Sub's ODST foam build thread
- Thread starter SubXzeroXhero
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- Member DIN
- S024
you are more than welcome to borrow mine at some point! just let me know!
- Member DIN
- S024
Alright! so not to ignore this build thread its time for some updates. I kind of went off the radar while trying to get as close to finished for summercon. Still plenty to do but got some good results so far.
Fist thing is first, I coated all the parts with Rustolium LeakSeal. It is similar to plastidip but it goes on thicker and requires less coats. I will say that I also went through about 9 cans of it. Some parts required a double coat to remove lines and such from the foam.
Later in the build i ended up using a product called Flexbond that was watered down. It is something that you brush on but also has self leveling properties to smooth itself out. I reduced this with some water and it helped mask some of the more porous sections were the rubber coating didnt want to cooperate
.
Fist thing is first, I coated all the parts with Rustolium LeakSeal. It is similar to plastidip but it goes on thicker and requires less coats. I will say that I also went through about 9 cans of it. Some parts required a double coat to remove lines and such from the foam.
Later in the build i ended up using a product called Flexbond that was watered down. It is something that you brush on but also has self leveling properties to smooth itself out. I reduced this with some water and it helped mask some of the more porous sections were the rubber coating didnt want to cooperate
.
- Member DIN
- S024
I decided to use a pistol belt to hold all the hip hardware and attach each of the pieces with elastics and it worked perfectly! I have a few details i would like to add but I will have to add them later, particularly the small silver buckles below the hip plates.
I also used this to attach the Thigh pieces and ran the strap underneath the hip plate. The shin was held in place with some foam i added to the inside of the shin along with the material of the boot when i put that on. I attached the knee plate to the shin and added an elastic strap to hold it in place. I do think that i will replace these at some point because looking at the references they should be a bit bigger.
Here is what it looked like all together. thank you pipninja for taking the photos.
I also used this to attach the Thigh pieces and ran the strap underneath the hip plate. The shin was held in place with some foam i added to the inside of the shin along with the material of the boot when i put that on. I attached the knee plate to the shin and added an elastic strap to hold it in place. I do think that i will replace these at some point because looking at the references they should be a bit bigger.
Here is what it looked like all together. thank you pipninja for taking the photos.
- Member DIN
- S024
I ended up printing off new flash bangs since the other ones were so fragile. Side by side comparison of the two.
- Member DIN
- S024
used E6000 to attach the caps to the boot and I also added the strapping details with the buckles as well. This part was tricky since I had to carefully clamp the parts on while they dried.
I used my cricut to cut out stensils I designed in maker for the chest plate and the shoulder plates.
Strap details for the thighs.
I attached the bicep pieces to an elastic strap that goes around my arm and positioned it so it will fall into place.
Added finger loops to the glove covers that match to the fingerless gloves I picked up that way the knuckle guards follow with the hand.
Attached all the plates to the main chest rig and added the details along with the shoulder straps to attach to the shoulder pauldrons.
I used my cricut to cut out stensils I designed in maker for the chest plate and the shoulder plates.
Strap details for the thighs.
I attached the bicep pieces to an elastic strap that goes around my arm and positioned it so it will fall into place.
Added finger loops to the glove covers that match to the fingerless gloves I picked up that way the knuckle guards follow with the hand.
Attached all the plates to the main chest rig and added the details along with the shoulder straps to attach to the shoulder pauldrons.
Jaysee1983
New Member
Super clean! Looks great. I'm gonna reference this thread for my ODST build.
- Member DIN
- S024
Thank you Lukavago! I can't wait to see your build!
- Member DIN
- S024
So This past weekend was Summercon and I took what i had completed to kit up. This is not what i would consider complete but it was passible for the weekend. I'm still proud of what i got done so far but there is much more to do. Just wanted to show how the fit was turning out.
Thank you Lukavago for taking the photo!
What is next for the build... when i tried to apply a base layer to the helmet the paint seemed to scrape off with just a touch of my fingernail and that is with a top coat added to it. My guess is that because I left the helmet out in the garage for so long that some sort of oily residue was on the surface that prevented the paint from adhering properly. I will sand it down again and apply a fresh coat. On the bright side this gives me a chance to layer the helmet with a gunmetal color and then add some paint mask for some weathering details.
Still have to finish the flash bangs as well along with building the hardcase backpack. The question will be if I want to 3d print it or continue with foam for the backpack as well. I would also like to make another spine protector once i figure out the scaling for that one. Eventually I may also go back and edit the undershirt and try for new sleeves that have the underarm detail on it. For now i think the BDU with the neck seal works just fine. may also add some foam to the helmet opening.
Finally there are some drop pouches and strap details that i would like to add to the shins and thighs along with resizing the knees.
