Shortly after finishing the first set of Female N7 armor I've ever made, I was commissioned to make a second set. This one was special though, as it was going to be based off the Japanese bishoujo statue that had recently been released. Super sleek, very clean, and very metallic. Due to the sleek look, I had to make some changes to the overall patterns. I also didn't want to use craft foam for the raised sections on the thighs, back, or anywhere else I could get away with it, just to add to the look and also not have to use as many parts. To start, though, since the design was based off the ME3 look, I decided to start on the shoulder bells. You'll notice that, like with the Terminus armor, I used the smooth side of the foam exclusively. Since the statue was entirely smooth, I didn't want to change that look at all. Connecting the bell pieces together was remarkably easy, though heat forming them to the proper shape was an experience. I couldn't bend them too far, lest the glue separate (this was before I knew about contact cement, I was using super glue), which meant they continually tried to revert back to a flatter shape if I didn't get them quite hot enough. You can also see my latest attempt in getting the elbow diamonds to look cleaner. Once those were ready, I finished the rest of the arm pieces and got to work on the legs. The hip section was definitely the most interesting to make, since they were basically made out of the same piece of foam. I would cut out the base layer, use a hobby knife to cut out the next layer from the base piece, then again for the top layer from the second. I then raised each section slightly, and glued them back together. I also cut out the belt section, which would attach to the top of the hip piece. After that came the shins. I cut out a large piece in kind of a cone shape, to form to the leg muscles better, then attached the knees. I also cut out the coolest pieces of the whole build: the shoes. Once those were done, the torso came together as quickly as ever. (Sleeping baby photobomb!) Finished up the chest piece, and the weapon/shield thingies, then Plasti Dipped everything. Given the metallic sheen of the whole armor, and the multi-colored layers, I opted to go through each piece one by one, painting then taping and repeating. The progress shots of the shoes show the whole process each piece went through. First, I sprayed a black metallic: Then after it had set I taped off the sections that would be remaining black. Next, I sprayed on the darker grey, waited, and taped it off again. Last came the silver: And more waiting. Of course, while it was drying I would move on to another piece, but I didn't have much room so even then goings were slow. As always though, the wait was totally worth it. After I removed all the tape, I would hit it with a coat of adhesive promoter, a clear spray that helps everything keep from rubbing off too quickly. Since the statue's armor was smooth and sleek, I ended up not weathering anything to keep with that same look. Each leg piece went through basically the same process, which was easier as I went up each layer and taping off the layer below. The arms were simple as well, since they were pretty much the uniform dark grey. Of course, the right arm needs its telltale stripe! Rather than the standard white/red, the statue sticks with the silver/red, so that's what I went with too. First came the tape, then the base silver. Then wait, then more tape, then the red. Nice and straight forward. And, finally, I taped up the torso and did it all over again. Third shot kinda has a nice, super-heroine look, doesn't it? :) Well, all that was left was strapping, but at this point I revealed on my Facebook page the overall design. Seemed to go over pretty well, which was a relief! I had been second guessing myself at the brightness of the colors, but everyone seemed to like it anyway. Unfortunately I had to rush to get the straps on and send it out, so I've only got one other progress shot left to share. For reference, though, I attached elastic bands on the insides of the biceps, to make it stay on comfortably but to also be easy to remove. I also kept the hip sections separate, attaching the upper ones to the belt and the lower ones just to the leg, to facilitate movement. Other than that, just the regular side straps and belt on the torso and wrist strap on the forearm, again leaving room for adjustment by the client once they received it. I think it turned out pretty well, considering, though if I did it again I'd make some changes to it. Still, it's pretty close to the statue at least! :)
