Seraphin's ODST Build (Lots of Pics) [WIP]

Greetings, fellow 405th members! Now that the site is back in a usable state, I figured it's well past time to show off my progress on my rendition of ODST battle armor.

I'll start by saying that I've actually been at this for a few months now (working on and off, I've been busy with all flavors of RL things) and I'm nearing the end of the Pepping stages. The files that I used are an amalgam of Hugh's, Kirrou's and Nightshade's parts. I've been known to be especially picky when it comes to the look of individual parts, but I will say that ALL of the work that has gone into these parts - even the ones I didn't use - are phenomenal and the creators have my sincerest thanks for making them available. I simply don't have the patience to learn to model and what-not myself, so I sincerely thank you all very much.

Without further ado, here come some pics:







This helmet is absolutely my pride and joy of the build so far. Kirrou's HD models look gorgeous. I was afraid that I hadn't scaled it properly (I have an enormous head), but thankfully it fits perfectly and there's still plenty of room inside for padding and all that jazz.



I'm considering re-doing the belt buckle. It's awfully big, and I screwed up the pep in a few places. Chestplate is great, but it might be just a tad too big and doesn't quite fit the contour of my chest. I'm considering experimenting with a different file to see if it works out better. We'll see how it goes.



Silly me for forgetting that I'm gonna have to apply resin to the outside of the center piece, otherwise I would have left the circle part off until afterwards. It came out awesome, though, so I might just leave it and tough it out.





I've always preferred this style of ODST shoulder, but it's going to be tricky figuring out how to get it to articulate properly. Guess I'll have plenty of time to figure it out. :/



Hip and underarm plates. 'Nuff said.



The lower leg bits look superb, but I didn't realize just how much wider my calves are near the top, so they're pretty snug. Might have to figure out a way to break it in two and have the halves snap together (much like the torso will have to). If anyone has suggestions, I'm certainly open to them.





These forearms look beautiful, but they are an absolute PAIN to pep. I only have the one finished, and I'm thinking I might need to do it over (see pic below for one of the many reasons why).



I'm not satisfied with how this part especially turned out. I probably put it together in the least intelligible way possible, so when I do the other arm, I'll try a different approach. If it turns out better, I might re-do this one the same way. The other major thing wrong (which you can probably see in the top one if you look closely) is that the opening for the hand / wrist to go through is too small for my hand. I have small hands, but I can't roll them up properly to get them through without tearing the opening. May have to trim that particular piece off to make a slightly bigger opening. It doesn't need to be scaled up, the rest of it is perfectly sized for my forearm and the elbow pad is in exactly the right place.





I know I'm going the risky route of making the torso core out of card stock rather than EVA foam (I understand that's an increasingly common practice now-a-days) but I think I'll stick with it and see how it turns out.

At any rate, that's all the pep work I have done. Just missing the other forearm, the thigh parts, and boot covers. I have them all printed and ready to go, just need to spend some more quality time with an Exacto knife and a hot glue gun. I'll post updates as I'm able to get to them.

As for the next stages, I haven't gone out and bought resin or anything yet, but I know I need to get to it soon. I live in Michigan and we're probably only going to have pleasant outdoor weather for another month or so, maybe two. I have a tendency to work slowly but meticulously so here's to hoping that I can get them hardened before the snow falls in October (I wish I was exaggerating about that). With regards to that, I actually have to make some decisions and answer some questions about how to proceed with that phase of the operation, so expect to see me lurking in the resin / Rondo / fiberglass areas of the forums. This hobby is still new to me, and I'm definitely still learning and am not entirely confident of my abilities at this point, so any advice from veterans is more than welcome.

In the meantime, enjoy the pics and I hope to be back here with updates soon!

If your resin/bondo work is as good and precise as your pep work, then i'd say you have nothing to worry about! I'm not a veteran, by any means. But a few small things I could suggest before getting your hands sticky is buy a large box of latex gloves for sure. You'll rip and tear so many up on either fiberglass, the corner of your putty knife, etc. I bought a bag of 20 and went through them very quickly. Although that could just be due to my clumsiness. :/

When mixing resin, throw some foil into your mixing bowl beforehand. That way every time the excess resin hardens, you can throw out the foil layer and your mixing bowl will still be spotless!

Most important, get a good respirator!

I know those all sound like minor things, but after my first go with resin these little tips made a world of difference! I'm right beside you on using pep work throughout the entire build. I'm extremely tempted to move to foam now that my helmet is nearly finished, but there's something about the look of properly completed pep work that foam just can't make. Plus I feel like if I made anything out of foam the paint won't come out the same as the pep work, or i'll end up getting more wrinkles and tears throughout the foam. I'll be sticking to pep work, regardless of how much longer it takes!

Nice Work! Looking forward to more updates...

Nice! Cant wait to see more progress. I start working on my ODST helmet soon, so hopefully it comes out looking like yours did haha.

"If your resin/bondo work is as good and precise as your pep work, then i'd say you have nothing to worry about!"

I completely agree with PolyEngineer, youre pep work is awesome. you could also try smooth on instead of resin. A guy did it for his kids suit and he swears by it now. no harsh chemical smell during and dont have to worry about needing a dedicated work space.

im keeping track of this build for sure.

This will look good when it's finished.

dishabille said:

you could also try smooth on instead of resin. A guy did it for his kids suit and he swears by it now. no harsh chemical smell during and dont have to worry about needing a dedicated work space.

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You know, I recall watching a video on TheHeroTutorials of someone using something like that instead of resin. Apparently the component chemicals come in two separate jugs and you just mix the two together. No toxic fumes, no overwhelming odor, and you can do it indoors with no respirator. Can't remember what the stuff's called, but I might go look it up again and do some research. I'm told you can buy it in gallon jugs, but I'm willing to bet it's pricier pound-for-pound than resin. Guess I'll have to find out, finances are unfortunately rather tight for me right now. :/ Thank you for the suggestion though, I will definitely follow up on that.

At any rate, I appreciate the comments from everyone and I'm hoping to have a progress report soon. Apologies if it's not a consistent process. I tend to work on it in shifts, put a lot of attention into details, and have a tendency to work slowly but surely (probably the engineer blood in my veins). Bear with me!

Pep work looks spot on. If you can't figure out how to hinge the shoulders, try Kirou's ODST shoulders, he has a file that has a hinge built into it.

entekoh1 said:

Pep work looks spot on. If you can't figure out how to hinge the shoulders, try Kirou's ODST shoulders, he has a file that has a hinge built into it.

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Those shoulders actually are Kirrou's, just not the hinged version. After you mentioned that, I pulled up the Pep file and now I think I know how I can get a similar effect with the ones I built. They'll just have to come apart in two pieces. Thanks for the tip, though - that's one less obstacle.

Also, I see that you live in Saginaw, that's like...10 miles from here. Tri-City high-five! (I don't actually know what that looks like, but I bet it's awesome).

Seraphin290 said:

Can't remember what the stuff's called, ... but I'm willing to bet it's pricier pound-for-pound than resin. Guess I'll have to find out, finances are unfortunately rather tight for me right now. :/ Thank you for the suggestion though, I will definitely follow up on that.

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Its called Smooth On 300 or any of the available types off the website. It is pretty expensive I think the 1 gallon mix is roughly $80 but with how smooth your pep lines are you wont need much in the way of bondo so it might be worth it. You can get a trial size for $30 and have it delivered anywhere in the world, Ive got one coming by the end of the week.