1st Build Vanir's ODST Build

[Vanir]

Hi guys, long time lurker here! After attending my first Comic Con last year I finally caught the bug, and having slowly built up a set of tools from other hobbies I figured I'd finally have a shot at making my own suit. I've been posting the occasional photo on the Discord so a build log is long overdue (and probably more likely to keep me on track).

So, the general plan is to do a Rookie build (in more ways than one), although I plan on making it modular enough that I can swap out parts to fit different aesthetics, I fully intend on building a sniper loadout with the helmet optic attachment and shoulder for example. I've also been working on a firefall helmet which definitely isn't H3:ODST but Aguilar's design is wonderfully modular and lets me play around with some electronics for comfort and convenience at cons.

Naturally starting small is the best idea, something non-critical or visible that you can hone your skills on. Well I ignored that completely and immediately printed a helmet.

After that didn't somehow go catastrophically, I started printing out the rest of the suit, initially making some of the torso pieces before embarking on the legs.

Ultramarine for scale!

This was probably the point that my progress suddenly ground to a halt. I quickly realised that I am very bad at scaling, and I also realised how different my proportions are to FromTheBrink's. Behold my shins of shame . I did manage to get the legs scaled properly eventually though and those came out quite nicely! The fit looks quite off in that photo but this is entirely just friction fit here, when rigged they sit much better and are a whole lot more comfortable.

Re-printing has become a bit of a theme with this build so far, although the shins are absolutely the worst for it. Having to wait upwards of two days for a full shin to print to test sizing as well as countless issues I was having with my aging CR-10S finally broke me and I grabbed the newly released P1S, which then had such amazing results that I suddenly wanted to re-print everything to get nicer surface finishes . One thing that my P1S did encourage me to do though is try out PETG, so I tuned up my walls and infill and saved on quite a bit of weight. For example I re-printed my helmet and managed to cut down the weight by about 600g, which after test-wearing for an hour or so meant that my neck no longer hurt!

Easily the best upgrade I did, it is about 4x faster to print and just makes post processing such a breeze. Quick example of the P1S vs my CR10S, night and day.

Equipped with a shiny new printer I started churning through parts, took a minor detour to make a Devil Breaker gauntlet for a friend's Nero cosplay,

and eventually got most of the armour printed out.

Oh and I made some weapons too! I've definitely skewed on the larger side for the M7 but I'd prefer it look a little large than a little small in an ODST's hands.

Fast forward to this year and I've started picking up the project again, cracking on with the helmet in-between sanding and priming for the hard armour.
Hardly a circuit diagram but here's a general layout of the helmet's electronics, USB 5V cable run to a battery bank used to power a PWM fan speed controller going to two noctua 40mm 5V fans, using the 5V supply through a buck converter to step down to 3V to power a gutted pair of shooting headphones. I've also got a tour guide's PA system which I'm going to tear the mic out of, mount it into the front of the helmet and wire in a 3.5mm jack to let me have a clean socket in the nape of the helmet to plug the speaker into, which I'll hide in my armour somewhere.

Sanding and priming! Oh and also some test rigging on the legs, many thanks to Pippon for their help on this, I was supremely stuck on how to keep the shins in place. Thankfully I've got a good range of motion and with it properly suspended from my belt it's quite comfortable! The only major adjustment now is making sure I have my legs far enough apart that I don't smash my leg armour into each other while walking.

Now, my most recent rabbit hole has been after getting a new resin 3d printer which is large enough to try this!

And after lots of sanding, a quick gloss clear coat ended up with this!

The clarity needs working on and I'm doing another round of polishing after this before I have a go at airbrushing a chrome tint. I have already got a vacuum formed mirrored visor but I'm trying to save that for my H3:ODST helmet instead of the firefall one. The results are promising though so I'm going to see just how good I can get this.

Anyway, that's where I'm up to now. I haven't started on soft armour yet but I've recently snagged a heavy duty Singer sewing machine to get started. I'll probably get that rolling in earnest once I've finished painting the legs and torso so that I can have them available as I start rigging it up.