Lastly the details on the thighs and the forearms should be urban camo to be accurate but I'm considering keeping it the colors that it is at the moment.
Thank you Lukavago for taking the photo!
What is next for the build... when i tried to apply a base layer to the helmet the paint seemed to scrape off with just a touch of my fingernail and that is with a top coat added to it. My guess is that because I left the helmet out in the garage for so long that some sort of oily residue was on the surface that prevented the paint from adhering properly. I will sand it down again and apply a fresh coat. On the bright side this gives me a chance to layer the helmet with a gunmetal color and then add some paint mask for some weathering details.
Still have to finish the flash bangs as well along with building the hardcase backpack. The question will be if I want to 3d print it or continue with foam for the backpack as well. I would also like to make another spine protector once i figure out the scaling for that one. Eventually I may also go back and edit the undershirt and try for new sleeves that have the underarm detail on it. For now i think the BDU with the neck seal works just fine. may also add some foam to the helmet opening.
Finally there are some drop pouches and strap details that i would like to add to the shins and thighs along with resizing the knees.
Lastly the details on the thighs and the forearms should be urban camo to be accurate but I'm considering keeping it the colors that it is at the moment.
- Member DIN
- S024
After taking about a week off from the build grind I'm back in the saddle. Started with the helmet since that was giving me the most issue. Sanded down the surface again with 250 grit and then finished off with 400. Immediately I could tell there was an issue with the surface of the prime coat. There were sections where the paint adhered just fine, but there where other sections where it didn't adhere at all. you can tell by where there are still sections with the grey paint vs the off white sections.
After this step I used my airbrush as an air gun to blast all the dust off the surface and the crevices in the helmet. I then mixed up some gunmetal paint to put down as a base layer for painting the helmet. I went over this with about two passes over the surface, some minor drip here and there but I can clean that up and hopefully the issue will have been solved. Then i may hit it with another light layer to get everything even and then start with color once my resupply of paint gets here
.
In the meantime I will also be shaving down the inside of the visor for a better fit for the visor later. there is a pretty decent gap at the corners of the opening due to the geometry on the inside. So I plan to shave it down a little bit.
After this step I used my airbrush as an air gun to blast all the dust off the surface and the crevices in the helmet. I then mixed up some gunmetal paint to put down as a base layer for painting the helmet. I went over this with about two passes over the surface, some minor drip here and there but I can clean that up and hopefully the issue will have been solved. Then i may hit it with another light layer to get everything even and then start with color once my resupply of paint gets here
.
In the meantime I will also be shaving down the inside of the visor for a better fit for the visor later. there is a pretty decent gap at the corners of the opening due to the geometry on the inside. So I plan to shave it down a little bit.
- Member DIN
- S024
Time for another update. Things haver slowed down quite a bit unfortunately, life has been busy and trying to tackle a few small commissions and such while working on truly finishing this build.
Big focus has been the bucket. The base coat went down just fine. Added a masking layer for some weathering later which i think will look great. then coated with a layer of dark grey all over.
Followed by my favorite thing next to sanding.... masking. Covered all but the sections that I wanted to paint black. During this time I tried out some new finishes in flat, matte and satin. I'm planning on covering different sections with different coatings such as the cheeks of the helmet with flat.
I ended up having to do this section twice since there was some paint peeling in between steps but eventually it worked.
Next was the grey stripe down the middle. Had to bust out the measuring tape to get everything aligned properly but I really dig the result.
And here are the results!
I have also been working on updated flash bangs for the hips. Much lighter! (files found over in the Free 3d file index)
Did I mention how much I love masking?! Working on taping off the forearms, next time I will use frog tape I think, it has a tendency to lift.
I hope to work on it some more this weekend. will update as soon as I can.
Big focus has been the bucket. The base coat went down just fine. Added a masking layer for some weathering later which i think will look great. then coated with a layer of dark grey all over.
Followed by my favorite thing next to sanding.... masking. Covered all but the sections that I wanted to paint black. During this time I tried out some new finishes in flat, matte and satin. I'm planning on covering different sections with different coatings such as the cheeks of the helmet with flat.
I ended up having to do this section twice since there was some paint peeling in between steps but eventually it worked.
Next was the grey stripe down the middle. Had to bust out the measuring tape to get everything aligned properly but I really dig the result.
And here are the results!
I have also been working on updated flash bangs for the hips. Much lighter! (files found over in the Free 3d file index)
Did I mention how much I love masking?! Working on taping off the forearms, next time I will use frog tape I think, it has a tendency to lift.
I hope to work on it some more this weekend. will update as soon as I can.
Reclaimara
Sr Member
- Member DIN
- S713
Wow. I love your ODST so much! Amazing job on foamsmithing and the painting. Really one of the best I've seen. All those details. It was definitely worth taking the time.
And I love your doggo!