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Those of you that have been following me for a while know that I've made quite a few sets of the Male N7 armor, but I had never done the Female variety. That changed recently when I was commissioned for the FemShep set. Much of the pieces are identical to the BroShep armor, so I won't go into a lot of detail of the patterning/tracing/cutting. Some of the pieces are shaped a little different, of course, but only a few pieces (some obvious) are different: the chest plate, the hips, and the shoulder bells. The legs, as you can see, are still pretty much the same. You'll see a difference in the details on the hips as we go, though. The biggest difficulty, naturally, was the chest plate. While I had the measurements I needed, I still needed to make sure it was shaped properly, there was room for adjustment later, and everything needed to look even. I cut out the pieces for the main section, then used a heat gun and a hard, rounded surface to shape a couple large pieces of foam. On these I traced the shape of the open areas of the main section, and was able to cut out the now properly shaped breast pieces and attach them. After that, the rest of the pieces were rote, I just had to remember to shape them differently after cutting and assembly. The shoulder bells were a little trickier, but I ended up freehanding them. They're essentially 2 layers of foam, but stacked one on top of the other unlike BroShep, which the bell itself attaches to the end of the under piece, and that piece sticks out a bit. FemShep, though, the main piece is the under piece, and the upper bell is really just an extended panel. It'll make better sense once you see the pics of it, I promise. :) Anyway, all pieces done and shaped, so I threw on the Plasti Dip and paint! See the bells now? Make better sense? Good. ;) Strapped everything together, leaving room on them for the client to be able to adjust to a better fit for them when they got it. Once all the straps were on and everything looked good, it was time, as always, to weather the armor! The spine is also custom and freehanded, to save a bit of time and give a unique look to the armor. Making the same armor over and over is nice and all, but I try to throw something different into each one to give it a little bit of its own character. This was a lot of fun, and gave me some good insight into manipulating the foam. Love learning new things! :D
Still going, on this day of write-up catch up! Now we come to an oldie with a twist. Back in 2012 I was commissioned to make a Cerberus Harrier, which you can read the write-up for here. This time I was commissioned to make another, just as large, but they wanted a special, unique paint job: they wanted it Alliance. You'll want to click the link above to get all the meaty details on the assembly process, since I'm going to skip quite a few of the opening bits: the stacking/layering/gluing of the foam, cutting it all out, beveling the edges, and gluing all that together. Nope, I'm going to skip right to the juicy bits, since by now you should all know the steps I take to make these foam props. And if you don't, click the link above so you do, then meet us back here. ... Everybody ready? Let's go. First up, due to the move I was unable to find the alternate barrels I had made as an experiment with the first Harrier. Thanks to that, I had to make a new set of barrels, but I didn't have the PVC pipes or connectors like I did before. So, I got a little creative and blatantly "borrowed" a trick from Punished Props. I had a couple cups full of excess casting resin, building up when I have a bit left over when I make castings. I put these on my lathe, got covered in thin white ribbons, and turned out the two barrels. Then I took them to my drill press and drilled out the holes in the fronts with a forstner bit. From there, it was a simple job attaching them to the front of the Harrier. Naturally, from here came the detailing, done like the M8 version 3 and M99 Saber: light etching with the xacto knife and a heat gun to open the cut bits up a bit. Of course, then came the Plasti Dip, as always. Now comes the really fun part: painting this thing the Alliance colors. Cerberus has it white, yellow, and black, with the logo on the stock. Alliance? Blue, silver, and black, and a totally different logo. That really makes things interesting, and gives it a whole different feel. First up, the bottom layer of blue. Since blue is replacing the white, and since it's easier to tape from the bottom-most layer and work my way up, I started with the bit around the thumb hole area, the front of the grip, and the slit in the stock. Then I taped those up, and covered the whole thing in silver. I don't have a picture of that step, but the next one was the same: tape up the silver for the final set of blue. Once that all dried, I took the tape off, which is always my favorite part after painting. Totally feel like I'm opening a Christmas present to find all the awesomeness inside! And, naturally, the Alliance Harrier was no exception. Of course, I also had to tape it all back up, just to paint on the black decals and add the Alliance symbol where the Cerberus one would normally sit. I didn't add the lettering or anything like that, because I didn't have the extra set I had made and I didn't want to etch out a whole new stencil for it. Not that it mattered, as I think it looks awesome as it is. :) Of course, now it needed to look even better, so on came the weathering! More black acrylic wash, with dry brushing various colors. I tried layering a few different colors to make the effect pop out better, and I think I'm getting better at that. Just need to work on which colors look more natural together at the end result. The final product: I kept it still kind-of new, like it was only recently off the assembly line - or just repainted after acquiring it on a raid or something. Still though, I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it was certainly a big hit when I revealed the alternate scheme on my Facebook page. Hope you enjoyed!
