ventrue's Mark VI (WIP)

[ventrue]

Behind closed doors (quite literally), I’ve been working on a Mark VI for the past few weeks and I think it's time to create my very first picture heavy armour creation work in progress thread. Pepping progress has been a bit slow lately, because I managed to injure myself with my knife (and no, it’s not a cut - remember, kids, the blade isn’t the only part of a knife!), so I’ve used the time to think up some super cool stuff instead.

Comments, ideas and advice are always appreciated, of course!

I know many of you don’t like reading, so let me just give you a short list of those ideas. Actual implementation gets more unlikely towards the end of the list:

• Fibreglass for reinforcement, I’m looking into using chopped fibres instead of fibreglass textile and experiments have been promising so far. (Does anybody else use that method?)
• I want to use Bungie’s renderings as reference and replicate them as precisely as possible. However, I am willing to make certain non-canon adjustments to improve real-life looks and/or comfort.
• The suit is supposed to be super silent, with no rattling.
• I’ll try to sew my own undersuit (that’s probably going to be the most interesting part of the whole project).
• LEDs and maybe other electronics.
• Face mask inside the helmet to prevent visor fogging.
• Water cooling system (for me, not the suit).
• Front-facing camera to document my adventures.
• Back-facing camera with display in the helmet to prevent people from getting funny ideas.

Here's what I have so far:

Iterative size finding process fail. Both wrong. Obviously.

Result: Trash.

Cardboard strength fail. What you see here is a single sheet of 250g/m² cardboard - really hard to work with while pepping, although it is performing rather nicely when it comes to resining. For comparison: A sheet of normal printer paper is about as thick as one of those blue lines on the ruler. Edit: As it turns out, this is actually a win! I've returned to the heavy stuff!

Helmet #3: Win/Fail status undetermined. Unwarped in general, even after resining (win!), but the cheeklights are a huge fail and the mouth area is bent inwards a little. The edgy look is the result of the strong cardboard. Some body filler and sanding will hopefully fix that.

Handplate. Pepping didn't go so well (yeah, heavy cardboard is bad for small details - guess I didn't learn that the first time), but my experiment with short fibre reinforced resin made it indestructible, I haven't been able to break it yet, even intentionally... Also note that I use aluminum foil to cover my surfaces instead of paper, because resin doesn't stick to that very well.

Yet another fail: My first forearm. It's actually scaled perfectly, but I couldn't really fit my hand through and accidentally damaged it trying - because this time I had used the lighter cardboard...

 

[Tau ceti]

Ah, That's encouraging that somebody else is encountering a few false starts! Sorry, not meaning to put you down, I've just had a few things not scale very well, and some successes and failures 'cause I've tried a few different things, So I'd say your in good company. I reckon you have to have few failures before it all starts to click somehow. But I love your forearm, really nice work on the pep. I've been a bit reluctant to start that one due to the complexity.

But It seems to be coming together for you, keep up the good work!

Good to see a record of what has worked and what hasn't. I'll note what you said about the thicker card.

 

[Kenneth]

your stuff is so cool. i hope mine comes out atleast decent. i cant even make the hand piece anywhere as nice as yours...

 

[Dark Star]

Nice helmet 0_0 the pep for mine is so much more fragmented ;_; Best of luck, from the looks of things it looks like you're gonna do really well.

 

[ventrue]

I'll have a few updates for you shortly, but in the mean time, since there are many questions regarding that topic, I thought I'd explain what I've done to scale the pieces I have so far. I scale on a per-piece basis, so the relative scale between the pieces is probably slightly off, but in return they should fit better.

The pictures I've drawn up (for those of you too lazy to read ) are pretty self-explanatory, so I'll keep the explanations short:

• The underlying principle should be universal, but the sketches aren't, they are based on the models I've used (helmet by Flying Squirl, hand plate by Robogenesis, forearms by Nugget and Halogodess, all HD, all part of the all in one pepakura pack, rest of the models will be named later in the thread) and my body (slim, 1,85 m tall - i.e. pretty average). If you are extremely short, tall, fat or otherwise unusual (long nose, glasses, ...), you may need to rethink things.
• Note that I'm from Europe. I use metric units, the decimal separator (at least in these sketches) is a comma and the multiplication sign is a middle dot. I try to avoid possible misunderstandings, but please try not to mix them up anyways.
• My method doesn't guarantee anything.
• A ruler works great to measure distances. Mirrors, flat surfaces or other people can help. Don't let your pet help you. You don't need a ruler with a metric scale, you can convert units with Google or a calculator. You don't need to measure more precise than ± 1 cm, because there's too much guesswork in this for it to matter anyways.

(This sketch assumes that you do not use flexible materials or flap-like things to help get the helmet on.)

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Ah, That's encouraging that somebody else is encountering a few false starts! Sorry, not meaning to put you down

No offense taken. I figured that mistakes are a great thing to learn from, especially when somebody else makes them first ;-)

Thank you all for the compliments

 

[ventrue]

As promised, here's some more progress on the helmet.

I used:

• Resin
• Hardener
• Prefabricated chopped fibres
• "Microflocks" (kind of a cotton dust)
• Inhibitor

This resulted in about 120 ml of material and was sufficient to cover what you see in the pictures below. And let me tell you, it's pretty hard.

Convex corners with acute angles are a bit problematic, because the fibres tend to either protrude or completely fall over the edge, but all those little holes, crevices and the uneven surface where the flaps are glued down are really easy to fill up. The resulting surface is rough, but usually not sharp.