Sorry for a very long post, the updates will definitely be shorter as I slowly progress from here on. Thanks for reading!

 

[SgtSaint]

First - Terrific write up. Something I'd really expect from someone after many builds, not their first.

Naturally starting small is the best idea, something non-critical or visible that you can hone your skills on. Well I ignored that completely and immediately printed a helmet.

Hahaha

I quickly realised that I am very bad at scaling,

We've all been there.

Having to wait upwards of two days for a full shin to print to test sizing

Are you just doing "goldilocks" sizing? This one is too big. This one is too small. This one is just right.
Have you printed test rings? Did you use software like Armorsmith to get a closer scaling to start with?

 

[SgtSaint]

I do have one concern though. This photo with a resin visor over a sink...

You're not washing resin parts down the drain, into the sewer system - right? That was just getting it wet for the photo, right?

 

[Vanir]

First - Terrific write up. Something I'd really expect from someone after many builds, not their first.

Thanks!

Are you just doing "goldilocks" sizing? This one is too big. This one is too small. This one is just right.
Have you printed test rings? Did you use software like Armorsmith to get a closer scaling to start with?

Yes and no, I started using sizing rings for the shins, quite a few of them before committing to a print. The main problem I had was the joint between the two halves of the shin. I initially tested default size and the rings felt comfortable and snug, but after printing they were incredibly restrictive as I didn't account for my calf changing shape as I walked. The two halves clip together with an overlapping flange which has a particularly stabby edge that made it massively uncomfortable to walk in. I then made it quite a bit larger to accommodate the movement and restriction, and that worked well but obviously making something 10% larger for a narrow point has a much bigger visual effect further up the calf armour and made it look ridiculous. I re-printed again at a halfway mark which is the final sizing I'm happy with, but I re-printed again this year because Brink released some improved models for the shins that let them split in a clamshell fashion for ease of donning/doffing.

I did buy armoursmith after all of the raving about it, but honestly I was quite disappointed with it. Perhaps I'm just blind but I'm really surprised there isn't an option to highlight collision. Brink's files are quite often not just clean tubes on the inside and looking at the shins after the fact I really don't think it would've helped. It is great for getting a bigger picture though, it's nice to be able to see the whole kit planned out to check relative scaling.

I do have one concern though. This photo with a resin visor over a sink...

You're not washing resin parts down the drain, into the sewer system - right? That was just getting it wet for the photo, right?

That is just getting it wet to show the transparency under surface tension don't worry. The part is fully cured, all of my resin waste is separately cured in the sun and isn't flushed don't worry. I probably should've put a disclaimer!

 

[SgtSaint]

I did buy armoursmith after all of the raving about it, but honestly I was quite disappointed with it. Perhaps I'm just blind but I'm really surprised there isn't an option to highlight collision.

I'll agree that it could be a much more in your face warning. But its also not totally absent either.
If you're hovering your mouse over a part there's some edge highlighting that takes place. You'll notice you can see where one part overlapping another part gets highlighted. Well... The only way that can happen is two parts are in the same place at the same time, and you can see by how much.

I look at this and think...
> Well... The mannequin has these balloon-animal type muscles. Muscles aren't plastic. Flesh moves. I'm okay with this.
Or maybe its a different part of the body, more overlap, and I can tell that's not acceptable.
And if you actually click/select the part (as opposed to hovering over) then you get a little different edge outline.

But (to me) better than expecting the software to warn me is for me to look at a cross section and see if I like the spacing/gap.

And again, if I select the part I'm looking at through cross section I'll notice where the edge outline is cutting into the body.

And yes this applies model-to-model as well as model-to-manniquin.