Guess I've put off this armor write-up for too long, huh? ;) Here we go! Ever since I first saw the Terminus armor (in ME3, as I got the Inferno armor code for ME2), I have wanted to make/own/buy/whatever a set of this armor. It didn't work for my first character (Infiltrator), but it was still friggin' awesome to look at. Always called it the Tron armor lol. Well, finally, I had my chance. Sold my N7 mark 2 set to pay some bills a while ago, and I needed something to wear in its stead, and this became that thing. Started with a 3D file from the RPF (and fellow N7eliter) by Darhood. Unfolded everything myself, but it wasn't going to be enough. I knew I wanted as few seams as possible, including the harsh corners that are a constant theme for this armor. So, once I had everything close to what I wanted, I printed it all out and continued to adjust things, both for a better fit and, again, to keep the seams as few as possible. The helmet still came out the same way, since there wasn't much more I could do with it and still have it fit right. Looks messier than it really is, since a lot of those lines you see are excess marker lines (though still some seams to fill). Lucky for me, due to the nature of the pieces, I didn't have to do any major heat forming - it came together pretty much all on its own! I really used the foam to its fullest extent on this build, using the smooth side for the bulk of the outside, and reversing some parts for the textured carbon fiber-esque pattern. The fit is pretty dead on: nice and snug to my face, but enough room to fit a visor and some wiring. Pretty happy that it was turning out so well! So happy, in fact, that I decided to paint it and grab acrylic for the visor. The Terminus armor is very black in game, but the reference shots I was using (I'm sure we're all familiar with the ones) showed some lighter areas, so I wanted to add some contrast. First up was sealing the foam with everyone's favorite Plasti Dip. For the black sections I used Rustoleum's Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze, and the dark, dark grey I used Rustoleum's Metallic Charcoal. In some lights it looks the same, until you hit the light at a certain angle and then the two colors really pop. You'll see more of that later - the helmet was a lot more subtle of a shift. I also picked up a transparent black and red acrylic sheet for the visor. Couldn't decide which one I wanted to use; the reference pic looked black, but with all the black everywhere I kinda once again wanted a bit of contrast with more red. Everyone else seemed to agree that red would be better, so I put it aside and used the black for other things. This is where things got reeeeally interesting. I was going to originally use EL wire for the highlight lines, but I decided against it. For one, I didn't want to deal with all that, and for another I decided that LEDs would be enough and that I shouldn't worry about overkill this time 'round. So, I taped that helmet up good - took me about an hour lol. Grabbed a brush, then painted some red all over. You can also see where I used the back side of the foam to accentuate the occasional section that was carbon fiber in the reference pics. I've tried some other options masking options out that seem to work well, but stuck with this for this build. Helmet was basically done at this point, other than the visor and lights, but I wouldn't be able to work on those for a couple months since I was getting ready to move to the other side of the country. That was fun! /s Once that was over, and I had everything unpacked (though with much less room unlike the promised garage I'd have) I started on the arms. The large pieces I cut all out of a single piece, then cut trenches out of the back to make the more pronounced edges and angles of the armor. This also made it easier to fit it to me, while giving it the angular look that is so awesome about this particular armor set. I made the hips the same way: The edges on those will look more pronounced later, once the strapping is on. Anyway, started painting the finished pieces while I worked on others. The arm pieces I experimented with Mod Podge to fill some of the open seams, but the painting was all the same: Plasti Dip, followed by the piece's respective black or dark grey. And more taping. Lots and lots of taping. These bicep pieces I did with the dark grey and, even though up close you can see the seams, I think it turned out pretty well. They sit on my arm by friction alone, and I haven't had any problems with it twisting around or anything, so I'm super happy. While those were drying between coats, I started on the shins: These were rather fun to make, though they didn't want to hold the shape I wanted at all, despite heating them quite a lot. Wasn't too much of a problem though. Progress up to this point: So a ton more taping later, and a couple more pieces were done with the red: It was about this time where I decided I needed to come up with a weapon to go with the armor. After narrowing it down to the one that comes with the armor in the ME2 DLC and one other, I decided on the Turian Phaeston. You see it quite regularly in the promotional artwork for the multiplayer version of the armor: the N7 Destroyer armor. Though the two suits have more differences than people have noticed, I thought the look would be perfect. Anyway, on to the torso! Started with the neck: Left a hole on the inside back there for easier wire access for the helmet. Thinking ahead! After that came the front chest bits: The lines you see are the marks for the fold trenches. Marked them on the front with the pattern, since that was more visible, then lined up a ruler and cut out the trench. You can see the result with the protrusion of the top, just like with the arm pieces. Once these were done, the