Absol's COG Armor pep Build (COMPLETED) *Pic heavy*

DONE and on the next page!


Decided to make COG armor as my First build (pic of a figure below), with Gears of War being one of my favorite games. So far things are going good for my first pep. Some of the files had the tabs on the outside making the bondo stage more of a pain. The COG helm was low detail so I needed a way to bring out some of the details the pep file did not have. The plan is to learn hard lessons with this so when I move on to Spartan armor, it will be that much nicer! Besides my work has a costume contest each year and I think I may win this years (lol) and if I don't finish my Spartan armor for pax east then at least I have a back up.


(found on figures.com)

Last update- 10/31/13

COMPLETE!

Pep stage: I remade the knee pads with smaller tabs. The ones in these pictures are the old ones. This stage was hard in the sense of trying not to mess up the scaling. I just turned on music and cut and glued till it was all done. No real problems and I only needed to remake the knee pads. I'm hoping it stays that way...



Resin stage: It was the end of winter and I was waiting for a day warm enough to resin. I did test pieces to see how resin works in cold. Was a 28F night with temperatures as low as 18F. The pieces still hardened, just took a whole day.



Tell me if the helm pics are upside down. On my ipad they are, but on my computer they are not.

Bondo stage: I used popsicle sticks. I bought and used the bondo applier... things? They worked, but it was a lot easier for me to use the sticks and toss them after use then try saving the bondo things.



Right now I am sanding the rest of the pieces. I was sanding by hand. But while the spirit was so willing, the body was weak. So bought a mouse sander yesterday. Some of my pieces have the first coat of paint, to see how noticeable the holes were.



As you may be able to see it turned out a little sloppy. Hopefully some bondo and a lot of sanding will fix that. Only time will tell!

Solid work, nicely done!

Absol898 said:

...Hopefully some bondo and a lot of sanding will fix that. Only time will tell!

Click to expand...

Sand, sand, and then when you think its smooth - sand some more.. xD Seriously though the pieces are lookin great - keep at it!

Sanding my helm, knee pads, and gloves to the point where I am happy (first pep after all). I also primed and added the first coat of paint.



Some of the details were not in the pep file I downloaded so I had to improvise.


(Found on figures.com)

If you look at my helm before detailing (in the first post) and COG 2 helm, the armor plating on the sides are missing. So I took a foam board and made the detail myself. I also did the same to the gloves and kneepads to bring out some of the detail that the file did not have.

I was looking around for acrylic paints, for the dark wash, and found this.



All Meijer had available and, before I buy, was wondering if anybody used it and know if it works (or should work)? I'll continue to look up the paints as I get closer.

Lastly I will be adding bolts to my piece to make it more believable. the plan was to use these.



But trying to remove the ends, so my piece will not poke me, is proving harder then I thought. I'm always open to new ideas as I continue to look all over the web.

Have you tried removing the ends of the nails with a dremel tool? I've used the cutting blade of a dremel to take the shaft off of a machine screw when I just needed the 'screw head' on a project.

Good work man ! You have the skills !

DRG said:

Have you tried removing the ends of the nails with a dremel tool? I've used the cutting blade of a dremel to take the shaft off of a machine screw when I just needed the 'screw head' on a project.

Click to expand...

I will give it a try!

and... it worked thanks!

Well the painting seams to be going very well! I got to say with out adding the details or shadows the piece looks way to clean. Here are some of the photos of the before and after.





I used a darker, matalic spray paint, and a brush, to make the darker detail on the healm. I used a black wash for the details, but it was not dark enough. So I used the paint then wiped it off to really bring out the darker areas around the mouth. I used a lighter nonmatalic blue to bring out curves. Next time I'll have the full finished helm with the wear on the edges.

The question right now is where do I find padding for the inside of my helm? I thought i could find helmet padding at places like walmart, But no luck. O well, Back to searching the internet!

Helm is Finished! Got to say was really fun painting. I am no art major, but I think this turned out fine for a first pep. The hardest part about painting was finding the right paints. The real helm has a lighter blue (which I find ugly). So I used a metallic blue rust-oleum. All the paint is rust-oleum except the dark wash and red paint, which were acrylic.





I took apart some cheep sunglasses to use as the eyes. Right now they are just hot glued in as I complete the other pieces. As for padding...



I took the padding out of an old helmet that was collecting dust. Now my helm fits perfect and it is comfortable!

At the moment I am sanding my chest. Even with a mouse sander this is going to take awhile. But all good things are worth waiting for.

Well I finished my boots, belt, and shoulders. The shoulders are missing the white detail in the middle but I an still debating on if I want to add that, cant find a good reference pic. The boots turned out better then I thought they were. A lot of the detail on the boots are missing, due to being a low detail piece, but I thought they were going to turn out much worse.



I just grabbed my winter boots to show how the piece fits. I am only using this piece for a costume contest at work so I don't really know if I will invest in black boots.



I was trying to get a picture with them on me, however I only have 2 hands and they were getting in the way of the picture. Once I start assembling the costume they will look better. I was debating if I should raise some of the detail on the shoulders or just leave it flat. I thought I would raise it. In hind sight I would have left it flat but the point of this pep is to test some things out.



Overall I am very happy with how everything is turning out! the only thing left is the chest.

Its been awhile since I posted an update, having almost nothing to due with buying text books. I split my chest piece and used rare earth magnets, how do they work?, to reattach it.



I still got to trim and add details, like bolts. But for now It is wearable.



Picture turned out ugly sorry! I'll fix that once I get the chest to fit together properly.



The magnets I used.

Here are the finished pics.

















Was a fun project. now that this is done, I look foreword to attempting a suit of spartan armor. but that is a story for another day.

Gear of war good choice.