Duke's Custom Reach Suit Pep +photos!! *COMPLETE*

[PerniciousDuke]

Yes, vacuum forming.

I can sympathize. We've already broken rain fall records for this year so I am more than pleased to get some sun. Those pictures were actually two different days! There is hope! Don't give up on that giant orange ball, it will make its way to you.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Progress:

Shin is just a tiny bit too big. I'm going to roll with it though. I think I can trim back the thigh and shin to function properly enough.

The good news is that I think I sized the knee well. It was part of the same file, but I scaled the knee separately.

 

[Electraknite]

Beautiful build, thanks for your help in the other thread, how much did you end up scaling up the knee?

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Hey Duke......looks great, although it does look like you are wearing a high-tech cast for a broken leg or something. Love the view from your secondary work location.......although the fire-hydrant did have somewhat of an aesthetic appeal......homeless vagrant type of appeal, but appeal none the less. Please tell me the Orange Crush isn't yours............

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Beautiful build, thanks for your help in the other thread, how much did you end up scaling up the knee?

Thanks, man! Any luck finding the knee file? (With the archive reorganization it might take me awhile to track it down.) With the file that I had I sized the shin to 477mm and then the same file to 630mm to get the appropriate knee size. The way I figured it out was actually by referencing the thigh piece.

Figured out the red line on the thigh should be the same as the red line on the knee. I just kept picking sizes until it was close.

Hey Duke......looks great, although it does look like you are wearing a high-tech cast for a broken leg or something.

Ha, it kinda does with the way I'm propping myself up on the freezer.

Please tell me the Orange Crush isn't yours............

Why, are you trying to take my OC??? No, lol. I just like the nice cardboard carrying case. We use it to hold other bottles. I have a Grape Crush one too.

 

[Electraknite]

I did find it, thanks. I printed it out last night actually to test it. I only scaled it up 10% and it was still too small. I'm not quite as big as you, but ill try 25% bigger. tonight.

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

PerniciousDuke

Spandex type pants hanging low between your legs, making the scaling of the piece difficult to give a honest evaluation.

My honest opinion, the thigh piece looks like it needs to be a little shorter.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

PerniciousDuke

Not sure if it's your spandex type pants hanging low between your legs? (No homo!) My honest opinion, the thigh piece looks like it needs to be a little shorter.

Yes, part of it is that I was not able to get the spandex leg parts up higher. When I actually suit up I will be able to. But also, part of the thigh is going to end up being replaced with flexible plastic wrapped in vinyl so I will be able to correct the height and the shape of the inner thigh area to better suit me. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

Yes, part of it is that I was not able to get the spandex leg parts up higher. When I actually suit up I will be able to. But also, part of the thigh is going to end up being replaced with flexible plastic wrapped in vinyl so I will be able to correct the height and the shape of the inner thigh area to better suit me. Thanks for the feedback!

Your welcome! I figured you would be cutting back some on thigh. Guess will have to see when you get there, to see how it turns out.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

PerniciousDuke

Not sure if it's your spandex type pants hanging low between your legs? My honest opinion, the thigh piece looks like it needs to be a little shorter.

Easy...........be nice.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Easy...........be nice.

Thank you, Dirtdives. I did find the use of the phrase a bit rude. But I didn't feel it was an appropriate time to explain why. SavedbyGraceG12 if you would like to know why dd and I found your comment to be borderline please just ask. I believe the use of that phrase is only acceptable under very specific circumstances.

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

PerniciousDuke

Sorry, didn't mean to offend, or be rude towards anyone. I don't think I've ever made a bad post since I've joined the 405th. Didn't know how to word it in moment, I guess. I edited the comment, forgive me!

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Edited mine as well.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Thanks SavedbyGraceG12 . Since this is your first confrontational comment in all that time I'd imagine you'd what to know what the issue was. Please keep in mind that I am not upset with you. This is merely for information sake.

The term no homo is meant to defend one sexuality, but does it in a way that puts down another. It contains two words, one negative and one that represents a group of people. That's the basis of any hate rally chant. While most of the time people don't mean it that way, you should be aware that people of a different lifestyle might not hear things the same way as you.

That's not to say that the phrase can't be used properly. If you are at a same sex friend's house and they say, you can sleep on the floor or in my bed with me, no homo. That would be very helpful because otherwise that same sentence could be construed as a sexual pass. Your comment could not have been construed sexual for an average person. We make armor that goes on and around our crotches. Generally, there is nothing sexual about that, so no extra comment to defend talking about it is needed.