back and the rest of the upper chest came together very quickly. Again it's a little hard to see it well before the paint stage, but things were coming along nicely. I connected the front to the back, and threw together the abs and cod. Once again just flying together! (Yes, that's totally my son's crib. Only thing I had at the time to hold it up for a pic! XD) You can also see that I added some craft foam bits for the back of the neck, and cut out spots for the lighting. Thank goodness I had done that before painting on these, though I did have to do some widening, which we'll get to later. I also finished fully painting the arms, and freehanded the spine section for the back. Did that bit with 1/4" foam, to make it a little thinner for mobility, though I did layer it for the proper effect, and etched in the lines with a hobby knife. Once etched, I went over it with a heat gun, which opened the lines up for a nice, clean separation effect. Easier than cutting each piece out of craft foam, hoping they were identical. Now that all that was done, I grabbed a cheap pair of boots from Amazon, finished the other boot cover, and put them all together. The boots are seriously my favorite part. Soooooooo cooooooooool. About this time, my lights came in. Found a light strip from superbrightleds.com that had the lights really close together and could light from either end. They were also covered with a waterproofing plastic, which helped diffuse the lights. Perfect, I thought! Much easier to solder these than deal with individual lights and resistors! Boy was I mistaken. I was in for a real heap of trouble. *foreshadowing* Instead of testing my theory, I cut at the designated marks on each side, attaching the prewired bits together and putting a small set of lights into the helmet. Feeling really happy and super stoked that it was coming together so well, and so quickly! As you can see, I also installed the red visor. Heated it up with a heat gun, then bent the front over a 1x2 board and curved the rest to shape, then cut it to shape. I can see through the acrylic, and you can't see in from outside of it, so it worked great. Have a hard time seeing forward with it, though, but them's the breaks. Yay handlers! You can see the visor's color a bit better in the last 2 pics. Since it was all coming together so well, it was time for test fit number 1! Not all of it was strapped, which is what I needed the test fit for. The pauldrons especially, since I wasn't sure if I'd be strapping them to my arms or letting them hang from the neck piece like I did with my N7 armor set. Here's the test result! The forearm pieces have elastic straps on them, positioned so that I can get in and out of them without getting stuck. The hips definitely needed something, though I wanted to be able to move and sit without having to take them off entirely. Boots fit perfectly, thanks to the surprisingly comfy set I ordered. Everything else fit great, so now I just had to paint and strap! And now, the fun *really* begins! Now that I knew what all the parts needed, I did a few small adjustments for a better fit and started Plasti Dipping the rest of the pieces. The torso I did last, and I barely finished the last coat on it as the last of my Dip finished off. Just barely enough! Once that was done, I started on the black and dark grey again, masking off areas before painting the second color. Sorry again for the cell phone shots, but at least here you can really see the contrast between the two colors. It's only this different in a certain light, and the rest of the time the two colors blend really well. Perfect for the effect I wanted with it! You can also see the angles and corners a lot better. So happy at how well it turned out. Hand painted a silver-grey onto the spine pieces and the kneecap; again, based on the reference pics and for some more contrast. Then the boots got their red details: And then I learned about the fun annoyance I was about to have with the LED strip. Turns out, this particular strip was not meant to reattach once it was cut at the designated marks, unlike other LED strips. I hadn't read that when I bought them, but I wasn't about to go spend more money on a different strip, especially since I didn't know of any with lights this close together (until waaaay later, when I learned about adafruit, but that's another story). So, I experimented a bit, broke a few, then finally settled on using a push-pin to poke a hole in the ribbon for each wire. After that it was a lesson in patience to figure out how to properly solder it so not only would it remain connected, but have a good connection the whole way through. That was a pain. Here's the little setup I rigged for each boot: The strip is actually a 9-14v strip, which (according to superbrightleds.com) works best at 12 volts. I got it for that reason as well, since I didn't want wires going up and down my legs just to attach to one battery. Didn't want to have to deal with wiring myself up every time I got in and out of the thing, and didn't want to pull a connection every time I want to sit down. This way I could simply have a couple 9 volts in each foot, independent of the rest. In other news, I painted up the hips: And I started the process all over again on the torso. Sooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuch taaaaaaape...... Really happy with how those detail lines came out. And now, back to the process of slowly destroying my fingers getting those lights to go in. I got an 8AA battery pack, which fit nicely in the front protrusion of the chest, as well as a 4 way splitter to connect all the sections together. Ended up only using three, but had the fourth just in case the boot idea didn't work out. The back section worked decently well: And the front eventually worked after much cursing, stabbing, and all around annoyance since I had to push these through several layers in some places. I was happy, I was giddy, everything was pretty much done. And then it happened. One of the connections on the boot lights broke while I was securing it, and I was out of lights. You could hear my cries of frustration from the other end of the house, apparently. Luckily for me, I hadn't thrown out any of the ones that had broken, and I was able to find one that wasn't as bad off as I had thought. