**Carpathia's Mk VI Armor: Master Chief Going into Cryostasis!

[Carpathia]

Oh dear. Look what I've gone and done...

Yup, I've finished pepping the torso. Good thing too, I was getting sick of pepping, now I'm finished for this build! I only have to add in the floating face details and this puppy will be ready for the resin brush. I swear that this torso went together with minimal problems, and the symmetry looks pretty dead on to me.

I may or may not get to work on my cod tomorrow, my wife has been looking for a part time job so we can have a bit of extra income, so she's got a job interview tomorrow evening. But the place is just down the street, so she may be back in time for me to throw down some bondo. We'll see.

It's all coming together...

 

[Hyperballistik]

Now that sir is a clean loooking pep'd torso, that is going to make the body work process a breeze, glad to see everything is finally coming together

 

[BLACKULA727]

I agree with Hyper, your pep skillz make me Jelly. Seriously though, I haven't checked this thread for a while and the pieces look fantastic. THis is going to be one nice suit.

Awesome work!

Tony

 

[TheRabbit]

Wow, you cranked out that chest pretty quick, and it looks so good!

 

[Carpathia]

Now that sir is a clean loooking pep'd torso, that is going to make the body work process a breeze, glad to see everything is finally coming together

I agree with Hyper, your pep skillz make me Jelly. Seriously though, I haven't checked this thread for a while and the pieces look fantastic. THis is going to be one nice suit.

Awesome work!

Tony

Thank you both very much. Considering the masterpieces the two of you have created, complements from you are very high praise.

Wow, you cranked out that chest pretty quick, and it looks so good!

Yeah man, it went a lot quicker than I had expected. Thank you!
When I first printed it out, I started looking at some of the pieces and got a little scared, knowing that they were going to require a lot of extra attention. But as I started building, it became clear what kind of extra attention the "trouble" pieces needed and scoring lines where there were no score lines became second nature. I just kept looking at how smooth the model looked, and how nicely shaped the pecs where and decided to keep going. I'm really excited to start resining and glassing this bad boy.

 

[Carpathia]

Boooo, the forums are compromised!!

Yeaaayyyy! I got some work done on my cod tonight!!!

I managed to get the final base of bondo down tonight, as the sun was setting (which explains the crummy quality)...

But the real progress was the separation and reattachment. I separated the back from the belt portion, and reattached like this...

I used pretty much the same method as I did with my boots, the quick release buckle...

I was relieved to see that it fit really well (with about 2cm of extra room)...

This is not all that I need to do to secure it. I still need to adjust the buckle depth so they close nicely, then I need to add in at least one alignment pin on each side. Then I was thinking about attaching the back portion to an eva foam belt, then I can attach the front portion, buckling it in the back and hooking it to the belt. That way, most of the pressure is not on the buckles, but rather in internal hook(s) (I hope that makes sense to everyone, I'll get pictures of it as I work if not). I wish I had gotten an earlier start, I'm pumped to keep going, but there's no light outside and nothing left to pep! I need to run out to get some mat board, so I can't even add in the detail pieces to my torso, so I'm literally stuck here with nothing to do for my build! That just tells me how close I'm getting!

Also, since I haven't mentioned it, I am in NO way finished with the bondo on the cod. I simply stopped early since it got dark out, so the bondo job looks HORRIBLE. So, don't think that that is the final surface of the cod.

Anyway, let me know what you think!!!

 

[Nessy]

I love how many ways people have come up with for strapping the cod together. I don't know exactly what I would do, but I always liked the builds where people hide pockets in the belt. What is your range of motion with this set up?

I had to chuckle when you said how "horrible" your bondo job was. I've seen worse bondo jobs on finished pieces that looked good. I suspect that this is a case of the creator seeing all the faults bigger than they really are. Clearly your suit is destined for the elite section if this is a "horrible bondo job".

Also, do you know what is up with the forums? Should we change our passwords or anything like that?

 

[Carpathia]

Thank you Nessy. I was wracking my brain for weeks trying to figure out a way to split up the cod that would allow me to wear it with no gaps showing. I see a lot of people split their cod at the side pouches and those tend to gap, showing the strapping underneath. I've always disliked that look, it sort of ruins the overall look of the suit. And, yes, I do think my bondo job was terrible (at least the previous run). I mean, take a look at the second picture in my previous post, of the side pouch. There are pits, the fold line/crease is wavy, just awful. And then the third and fourth picture of my previous post, all over the back side, there are pits.

Anyway, I fixed most of that today, and I'm much happier with the outcome. I even bondoed over top of the buckles, helping them to blend in a bit...

Clearly, there are still imperfections, but most of these can be corrected with spot putty. The thing I'm focusing on now are the alignment pins. I was originally going to use some nails, but then I started thinking that eventually, they would rust. So, I started looking around and found a bag of these...

These are shelf pins used to put into the side holes of a book case for the shelves. I had 8 spares of these (just enough for the rest of my build, cod and torso). So, I tacked them into place with some hot glue and built perimeter boxes around them...

Tomorrow, I'll pour in some rondo or straight resin (I haven't decided yet) to secure them into place, put two pieces together and pour some on the other half, creating the holes they will fit into.

