Mass Effect 3 Foam build WIP

thehunter7 · Apr 10, 2012

Hi all!

Just wanted to show y'all my new build that I am going to be working on. Granted I haven't actually started, still in the process of developing some patterns and getting reference shots to go on. But my foam pieces just got in today. They were a little bit thinner than I wanted, due to the fact that the pic on eBay showed 1/2 inch while it's actually less, but figured I'd work with it.

Also ordered some EL wire to add some lighting effects to armor, as well as use in an omni tool that I will hope to make out of some plexiglas shaped with heat gun. (which by the way, has anyone tried this? Or even know if it will work?)

But anyways, I built a halo set with pep and figured I'd try some foam out. Part inspired by Indy moguls video awhile back on how to make sic fy armor as well as EvilFXs mass effect 2 build (his stuff is amazing!)

But anyways, I will be taking lots of pics and hopefully will have some progress up soon. Will be making a run to home depot for a few supplies later today. But for now I'm just hoping to get a good build started that everyone can enjoy!

Edit: I know it's probably self explanatory but if you click the pictures it opens up bigger, I just didn't want to upload the full thing here cuz it takes up so much room. And if you're like me and view the forums on mobile some times, it's hard to see the full picture. Anyways, thanks for reading!

thehunter7 · Apr 10, 2012

Drawing up some quick templates to get an idea

Click here

thehunter7 · Apr 11, 2012

OK Hi everyone, I have a few pics showing the progress of my stencils. They might be a bit hard to see due to the fact that they are in pencil on posterboard, but I will outline in sharpie later tonight.

Part of Side, trying to see how far down to go etc. Also need to work on belt piece soon.

Hard to see, but due to my lack of a light table, I just traced one side with a piece of printer paper, cut it out, fliped it over, and traced it to get more of a symmetrical feel.

Here is the upper chest pieces drawn out. They are a bit bigger, trying to compensate for the curving around with the heat gun.

thehunter7 · Apr 12, 2012

Day 2-3

Ok so I have finished the chest pieces, minus the front belt, but here are some update pics. I modded my soldering iron to use a small xacto knife, which makes cutting a breeze... even on my dull blade I had, need to get some new ones.

Modded soldering iron with xacto

side by side foam and stencil

Foam close up

Chest stencils with abbs

Chest piece finished cutting out, minus belt

thehunter7 · Apr 13, 2012

Ok so I have begun using the dremel and the heat gun to form the chest pieces... however, ran into a snag with trying to connect the neck guard and the upper chest part, so I'm going to have to redo and make them 1 piece. But will still use the pieces, might make another suit with it or something. Here are some pics of using the dremel and heat gun.

Initial heat forming test. Works pretty good! And holds that position quite well, even for my foam which is not as thick.

Some testing with the dremel tool on how it works with the foam. Quite easy I might add, just takes some patientce to not go too deep.

Here is the heat formed upper chest piece, with the smooth parts. But I am going to have to redo this one, but now that I have had practice can make smoother and cleaner lines with dremel.

KrovikanCorvinus · Apr 13, 2012

This is looking as though you have mastered the knack of this perfectly, I can't wait to see how this turns out, keep us posted!

thehunter7 · Apr 16, 2012

KrovikanCorvinus said:
This is looking as though you have mastered the knack of this perfectly, I can't wait to see how this turns out, keep us posted!

Thanks man! It's been interesting and will be sure to update as much as I can! Which speaking of I have one right now!

I pretty much have all the front chest pieces done, minus the belt on the front.

Old chest piece, though turned out ok when I glued on the neck piece.

Vacuum piece roughly where the belt will go

Close up

ZoidianKings · Apr 16, 2012

Wow, I really like how you're able to make those areas that smooth with a dremel. Also, keeping such clean lines throughout the different sections.

thehunter7 · Apr 16, 2012

ZoidianKings said:
Wow, I really like how you're able to make those areas that smooth with a dremel. Also, keeping such clean lines throughout the different sections.

Thanks, it's pretty difficult to keep my dremel straight at times, which you can see it slipped up on the neck piece and I cut a line in it lol

Nessy · Apr 17, 2012

This is looking really good, I'm surprised that there aren't more people posting here. Great detail work. I am especially impressed that you built all your own templates. Keep up the good work!

rasendori04 · Apr 17, 2012

Nice armor, and you made your templates yourself. Props to that dude. Can't wait to see your final product.

bonerfuneral · Apr 17, 2012

Looks really good so far. I'm kind of in awe at how neat your templates came out. But then again, I'm terrible with math. Keep up the good work!

thehunter7 · Apr 17, 2012

Thanks all for the encouraging posts! Yeah took me a bit longer with the templates than I thought, and that's just for the front chest piece

I started working on them one night and like took me 3 hours or more later to get them how I wanted. Quite a bit oh measuring, ruler usage, and brain power.

But as for today I have hot glued (after buying me a new glue gun) the front all together. If you look at a few refrence shots you notice that the pieces are a bit raised off of each other, and I wanted to get this look. My pieces might be a bit more raised and it's not really the right angle of it, but turned out pretty good I think.. After losing my top layer of skin on my fingers.

Here is a pic showing the raised surface. Adds a nice 3d feel to it. I just took the border piece of the foam and chopped off the puzzle piece ends and turned out to be a pretty close size to what I wanted.

So when I glued the top and middle together it left a kind of gap in the middle so I used some scraps and glued together to stick in the holes to add stability.

Here is where they went

Also added a piece on the middle for support as well as to give the Abbas something substantial to be glued on to.

Here is the upper part put together

Trying to get a feel for where abbs should go

ZoidianKings · Apr 18, 2012

It is going together really well! Interested to see what will be introduced in the next update!

thehunter7 · Apr 18, 2012

Well back again. Not too much to show, just been designing the back pieces. But did get the neck guard all sketched out and stenciled.

thehunter7 · Apr 25, 2012

Day 9

Ok update! I think I'm at like day 9 now. I was out of town last weekend and so did not Do much last weekend. But I have now cut out and designed the neck guard.

What I did was take one piece then cut out another that was a bit bigger. This way when I heat wrap it around it will be the same length. I went with two piece design in order to have the textured side on both sides as well as have it look like two pieces as in the ref shots I'm looking at. Also not to mention my foam is a bit thin lol

But anyways ran into some complications at first and had to splice some extra parts on my 1st attempt, but it worked out pretty good. Here are the pics!

You can see i had to add an extra 3 inches to each side

Back design, I didn't color in the parts on side due to the fact my sharpie was dieing

Pics of double pieces. Haven't sanded down edges yet

Template for next piece

thehunter7 · Apr 26, 2012

Well worked a bit more on detailing the neck guard so here are updates. I was toying around with how to do the spine pieces, and think i came up with a good idea. I plan on cutting them out and flipping it over so it shows the smooth side. Then Hot glueing them raised a bit to give a little bit of depth. Im posting two pics so you can see the difference.

Before

After

thehunter7 · Apr 26, 2012

Got my EL wire in for the omni tool. It's pretty legit. I want to work on making the omni tool now! Though I need to make the right gauntlet, because I want it to be able to go over it

Sepheus 13 · Apr 26, 2012

Oh, nice idea of using EL wire for the actual Omni-tool, I've seen EL wire used on the back/torso, but never an Omni-tool. I look forward to seeing how that turns out!

Andrew Lambright · Apr 26, 2012

i absolutley love the detail you are getting from your own templates... its absolutley stellar. and thats a good idea with the EL wire, i really want to see how this turns out

Mass Effect 3 Foam build WIP

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