 

[Noble Seven]

looking good

 

[Deadalus Thorn]

Looks good.
keep up the great work

 

[ventrue]

More progress, I'm almost done hardening the helmet now!

I used the same fibre-heavy mix as last time in the back area and another cup with less fibres for the brim and front area. That second mix was a little more runny to help get into all the tight corners I couldn't see, but it's also a lot weaker.

You may also notice the blue dot on the back left - that's actually part of my glove. As it turns out, the resin weakens them quite a bit over time and one of the fibres sticking out of the already cured resin layer ripped a piece right out. I didn't even feel it, I only noticed because the blue dot caught my eye. Guess I'll have to get better hand protection or use a tool to spread the resin after all

So, here we go with the pics. Outside shot with cool snowflake look, two insides with blue dot and one looking into the brim:

 

[JUSTINIAN 117]

That look really good so far. It is very smooth. The detail is also very good.

 

[Roadkiller]

I agree. The attention to detail you've paid so far will pay dividends shortly. It would appear your smoothing and shaping stage with auto-body filler (Bondo) will go quickly.

Nicely done!

 

[FGC]

your job its very clean, more than mine .. youre gonna rock, tnx for the advice

 

[Jakkrit]

Your work is beautiful. It's clean too. I want to wear it If I can.

 

[ventrue]

I've been working on my first shoulder piece. The scale seems to be perfect (win!), pictures and another scaling sketch are below. Please don't mind the shoulder's warped look, that's because there are no supports in there yet. I'm also having trouble taking pictures of myself, so I hope you don't mind weird angles

Next thing coming up will probably be one of Halogodess's female forarms, because this one is not only broken, but also ridiculously wide.

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Thank you all for the compliments

The attention to detail you've paid so far will pay dividends shortly. It would appear your smoothing and shaping stage with auto-body filler (Bondo) will go quickly.

That's the plan, I hope it works ;-)

your job its very clean, more than mine .. youre gonna rock, tnx for the advice

You're welcome.

Your work is beautiful. It's clean too. I want to wear it If I can.

Well, it's not wearable yet, that'll take some more time ;-)

 

[Bullseye]

Nice prep work. Just as a heads up for a little more mobility if you take that little bit out of the bicep it allows for alot more movement.

 

[ventrue]

Nice prep work. Just as a heads up for a little more mobility if you take that little bit out of the bicep it allows for alot more movement.

Thanks

Yeah, I thought about that, because range of movement is a big issue in my opinion. But I can barely prevent the pieces from falling down while taking a picture at the moment, let alone fit them right (the shoulder needs to go a little higher for example) and check how I can move with them. I want to harden them first and then make changes as needed.

 

[Bullseye]

Yeah that's what I did. I got mine all painted and padded then decided to hack it up lol. I did it to the forearm to but yours is not as big as mine is so I don't think you will have the same problem.

 

[ventrue]

I've just finished hardening the mouth section of my helmet (pic of current state below). One more batch to fill all the spots that I missed and I'm done with the hardening!

Because I started to seriously hate the styrene smell, I decided to try out epoxy - and I love it!
I don't know yet how it'll turn out after curing, but the consistency of that stuff is awesome, it's really fun to work with. It pours without a mess, it stays on walls but still "settles" a little, creating a nice, even surface and it's almost transparent, which makes it look really clean. Also, it hardly smells at all - the containers emit a slight plastic-like smell, but looking at the whole room, it's hardly noticeable that I've used it at all.
However, there's a downside: While inhalation is a smaller health risk now, skin contact is more dangerous, so I'm now using a tool to spread it (making it harder to get into some tight spots) and wearing an additional pair of thicker gloves over my thin ones most of the time (which prevent almost all tactile sensation). Comparison pics also below. They look like household-dishwashing-gloves, but they aren't.

Other news:
I switched back to heavy cardboard for my second left forarm. I don't like how flimsy my first one and especially my shoulder piece are, I doubt they'll survive resining.

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Yeah that's what I did. I got mine all painted and padded then decided to hack it up lol. I did it to the forearm to but yours is not as big as mine is so I don't think you will have the same problem.

Well, I might actually, at least if I try to get full range of motion. My main reference is the Halo 3 trailer where the Chief picks up his helmet, and if you look closely, you can see that he wouldn't be able to get more than a 90° bend either. And I'm still not sure whether his two arm pieces are actually intersecting when he bends his arm like this, because right at the beginning, when he stands up, it seems as if 45° were the limit.

 

[Bullseye]

Well, I might actually, at least if I try to get full range of motion. My main reference is the Halo 3 trailer where the Chief picks up his helmet, and if you look closely, you can see that he wouldn't be able to get more than a 90° bend either. And I'm still not sure whether his two arm pieces are actually intersecting when he bends his arm like this, because right at the beginning, when he stands up, it seems as if 45° were the limit.

Well When you get to the padding and strapping stage I will post a few pics of what I did that helped with the bicep pieces alot. Hopefully I can find a video camera some where and then you can see the range of motion you have with it like I have it. I still don't have a big range of motion but It's more than If I left that piece there.

 

[ventrue]

The epoxy hasn't reached its final strength yet, but it's already hard, still shiny and it doesn't smell at all. It also feels stronger than the polyester resin, although it shouldn't be, according to the data sheet.

I think I'm in love with this stuff

Edit: What you see below is the hardened epoxy, it really is glossy like that and doesn't develop a matte surface after a while, like polyester resin does.