Sean Bradley ODST kit reworks.

[QueenBHartigan]

Hey all! After a long hiatus, I’m back!

I passed my kit in 2022 with a tier 1 clearance, and since then I’ve been working on upgrades and changes. Not just on the armour, but weapons, undersuit, soft kit. Basically just everything.

We’ll start from the top. Right after my deployment certification came in.

2022:

I started with a new helmet. My Xcoser helmet had gotten too small, and would be an issue going forward. So I went to this place called Cybercraft. At the time, I’d gotten my helmet from them in the March of that year, and had a discount to use. So I got my ODST helmet from them. Everything was fine at first. Did the usual sand, smooth and prime, even got all the colouring done. And then the helmet cracked. From the face, round to the back of the head, and it seemingly happened out of nowhere. I chalked it up to the extreme temperatures we were seeing in the UK that summer. But I had to start over.



I reinforced the entire inside with fibreglass resin, doing 3 layers of the stuff inside the helmet. I then began filling and smoothing the entire helmet. I got to a point where i felt it was good as new, but I’m cautious of it to this day.



The sanded and smoothed finish.



Once the helmet was completed again, I began working on taking the chest in, and tightening up the chest in general. Still running on the old straps from version 1, I would change this in late 2023.



That’s kinda it for works on the kit in 2022. Here it was at MCM Expo in London of that year.




2023:
There wasn’t a lot of work until late that year. I was more Star Wars that year with my Republic Commando, and my family went through the loss my grandfather, I changed jobs and relocated. But there were some big changes in the latter half of that year.

My now ex partner took me horse riding one day, and as I was putting on my riding vest, I had a lightbulb moment. We did our riding session (if you want to know how that went, I hit the deck cocsyx first, boot still in the stirrup. Comforted Will, gave him a cuddle and got back on to finish the session.)

We got back home, and I ordered a vest. I figured that I could utilise the vest’s strapping to place the chest’s weight on the vest instead of directly on my shoulders. And it worked a charm. I strapped up the chest to the straps to adjust the shoulders, and utilised a bit of Velcro at the back to secure the neck, while I also buckled the side plates to the abs. We then sewed my hip guards to the vest straps.



My chest was like this for a while. We also retooled my boot covers for the kit. Which to be fair, I’m going to revise again soon.



The kit didn’t have any other changes that year, and nothing would change on it until late 2024. Here it was at Megacon London and HCS in the January and May of 2024 respectively. [Colorful close up credit of SaffyJemzPhotography]



Oh! Actually. I did get my hands on Plasma Rifles! This was in the November of 2023. I managed to get them both working again!


2024:
After ANOTHER relocation and job change in early 2024, I picked up the kit again in the rough Octoberish of that year.

The first thing I did was trim down the legs. I had these huge lips of plastic on my armour, which restricted my movement drastically. I spent a few days with the dremel just grinding all away and freeing up space in the legs. Please excuse the tactical crocs.



Once that was sorted, I started on the knees. Which used to be connected to my shin guards, which again restricted movement. So what I did was head to Poundland and put kneepads inside the knees, thus making them their own piece. Which allowed me to properly bend my legs.



Having that wonderful little idea, I thought about applying the same to my shoulders. As my shoulders were sat on knee pads, which at the time, seemed like a great idea. Until I had go through doors sideways.



At this point, I was happy with it again. Little changes to enhance motion. Here it was at the end of 2024.



That was it for 2024. This was it for the year, as it was approaching winter. And it was time for me to wind down.

2025:
This is where the new kit really came in. It’s so far been an overhaul of the entire kit.

This began at the end of May this year, after the first half of this year was spent starting Red Hood, Qui Gon Jinn, The Eleventh Doctor, Indiana Jones and a Biker Scout.

I decided it was time to update the ODST kit, which meant I stripped it right back. The armour went an anthracite grey from WRX paints.

