Styrene Armor

[Gearsofhalo]

hi all, i was wanting to create ven from kingdom hearts birth by sleep. I'm creating his armor out of styrene and aluminum. I wanted advice if anyone else has used styrene. gonna start today, so please help with some techniques. Thanks!!

 

[Leadingspartan]

The best advice I could give right now is to be patient with your work, otherwise, you'll end up screwing yourself over.

 

[timonemycat]

My first attempt at armor was using styrene. Its a nice strong material to use, bends nicely, and has a special solvent you can use that actually melts the pieces together. I forget what it's called, you can find it easily though. Its also very smooth, so aside from the cracks between pieces filling, bondo shouldnt be a big step. My attempt was a failiure although I gave up early. This is what it looked like:

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I'd say go for it though. If you have any questions feel free to pm.

 

[SPARTAN II]

My main base material of choice for any of the scratch-built props I've made over the last eight years (TNG Medkit, TNG Dermal Regenerator, Custom Commbadges, Custom Phaser, etc.) has always been sheet styrene. I find it a very versatile medium and suits my purposes rather adequately.

In fact, the Mk VI helmet I'm currently working on is comprised of sheet styrene layered over a basic HALO 2 Pep file. A lot of work's gone into it so far in terms of applying the couple layers of styrene, as well as working all of the surface details in by hand (the HALO 2 .pdo's are low-def).

Like timonemycat mentioned, it's a nice strong material to use (also very light compared to fiberglass, even built up/layered), bends nicely and is easy to cement together. The biggest thing you'll have to worry about is filling in any gaps between the pieces, but compared to other materials requires very little sanding to get a clean, smooth look to it.

Take a look at my WiP thread linked in my sig below to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Btw, just out of curiosity, what exactly is going to be your process for building this up? Are you going to go with a similar approach (layered styrene outer frame over a printed Pep file)? Or do you have something else in mind?

 

[Gearsofhalo]

Thanks to everyone for the advice so far.....lets just hope i get a few more replies lol. but@ SPARTAN II: i will be doing it much like this

[attachment=9333:1812314.jpg]

hope that paints a better picture for you. it will be spraypainted a color scheme decided by a poll i will post soon. This dudes armor is styrene, and is SICK. lol

 

[Sean Bradley]

My costume was fabricated from styrene ages ago. I agree with the above., but I also think it's a good idea to fiberglass the armor from the back. It's what's keeping my costume still together to this day.

I'd really like to know what the solvent is that you use to melt styrene together. I've heard of this before, but never got the details straight. I ended up using superglue to assemble it.

Start with poster board. If you have the patience to get through patterning all this out in poster board, you’ll be able to pull it together. The concept here is to work out all the patterns and make your design revisions in a cheap and easy to use material like paper before you even touch the plastic. This will save you lots of expensive mistakes along the way. The use of a photocopier is helpful in this process as well, if you have access to one. If your preliminary pattern is slightly too big, or too small you can use the photocopier to re-size it, rather than having to re-draw it from the beginning.

The very, very, very first step in patterning is to closely study the part you are going to start with. Pull up as many images you can of it and maybe trace over them to get the shape and proportions right either in an image editing program, or on paper.

 

[Stygmatah]

I'm certainly NO expert on this subject but after scouring some other prop building forums and scratch built sites overt the past 6 months or so it seems to me that styrene (which I have never used by the way and is rarer than rocking horse poo to find here where I am in Australia other than an interweb order from the US) is VERY similar to model kit plastic which is best glued with Contact cement/model making glue. I remember from years gone by that when I tried moving a piece slightly out of place the glue came away gray where it had stuck as if it had melted the plastic somewhat.

I could however be completely wrong so don't take this post as gospel, I'm just coming to a logical conclusion. It's simply been my experience that Contact glue has always worked best by far for me when it comes to gluing plastic. It seems to make the plastic a bit tacky at the sticking point and joins almost like a weld in some cases.