This cod's coming along a lot nicer that I had anticipated. I only hope the torso does the same thing.

That's it for tonight. More to come.

Nessy: Changing your password might not be a bad idea. Personally, I'm not since Spase kind of described what this virus was, and it does not seem like it's all that serious, just annoying. It sounds like Spase has things well in hand and is working on getting the site cleaned up.

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Amazing man, i love it. The way you detach the cod piece is pretty good
Yay for being done pepping, it tends to get tedious. lol
But all of your stuff looks top notch good job

 

[Carpathia]

Small update.

I got the alignment pins and hole encased in resin today...

I had a few leaks, but nothing serious. Now all I have to do is clean it all up, get some spot putty on the imperfections and it will be ready for primer. I'm also going to start the foam inner belt soon as well.

Let me know what you think so far!

 

[BloodwolfAC]

DANG! ok so i just watched your vid cause you wanted to show how good elmers glue is, and its great! clean build bro, and whats that tool you used to cut it out? it would go alot faster instead of using scissors. And whats the tool you used for folding?

 

[TheRabbit]

That is a big ol block of resin.

 

[Carpathia]

DANG! ok so i just watched your vid cause you wanted to show how good elmers glue is, and its great! clean build bro, and whats that tool you used to cut it out? it would go alot faster instead of using scissors. And whats the tool you used for folding?

I use an X-acto knife to cut out my peps and to score them for folding. I use a fresh, sharp blade to cut out and an older, dulled blade to score the first few layers of the paper to create a nice fold line.

That is a big ol block of resin.

Later on, it will get a bit smaller, then it will be covered with the foam belt, so you won't even see it anymore. By the way, the cod still fits with a bit of room to spare, even with those big blocks sticking out like that.

 

[XTROOPERJ14]

Wow, to a noob such as myself the amount of skill and ingenuity that is going into this project is simply amazing. I was planning on starting some armor of my own with very little knowledge of how it was going to go on, but now I have been enlightened and your ways looks amazing as well as being super functional.
Thanks for being an inspiration.

 

[Carpathia]

Wow, to a noob such as myself the amount of skill and ingenuity that is going into this project is simply amazing. I was planning on starting some armor of my own with very little knowledge of how it was going to go on, but now I have been enlightened and your ways looks amazing as well as being super functional.
Thanks for being an inspiration.

Thank you for taking the time to tell me. The fact that this build started as a result of inspiration from other builds on this side, and is now inspiring new builds is incredible to see. I just hope that when it's finished, it looks as good as I hope it will and holds up to all the future exposure.

 

[Carpathia]

Just another quick update. I finished up the eva foam belt for my cod piece. I was very please with how well it works. Here are the pics...

Then a few pictures of the belt completely on. Doesn't look much different from the other picture when I was wearing it, but it's far more secure now...

And, then I got to this tonight as well...

So, tomorrow, assuming there is no rain like there was today, I should be able to sand down the putty and get a layer of primer onto the cod piece. I should be able to start putting some resin onto my torso as well.

Just one step closer! Let me know what you think.

 

[Racca]

I just wanted to show everyone the new support structure I developed for crackhead09's MkVI thighs...

If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post the .pdo file for them.

I would like a copy of the .pdo for the braces, battle rifle and the SMGs. I am really liking your build so far and can't wait to see the finished armor.

 

[Carpathia]

I would like a copy of the .pdo for the braces, battle rifle and the SMGs. I am really liking your build so far and can't wait to see the finished armor.

No problem. For anyone else who wants it, here is the file for the thigh supports...

http://www.4shared.com/file/FZyxBeTV/Right_Thigh_Support.html?

Like the cod supports, the bottom can be left as paper, but the two braces inside will need to be transferred to a rigid medium (foam core, bass wood, etc). Also, to get the right scale, use the same measurements as the thigh you're going to build.

The link for the battle rifle is on the first page, post #9, and there is no file for the SMG as it is sort of a scratch build.

Thanks Racca for the praise as well.

 

[Carpathia]

One step closer!

I completed the sanding and got a primer layer AND the silver coat down tonight. I've got to make a paint run tomorrow so I can complete the paint job, but it's almost finished!

I should be able to get started on resining the torso tomorrow as well. The Harbor Freight near where I live has been out of the 1" brushes for the past two weeks. I may have to hit the HF in my old town this weekend. I have a few brushes to last me the week, and possibly enough to finish resining the exterior, but probably not enough to glass it. I'm also working on the details for the back. I've attached the upper details...

I just have to get some more mat board to finish off the lower details...

After that I just have to resin, glass, separate, bondo, reconnect, paint, strap, light, then FINISHED!

 

[Redshirt]

One step closer!

The Harbor Freight near where I live has been out of the 1" brushes for the past two weeks. I may have to hit the HF in my old town this weekend. I have a few brushes to last me the week, and possibly enough to finish resining the exterior, but probably not enough to glass it. I'm also working on the details for the back. I've attached the upper details...

If you are able to use the foam brushes, Michael's has 20 for a buck this week.

Redshirt