- Member DIN
- S111
So, I’ve been through two versions of a pepped Mark V. The first one from backing 2007 was a...disaster, to put it mildly. A rush job for Halloween, everything was sloppy. It can be seen here:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/3425-Cadet's-Mark-V
Version 2, Seen here: http://tkbearcrew.com/costume2.php?costumesid=21
And build progress here: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/10520-Season-2-Caboose-From-Red-Vs.-Blue
Was better. However, it still suffered from many of the draw backs of pepped armor, some parts were heavy, it felt cumbersome, it was uncomfortable, and it didn’t pack well at all. I really wanted to replace several parts, thighs and shins especially. I was considering a foam build, and then, I remembered something. Way back in about 2004 or so, my brother and I wanted to do Halo armor, and at the time our only experience building costumes, was with Stormtrooper armor, and it’s primary means of fabrication was vac-forming. My brother sculpted several of the pieces out of insulation foam before we hit a dead end when we realized that the heat and pressure of the vac-forming process when crush the foam. I had saved the sculpts stashed away in our attic, and was struck by inspiration. If the foam was sealed with some like modge-podge, it would be protected, and resin could be applied atop the modge podge without the fear of melting away at the foam.
So that’s what I did. The sculpts were sealed with modge podge, and then coated in resin.
When I went to vacform over them, they were first pulled in a very thin plastic, which required less heat and suction to form. The resulting plastic covered resined foam sculpts were then used with the heavy thickness plastic.
For the parts that had not been sculpted out of foam, I simply used my old fiberglass pep version 2 as the molds, in some cases having to cut the pieces into two parts in order to facilitate vac forming.
And here are some of the pulls I managed to get:
Already, I can tell these new shoulders are a vast improvement. They are very light weight, which means I could potentially attach them directly to a set of coveralls or other undersuit, so that the shoulders would move just like in the game.
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/3425-Cadet's-Mark-V
Version 2, Seen here: http://tkbearcrew.com/costume2.php?costumesid=21
And build progress here: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/10520-Season-2-Caboose-From-Red-Vs.-Blue
Was better. However, it still suffered from many of the draw backs of pepped armor, some parts were heavy, it felt cumbersome, it was uncomfortable, and it didn’t pack well at all. I really wanted to replace several parts, thighs and shins especially. I was considering a foam build, and then, I remembered something. Way back in about 2004 or so, my brother and I wanted to do Halo armor, and at the time our only experience building costumes, was with Stormtrooper armor, and it’s primary means of fabrication was vac-forming. My brother sculpted several of the pieces out of insulation foam before we hit a dead end when we realized that the heat and pressure of the vac-forming process when crush the foam. I had saved the sculpts stashed away in our attic, and was struck by inspiration. If the foam was sealed with some like modge-podge, it would be protected, and resin could be applied atop the modge podge without the fear of melting away at the foam.
So that’s what I did. The sculpts were sealed with modge podge, and then coated in resin.
When I went to vacform over them, they were first pulled in a very thin plastic, which required less heat and suction to form. The resulting plastic covered resined foam sculpts were then used with the heavy thickness plastic.
For the parts that had not been sculpted out of foam, I simply used my old fiberglass pep version 2 as the molds, in some cases having to cut the pieces into two parts in order to facilitate vac forming.
And here are some of the pulls I managed to get:
Already, I can tell these new shoulders are a vast improvement. They are very light weight, which means I could potentially attach them directly to a set of coveralls or other undersuit, so that the shoulders would move just like in the game.