Its pretty obvious by those edge highlights that the shoulder has to pass through the back when trying to grab a back-slung rifle.
(That assumes that no other part of the body moves, of course - when in reality making the motion flexes the trap and delt muscles causing that side of the armor to raise some-Hopefully enough that the shoulder armor can push in through the arm hole and continue to raise the torso armor - but that's a whole 'nother matter of wearablity versus scaling)

 

[Vanir]

And again, if I select the part I'm looking at through cross section I'll notice where the edge outline is cutting into the body.

Aha, cross sections! I didn't even know those were a thing. And by collisions I meant to say interference between the body and the model, not other armour parts. That definitely would've solved the problem as I was frustrated there wasn't a clear way to see inside the part. Thanks for the tutorial!

 

[Vanir]

Not quite an update but I thought I'd share some of the "research" I've been doing on visors.

I originally bought a vacuum formed pre-chromed silver visor from a seller on Etsy, but since I found that my Saturn 4 Ultra can just about fit a visor on its build volume I thought I'd give it a go.

So to start off with, I'm using Anycubic High Clear Resin which is specifically designed to resist yellowing. The instructions with this resin is to print, wash, then brush on a thin layer of the resin and cure. Unless I'm somehow doing it wrong, this is a terrible method. The clarity is passable, but the main issue is that having a layer of unwashed resin has only ever resulted in a tacky/sticky texture which clearly means there is either some binding agent or resin that is uncured, and won't go away despite about 4 hours of being blasted by my curing station trying to harden the surface.

I also attempted printing and putting it straight into the curing machine without washing to keep the uncured resin from the vat on as surface tension. This looked great, but ultimately still resulted in a tacky surface which isn't safe. The resin staying on the surface gives it a nice glossy finish and quite a bit of transparency, but combined with the visible polygons the surface finish isn't good enough for me to accept anyway. It does look cool though!

Eventually I abandoned tricks with the curing process out of a desire to not have uncured resin inches from my mouth and nose for hours at a time. Washing and curing the visors cleans off the excess resin who's surface tension is making the above photos look so clear. In reality, once it's washed and cured the surface finish looks more like frosted glass.

The alternative then, sanding and clear coating?

So, after printing a few visors I started playing around with sanding. Being resin, it's already very smooth and we don't need to worry about layer lines, although to try and remedy some layer issues with transparent resin I did turn off anti-aliasing so I did occasionally have to sand off some pixel boundary lines but that's well within the realm of 1000 grit. I worked from 1000 -> 1250 -> 2500 -> 3000 -> 5000 -> 10000 and while I could start to make out objects through the visor, there is absolutely no detail. Lacking a polishing kit, I then decided to try out spraying on a layer of gloss clear coat.

10,000 grit + a splash of water, you can see in the dry area at the bottom and left how foggy the material is.

(This is a fully cured piece, always use your PPE and properly dispose of hazardous materials!)

10,000 grit + gloss clear coat vs 2500 grit un-painted.

This is with a few passes of Rustoleum Crystal Clear Gloss over the top of my 10,000 grit finish.

It looks amazing, but once you get up close the sharpness isn't there, and visibility is quite fuzzy. From a closer inspection, the aerosol spray seems to give it a sub-millimeter texture which diffuses the light enough to make it difficult to see with full clarity. I actually gave myself a bit of a headache wearing this from my eyes trying and struggling to focus on things through the visor due to the inconsistent clarity.

So, next attempt, hoping to remove some of the stippling that a spray can gave, I had a go using my airbrush and a gloss clear varnish to do the same. Unfortunately this actually came out worse, something I'm guessing is due to the lower flow rate of an airbrush compared to a spray which stops the coat from forming a thick enough liquid layer for surface tension to do its work.

Here's a few photos taken with my camera set to a constant focal distance so you can see the changes in clarity across the different materials:

2500grit + Airbrushed gloss varnish

10000grit + Gloss clear coat

Vacuum formed PETG with a chrome tint

So, naturally the vacuum formed PETG's sharpness is the best, although the gloss clear coat is getting close. My next step is going to be trying out some polishing compounds to get above the previous 10,000 attempt, and I'll post the results of that tomorrow hopefully.

