ZP's First Full Suit Build - ODST WIP

[Fallen]

Yes, I definitely think that you should do another helm. I say that because it looks to be rather large length wise. Also, I'm editing this post because I just scrolled up the page, and noticed that you mentioned removing the parts off the cutting mat with a razor blade. I know that the tool that was included with the Cameo doesn't work very well. For me I went to Hobby Lobby, and purchased a small spatula shape tool. Its made for the Cricut cutting machine. Works very well!

Seeing it without the hoodie, it still looks large to me, but I'm not going to redo it just yet. I've got a few pieces that I'd like to redo anyways because I didn't like how they turned out or found a file I like better. I want to have this done by August however, so I'm not going to redo any pieces that will work until I've gotten through everything.

I did go back and measure my head for height, adjust the helmet dimensions then play with the look in Photoshop. When I get around to redoing the helmet, I'll go with that size. Files are all prepped, just want to keep moving forward and come back to it.

The tool that came with my cameo wasn't for scraping pieces off, and I've thought about getting the spatula and just haven't. Recently I got some light hold cutting mats, and I don't even need the razor blade to help pull pieces off of that. The pieces lift off easily without any aid. I think I'm going to go with the light hold mats whenever I need to replace from now on.

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

Sounds like a good plan. Also, didn't know they had light hold mats.

 

[Chiefwannabe]

Holy...!!
This looks awesome!!

 

[Fallen]

Sounds like a good plan. Also, didn't know they had light hold mats.

Yeah. I didn't either until I was looking at buying replacement mats on Amazon, and it popped up in that other customers looked at section. Looked up reviews and people were skeptical but liked them so decided to give it a try. You can find them on Amazon for about the same price as the regular mats.

Holy...!!
This looks awesome!!

Thank you.

 

[Fallen]

So I forgot to take pictures as I progressed on this one... sorry. I'll try to take a couple and edit this post with them later. But here's where things stand right now. I've got both thigh pieces pepped and am ready to either start the chest piece, redo the helmet, or move on to foam. I've decided to make the shins out of foam to help with ease of movement. So my list of foam pieces in order of creation importance is - shins, chest core & spine, inner thighs, shoulder base, remake of fanny pack (if time), boot covers (if time).

My time to work on this has decreased a bit lately, but should soon pick up again. We've been working longer hours to get ready to do a soft launch on the app store this week. With that submitted to Apple, I hope to jump back in more in the evenings. Will keep updating as things progress.

Any links to videos, posts, or websites to help with foam crafting would be appreciated. I've looked at a lot, but there's always more out there I haven't seen yet.

Update:

I've been using the light hold cutting mats for the silhouette cameo for a few weeks now, and I have to say that while I liked them a lot at first, I wouldn't buy them again. While great at the beginning, they lost hold way too quickly leading to failed cuts and rendering pages useless. I've gone back to the regular mats and having to desticky them initially and use the spatula tool to remove my pieces.

And as promised, here are the pics of the thigh pieces:

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[Fallen]

Long time, no update, so here goes. I took a break for a bit as I was getting burnt out trying to pep a piece a week. After a con in StL my spark was reignited (seeing Steve Downes and Jen Taylor may have helped that enthusiasm a bit). I was going to get back into it last weekend, but instead I went to look at a house. I'm now in the process of buying said house and getting what I need to furnish it. So, this week was the first I started back on my build. In pep work, I'm working on the chest assets a little bit each day. Sorry no pics of that yet. Today thankfully was a wonderful day outside with temps in the upper 70's F, sunny, and with a slight breeze, so I got outside to harden a few pieces that have been sitting around waiting for such weather. I finished fiberglassing my forearms and helmet, but ran out of fiberglass cloth as I was getting to the thighs, so those are resined but not glassed yet. I think I only have the chest to pep left and the rest will be foam (I need to look back at my list on this).

Hardened Pieces:
Helmet
Forearms
Biceps
Shoulders
Hips L & R
Front Hip
Rear plate
Thighs - resined only

Yes those are two halves of a ghost on the stool in front of the forearms.

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I probably won't have another update until after I move into the house in a few more weeks, but I'll see what I can get done before the move.

 

[Fallen]

Good News!
I closed on the house today. I've got some time and work to do before I plan to actually move in, but I'm excited to start this new part of my life

But you're not coming here for that. You want progress on the ODST build. So I give you pepping progress on the chest pieces. Those two inner side pieces are rough right now. I'm not too happy about the lines not being straight (especially that one on the right of the photo). Nothing I can't redo in a night or two though, so I'm not worried about it.

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I also took some time and used foam board (for the first time) to start on an M6C Socom using a sliced file I found from this thread by L3X BLU3R1V3R. I have plenty of work to do still including evening out the layers and rounding things before I even think about detailing.

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And finally I wanted to get some reference photos in here.

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The photos above are of my little buddy here from McFarlane. I tried to take as many shots as possible to help fill in the missing areas from my other reference photos. My one piece of advice to myself and any one else working on any of these things would be don't rely too much on these McFarlane figures. They're great to look at and move around to get a better idea of things, but they are in no way a replacement for looking at in game reference and pics of other people wearing the armor you want to build. I have a massive folder on my computer that has tons of reference photos of all different kinds. Two examples of those are below.

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This first image I'm using the figure out better how I'll work on the forearms and the shoulders, the second one is one the photos that I've printed out to help me do my scaling combined with other angles of this armor made by Impact Props. I measure each piece I want to make and then take the ratio of my height to the photo subject's height to get set my length for each piece. I then use the measure distance between two points tool to set the length of the piece to what my calculations came out to.