And I love your doggo!
- Member DIN
- S024
Time for another update. Spending a lot of time with painters tape these past few weeks.
Painted the details on the shoulder sections which other than all the masking was pretty strait forward.
Also decided to go back and fix a mistake from before. I wasn't looking at the reference images when i made the medref badge seen above which is inaccurate compared to the game references which is more of a sticker that goes on the shoulder detail and doesn't cover the entire detail of the shoulder. So I remade the stencil to fit the section on my armor and redid the medref badge to be closer to the in game reference.
Before:
And after: (for some reason the angle that I took the picture makes it look way lopsided but its pretty close)
The part I have been dreading, painting the camo pattern on the forearms. Decided to copy the pattern as close as I could from the in game references. Of course what would be one of my projects if it didn't have a ton of rework right? so after applying one color and going onto the next one I had paint peel and bleed over EVERYWHERE!
The horror!
So after going back and repainting different sections and also painting the raised armor panels a slightly different color to get the whole thing to not be blended together we got the forearms done (for now)
Additionally I finally got a bin for all the armor so after all this is done I will go in and paint the bin as well! Really loving the size of it!
Painted the details on the shoulder sections which other than all the masking was pretty strait forward.
Also decided to go back and fix a mistake from before. I wasn't looking at the reference images when i made the medref badge seen above which is inaccurate compared to the game references which is more of a sticker that goes on the shoulder detail and doesn't cover the entire detail of the shoulder. So I remade the stencil to fit the section on my armor and redid the medref badge to be closer to the in game reference.
Before:
And after: (for some reason the angle that I took the picture makes it look way lopsided but its pretty close)
The part I have been dreading, painting the camo pattern on the forearms. Decided to copy the pattern as close as I could from the in game references. Of course what would be one of my projects if it didn't have a ton of rework right? so after applying one color and going onto the next one I had paint peel and bleed over EVERYWHERE!
The horror!
So after going back and repainting different sections and also painting the raised armor panels a slightly different color to get the whole thing to not be blended together we got the forearms done (for now)
Additionally I finally got a bin for all the armor so after all this is done I will go in and paint the bin as well! Really loving the size of it!
- Member DIN
- S024
And its time for another update! I'm getting pretty close to nearing the end of what I will call "phase two" of my ODST build. After all the pain I endured with the Forearms I took the lessons learned from that experience and applied it to painting the Thigh armor which went a lot smoother!
Then this past week I worked on the thigh pouches and remaking the knee plates. The old ones were just not to scale so I increased the scale by 20%. I think this more accurately matches the scale from the game.
Modified the files from TurboCharizard to make foam Thigh pouches. Not finished yet but they are coming together nicely.
And finally after all this work I decided to to a quick fit test to see how it is all coming together! Disregard the untied shoes for now since this was just a quick fit test and there is plenty to do still for minor fixes here and there. I am happy to say that I also managed to do the full suit up without any assistance so that's a win in my book. But I'm exited with the progress that I have made!
And just for fun:
One thing I really need to fix is that when I wear the suit I just sound like the squeaky boots episode of SpongeBob, I definitely need to add some friction padding to STOP THE INFERNAL SQUEAK!
Then this past week I worked on the thigh pouches and remaking the knee plates. The old ones were just not to scale so I increased the scale by 20%. I think this more accurately matches the scale from the game.
Modified the files from TurboCharizard to make foam Thigh pouches. Not finished yet but they are coming together nicely.
And finally after all this work I decided to to a quick fit test to see how it is all coming together! Disregard the untied shoes for now since this was just a quick fit test and there is plenty to do still for minor fixes here and there. I am happy to say that I also managed to do the full suit up without any assistance so that's a win in my book. But I'm exited with the progress that I have made!
And just for fun:
One thing I really need to fix is that when I wear the suit I just sound like the squeaky boots episode of SpongeBob, I definitely need to add some friction padding to STOP THE INFERNAL SQUEAK!
Last edited:
Ender Of Time
Member
looks like a great start!
- Member DIN
- S024
Has it really been that long since I made an update? Anyways I've been hard at work. Half has been fixing things and the other half has been finishing.
First off I finished what I will refer to as MRK 1 of the suit. It is wearable but I plan on adding more details, attachments, and updates moving forward but it is wearable and I have already worn it out and about at the HCS finals late last year!
Visor: The visor has been dyed and silvered and i was very pleased with the result! Had to get creative to install the visor but it looks great! Since then there has been Fans and a wireless mic setup installed along with I added a rubber gasket to the opening of the Bucket to protect it and give it some more finish.
Visor before and after allclad chrome finish.
Now about those Improvements and repairs I mentioned....
