Modified ODST armour

Macewind · Jun 29, 2013

Hi guys, this is my first post, first build, and i'm a bit out of my depth!
I'm the captain of the UK branch of an international paintball team called Ontario Defense Strike Teams (ODST - Ontario because the original team is in Canada) and I thought it would be cool as hell to build an ODST suit for playing in.
With that in mind I started searching the interwebs, watching youtube guides and learning as much as I could about building costumes.
All of that led me to pepakura and using foam instead of paper to build the suits.
This being a suit that will be used in battle, foam seems like the obvious way to go as it won't break as easily as a resin reinforced paper suit. The downside is the files arnt exactly designed for foam, and so not only am I learning how to use pepakura for the first time, i'm also having to learn how to alter everything for foam!
Finally, another problem i'm going to have is that I want to be able to carry stuff like paint pods, an air tank, smoke grenades etc onto the field with me. This means that the armor is going to have to be customised to incorporate all the standard paintball kit!
Fun! I hope you guys enjoy reading my progress and give me lots of help and support, cos i'm gonna need it!

Macewind · Jun 29, 2013

Ok, now the explanation is out of the way, here's my first progress post!
I decided to start my adventure with something that looked simple to do. First lesson, this is far from simple!
I'm pretty sure i'm using the wrong kind of foam, which is effecting how it turns out. I bought some 7mm camping rolls, the same type used for yoga. The reason for this is that it was only £2.50 a roll. If I had gone for the flooring mats that join together in a jigsaw, the same area of foam would of cost me 5 times as much! That said, this stuff is very squishy, and doesnt hold its shape as well as the mats appear to.
I'm going to continue using the mats for now, and maybe redo the armor again with stiffer foam once i've got some practice under my belt.
The next thing i've found is that I hate hot glue with a passion! I'm getting it all over the front of the armour, its squeezing through the joins, ruining my nice straight edges and i seem to get more glue on my fingers than the foam!
Does anyone have some advise for how to clean up the joins once the glue has dried? I've thought about using a dremel to sand the blobbly glue bits, but am worried i'll just make it worse. Worst case scenario, i'll just leave it and disguise it as built up dirt when I come to paint it.
Here's a photo of the finished shoulders. What do you think? I'm quite happy with them as the first thing i've ever built, but they are slightly mis-shapen. I'm hoping this will solve itself once on my body!

averysmallhorse · Jun 29, 2013

I always thought it would be awesome going into battle with foam armor, just make sure that the glue, or epoxy holds together well, best wishes to you guy

SavedbyGraceG12 · Jun 29, 2013

Dremel? I wouldn't suggest it. Unless u want battle damage on ur armor. If u are using a glue gun. Try taking the tip of your glue gun, or where it is cone shaped right below the tip of the gun. Use those two areas to reheat the glue. Make a side to side motion while pressing down on the glue. Think of it like spreading butter across a slice of bread. Just don't keep it pressed on one area for to long. I haven' t used foam before, might burn through the foam. And u don't have to press down hard. Ur just smoothing the glue down flat, that way u won't have all those bumpy glue spots overflowing from the seams. U can probably use this same technique for when ur applying the glue, that way ur not using as much glue. Also, it might stop u from having as much glue overflowing from out the seams. If ur curious, by seams. I meant joins, as u have mentioned earlier in ur post. Hopefully this works!

SavedbyGraceG12 · Jul 1, 2013

Did it work?

BiGHARYSCOTSMiN · Jul 1, 2013

make sure you make this thing super robust.

I tried skirmishing a lightweight plastic version of odst before and it got shot to bits. I found that the leg pieces and shoulders need to be reinforced.

Also get a think visor on there. I play airsoft so the bullets aren't that bad but... In paintball it may be different.

You should test your equipment and test it again... You want this stuff to last don't you?

Ghost Bear 027 · Jul 1, 2013

As to the blobs of hot glue, get a straight razor. Those things are gold for cutting, shaving, scratching, whatever you want. Should whittle away any hot glue with no problems. Bigger problem you may face though...

While I applaud the enthusiasm, you may not be allowed to even wear the helmet on a paintball field if it is regulated. That has to be ballistically rated plastic used in the visor, and strangely some motorcycle lenses aren't shatterproof. You'll have to convince whatever field you're playing at that your helmet is attached firmly to your head via a chin strap or otherwise so you don't take a tumble and get blasted in the eye while on your back on the ground, and that a paintball from 10 feet away (we all know those close kill zones get ignored in the heat of it all) won't permanently blind you through a shattered lens.

