Re: Duke's Custom Reach Suit with Bruteshot (with Step by Step) +photos!!
Congrats to the Grads! That was me 10 months ago
Only I didnt have an older brother to make an awesome cupcake stand like that.
Or cupcakes at all.
All right, enough with my pity party
A few heads up as I used what seems to be a bunch of the files you are about to use.
Note: This entire rave was based on my own experience, and not to critic your own ideas/ ways of working or scaling.
Its just purely me, saying how I did stuff.
I realize I am preaching to choir here, but just bear with me (or ignore the who darn thing xD)
First off, torso. This was a true pain scaling. I had nightmares almost all the time with visions of it being to big/small for me. Luckily that did not happen.
I pretty much just took a yard stick and measured across my shoulders, armpits, and torso about where the chest piece would end. I then pulled up some straight-on shots of the reach armor. Then, I eyeballed the picture to see how far the armor went between the top of the shoulder/neck, and used that as my main way of scaling; The chest piece seems to end just before the shoulder ends, perhaps an in or two away.
Idk, worked for me. I just eyeballed and got lucky :wacko Would not recomend, but hope it helps.
JUST BE SURE IT IS BIG ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY FIT YOU! MIGHT AS WELL ERROR ON IT BEING A TAD BIGGER THEN TOO SMALL.
Works both ways, as you never know when that diet is gonna end....
Or when muscles pop out of nowhere
If anything, a slightly larger torso makes you look more 'big and manely', completing the cartoon upside down 'triangle' of strength with large bicepts and pex
Seriously, look at superman. His torso is based off an upside down triangle!
Anyway Torso, measure top of shoulders and eyeball, then scale apropreatly. Also check the neck hole size! (But remember that some of the neck hole will not end as paper, but likely foam)
Helmet scaling.
Really, just find the thinnest part of the helmet (usually the inside of the ends of the visor area, which would sit right by your temples, or over your ears) And make sure that the distance between those two points gives comfortable room for your head to slide up into. Too small, and your ears wont fit in the visor area. Too big, and you look like a bobblehead, and your helmet droops forward.
It sounds complicated, but I can post pics of what I mean upon request!
Be sure to scale a few mm larger though, or head growing room, or more likely, foam padding!
Also make sure you know where a potential fan would go....
Bicept pieces are easy. Just scale the inside width of the larger side/opening to the largest part of your arm near your shoulder. Its a bit of luck, but it worked for me! THey will never be too long as they are naturally a very short piece. But just be aware that the bigger it is, the more it will restrict your movement when worn with the chest piece; crossing arms/reaching to your other arm becomes much more difficult. Might as well not make it worse with a bicept that is too big.
Forearm pieces are about the same. But this time scale it so that the inside edge of the smallest opening (towards the hand) will be able to fit a balled up fist through without bending the opening wider.
Nothing could be worse then building the forearm, then realizing you cant get your darn hand through xD
measure long-wise from inside edge to inside edge, then measure the width of your fist (or the width of the widest part of your hand, excluding your thumb as you can always curl that underneath the rest of your hand) and add a centimeter or so for just-in-case-ness!
That should also give you the scale you desire! Also now would be a great time to start thinking about arm mobility. The neighboring edges of your lower bicept piece and upper forearm piece will no doubt come in contact with eachother when you bend your arm inward. Think about that!
A quick side note:
I would scale the ODST shoulder armor a tad bigger then shown in that picture. It helps give the appearance of a buffy shoulder shield, while also emphasizing that upside-down-triangle-of-manly-muscle-ness. I can show you to what scale I sized my ODST shoulder too and how it compares with my own shoulder if you like! (Vanity is a good help with this one as well!) Just remember- Smaller shoulders makes you look slightly scrawny. Great for a fast-darting-conealable-scout/spy look. Bad for a big bad Spartan made of titanium and ceramic bones. (and a bit of fiberglass
)
Also not how in your Vanity picture, the lower half of the ODST almost spans the height of the Bicept piece. IMO your ODST shoulder as largely off scale and needs to be bigger.
But that is just my opinion
Beware the Codpiece! Idk how to scale the thing, and I still dont know how too. I guestimated the widest part of my hips and added a few cm, though mine came out a bit to small, so I cut some parts and added a bit of tape to make it longer for now.
#LAZE
Thighs. If you have time, I recommend building the entire model and resining that, unlike how I only build the armor part, planning on doing that inner thigh 'black' part in foam, mostly for comfort around 'there' and some fexiblity/mobility.
Shins. I would dare to say its the same scaling concept as the forearms, but I went the height-wise scaling.
Build em after your thighs, and make sure they go from a bit higher to your ankle, to a good coverage around your knee.
ALSO BE SURE TO MEASURE THE BACK PART OF THE SHIN AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF HEIGHT SPACE BETWEEN YOUR FRONT ANKLE AND BACK OF YOUR KNEE! Failure to follow this simple step could result in a piece whos height makes it impossible/uncomfortable to bend your knee back as the back-top ridge of the shin digs up into your knee joint from the back of the leg. The resulting push-down of the too-tall shin from the back-knee joint will push the front-bottom of the shin down into the top of your foot/ankle joint, or top part of the boot. Not good!
Again, if it aint making sense, just ask for pictures!
A note on the shins file.
If you are using the same file as I did (from the pic it looked like you where. Its the one with the included FJ/Para knee) If you are using that FJ/Para knee, be sure to make a separate copy of the same file and scale the knee piece up larger.
In the file it seems much too small in comparison with the shin part. Even a quick look at Vanity will tell you that!.
Also the top piece of the front shin (bottom part of the FJ-Para knee) Has an open edge between it and the top part of the actual shin. You will have too custom build that small part as I did.(if your using the FJ/Para knees once again)
Boots. Scaling almost the same as the helmet. I assume you will wear them over some actual footwear?
Measure the widest part of the footwear you will have underneath the armor boot, then measure the front tips of the rear part of the armor boot. (the one that is neither the toe nor the ankle guard)
Make sure they are wide enough, and scale appropriately.
Like the shin, I found that the toe piece seemed a bit large in comparison to the main boot/heel part. so you might want to scale the toe down just a few cm in width.
But honestly, for my boots, after I built them slightly big, I just but the back of the heel part and glued it back together within itself to make that part shorter (skinnier around the ankle) And did the same with the top part of the toe, to reduce some of the width.
It worked fairly well, so I did not have to rebuild anything!
Again, pics happily provided if necessary!
Handplates seem like a pain to build, so I am waiting until my paintball gloves come in to make sure they are scaled to the correct width.
And that is all of my rant
Most of this stuff you already know though, as it seems you have done your research quite thouroughly. Just thought I would pitch in from my own experiences.
Questions comments concerns always accepted! And pics always ready to be provided.
Enjoy and best of luck. Will definitely be watching!
-C.R
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Now gimme cupcake :devil
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