Tutorial: How To Create Airsoft Tough Armor

[Fenix Chief]

Many People have wanted to Play Airsoft War or Paintball in their armor, well now you can!
The Official Tutorial For Airsoft Armor

Note: This is only for usage with Plastic BB's, not metal.

Here are the Materials you will need:
Your Pepakura Piece
Fiberglass Resin
Bondo Body Filler
Spot Putty
Fiberglass mat and/or Cloth
Hot Glue Sticks
Portable Gas Stove
Pie Tin
Brushes(Hair, not Foam)
Liquid Hardener
Red Hardener
Sander
Sandpaper
Tinfoil
Mixing Stick

Safety Materials:
Respirator
Respirator Cartridges
Latex Gloves
Shop Gloves
Dust Mask

Step 1.1: Hot Gluing

A new Tutorial by AOBFrost, for more info, see Tutorial: The Totally Official Hot Glue Method in the Pepakura Stickies.

Take your Piece, the Hot glue stick Packs, A brush(hair), the Pie Tin, Shop Gloves, and the Portable Gas Stove.
Plug in your Portable Stove, then set the heat in the Middle. Then Put the Pie Tin on the Stove, and melt down 1 pack of Hot Glue Sticks.NOTE: Make sure you turn off the Stove Every Few Minutes, then wait 1 before turning back on, If you don't, the Glue will burn. Once Melted, Take your brush and put a thin Layer of Glue on the Inside of your Piece, then Wait for 30 seconds, which is the amount of time it will take to dry. Then, you are ready for your second coat. Keep applying until the Glue is 3/4 of an inch. Then wait to dry. You have Finished Hot Gluing!

NOTE: If you want to resin with glue, use Skullcandygirl's Aqua Resin Method

1.2 Resining

The Most common method of Hardening

You will need your Resin, along with hardener, and A mixing stick and tinfoil, and finally, a brush. Put your Piece on the Stand, and then put on your Respirator. Take your Resin and Take of the clear container. Then, Put a sheet of Tin Foil inside the container, with the edges over the side. Look very carefully for any cracks or tears in the foil. Put in the Desired amount of resin, then put in the amount of hardener it say on the can and tube. After putting in the hardener, mix it up for 10-15 seconds. After that, take stick out. Dip your Brush in the Resin, and take the amount you want in your brush, if it is too much, brush off some of it on the tinfoil so it will sink back into the resin. Start brushing on the seams of the Piece at first. After that, brush the rest of the Piece, and do this a 2nd Time. Remember, you are against the clock, if you go slowly, the resin will turn to gunk then eventually harden, and it is Very Hot!!!

Step 3: Fiberglassing

The Most Important part of the Airsoft Armor.

For this you will need all the materials in resining, and fiberglass mat, or cloth, or both. Cut out strips of mat, then put them in the resin. Put the Strips on your armor, Inside and Out, until it is fully Covered in Fiberglass. Repeat this Process for 4 times. You are now finished.

Step 4: Bondo and Spot Putty

The Detailing of your Piece.

Dollop out a 4" diameter of Bondo out onto a flat surface, like a sheet of metal. Squeeze out a 1"-3" in. line of hardener. Take a putty knife and cut and mix together the Bondo and Hardener. After that, apply Bondo where you want to. Allow the Putty to Cure, then sand. Repeat Process another time.

Finally, just paint and detail!

 

[box o crayons]

you dont have to go threw that much for airsoft or paintball all you do is add a couple more layers of fiberglass mat to the inside of your armour. but the pellets will chip the bondo so you might need to touch it up every couple of wars with spot putty unless you ad a couple of layers of fiberglass after smoothing so it stays strong

 

[Jax Archillies]

sigh....

here are some referance pics. AS bb's will do this to plastic ABS which is stronger than fiberglass, it WILL destroy your hard worked on armor.

not to mention your visor will NOT take the pounding, nor is ANZI approved at the right levels for safety.

first pic
16g aluminum
range: inknown
round: unknown most likely .26 at about 50feet

also keep in mind these were .20 rounds, which most airsofters will NOT use. they will use.26 or higher which will cause far greater damage. possibly about 10 times greater.

now i COULD take soem fiberglassed stuff outside and do a test run...but im not crazy enough to ruin my stuff.

but if you want to play backyard commando and use the crappy target or wallmart guns with .12 rounds. go for it. it wont do anything, as you cant even tell if you're hit in the first place with those.

 

[yubbermax]

But shouldn't motorcycle visors be rated high enough for a pebble to hit it at ~60 mph? A pebble is a couple of grams and even though it's not moving as fast as a BB it will have more force.