The search continues, for science!

 

[Vanir]

Results!

So, yesterday I had a go at taking an unpainted, uncoated visor and polishing it with a plastic/acrylic grinding compound. I suspect that I skipped to too high a grit going from 10k grit to a polishing compound but ultimately I found that I wasn't getting a gloss finish after quite a bit of sanding.

Backup plan then, I stripped down the visors I had tried and failed various things (gloss coats, airbrushing etc) on using acetone back to the basic resin (always use proper PPE and handle chemicals in a well ventilated area people), then re-coated them with a gloss clear coat spray. After that, I then had a go using my polishing compound on top of the gloss coat, and aside from some un-even patches where I've not polished quite enough yet, this has come out great.

The clarity is now fantastic and easily the best I've had so far. To recap, my recipe to get here has been:
Anycubic High Clear Resin
Print
Wash
Cure
Sand (1000 -> 1500 -> 2000 -> 2500 grit)
Gloss spray coat
Polish with an orbital sander, wool 125mm disc and an acrylic/plastic grinding compound

Also, remember to sand, gloss coat and polish both the inside and the outside, both need to be crystal clear so don't be discouraged if you do one side first and it doesn't look clear yet.

So, next thing is to try out chroming. I've got a few visors I've done this process to now so I can practice airbrushing the right amount of paint and I'll post more pictures once that's done. For now, here's where the Firefall helmet is at, now with a shiny and clear visor!

Once I've got the chroming process figured out I've got another visor to make too, hopefully I can fit this one on my printer

 

[Expendable]

That looks amazing. Sounds like a lot of hard work. I couldn't stop reading. Looking forward to more.

 

[KocourUS]

Every costuming tutorial: Start at the toes and the fingers and work your way in, by the time you get to the chest and the helmet you'll have a better idea what you're doing and it will look better.

Every Halo Cosplayer: But what if we didn't start there?

Looks really good, I'm excited to see all the fellow ODSTs, they don't get enough love in the Haloverse.

 

[N8TEBB]

WOW this is a very thorough write up! I love it! You've made some really good progress on your armour so far.

Hardly a circuit diagram but here's a general layout of the helmet's electronics, USB 5V cable run to a battery bank used to power a PWM fan speed controller going to two noctua 40mm 5V fans, using the 5V supply through a buck converter to step down to 3V to power a gutted pair of shooting headphones. I've also got a tour guide's PA system which I'm going to tear the mic out of, mount it into the front of the helmet and wire in a 3.5mm jack to let me have a clean socket in the nape of the helmet to plug the speaker into, which I'll hide in my armour somewhere.

I did the same thing as you - power fans, audio transmitter, and hearing system with a 5V battery. First I'd like to ask if you have a link to those Noctua fans. I recall another member recommending them to me after I mentioned the noise from my cheap-y amazon fans was annoying, but I wasn't able to find 40mm blower fans. I assume your circuit is built in a similar way to mine?

Next, are you using ZOHAN shooting headphones? If so, have you run into the issue where you can get a tad bit of noise in your ears when passing by wireless access points? Or even noise in general? I found that is I gave them 3.3V there would be a lot of distortion, but with exactly 3V it was quite clear. I believe CrimsonViper mentioned in his tutorial that the distortion from access points is because the wires are so thin that they can be affects by something like that. I've even been able to hear radio in my headphones when walking in front of the CBC in Toronto! This is exaggerated for me when the fans in the helmet are on. Would you happen to have any insight into this? It's only a problem when walking directly in front of a radio station, but I would love to know if you've encountered any of these quirks.

I'm very fascinated in your visors! I do not have a resin printer, so I've never been able to experiment with printed visors. But I am very fascinated to see what your final result will look like! Not have not seen many folks print their visors, and I certainly haven't seen a printed visor with that much clarity yet!

Thanks again for the fantastic write up!