New to Building

[Ghostshifter992]

Hi everyone,

I have been waiting to make my own female Spartan armor for about a year now but have no where to start. I do plan on using EVA foam for the armor. Have any tips on what I should do before starting on this project? How do get the right size of every armor piece? Should I take screenshots of my Spartan of every armor piece?

 

[pinoyfiasco]

There's a very helpful index of tutorials in the Halo Costume Tutorials forum:
Tutorial Index

Also, this was recently linked in another thread, but KitKatGoose made a spectacular Reach build that may serve as inspiration:
Detailed Reach armor + Undersuit

Armorsmith is a fairly common software used for figuring out your sizing. It's not free (I believe it's $40) but incredibly helpful, especially if you're working from scratch. Currently it's only for Windows but there are workarounds for getting it to work on macOS.

Definitely have a base design in mind (like what type of armor you're wanting to make for yourself) because it will guide your selection of models and patterns.

 

[Ghostshifter992]

There's a very helpful index of tutorials in the Halo Costume Tutorials forum:
Tutorial Index

Also, this was recently linked in another thread, but KitKatGoose made a spectacular Reach build that may serve as inspiration:
Detailed Reach armor + Undersuit

Armorsmith is a fairly common software used for figuring out your sizing. It's not free (I believe it's $40) but incredibly helpful, especially if you're working from scratch. Currently it's only for Windows but there are workarounds for getting it to work on macOS.

Definitely have a base design in mind (like what type of armor you're wanting to make for yourself) because it will guide your selection of models and patterns.

Thank you so much pinoyfiasco I'll look into this right now.

 

[Slayer241489]

i would say just go for it, I found that you tend to learn as you go. Download pepakura and some of the files in the armory and build! Id start with like a forearm piece and the armory has a reach female spartan foam file for it. Best and worst part about foam is that it is easily malleable and can distort easily, something I do to mitigate this is to reinforce the inside of the foam piece with cardboard and hot glue so it holds its shape.

For scaling I just used good ol measuring tape and inputted my measurements into pepakura, you may end up having to redo pieces due to them not being the right size but this is completely normal. and you get good practice!
HaloGoddess' "How To Scale" and More Tutorial
I also used this tutorial as a guide.
Good luck!

 

[Ghostshifter992]

i would say just go for it, I found that you tend to learn as you go. Download pepakura and some of the files in the armory and build! Id start with like a forearm piece and the armory has a reach female spartan foam file for it. Best and worst part about foam is that it is easily malleable and can distort easily, something I do to mitigate this is to reinforce the inside of the foam piece with cardboard and hot glue so it holds its shape.

For scaling I just used good ol measuring tape and inputted my measurements into pepakura, you may end up having to redo pieces due to them not being the right size but this is completely normal. and you get good practice!
HaloGoddess' "How To Scale" and More Tutorial
I also used this tutorial as a guide.
Good luck!

Thank you so much. It's good to have other people's opinions on this stuff before I dive right into it.

 

[RunsOnStories]

Ghostshifter992 HI! I'm also building my first foam armor! My husband is acting as my tutor while building their own; they are also fairly new to foamsmithing, though not as new as me. This here is our build thread, if you want to share tips / learn together! We're not quite the far along yet, but I have been wondering what kind of modifications I would need to make to some of the pieces to get it to fit my body.

 

[N8TEBB]

KitKatGoose made a very nice foam reach suit. Her build thread may be a helpful resources for building a foam reach suit:

Detailed Reach armor + Undersuit

Hey everyone! This will be where I post progress and details of my new Reach suit. I've created two Reach suits in the past, one for myself and one for a friend. Hopefully this one will be even better looking and better functioning. This suit will be pretty much all foam, made with pep patterns...

www.405th.com

Since you asked for general advice, I'll link my foam armour video below. It covers my whole process: