Sean Anwalt's Mk V build

[PaiganBoi]

The foam that you use. I noticed that it is two different shades of the colour. Is the foam dyed that way or is it laminated together?

 

[Sean Anwalt]

It is two different shades. Was the only foam I could find in the area (I think there's a splinter cell of rogue 405th-ers who are secretly purchasing all the non-textured foam from every store in my area...) It's working pretty nicely, though. Got it at home depot and it was like, $18 or so.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

UPDATE:
got some more work done after work.

Working on the back center of the chest piece. Ran out of contact cement, so had to use hot glue. I don't like working with that stuff, but whatever.

Lots of little pieces building up into something that looks pretty good!

More tomorrow.

As always, comment and tell me what you think!

 

[TurboCharizard]

UPDATE:
got some more work done after work.

View attachment 256621
Working on the back center of the chest piece. Ran out of contact cement, so had to use hot glue. I don't like working with that stuff, but whatever.

Lots of little pieces building up into something that looks pretty good!

View attachment 256622
More tomorrow.

As always, comment and tell me what you think!

Ayy! Now you have a place to attach the armour ability!

Avoid hot glue like the plague good sir, it's only really good for backing seams in my opinion. As an actual adhesive it's the one that tends to fail most frequently. If you can get another can of contact cement or find a big bottle of CA glue and a kicker you'll be much better off.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Yeah, I agree, but till next payday (next October, I think? ), I'm hosed.

UPDATE:

Chest is 99% done with the foam. About to start filling and finishing.

EDIT UPDATE:

 

[Joffersmk2]

Nice clean foam lines there. Sweet.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Vent vent vent vent vent..... what to do about the vent.....
Unlike many of you who have a 3D printer AND know how to use it, I am limited to what I have available with no money, no high-tech equipment, and no contact cement. (Next weekend, next weekend, next weekend! $$$)

So this is how I'm doing my vent in the backpack:

I have cardstock cut out with the pattern, then super glued it to my detail craft foam. Hot glue May suck noodles, but super glue is my enemy.

Anyway, I put some wedges of EVA foam underneath to lift one edge of each vent flap. What I'm going to do next is build a flat sheet to sit behind everything that will mount to the backpack and hold the vents in place.
Here's what they look like so far:

And another view showing the foam wedges:

That should give it enough lift to be 3 dimensional. Don't want that nuclear reactor in the Spartan's backpack to overheat, now, would we?

What do you think?

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Very ingenious. I will say that I'm a concerned about the reaction of any type paint or sealant you use on the paper itself. I would suggest a 50/50 sealant. 50% wood/elmer's/PVC glue and 50% water. This will permeate the paper, but allow the superglue to remain adhered to the paper on the backside. Don't soak it though. Several light coats. You can either spray it on or brush. This will also give the pieces some rigidity. Not much.....as these are very thin....but some rigidity. This will form a sealant that you can then spray or paint away on to your hearts content.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Thanks, Dirtdives . I was wondering how I was going to do that. If worse came to worse, I was going to recreate these vents out of some scrap sheet metal I found in my basement, but I'd rather do it this way on account of I'm lazy. And I want to try different ways to do things.

But if it fails, metal it is.

 

[TurboCharizard]

If you ever want 3D printed goodies mailed out to you Sean Anwalt just give me a shout and I can hook you up.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Thanks, Turbo!

 

[Sean Anwalt]

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY for all you Americans! And all other free- men out there.

UPDATE:

LOOOTS of filling and fine-tuning. Got the arm gaskets in (been afraid to do those, since I feel like they should have been added as the sides were completed.)

I intend to go back and round them out when they're set.

Sealing gaps, which are plentiful, divets, which are also plentiful (stupid cheap mats from walmart grmbl mbl zjdgd) have a lot more to go, and some of these may require a second touching up. Good thing the foam in most places is reinforced to prevent it warping even more while it dries... got a lot of work to do with this pup.

Sealed up my little vents for the backpack with a mix of white glue and water. I'm not seeing a huge amount of warping, but I'm still standing by to see if I'll need to re create them.

I'm hoping to get them mounted and the entire backpack finished by the end if the day today or tomorrow. Probably won't have a lot of time today, we'll see.

As always, comments are appreciated!

 

[PaiganBoi]

Gap filling is always fun... Isn't it? It does make all that filling & sanding worth it after paint is applied and there is just a smooth surface.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

just a smooth surface

All I want in this life!... after food and love... Smooth surfaces have always been difficult for me, but as I kook at the elite forum I get inspired and I know I can do it!

Even still, though. There are a lot of gaps.

This is as far as I've gotten today: fitted the vents and installed the collar.

I fixed the vents and they sit tighter now, but I didn't get a better picture of it.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Sean Anwalt, man it's coming out fantastic!!!!

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Thanks, Dirtdives!

I think I've figured a better way to get those pesky gaps filled better, but I wanna run it past you guys first:

I'm using kwik seal fill in my gaps, as the mighty EVIL TED has directed, but some of my seams have *HORRENDOUSLY HUGE* gaps, like, fit a coin through them big. I've got like, 2 or 3 of them. My idea is this: can I take a card or something, lay it on the outside of the piece, fill the gap from the inside, and then remove the card and STILL have a smooth surface? Maybe let the kwik seal set for a few minutes before removing the card?

 

[SI3RRA 117]

You can do that with hot glue and masking tape..... that’s how I do my led openings and diffusing. I don’t know about quickseal. Unless you have some sort of release agent? Use a test piece and see what the results are I suppose?

 

[PaiganBoi]

I use the same stuff. I have found that I would have to do multiple applications of the stuff for larger/deeper gaps. Fill gap, smooth out. Let it cure/dry come back and apply some more and so on. When it came to painting there were some ruff areas, I was able to get rid of that by sanding it down with 220 grit sandpaper, paint and sand again till it was smooth.

This example isn't the best example but it's what I did on my foam ODST helmet.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

I guess that's how it has to be. Heck, attempted my SAT with the trusty ol' 'trial and error' method, and I still trunde uot phyne....

 

[Sean Anwalt]

PaiganBoi does the kwik seal sand pretty well? I haven't gotten to that part, yet, but in some areas I'm pretty close and I don't want to tear up my seam.