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I got it to work. It's kind of hard to see what's weathered, but trust me it's there. I kept it subtle on the weathering, just like the color shift before, though I did use it to bring out some of the hard angles better. Now that that's all done, time for test fit number 2! Got some inexpensive glove liners (shown in the last post) and decided to strap up the glove plates so that I could use the liners for other costumes, rather than permanently glue them on. Since I used the 1/4" foam mat for these, the pattern on the bottom wasn't the carbon fiber-esque but the stupid truck bed diamond things, so I couldn't just cut and reverse the pieces as with the rest of the armor. Instead, I coated as before with Plasti Dip, sprayed down the black I used for the rest of the armor, then used a no-slip shelf liner as a mask and painted on the dark grey. The result: Nice and subtle color shift for the carbon fiber weave! Took a lot longer than expected too, since my back decided it wanted to put me in the hospital for six and a half hours and out of commission for two weeks..... No idea why either.... Got the Turian Phaeston all done, and some awesome outdoor pics! I'll be doing a write-up on the Phaeston shortly. I would have taken more pictures, but my camera isn't the greatest and my leg was hurting pretty badly after a nine mile walk on a partly sprained ankle. That and my back was still hurting quite a bit. Enjoy! Hope you guys enjoyed this build, because I'm overjoyed that it's come to complete fruition. Always wanted to make the Terminus armor, and thanks to everything I've learned it's finally come to be.
For those of you that have been following me from the very beginning, you may remember that my M8 Avenger build has taken on a couple different iterations. First, there was the super quick 3 day build one I made, Version 1: I loved it, and I loved that I had made it so quickly, but I knew it wasn't pretty, and it was anything but perfect. So, when I remade the N7 armor, I remade the M8 to go with it. Never did a write-up, but it was basically the same as the last one, just with layers of foam all glued together and cut out with the band saw. This ended up as Version 2, which has pretty much been the face of Ascension Props to this day. Even then, though, I knew I wanted to try to make it even more correct. A lot of the etched lines were supposed to be bevels, which was hard to do with foam that was a single piece. Recently, I decided to try and make it more correct, and have the proper look of the in-game model. After the success of the quick-built M-99 Saber, I decided to give it a proper shot. I started by making my own set of blueprints, making some small adjustments where I knew I had problems with the previous ones I had made. Then I got to work, cutting out the core with the 1" thick foam. I prepped 5 of them, in case the build was a success (and to finally get ahead of the orders). Still treated the core like the puzzle I usually did with the previous version, since those fit into the band saw better. I also tried something new here, gluing all the pieces together with contact cement rather than super glue. Much better bond - those pieces will never separate! Once that was all together, I cut apart the blueprint even more, for the layered 1/2" foam. Already it's looking better, and closer! I left a bit of overlap on the top and bottom, to account for the barrels. Once the blueprint was cut out to my liking, it was a simple job of getting it to the 1/2" foam, cutting it out with the band saw, and using the disc attachment on my belt sander to get the bevels done. I still curved the top pieces with the router, though that was quite a bit scarier as I had to do them a piece at a time with a guide stick. In the previous one I had plenty of protection from the router bit with the 4 layers of foam, but with this I was a lot closer to it. I survived though, and this was the result: So super stoked to see this. I used my new drill press to punch in the rivet holes, then the xacto knife/heat gun trick for the etched details. Still used the wood burning tool for the air vents and such, though. After that I threw on the barrels, sight, and craft foam raised details, and off to the Plasti Dip it went! Holy. Crap. I almost stopped right there, it was exactly how I wanted it to turn out. Can't finish it there, though, so I pulled out my acrylics and started painting. I used some excess vinyl stencils that once held the stickers I used in the previous Avenger builds, which I was now out of (yes, that popular of a prop - at least 20-25 M8s worth). After that came weathering and a clear coat or three to seal it all. I am so happy with this new version that it will now be my regular build. I'll most likely use this same method and make a master out of MDF, mold a few, see how that turns out, but for now this right here is the version I have been trying to get to.
It's really nice seeing the progression of skill level, from the first, to the one that really put me out there, to this newest one that is the most correct version I've made. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I have! Here's some final pictures to show it off some more. ;) |
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