Calladar's Kat WIP

[calladar]

Calladar's Kat WIP (Going Foam)

Ok so I started on a Kat build for my wife. I am using Nat's kat helmet and going to work my way down from there. Unfortunately the weather has finally turned nice and cold around here so the progress is slow going. though i am making this for the wife, she has forbade me from doing much in the house.. "that's what you have your shop for." so needless to say it is going to go slow cause i am not too fond of working in the cold. So this will be a slowly updated WIP and i apologize in advance.

I do intend to try the foam armor way of making the body. This may be interesting. just figured out the pepakura way and now going to try and figure out the foam..

I do have the helmet peped and resin-ed it today. with the cold the cure rate is going to take some time before i move any further.

I did have a few places on the pep that i messed up on but i can fix that later with bondo and some work. only issue is now i am afraid it may have ended up too small and having sizing conserns. will find out in a few days once the resin has cured enough to throw it at the wife and tell her to try and get it on over the mellon. for now here are some pics.

 

[calladar]

 

[TD2253]

Nice looking helmet so far! I'm sure your wife will be pleased with her Kat armor when it's finished.

 

[vshore100]

Yeah, judging by the "purple tiger" you put out recently I think she should be quite pleased with her suit, even if this will be your first foam build. I got faith in ya.

 

[firevoid]

these look amazing. keep up the good work dude.

 

[n1njqch1cken]

good job! have you thought of using foam for the rest of the build? it is hard to foam build a helmet, so your lucky thats done, but the rest of the suit should be super easy made of foam and flexable (oooo, ahhhhh...)

 

[TheBradinator]

Nice pepping! its lookin great so far! And YES!! Do the Foam monk1junk1 just sudgested! it has worked GREAT for me!

 

[kenster1000]

Great pep job so far. Looks like your off to a good start. Keep up the great work and gool luck on your build.

Andrew:

 

[calladar]

good job! have you thought of using foam for the rest of the build? it is hard to foam build a helmet, so your lucky thats done, but the rest of the suit should be super easy made of foam and flexable (oooo, ahhhhh...)

foam is my intentions for the rest of the build. but I now have to say...

ARRRRRGGGGG!!!!!! SIZED THE FREAKIN' HELMET TOO SMALL!!!!

was close with the size but just a little too small. wife could get it on her head but was tight enough that there was almost no room for anything else. starting over with the helmet and added a inch to it so it should have a little wiggle room.

thanks for all the support.

i have been watching all the foam builds and i do intend to try the rest in foam. was going to make the helmet peped and then foam the rest. never done it before so will be learning along the way

 

[n1njqch1cken]

omg, i hate when i make stuff to small, i have a melt down and think to myself "but this one looks so awesome ~ !!!!" i dont like it either when i find out i made the wrong model: two left arms, two right arms, too low def, disproportionate, i don't even need this piece lolwut???

but now i'm pretty organised: i keep a folder for each of my builds, one on the laptop broken up into helmet, plates and limbs sections and one in real life which has each pep file in a different plastic sleeve, with the naming sheet on the front. btw i'm glad your using foam i like the idea of foam, and i like giving people good ideas, so the two marry up nice .

 

[calladar]

Ok have the helmet remade. and it fits lol. i got my foam Mats in today and while the helmet is hardening (stinking cold weather, takes forever) i am going to start playing with making the foam armor. still trying to wrap my feeble little mind around it. think i have the concept though. i have made some scratch stuff out of foam poster board and has some decent success. thinking of using the pep files as a basic template and expand on it. have some pics up before long (i hope) christmas stuff to do and all.

 

[calladar]

I now have 2 Kat helmets made.. going to finish both so my daughter can have one. i am at the waiting stage for the foam to arrive in the mail. still studying how i am going to do this.. while i was waiting for my foam to arrive i decided to start on the next one.

I have decided to make a carter kit for me. so i am going to be doing 2 at once. i guess i am glutton for punishment.

here are pics of the carter helmet.

going to need some cleaning up. but it is a start.. hopefully my foam shows up soon or else i am moving onto another helmet.. the cold is still playing havoc with my cure times and it is taking forever..

 

[calladar]

my edit isn't working for some reason. sorrry for the repost.

Anyway started playing with the foam techniqe.. going to be a little of a learning curve. just when i was feeling good about the pep stuff.. was not really happy with my first attempt. so i scrapped that and started over. would throw up some pics but.... i am going to try and re-unfold the pep file for a more manageable file for foam. did not like the way the first one went using the standard unfold. hope to have some pics up tonight of the do over.

 

[rumble]

Cool. Mind if I ask what size you ended up going with for the Kat helm? I have a niggling feeling that mine's going to end up a bit small -.-.

 

[calladar]

Cool. Mind if I ask what size you ended up going with for the Kat helm? I have a niggling feeling that mine's going to end up a bit small -.-.

yea my first one was way too small. here are the sizes i used this go around and it fit with some trimming around the neck area.

H: 284
W: 251
D: 347

Scale: 12.400392

Good luck.. still fighting with the foam,. it's winning.. pics soon

 

[calladar]

ok... still trying to figure out this foam stuff. a little harder than i thought it was going to be but i am starting to get the hang of it i have been working on the chest piece and here is where i am so far.

trying to get the top of the shoulders straightened out. the foam is not working the way i want it to. going back at it. see how it ends up.

sorry for quality of pics. wife has the camera and i used the cell phone (which sucks) next ones will be with a real camera.

 

[calladar]

Ok.. got the chest piece pretty much done.. still have to figure out how i am going to fill in the seams. i want to be able to smooth it all the way out.. no seams. if anyone has tried anything that works well let me know. guess it is time to experiment again. here are pics of the chest. still have some small clean up to do and add a little detail work.

 

[vshore100]

That is looking great man. The bradinator (I believe it was him) used hot glue to fill in the seams and then plasti dipped over the whole thing. He said the seams were almost invisible. You might give that a try. Keep up the great work!

 

[calladar]

The bradinator (I believe it was him) used hot glue to fill in the seams and then plasti dipped over the whole thing. He said the seams were almost invisible. You might give that a try. Keep up the great work!

i saw that when i was looking around to see what others had done. I was thinking of experimenting with that, i also found some flexible spot putty and some flexible primer i was going to order after Christmas to try and see how well the combination worked.. this is what i was looking at trying out:

once i try it out i will let you know and post pics of how it went.

 

[calladar]

Starting to get the hang of the foam stuff. Have some cleaning up to do in places and still waiting on the putty and the primer to show up. so while i wait i am still working on Kassie's suit. I am having trouble with sizing and have just about made 2 of everything i have started to get it the right size. starting to get frustrating. figured out if i think i have the right size add about 1 1/2" and then it will be right. go figure. have the forearm of the robot arm foamed out and waiting on the putty and stuff. moving on to the shoulder. have not found a pep file for the robot arm shoulder that i like so i am going to scratch build it out of foam and see if i can get the wife to sit still long enough for me to get some measurements. here are some pics of the robot arm so far.