Sarlume's Meta build (pic heavy, of course)

My boys and I have started an annual family vacation to Austin every July to attend RTX, and this year I have a suit to wear. My son wanted to cosplay with me, so we ended up deciding on a Meta suit for him (or, to put it more aptly, my suit was made in preparation for his Meta suit...). Here is my attempt to do him justice. Brenden opted for the latest version of the Meta, where his chest attachment was EVA.

I wanted to have more done when I started the thread for this build, but I realized that I'm better at documenting a build when I have a thread to answer to...weird, I know.

So, I have the helmet built so far, but I'm not sure if it will be the one in the final suit. The foam visor will hopefully be replaced by a vacu-formed visor by the time I'm done. ^_^ I did put these first few pics in my helmet thread, but I figured I'd put them here for the sake of keeping it all in one place.







The foam visor was more or less put in there so that I could "see" the finished helmet while working on the suit. Motivation, I guess. The file was the Weta EVA helm by Suzerain unfolded by NoMaybeYes. I had fully intended to make it a scratch build, but the helmet file was rather easy to put together, so I looked around for an H3 chest file to modify for foam. The file I eventually chose to modify was from Robogenesis, and turned out to look pretty achievable once I was done.

So, file modified and ready for foam... on to the torso! Yeah, I'm not 100% sure why I always do the torso and helmet first...



It started looking too big, so I stopped early and started over since this is for my 13-year old son. ^^; I'll be going back to the chest attachment later.





It fits a little loosely still, but it's much better...thinking his undersuit will fill in a good bit. We shall see. Not fond of the way the bicep is drooping either, but I have no attachments rigged yet to keep it in place. I'm hoping to make extra vinyl pieces to add to his undersuit (once I get it...), but I'm anxious to get the suit put together first. The bicep file was also from Robogenesis, but the file for the CQB attachment was labeled with the name Belakor. (I had a template drawn up for it since it's just a simple curved piece, but ultimately just referenced the file to get the shape right.)

Next, I'll be making the EVA shoulder attachment for his right shoulder, and then I'll move down the arms to the forearms. Figure I'll just fly by whatever feels right on the scratch vs. modified file for this go 'round.

Added idea: Brenden agreed that he would buzz his head for the event and apply a temporary tattoo of the Meta symbol. Anyone have any ideas that don't involve sharpies? I've had one suggestion to try henna pens so I'll definitely try that, but I figured I'd ask to see what everyone thought. Okay, it's late and I'm likely not making much sense, so I'm gonna go sleep. ^^; See you guys next time!

This is looking great! I've always thought the Meta was so B.A.!
I think the chest fits pretty good.
I think the buzzed head would add a cool effect to the armor.
I don't know about a tattoo though, that one would be a tuffy.
Good luck though!

Glad someone else besides me is going to be using the file, it looks great! Maybe, if i actually get to it, I can make myself a vac former and send you some visors. Once spring rolls around i'll be able to get back onto the forum considering winter keeps me doing pep, that must be one of the reasons so many people do foam.

Looking great. Can't wait to see the vac visor. I'm just imagining the Meta symbol shaved onto someones's head... That would be too hard though (probably).
Plus that would depend on hair (thickness at bottom if you know what I mean... If I even know what I mean)

Your build looks fantastic! Especially the helmet.

For the temporary tattoo, they make sheets so you can print out your own using something called water slide paper. You can get it at craft stores or online.

Love the progress

hows the visability??

Very nice, loving the way the helmets coming along.

Looking great so far, you have a great talent with foam.
Keep up the awesome work

I love your foam work! You should do a video, I'd love to see the process. As for the tattoo, if you can't get the tatt paper to work on his head I'd recommend body paint

()HaloMaster() said:

This is looking great! I've always thought the Meta was so B.A.!
I think the chest fits pretty good.
I think the buzzed head would add a cool effect to the armor.
I don't know about a tattoo though, that one would be a tuffy.
Good luck though!

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Hey, thanks! I agree; the Meta is prolly my favorite villain from a line-up of many great villains.

NoMaybeYes said:

Glad someone else besides me is going to be using the file, it looks great! Maybe, if i actually get to it, I can make myself a vac former and send you some visors. Once spring rolls around i'll be able to get back onto the forum considering winter keeps me doing pep, that must be one of the reasons so many people do foam.

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Oh, no question that this file is my favorite one to use! I finally bought pepakura designer, so now I can go back and modify the file to foam and load it in here for others. ^_^ Visors for this helmet would be great! I feel rather fortunate to have been able to secure one for this go 'round.

Darman2361 said:

Looking great. Can't wait to see the vac visor. I'm just imagining the Meta symbol shaved onto someones's head... That would be too hard though (probably).
Plus that would depend on hair (thickness at bottom if you know what I mean... If I even know what I mean)

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I am so excited for the visor part of this build. To me, it's one of the most important things to look right! Shaving the symbol into his hair was not something I thought of! He's a platinum blonde, though dying his buzzed 'do would be an option...

tomboy said:

Your build looks fantastic! Especially the helmet.

For the temporary tattoo, they make sheets so you can print out your own using something called water slide paper. You can get it at craft stores or online.

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Thank you! The looks of the helmet in the final build are pretty important to me. I have used those temporary tattoo pages before, but they struck me as more like stickers than temporary tattoos. I may have used them wrong, though. Still, I need to test run every option!

Mstruvmgc said:

Love the progress

hows the visability??