 

[tenfingersofdoom]

styrene is very finicky, some super glues will melt it instantly and onters wont even bond separate pieces together unless you wash them first in warm soapy water to get rid of any release or flash. it is disgustingly tough to cut straight lines even with a ruler and styrene comes in all different thicknesses, some of which can only be cut with power tools. i am going to be replacing parts of my resined mark vi armor with styrene for making some nice flat surfaces or crisper detail, but if you can make a whole suit out of the stuff then you are a master and you need to go work in hollywood and become rich.

 

[Gearsofhalo]

well just call me master lol. jk. but, i do plan on making the whole suit with styrene and 2 coats of fiberglass on the inside. what is this glue that melts the styrene?

 

[timonemycat]

Any Cyanoacrilate (or however you spell it) will melt the plastic. I bought my styrene sheets from a Plastic Supply Co. in this little building near my house. The guy there sold me a gallon of this stuff that smelled like paint Thinner (it might have been paint thinner) and a syringe. A small amount would literally fuse the two pieces I was working on together. It held together really well. Since styrene is strong, I was able to use expanding foam on the inside, as you can see. It made the helm really strong and thick.

I read up on wiki just now that something in paint thinner will melt styrene. I have a few pieces lying around, Ill try it out and get back to you.

 

[Gearsofhalo]

Any Cyanoacrilate (or however you spell it) will melt the plastic. I bought my styrene sheets from a Plastic Supply Co. in this little building near my house. The guy there sold me a gallon of this stuff that smelled like paint Thinner (it might have been paint thinner) and a syringe. A small amount would literally fuse the two pieces I was working on together. It held together really well. Since styrene is strong, I was able to use expanding foam on the inside, as you can see. It made the helm really strong and thick.

I read up on wiki just now that something in paint thinner will melt styrene. I have a few pieces lying around, Ill try it out and get back to you.

wow, sounds cool! please try it out i would be very grateful. thanks!

 

[rowan]

My advice, listen to those above ^^
Ive been using styrene for my props for a few months now, and i LOVE it. I've made armour pieces, daggers, and guns from styrene.
Some advice i can give you for aluminum, the dremel cutting blade cuts it like butter, and you can get very smooth rounded edges using one too.

 

[Gearsofhalo]

My advice, listen to those above ^^
Ive been using styrene for my props for a few months now, and i LOVE it. I've made armour pieces, daggers, and guns from styrene.
Some advice i can give you for aluminum, the dremel cutting blade cuts it like butter, and you can get very smooth rounded edges using one too.

wow, sounds cool. is styrene really that strong?! ive always wanted to use it, but really never did. As per the aluminum i was thinking about using a dremel....now i guess i will.

 

[Gearsofhalo]

I am so sorry for the double post! i have a really important question, is styrene also known as acrylic? because i went to home depot and lowes, and they both only had things called acrylic. please help!

 

[timonemycat]

No! Acrylic is acrylic, and styrene is styrene. The best way to get styrene is to find a Plastic Supply Company in your area, if not the internet is good. Did the acrylic come in sheets?

I just remembered something really good about styrene. Its really easy to cut. All you have to do is score it with an exacto knife really lightly, and it snaps in that exact spot. was really convenient. I still have to get around to putting some thinner on my old styrene, Ill do it soon and get back to you.

 

[rowan]

wow, sounds cool. is styrene really that strong?! ive always wanted to use it, but really never did. As per the aluminum i was thinking about using a dremel....now i guess i will.

I use thick sheets of styrene for most of my props, normally 1-3mm.
It is reasonably strong, pretty similair in tensile strength to, well, a 'sheet' of polyurethane resin 1-3mm thick. But depending what your making i would suggest re-enforcing with fiberglass, like seans.

 

[Sean Bradley]

The only place you'll find sheet styrene at a Home Depot in in the aisle that they sell the 'Beware of Dog" and "For Sale" signs, which are screen printed on styrene sheet. It's not ideal, but works in a pinch. Just don't make a habit of it... you'll be throwing your money away.

Best place to get some styrene locally is a sign shop, or plastic fabrication company, if there's one nearby. I made some calls locally and found a shop that would sell me their stock for a little price increase.

Otherwise, order online for the best selection and prices: ProfessionalPlastics.com