Thanks for your understanding, man! I hope you, and perhaps others, find the information helpful.

 

[Reclaimara]

I love seeing progress on your build. The helmet is looking great so far.
About the leg pieces... Shin seems fine to me, but your thigh piece looks to big to me. o.o

 

[PerniciousDuke]

I love seeing progress on your build. The helmet is looking great so far.
About the leg pieces... Shin seems fine to me, but your thigh piece looks to big to me. o.o

That's probably because I have big thighs. Lol. I'm glad you've been enjoying it so far! I actually worked a lot on it this weekend and your advice on rondoing the outside is really saving me a lot of work.

Progress:

So, I took a trip to my parents so I could have the room to work on lots of pieces. Up first, fiberglassing the thighs and shin, followed by rondoing inside and out along with my chest and biceps, previously glassed.


As usual I started with the popsicle stick method to keep the items from warping.

I also took the opportunity to fix the shape of the shin. I did not like how they come straight down, so I glued shorter popsicle sticks inside to pull the bottom down into a taper. In the picture, the right shin has the supports and the left has none.

All glassed. Next comes edge clean up before rondo.

Disclaimer, the techniques I'm about to talk about are the most dangerous aspects of this method. Do not attempt without wearing proper respirators. Sanding, cutting, grinding fiberglass sends tiny pieces of glass into the air.

I don't think I've ever explained what I do between fiberglassing and rondoing the inside. Well if you suck at fiberglassing like I do then afterwards you are left with a resin jungle like this.

Not only do they poke you, but it takes a lot of rondo to cover it all. So instead I cut and grind them out with a Dremel. There are also "air bubbles" in the fiberglass that I grind out. The bubbles offer no support to the outside wall. Grinding out the bubble with allow rondoing to enter in and create a much stronger wall.
Here it is after grinding away.

These are the attachments I use for the Dremel, from left to right: reinforced cut off wheel, green silicone carbide grinding stone (hard), pink alumina oxide grinding stone (soft), sanding drum with 60grit sanding roll. I mostly use the first two.

I put in 15 hours this weekend and this is all I have to show for it! I'm still happy though. Just that much closer to owning my very own handcrafted armor.

 

[Reclaimara]

Oh, I didn't mean you have big thighs! I meant it rather that the thigh piece might be too long! O_O As I can hardly imagine you moving like walking... not to mention even sitting or such..

And your fiberglassing seems to be good!
It's better than mine! My chest piece looked... well, still looks... terrible! XD
But, forgive me, I'm happy to hear I'm not the only person finding it bit hard... o.o

And I'm terrified now because of you... I'll be resining and fiberglassing tomorrow... ._.

By the way, did you spray with primer on the last photo? Because it looks gray so suddenly... o.o

 

[PerniciousDuke]

CommanderPalmer - lol. I know you didn't mean it that way, but it's the truth! I'm a bit short too and since you can't edit only one dimension in pepakura I was stuck with a slightly too long thigh piece. But, you'll notice in the last picture, bottom left, that I cut away most of the thigh piece. It will be replaced with vinyl so that I can move easier and I'll make adjustments for the size then too.

No, no primer, just 50/50 rondo. My bondo has a blue hardener so it comes out light blue /grey.

You've fiberglassed before right? Or is yours all rondo?

 

[Reclaimara]

If I may suggest, only if you want to redo the piece... I had the same problem - I'm quite short too and I was left either with bit too tight or too big thigh piece. What I did for myself, I scaled it so that it would fit my thigh length-wise and then I just added more cardstock inbetween on the inside to make it wider and to fit properly...

And I totally understand the issue with Bungie models as they always did bit wrong anatomy and such... while 343i makes legs impossibly long and thin... XD Come on, we are just normal people, not your perfect 3d models...


If it helps, here is a photo of how I widened my thighs. Scaled for length and here you can see in the inner thigh a piece of cardstock that pattern-wise doesn't fit with the rest of the thigh. You can even see the red markings on it as it was a misprint for markings...

It was around an inch, or maybe more, so I have more space than I need so I can sit, crouch without putting any stress to the piece... turned out I can even do the Halo 4 MC cover pose.

But without modding it so - I had the same problem as you have - either it's too small, or too long... and I totally don't mean to offend or anything, just a suggestion, in any case.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

"Quite short....?" That's putting it mildly.......CP you are a munchkin......