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Thank you, thank you. The visibility is pretty crappy, but I have been able to find the vacu-formed visor I was hoping for! I'll go more into it when it comes in. ^____^

ShockWave said:

Very nice, loving the way the helmets coming along.

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Thanks!

Black Underdog5 said:

Looking great so far, you have a great talent with foam.
Keep up the awesome work

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Aww! I see so many great builds on this site and I always think they're way better than mine is, so that is really appreciated!

Aramoorn said:

I love your foam work! You should do a video, I'd love to see the process. As for the tattoo, if you can't get the tatt paper to work on his head I'd recommend body paint

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Hmm, body paint...I wonder how well it would stand up to the helmet coming off and going on all day. Totally worth a try! Thank you for the kind words! I could certainly try and get my hands on a decent video camera and attempt a video someday. Btw, hooray for costuming mommas!


Wow, I have never gotten such a response before! I dearly hope I don't disappoint anyone by the end of this thing. Chewing my nails a little. Here is a small update!

Alright, so I got the Meta's right shoulder and bicep done, though it's kinda boxy. I'm hoping that aptly placed craft foam will take a lot of the hard edges away in the end.




Somehow, it fits him a little better than the other one does... :-/

Made the forearms with the left forearm file by Robogenesis, after modifying yet again for the foam construction. Again with the sharp edges, I'm hoping craft foam will take the edges away from the places they shouldn't be.




And now the cod:



A pic showing the buckle to get into the thing:


I'm still trying to decide if the size of the cod is proportionate; this will be the second (and a half) that I've built and it looks about right, but fits him a little bit snugly. What do you guys say?
(Don't mind George's pirate wear...he's usually my workroom's stand-in Jack Sparrow.)



That's that so far! I need to fill a couple of orders so that I don't get behind. Because of that, the next update might be a little bit longer than this one was, but I'm building like a mad woman so it shouldn't be too bad. Here's hoping that the next update will include a cool surprise!

Everything is looking good
sorry i dont have any good advice for the cod piece except maybe make him do more cardio
or maybe a thinner undersuit for that part.
Keep up the good work

Mstruvmgc said:

Everything is looking good
sorry i dont have any good advice for the cod piece except maybe make him do more cardio
or maybe a thinner undersuit for that part.
Keep up the good work

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Haha...I had thought about that, gonna have to step up the cardio all around; Spartans don't have back fat! Either way, it should be easily adjustable if it comes down to it.

Well...

The cool surprise I had hoped for will have to come at a later date. :/ Oh well. An update is overdue, so here is what I have added so far!







So, I got the arms detailed and added the chest attachment, so he's starting to look more and more like the big guy. Have a pic of the suit with mine in the background...XD



Lastly, I got the left thigh mostly done, and made the hand plates:



I'm probably going to make the inside part of the thighs out of faux leather like the neck seal, but that's where I've gotten to in between orders. ^__^ I also added those pieces to the top of the shoulders of the torso. Not sure how to secure them, but I'm leaning toward Velcro sheets...what do you guys think?

Next update should have George here wearing something a little more Spartan-like under the armor. ^^; ...I've been too lazy to change him...

Update!

I know, it seems like I disappeared for a while, but I was working behind the scenes here and there while I stayed up with orders (and gameplay...). I got a cool new piece to this build from Jeremy at Armory Props, and I was pretty excited to build a helmet base just for it:



After getting that taken care of, I have finally gotten all pieces of this suit built, but I haven't gotten everything detailed yet. I'm mainly trying to get everything to a point where it fits him well (the torso...), and is all proportionate with everything else before I go too far. So, I need some opinions. :-/

First, I jumped over the shins to the boots:







The piece across the ankle is attached on one side, and will buckle to the other once all is said and done. I'll probably also add some kind of a primary "seatbelt" kinda thing inside the boot to hold things more securely. I did add a couple extra layers for height, and here I am hoping that it looks proportional, and not platform-ish. There will certainly be attention on making the layers less obvious, but they are pretty massive. ^^;

This brings me to the shins (which are definitely massive):



They're pretty big, but they almost look proportional to the whole suit...









So, I'm wondering if I can get by with a little tweaking to this set, or if I should break down and make a whole new set scaled down by like 5-10mm? My main problem is that the fit of the thighs need to be fixed a little (big thighs like me...^^, and I think the cod may need to be altered a bit because both were pretty snug on him. So I'm thinking it's either slightly bigger cod and thighs, or slightly smaller shins... Any ideas?

Pics are looking great
I think the shins look good and you dont really need to change them. As far as the other stuff, you could always just add a little bit to the cod maybe? instead of rebuilding the whole thing

It all looks perfect to me
That visor rocks, looks as though it was a perfect fit too.
Keep up the awesome work

always a joy to see your work Sarlume Looks amazing! I finally got caught up on RvB and he is definitely a cool character thats not done very often

You never fail to amaze me. Seems like foam is your best friend. I wish I could manipulate it at that level.

Awesome work man! I love the meta, and I'm extremely partial to Eva helmets... Except the halo 4 one that looks like an orca or a beluga whale or something. Your foam work is excellent too- I like that you built a foam base to a vacuformed visor- makes me wish I had done that with my long winded Eva build.

First off, I am loving how your Meta Build is turning out.

I am also making The Meta/Maine (season 9 and 10 version), and I am also planning on buying a visor from armory props. I am going to be pinched for time (1 month isn't long in the costuming world I am finding), so I was wondering what scale you set your helmet at so that I can have my helmet ready for the visor the moment it arrives.

That visor's Purtyyy :$