

Shins

Once again, haven't trimmed up the scraps thats why it's not all the way on my arm.

Next update, resin and fiberglass 101. This should really be in the pepakura thread but... forgive my limited number of posts. I understand the reasoning behind the 50 post minimum though.

Cheers,
Kensai

 

[Dark Rogue]

Can't wait for pics, looks like you had this planned well from the beginning!

 

[rvb4life]

did you read my thread of pep 4 noobs? it could help your cause.

i wish you luck, my friend.

 

[kensai111]

Can't wait for pics, looks like you had this planned well from the beginning!

Well for the most part yes, like I said I did ALOT of forum reading and a couple of test runs with pepakura on the helmet before starting this. Thanks for reading.

did you read my thread of pep 4 noobs? it could help your cause.

i wish you luck, my friend.

I vaguely remember the title so I'm sure I did, I think I read every guide available lol. Like I said though the entire armor is finished in pepakura so thanks for the luck because now the fiberglassing and resining will begin. Thanks for reading, stay tuned I'm going to see this to the end and document every step of the way to help others as much as I can.

Cheers,
Kensai

 

[Zenzeigan]

wow, i can see this is gonna come out well, keep updating with pics, and ur pics u have now rlly helped me get the right shape for my card armor so thanks alot


also another thing, everyone who peps the helmet does the pep par of the visor, i dont see the point if im just going to get a motorbike visor and put it in there, is it necassery for me pep the visor, if so why?

 

[kensai111]

wow, i can see this is gonna come out well, keep updating with pics, and ur pics u have now rlly helped me get the right shape for my card armor so thanks alot
also another thing, everyone who peps the helmet does the pep par of the visor, i dont see the point if im just going to get a motorbike visor and put it in there, is it necassery for me pep the visor, if so why?

The main reason is when you are resining the cardstock it has a tendency to sag and warp. It's more of a safety measure than anything else. The visor along with additional support such as a mannequin head or an inflated balloon (I've been told haven't tried the balloon method yet) will stop the possibility of that until you get a coat or two of resin on it. Then you can cut out the pep visor and resume fiberglassing. Personally I'm going to keep it in there through the whole fiberglassing step as well and just cut it out with a dremel tool (unless this would be a bad thing, any word advanced members?). This is my first attempt at fiberglassing so I'm nervous about warping anything at this stage, i'll take the extra step of dremeling it out and sanding the edges. Thanks for the kind words Zenzeigan, best of luck and keep posted. If you need any reference pictures or have any questions feel free to pm me.

Cheers,
Kensai

 

[Seno Ypsamee]

Armor is looking awesome! What models are you using?

By the way, you stole my old avatar! lol

 

[kensai111]

Armor is looking awesome! What models are you using?

By the way, you stole my old avatar! lol

For the helmet, chest, biceps, forearms, and shins I'm using the models available in Frizzlefry's guide I believe JediFraz created these (please correct me if I'm wrong). The handplates I'm using a custom model I designed. For the boots and thighs I'm using Robogenesis' models.

And technically... I'm member 2101 and had the avatar since day 1 of my joining whereas you are 3,993
but thanks for stopping in, keep checking back.

Cheers,
Kensai

 

[Seno Ypsamee]

For the helmet, chest, biceps, forearms, and shins I'm using the models available in Frizzlefry's guide I believe JediFraz created these (please correct me if I'm wrong). The handplates I'm using a custom model I designed. For the boots and thighs I'm using Robogenesis' models.

And technically... I'm member 2101 and had the avatar since day 1 of my joining whereas you are 3,993
but thanks for stopping in, keep checking back.

Cheers,
Kensai

Jedi's models are good, and even easier to scale, good luck, but I can already tell you won't need it!

Oh, and this isn't the site where I first started using that avatar , it's been my image for my profile on this computer since I got it, which was last February

 

[Zenzeigan]

The main reason is when you are resining the cardstock it has a tendency to sag and warp. It's more of a safety measure than anything else. The visor along with additional support such as a mannequin head or an inflated balloon (I've been told haven't tried the balloon method yet) will stop the possibility of that until you get a coat or two of resin on it. Then you can cut out the pep visor and resume fiberglassing. Personally I'm going to keep it in there through the whole fiberglassing step as well and just cut it out with a dremel tool (unless this would be a bad thing, any word advanced members?). This is my first attempt at fiberglassing so I'm nervous about warping anything at this stage, i'll take the extra step of dremeling it out and sanding the edges. Thanks for the kind words Zenzeigan, best of luck and keep posted. If you need any reference pictures or have any questions feel free to pm me.

Cheers,
Kensai

i do seem to be having some trouble witht he shape of the crotch, you see i dont like pep, ill only pep the helmet, i dont intend to pep the rest, just use cardboard, any tips to make it more... halo like?

 

[kensai111]

i do seem to be having some trouble witht he shape of the crotch, you see i dont like pep, ill only pep the helmet, i dont intend to pep the rest, just use cardboard, any tips to make it more... halo like?

Hope this helps sir.