My first port of call was to open up the gauntlets, and widen the gap on the inside of the arm, so that I could move my arms more. It was here that I realised that I could do more with the armour’s colour scheme and play with colour theory a bit more. So I’ve started adding accents of black, and weathering in Leadbelcher.



The next point was the belt, and oh boy was this one eye opening. I had to take the belt in by nearly five inches due to how oversized it was on me. But I simplified the belt buckle system, adjusted the belt size, and altered the position of the back plate.



I took in the calf armour at the back by a small amount, and did some minor grinding back on the ankle plates.


I’ll be continuing this in extra threads, as I’ve just hit the the 50 attachments.

 

[QueenBHartigan]

Right! Carrying on!

So once the calves were taken in, I tried on my legs and the range of motion was unreal!



Once I had the legs down, I moved back to the torso, and sort some of the issues there. I took apart the ab plate, utilising strapping instead of fixed position to allow the abs to move with me, and again open up my range of motion.


Of course, this opened the issue of my ab plate sagged. And I wouldn’t fix this for a little bit.

But it did mean that the armour was fully wearable again! And boy can I move in it! Score 1 for ODST armour, nil for Stormtrooper!

 

[QueenBHartigan]

Now we can talk about one of the new sections!
The Backpack

The backpack is also a Sean Bradley kit I ordered at the end of 24, and I’ve only just gotten round to it.

I first figured out how everything would sit. Once I had that, I spent the entire day trimming the kit. But not dremmeling, but scoring the plastic. Rather therapeutic actually!



I used the spare plastic, super glue and an accelerant spray on this pack, as it was a tool that I’d never used before. Good lord it is effective.

Once the entire was assembled from the inside, I then sprayed a section of the interior with expanding foam, and filled the rest of the gaps.

It was then sand, fill, rinse and repeat.

 

[QueenBHartigan]

MEANWHILE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM

I also decided that it was time to give the MA-40 a new lick of paint. Using the same colours (basically) as my armour, I updated the look of the MA-40 to closer resemble Halo Infinite’s look of Halo Reach. (If that makes sense)

I first of all, found references of what the colours should be on the gun, where mine was BLOCK GREY, BLOCK DARK GREY, BLOCK BLACK. It should have been 25% black, 25% dark grey, 25% pewter, 5% yellow, 10% Leadbelcher and 10% dark grey. I’ll post photos of my original alongside side, as well as a before and after. In essence, I gave my gun a HD update.

 

[QueenBHartigan]

The Backpack, Part 2

Once the bodywork and the paint was down, it was time to strap. You’ll see in The Backpack Part 1, that I also added an opening top for a compartment in the pack.

I went with a really simple colour scheme for the pack, grey, black, and a touch of white. Just like the armour.


The strapping came from a backpack I found in TKMaxx, which I cut off the straps. ALL the straps, and attached to the kit by screwing them in at the back, with a washer to avoid the screws falling through the straps.



I first attached those straps together, and it made for a really cute backpack.




With the issue being that it didn’t sit on the vest right. So back to the drawing board.



What I ended up doing was taking off the chest straps on the riding vest, moving them down, then attaching the chest to the backpack straps, with the straps attaching to the riding vest a bit below where the chest used to sit. And that worked a charm.



Which concluded the strapping stage of the pack.



As a finishing touch. I finely detailed my chest and pack with some decals and extra strapping to carry on the black line on the strapping.

 

[QueenBHartigan]

Which brings us up to speed

My kit is getting ready for redeployment, and i’m still making updates.

Screws present in the shoulders
A detail I wanted to do the first time round, and forgot about. I used a spare set of screws from old furniture, and they did just the trick!

MK117 on the chest
Again, another little detail I wanted on the first go round, but have only done now.


“Duke” on the chest plate
“Duke”, as in Nukem. Duke Nukem was one of my first ever first person shooters.



Solving the ab problem.
Mentioned earlier, my ab plates were sagging because of the new strapping. I solved it by also attaching those to the vest, by having two sections of Velcro that attach directly from the plate to vest. And it doesn’t impede movement!