DavidFarris
New Member
very nice work.
Thorssoli's MkVI Costume Buildup
- Thread starter thorssoli
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I just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of the sideshow part of the project lately. Here's the current state of the boots. In this photo you can see the complete HD left boot, the low detail right boot, and the HD heel cup for the right boot. They all need some fine-tuning, but I'm pretty happy with them at this stage:
Bear in mind that these are only the hard parts. I will be doing all of the rubber parts (soles, instep, and toe cap) as separate pieces. Another couple of angles:
Since the left and right toes and instep straps are interchangeable, I can get away with one version for both sides and just make two different heels. I'll be taking the bottom half inch or so off of these parts before I mold them up. Once I have the molds done I'll be sculpting out and molding the various parts of the soles.
Also, after looking all over the place for a strap buckle that looked kinda like what I was after, I finally gave up and decided to sculpt out my own. Here's a snapshot of the prototype with sprues added in preparation for molding:
Stay tuned for more pics as progress continues...
Bear in mind that these are only the hard parts. I will be doing all of the rubber parts (soles, instep, and toe cap) as separate pieces. Another couple of angles:
Since the left and right toes and instep straps are interchangeable, I can get away with one version for both sides and just make two different heels. I'll be taking the bottom half inch or so off of these parts before I mold them up. Once I have the molds done I'll be sculpting out and molding the various parts of the soles.
Also, after looking all over the place for a strap buckle that looked kinda like what I was after, I finally gave up and decided to sculpt out my own. Here's a snapshot of the prototype with sprues added in preparation for molding:
Stay tuned for more pics as progress continues...
SNIPER 118
Member
Sweet
Graverobber
Member
your armor looks very promising. i cant wait for you to finish it!
flipboy439
Jr Member
hey thor, ive been reading through your process of making your armor. and youve gotten me to start making my own! your work is truly amazing. the only question i had about it was your interior work, could you explain about the fans and padding? if not, thats fine, i understand, i just know you said you were leaving soon and i wanted to ask before you left. thanks a mil and good job!
flipboy439 said:
I didn't take many pics of the inside of the fiancee's Coast Guard theme helmet after I had finished the padding. Here's a shot with the rigid foam layer and the electronics installed:
To keep from having a few inches of upholstery foam and looking like a bobblehead while wearing the helmet, I poured in some 2-part urethane foam to fill the void. Then I used a flapwheel grinder to dig out a hole slightly bigger than the wearer's head. Then I used a knife and a Dremel to make an additional hole for the battery pack in the lower left part of the photo.
The fans are installed in the chin area. I dremelled some vents into the grooves on the cheek hoses, but I'm thinking there's a better way for the air to get in. The fans themselves are a couple of PC cooling fans I picked up from my local surplus electronics shop.
Once they were mounted in place (just a blob of epoxy to hold each of them) I wired them up and then formed a piece of Sintra PVC to fit inside the chin area. The Sintra serves to neaten up the appearance of the interior as well as duct the airflow from the fans toward the visor. The fresh air pointed at the visor keeps it from fogging up.
I also cut a couple of holes in the Sintra to duct air at the wearer's face and a couple more holes to mount the pushbutton switches. There is one switch for the fans and another for the lights. Before mounting the switches I glued on a layer automotive headliner material. Then I mounted the switches and epoxied the whole assembly into the chin of the helmet.
Then I used spray adhesive to line the entire interior of the helmet with more headliner fabric. The headliner will stick to the hook side of a piece of velcro, so when I needed additional padding to fit the wearer snugly all I had to do was sew up little pillows filled with upholstery foam and with bits of velcro hook sewn to one side.
The wire leads shown in the photo go to each of the LED sub-assemblies. If you need to know more about wiring up LED circuits, check out the various links at the LED Center.
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flipboy439
Jr Member
wow man, very detailed. you sure do know what youre doing. good job and thanks for the help man.
I just got asked this question in a PM again, so I'm going to answer it for all concerned:
I cut the visor with a dremel and the styrene with an X-acto.
I glued the two pieces together using a two-part epoxy and a whole lot of clamps to keep from forming bubbles between the two layers.
To glue the visor into the helmet I also used epoxy and a lot of clamps. The trick at this stage is to avoid getting a bunch of epoxy on the visible parts of the visor. I just mixed the resin, coated the edges where the visor would contact the helmet, clamped the visor in place and then wiped away any visible excess. Once it was securely glued in place, the next step was to mask it off to prevent any more epoxy from leaking out and then add a bit more.
I'm sorry if I wasn't able to make it clear enough. It's easier to do it than it is to describe it.
If you have questions that might help other makers as well, please post them in the thread. That way I won't have to answer them as many times. That and if they've already been asked and answered I can pick on you.
I cut the visor with a dremel and the styrene with an X-acto.
I glued the two pieces together using a two-part epoxy and a whole lot of clamps to keep from forming bubbles between the two layers.
To glue the visor into the helmet I also used epoxy and a lot of clamps. The trick at this stage is to avoid getting a bunch of epoxy on the visible parts of the visor. I just mixed the resin, coated the edges where the visor would contact the helmet, clamped the visor in place and then wiped away any visible excess. Once it was securely glued in place, the next step was to mask it off to prevent any more epoxy from leaking out and then add a bit more.
I'm sorry if I wasn't able to make it clear enough. It's easier to do it than it is to describe it.
If you have questions that might help other makers as well, please post them in the thread. That way I won't have to answer them as many times. That and if they've already been asked and answered I can pick on you.
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This wasn't my idea. Supertaco posted a low-res size testing model of the torso armor and gave me the notion of using the other low-res models the same way.David said:
Anyway...
I've been out of the shop for a bit (something about getting married and being on a honeymoon makes hobby stuff happen slower), so today was the first time back to work on this project in a while. I'm on a quick break from the shop and figured I should go ahead and upload some pics.
I'm hoping to get at least one pair of wearable boots made by the end of the week, so today I did some fairing and shaping and got the toe ready for molding (the heels and instep strap will be ready later today). Here's a shot of the beginning of the moldmaking process:
I'm using the clay to build a void between the prototype and the mother mold:
The mother mold was then made using urethane casting resin filled with enough microballoons to give it the viscosity of mayonaise:
When the resin is set (should be about an hour ago) the next step will be to pull it off of the master, remove the clay, remove the little mixing cup, reassemble the whole mess without the clay inside, and pour in silicone rubber to fill the void left behind by the clay.
I'll post a few more pics as progress continues. Stay tuned.
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tlither said:
Actually, she's the one who took the pictures. She's surprisingly willing to help out on all of my goofy projects. I even bought her a pair of coveralls:
Of course she'll punch me in the throat when she finds out I posted this picture...
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bald cactus v2
Jr Member
thorssoli said:
that wouldn't be good. *gets bat to protect Thor and his awesome armor*
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flying squirl
Sr Member
thorssoli said:
omg, she's actualy guna kill you. damn, and i was lookin forward to seeing this project finished.
bdw, i realy like little 'port' and 'starbord' lights on the sides of the coastguard helmet. nice little touch.
dont forget to post pictures of your bruses
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LastSpartan
Sr Member
He's making the mothermold before the mold itself. Interesting.
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