If you need more closeups on this piece I'll gladly strap it to the mannequin and get you some close-ups. ^^

Cheers,
Kensai

 

[Zenzeigan]

Hope this helps sir.

If you need more closeups on this piece I'll gladly strap it to the mannequin and get you some close-ups. ^^

Cheers,
Kensai

thanks a lot man, helped alot, ill post pics wen im done n u cn tell me what u think?

 

[kensai111]

thanks a lot man, helped alot, ill post pics wen im done n u cn tell me what u think?

Always glad to give some positive constructive criticism. Best of luck to you sir.

Cheers,
Kensai

 

[Zenzeigan]

Always glad to give some positive constructive criticism. Best of luck to you sir.

Cheers,
Kensai

i admit, its going alot better than previously, thanks for the help, plus, could you give me a bit of help on making the back of the crotchpiece

 

[kensai111]

I sketched up a quick reference for the serious battle damage that I will be incorporating into the helmet (which is why he is named "Scar, The Just"). A huge gaping hole in the shape of a wicked smiley face (as shown as the black area, it will only appear on the one side) will be carved into the helmet due to a point blank frag explosion. I will be embedding shrapnel into the helmet but it also serves another purpose. At the largest point of the hole I will be mounting an interior helmet fan to suck in cold air and blow on my face. It will also add to the aesthetics that there is moving parts in the helm making it look even more mechanical and futuristic. This serves another purpose defogging of the visor. I intend on heavily battle damaging the entire suit. I've already cut and sharpened and grinned (with rounded corners) pieces of rhubarb into spiker shots that will be sticking out of the armor. I've already gotten tight rubber caps for them so no one accidentally stabs them self on the extruding pieces. The plasma burns will be made in the bondo / sanding stage and hand painted by our local airbrush artist from work along with other typical scrapes and bullet entries.

I know this is a picture of someone's helmet from the forum. I just grabbed the first search on google, sorry for the steal. Props to you for a fine piece though

PS: Zen, feel free to pm me and I'll gladly do all I can

Cheers,
Kensai

 

[Enrisan]

I sketched up a quick reference for the serious battle damage that I will be incorporating into the helmet (which is why he is named "Scar, The Just"). A huge gaping hole in the shape of a wicked smiley face (as shown as the black area, it will only appear on the one side) will be carved into the helmet due to a point blank frag explosion. I will be embedding shrapnel into the helmet but it also serves another purpose. At the largest point of the hole I will be mounting an interior helmet fan to suck in cold air and blow on my face. It will also add to the aesthetics that there is moving parts in the helm making it look even more mechanical and futuristic. This serves another purpose defogging of the visor. I intend on heavily battle damaging the entire suit. I've already cut and sharpened and grinned (with rounded corners) pieces of rhubarb into spiker shots that will be sticking out of the armor. I've already gotten tight rubber caps for them so no one accidentally stabs them self on the extruding pieces. The plasma burns will be made in the bondo / sanding stage and hand painted by our local airbrush artist from work along with other typical scrapes and bullet entries.

I know this is a picture of someone's helmet from the forum. I just grabbed the first search on google, sorry for the steal. Props to you for a fine piece though

PS: Zen, feel free to pm me and I'll gladly do all I can

Cheers,
Kensai

sounds great!
can't wait to see progress on your suit, keep us updated.

 

[kensai111]

Question for the advanced members, if this has been covered I didn't come across it over the last year or so...

What did you guys do for the inner thighs? I'm using Robogenesis' model and it's missing the detail there, which I'm sure you're just supposed to take care of it in sewing detail on your under armor but if there was a pep file for it or a nice substitute please expand my knowledge

Cheers,
Kensai


UPDATE: Total cost for resin, fiberglass, paintbrushes, respirator, sanding masks, sand paper, safety goggles, chemical gloves, latex gloves, bondo and dremel tool: $188 via Lowe's. Big hurt on the wallet but I know it was worth the extra money on the safety gear to make sure I live to finish this beast. I also began the pepakura for the firebomb grenade (2 of them) and purchased thick clear tubing for the center of the grenade. I capped one end with hot glue filled it full with orange Gatorade and food coloring and capped the top with hot glue. I installed a lcd flashlight that runs off a watch battery underneath so I just unscrew the bottom and tape the button down to make it glow a bright orange [pics coming soon]. I cleaned out the shed, installed some work lights and lined the floor and walls with cardboard to contain spillage.

 

[Humungotron]

You're totally making me feel like a slacker. Damn you.
All i've managed to do is get LS's tester helmet made. And it was too small (my head is like a pumpkin). Nice work.

 

[celenon]

Very good updates, Kensai. I'm currently in the planning process for Iron Man armor, but I'm debating whether I should try out a MJOLNIR set first, at least for a test run. Still, I'm glad to see a fellow novice taking a crack at this. That I'll be starting the creation process soon, I hope to come back here and converse with you on the pros and cons of your experience. Fight on, man!

 

[Dark Rogue]

Dude, that's a genius idea for the firebomb grenade! I totally gotta make one like that now.