Also if you guys are into Airsoft check out www.airsoft-barracks.com, I'm a mod there.
(Sorry if that's not allowed)

 

[box o crayons]

actually the heavier the bb the less fps but it will fly straighter and more acurate which is why you use them on higher fps rated guns but if its point blank then it will do more damage depending on the weight and ill take my armour peice out now and shoot it be back in a half hour or so with some pictures

 

[Fenix Chief]

sigh....

here are some referance pics. AS bb's will do this to plastic ABS which is stronger than fiberglass, it WILL destroy your hard worked on armor.

not to mention your visor will NOT take the pounding, nor is ANZI approved at the right levels for safety.

first pic
16g aluminum
range: inknown
round: unknown most likely .26 at about 50feet

also keep in mind these were .20 rounds, which most airsofters will NOT use. they will use.26 or higher which will cause far greater damage. possibly about 10 times greater.

now i COULD take soem fiberglassed stuff outside and do a test run...but im not crazy enough to ruin my stuff.

but if you want to play backyard commando and use the crappy target or wallmart guns with .12 rounds. go for it. it wont do anything, as you cant even tell if you're hit in the first place with those.

The Main thing I'm talking about in fights is Plastic Ammo, not like the Metal Stuff. Not only will your armor not take a beating, you'll be safe too.

 

[box o crayons]

ok so i tested it on on resin with fiberglass on the backside it cut the resin and stopped at the cloth. on just hte clothe it made a little scratch and a crack other than that it was fine and this was from about 5 feet away using a jg g36c that fires at aproximitly 350 fps with .20g bbs

 

[Fenix Chief]

ok so i tested it on on resin with fiberglass on the backside it cut the resin and stopped at the cloth. on just hte clothe it made a little scratch and a crack other than that it was fine and this was from about 5 feet away using a jg g36c that fires at aproximitly 350 fps with .20g bbs

Hmm, that is good progress, have you done it with 2 layers?

 

[box o crayons]

Hmm, that is good progress, have you done it with 2 layers?

i had one layer with overlaping cloth on the back and just one layer of resin on the outside. and i just tryed bondo and the airsoft gun demolished it expecially the spot putty its like it wasnt even there hope this helps

 

[Overlord Ian]

I mean no offence by this, but I don't see the point of wanting to play airsoft in your costume, unless it is for a fan-film, I think wearing it in airsoft would just be pointless, because it would slow you down, and it would ruin the costume you worked hard on. I don't know why this topic keeps coming up, but most of it has been tested, and it will ruin your suit.

 

[box o crayons]

I mean no offence by this, but I don't see the point of wanting to play airsoft in your costume, unless it is for a fan-film, I think wearing it in airsoft would just be pointless, because it would slow you down, and it would ruin the costume you worked hard on. I don't know why this topic keeps coming up, but most of it has been tested, and it will ruin your suit.

yea it would slow you down and theres no advantages except to look cool

 

[yubbermax]

Heavier BBs will have the same energy as lower weight BBs. They also keep the same speed longer albeit the speed is lower.

 

[box o crayons]

Heavier BBs will have the same energy as lower weight BBs. They also keep the same speed longer albeit the speed is lower.

yea but the fps is still lowered

 

[Overlord Ian]

yea it would slow you down and theres no advantages except to look cool

Lookng cool is good. But it won't look cool if you are full of holes, you will look like swiss cheese .

 

[Fenix Chief]

Got an Idea: How about using Bondo mixed with Resin? Like mud, but just putting in the Resin and Letting it sort of dissolve and make it harden. Either that or Mud. Opinions?

 

[box o crayons]

yea that might work havn't done mud on any of my peices so i cant try it but when i get around to finishing my chest peice ill try it but that might be a while i think what would be good is using a plastic coating about 1/2 inch thick or maybe a rubber to give the bbs like a cushion so it wont crack or anything but this might be getting to expensive

 

[Jax Archillies]

i never use metal. that is illegal and plain stupid. and its no longer called airsoft at that point. its called hunting.

a JG is not good enough quality. how do you know the FPS, did you test it at your house with the proper equipment?

in the end. it will NOT work. ive played AS in metal armor and average field speeds are about 417 with 20's and 375 with .25's

that is much higher than the tests i showed here. plus running in fiberglass will break your armor way before you get hit once.

 

[Fenix Chief]

yea that might work havn't done mud on any of my peices so i cant try it but when i get around to finishing my chest peice ill try it but that might be a while i think what would be good is using a plastic coating about 1/2 inch thick or maybe a rubber to give the bbs like a cushion so it wont crack or anything but this might be getting to expensive

Since Mud is Basically A very Hard substance, it would be good. But maybe if you were to take resin with hardener in it and were to let it dissolve, it could then work without all the trouble of Mudding.

 

[box o crayons]

i never use metal. that is illegal and plain stupid. and its no longer called airsoft at that point. its called hunting.

a JG is not good enough quality. how do you know the FPS, did you test it at your house with the proper equipment?

in the end. it will NOT work. ive played AS in metal armor and average field speeds are about 417 with 20's and 375 with .25's

that is much higher than the tests i showed here. plus running in fiberglass will break your armor way before you get hit once.

jg is a really good gun to start with and is very reliable and is uprgadable with all mauri parts and some CA and ICS and it was chronoed at the store i bought it when i left

 

[Jax Archillies]

ok. just saying....springs degrade over time, piston heads wearout, etc.