I have wanted Master Chief Armor for years, and now with Pep I can finally make it. I decided to make the groin first just to make sure I had the size of it right, and to my delight, it fit perfectly. This is where my first question comes in.
1. After putting the groin together, I tried to put it on and it would not go over my legs. However, it did fit my waist perfectly so I cut it in half (front and back) and decided to connect the sides with velcro and use fabric to connect the front to back in the crotch area so when I sat down it would give. I believe this would have worked. Is there a trick to getting the armor on without having to cut the armor apart and reconnect it after its on me? Because it was cut apart, I used a hanger to make the bend in the waist so when it came time to resin, it would have the curve of my waist. I did this for the front and back.
The next question is where it got impossible to continue. Please advise:
2. Do you guys have any tips on this part? Since I really don't kow a lot about this stuff, I asked some people from Home Depot which is where I bought the resin and the Fiberglass cloth. I was told to use a mask, goggles, and gloves which I did. I was extremely excited by now and rushed home to start. I had no idea what I was in for. I began to cut the cloth to fit the groin. The cloth began to fray as I cut but I glued it piece by piece with a low heat hot glue gun. This was much more difficult than I thought it would be. It took quite a while. I was confused on how to finish off the edges before I began the resin so I left the frayed edges hanging over the sides. I set myself up in the garage area of my house with the garage doors completely open. As soon as I opened the resin the smell was extremely strong. I mixed the resin (2 tablespoons) with 14 drops of liguid hardner as instructed on the can. This was the largest amount that I could mix because the resin would begin to harden 15 minutes after mixing. It was very hard to work with and you can only cover a very small area because of the amount of resin you have to work with. When I realized that I was only able to do a 5" by 5" area, I realized that this would take forever to do. Not to mention how time consuming it would be to keep mixing 2 table spoons at a time. I also realized that I would go through brushes like crazy. Once it hardened, you had to throw out your mixing cups and brush and start all over again. If the time to complete this task was the only problem I would still be willing to work on it a little each day, BUT, the smell was unreal. It created a horrible odor throughout the enitre garage even though the doors were wide open. Is this all the price you have to pay to make this costume? Is their any other substance that I could use as a hardner that would not have such an offensive oder?
I was concerned about breathing in this substance over and over again. After all, we are talking about full body armor. It is a tremendous amout of area to cover. I really would love to make this costume. The pattern is perfect. The resin did harden as it should, but as I said you can only cover such a small area at a time that this makes it seem impossible. I would greatly appreciate any advice you could give me to complete the costume.
1. After putting the groin together, I tried to put it on and it would not go over my legs. However, it did fit my waist perfectly so I cut it in half (front and back) and decided to connect the sides with velcro and use fabric to connect the front to back in the crotch area so when I sat down it would give. I believe this would have worked. Is there a trick to getting the armor on without having to cut the armor apart and reconnect it after its on me? Because it was cut apart, I used a hanger to make the bend in the waist so when it came time to resin, it would have the curve of my waist. I did this for the front and back.
The next question is where it got impossible to continue. Please advise:
2. Do you guys have any tips on this part? Since I really don't kow a lot about this stuff, I asked some people from Home Depot which is where I bought the resin and the Fiberglass cloth. I was told to use a mask, goggles, and gloves which I did. I was extremely excited by now and rushed home to start. I had no idea what I was in for. I began to cut the cloth to fit the groin. The cloth began to fray as I cut but I glued it piece by piece with a low heat hot glue gun. This was much more difficult than I thought it would be. It took quite a while. I was confused on how to finish off the edges before I began the resin so I left the frayed edges hanging over the sides. I set myself up in the garage area of my house with the garage doors completely open. As soon as I opened the resin the smell was extremely strong. I mixed the resin (2 tablespoons) with 14 drops of liguid hardner as instructed on the can. This was the largest amount that I could mix because the resin would begin to harden 15 minutes after mixing. It was very hard to work with and you can only cover a very small area because of the amount of resin you have to work with. When I realized that I was only able to do a 5" by 5" area, I realized that this would take forever to do. Not to mention how time consuming it would be to keep mixing 2 table spoons at a time. I also realized that I would go through brushes like crazy. Once it hardened, you had to throw out your mixing cups and brush and start all over again. If the time to complete this task was the only problem I would still be willing to work on it a little each day, BUT, the smell was unreal. It created a horrible odor throughout the enitre garage even though the doors were wide open. Is this all the price you have to pay to make this costume? Is their any other substance that I could use as a hardner that would not have such an offensive oder?
I was concerned about breathing in this substance over and over again. After all, we are talking about full body armor. It is a tremendous amout of area to cover. I really would love to make this costume. The pattern is perfect. The resin did harden as it should, but as I said you can only cover such a small area at a time that this makes it seem impossible. I would greatly appreciate any advice you could give me to complete the costume.