Macewind · Jul 1, 2013

Thanks for the replies and suggestion guys

I know from applying the glue that any contact between the foam and the metal tip of the glue gun causes the foam to melt and unfortunately the blobs are a bit too small to apply your method to, but its a handy tip that i'll keep in mind as i'm sure itll come in useful!
The razor method sounds like it'll work tho, i'll try that out on these parts and see what happens

As for the suit, the helmet will be heavily modified. I will be starting with a spare paintball mask and building on top of that. So the helmet is not going to look exactly like an ODST helm, especially in the face area as that will be the mask itself, but the rest should help to blend it into the armour. That mask i'll be using is this one (not my photo)

It already has a kind of halo look to it, so by the time i've built the top, sides and back around it, it should turn out alright.

As for the armour itself, i've come to the conclusion that the foam i'm using is just to soft and flimsy for this project. First of all I have concerns about its robustness, I don't want it to disintegrate the first time it gets shot! Secondly, it just isnt going together very well, and doesnt like to hold its shape. So i'll be treating what i've built so far as a test run, and have bought some 10mm foam tiles to build the armour out of instead.
Whilst I wait for those to arrive, here's the rest of the armour I built.
The gauntlets went alright until I built the raised part, which just didnt want to stay in the shape I wanted it to, and the chest, although sized for a 6 foot guy, was just too small. So I attached a larger panel on the back. It looks rubbish, but i'll use this larger panel as a guide when building the armour from the thicker foam.

SavedbyGraceG12 · Jul 2, 2013

I just use regular exacto blades, not heated. For some parts where it gets tricky to fit everything together, say like a spot where 4 corners come together at one point, a soldering iron can come in handy to melt any tiny imperfections. A soldering iron is also really good for removing excess hot glue from seams. If you hold a hot soldering iron about 1/8" away from a seam (do not actually make contact) you will see that any excess glue will shrivel up into a bead and can be wiped off easily...this makes for super clean seams.

And thanks about my suit, I can't wait to wear it this weekend at Supercon!

SavedbyGraceG12 · Jul 2, 2013

I'm sure Chefbzd wouldn't mind. Credit goes to his post. I just copied and pasted his post from another thread. It seems like a really good idea. My apologies, and again credit goes to Chefbzd.

Macewind · Jul 2, 2013

great advice, thanks for sharing

VSMShockWave · Jul 2, 2013

SavedbyGraceG12 said:
I just use regular exacto blades, not heated. For some parts where it gets tricky to fit everything together, say like a spot where 4 corners come together at one point, a soldering iron can come in handy to melt any tiny imperfections. A soldering iron is also really good for removing excess hot glue from seams. If you hold a hot soldering iron about 1/8" away from a seam (do not actually make contact) you will see that any excess glue will shrivel up into a bead and can be wiped off easily...this makes for super clean seams.

And thanks about my suit, I can't wait to wear it this weekend at Supercon!

A good thing to do also when gluing pieces of foam together is use as little ass possible. Because don't forget that you can always reinforce it from the inside with more hot glue. Outside will look amazing. A soldering knife is a nice tool to use also... You can pick one up at Lowes for less than 20 bucks. If not no big deal... You can always dremmel the sides and edges to get a smoother look. The dremmel shall become your best friend as it did mine XD

Macewind · Jul 2, 2013

May invest in one, but i'm doing alright with normal blades for now

SavedbyGraceG12 · Jul 2, 2013

Cool deal keep us posted with ur progress.

Macewind · Jul 8, 2013

Well, had a productive weekend. Switched to using 12mm floor mats as I can't find any thinner ones. They are much easier to work with than the camping mat that just didnt have enough density to work with. The problem with them tho is cutting them so they fit exactly together. I've had to scrap most of the pep files and just improvise on a lot of parts, Especially the helmet that needs to house a paintball mask under it, I had to build that completely from scratch!
Anyway, here's the pics so far, still the legs to build and detail work to be done on some of these parts. C&C Welcome

Gauntlets, lots of detail work to do on these

Shoulders complete

Center Belt, complete

Chest and lower belt. Hip plates need detailing

Helmet. Still needs a bit of detailing, but pretty much complete.

TheGoblin · Jul 8, 2013

Looking really good! Are you going to try to make your weapons look like an silenced smg or an assault rifle?

Macewind · Jul 9, 2013

Thanks bud, i'm not 100% sure what i'm going to do with my main marker as its profile doesnt really lend itself towards the design of a halo weapon. I have started dressing up my pistol as an m6g magnum though, just waiting for the plasticard to arrive so I can finish it off

RTWHOCKEY · Jul 9, 2013

Looks good.

Macewind · Jul 9, 2013

Cheers bud.
Started painting the parts that I've done. I was just going to paint it black, but the plastidip went very bubbly and ruined the smooth look of the armour, so I nipped out, bought a few cans of camo plastidip and gave it a camo theme that hides the bubbles as its not so uniformed.
I'll be adding silver scratches and general weathering at a later date, plus a few of my teams logo's and my callsign

the mack · Jul 9, 2013

Lookin pretty righteous!

Modified ODST armour

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