Boots: One thing I learned from the few times I have suited up with this kit is that the way that the boot covers work that if I roll my foot onto the ball of my foot, the ribbing gets ripped in two since it cant move far enough. I decided to rip off the cover of the boot, Cut off the ribbing, remake it with Eva dowels cut in half glued onto a flat 2mm backing, shape, finish (this time in black to give more color variation), and reattach to the cover BUT THIS TIME I connected it with sections of elastic to give that section more give. It's not perfect and I may make some adjustments but it is an improvement.
Thighs: Due to the finish on the thighs, when the sections on the inner thigh rubbed together it actually removed the rubber layer off the top of the section (it also made me sound like rubber boots). I decided to correct this by adding a half moon of YaYa's stretch vinyl in black to cover the contact point and I also covered the inner thigh section with angulus 4 coat in flat. I think the finish looks amazing and it's functional to boot!
Hip plates and shins: To continue to fix friction points, added more of the vinyl to the back of the hip plates. For the shins I noticed I was getting damage to the shins due to them falling down around my boot. The only thing that was keeping them in place was friction but gravity was winning that battle. So in order to help with that I got some cheap knee supports and added some snaps to the inside which will attach to the section of Elastic that connects the knee plate and the shin to keep it up and centered. I also went and added the strap detail to the bottom of the shin.
Hip canisters: I finally finished sanding and gluing the hip canisters and have painted them up. Now I'm just figuring out the best way to attach them to the hip plates
.
What's next?: Next will be attaching the hip plates and work on the first round of weathering. After that I plan on adding a comlink module to the helmet, the hardcase rucksack, the commando rifle, leg drop pouches, combat knife, chest pouches, M7S, and socom.
First off I finished what I will refer to as MRK 1 of the suit. It is wearable but I plan on adding more details, attachments, and updates moving forward but it is wearable and I have already worn it out and about at the HCS finals late last year!
Visor: The visor has been dyed and silvered and i was very pleased with the result! Had to get creative to install the visor but it looks great! Since then there has been Fans and a wireless mic setup installed along with I added a rubber gasket to the opening of the Bucket to protect it and give it some more finish.
Visor before and after allclad chrome finish.
Now about those Improvements and repairs I mentioned....
Boots: One thing I learned from the few times I have suited up with this kit is that the way that the boot covers work that if I roll my foot onto the ball of my foot, the ribbing gets ripped in two since it cant move far enough. I decided to rip off the cover of the boot, Cut off the ribbing, remake it with Eva dowels cut in half glued onto a flat 2mm backing, shape, finish (this time in black to give more color variation), and reattach to the cover BUT THIS TIME I connected it with sections of elastic to give that section more give. It's not perfect and I may make some adjustments but it is an improvement.
Thighs: Due to the finish on the thighs, when the sections on the inner thigh rubbed together it actually removed the rubber layer off the top of the section (it also made me sound like rubber boots). I decided to correct this by adding a half moon of YaYa's stretch vinyl in black to cover the contact point and I also covered the inner thigh section with angulus 4 coat in flat. I think the finish looks amazing and it's functional to boot!
Hip plates and shins: To continue to fix friction points, added more of the vinyl to the back of the hip plates. For the shins I noticed I was getting damage to the shins due to them falling down around my boot. The only thing that was keeping them in place was friction but gravity was winning that battle. So in order to help with that I got some cheap knee supports and added some snaps to the inside which will attach to the section of Elastic that connects the knee plate and the shin to keep it up and centered. I also went and added the strap detail to the bottom of the shin.
Hip canisters: I finally finished sanding and gluing the hip canisters and have painted them up. Now I'm just figuring out the best way to attach them to the hip plates
.
What's next?: Next will be attaching the hip plates and work on the first round of weathering. After that I plan on adding a comlink module to the helmet, the hardcase rucksack, the commando rifle, leg drop pouches, combat knife, chest pouches, M7S, and socom.
- Member DIN
- S024
So as usual I'm behind on updates to the suit. Since last time there have been a ton of updates.
Weathering is finally complete! For the weathering process I used my favorite combo of using water based oil paints with black, brown, green, and red in various combos do give the dirt look. Just smear it all over and blot it away with a rag until you get the desired level of dirt.
Side by side for color comparison.
Tried to attach the flash bangs with velcro but I didnt feel confident with it staying..... so I used E6000 on the velcro and now they are going nowhere!
This was before weathering of course.
also added my name tag to the chest piece finally.
Weathering is finally complete! For the weathering process I used my favorite combo of using water based oil paints with black, brown, green, and red in various combos do give the dirt look. Just smear it all over and blot it away with a rag until you get the desired level of dirt.
Side by side for color comparison.
Tried to attach the flash bangs with velcro but I didnt feel confident with it staying..... so I used E6000 on the velcro and now they are going nowhere!
This was before weathering of course.
also added my name tag to the chest piece finally.
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