Eclipse Mercenary Foam Build

[GeneticSpartan]

If you saw my EVA foam M-3 Predator pistol thread here, you may already know that I am also working on some EVA foam Eclipse Mercenary armor. Well, I finished the pistol, and have been very busy working on the mercenary suit. I chose to make the Eclipse mercenary from the Mass Effect 2 CGI trailer, which has some subtle differences than the in-game character. Parts of the chest piece made a little more sense in the trailer than in the game, but the whole suit wasn't exactly designed for real life XD. It's a little difficult to move in, and I can forget about crouching or sitting without unbuckling the ab/crotch plate. As of right now, I have all the foam pieces built and sealed using the diluted glue method, and I have a ton of straps, buckles and velcro all over the pace. I am still going to spray it with plasti-dip, and then paint it using spray paint and acrylics. I am also going to be adding in lights for the eyes, which will be powered by a battery pack in the back of my torso piece, and the wires will go through the tubing from the back of the torso to the back of the helmet. And you can see that I am holding the M-3 Predator pistol from my earlier build.

The armor and pistol are being made for a live action Mass Effect fan film called "Mass Effect: Eclipse". You can find the YouTube Channel for the film here, along with the title sequence.

I actually had a working dremel this time around to round out all of the edges of the armor, whereas it took forever to sand my pistol build by hand. The heat gun that I used was pretty small and meant more for crafting, so bending the armor took a little longer to do. I used a wood-burning tool to make all of the indented lines and details in the armor. And, of course, glued everything together using a hot-glue gun.

I think this may be the first build I have seen of this particular armor. I could not find another one online. If someone knows of one, please link me because I would like to see it.

Sorry, these photos may be slightly blurry.

The clothes I am wearing underneath are only temporary for the pictures. I am wearing jeans, so the lower leg pieces do not wrap all the way around my legs enough to close them properly. My undersuit will eventually be black compressor clothing, so every piece should fit me fine.

The helmet is also fully made out of EVA foam.

 

[sandy1973]

Wow that looks really good.

 

[onmi shift]

great job on the helmet. i thought the eclipse were cool in the game. are you going yo make another weapon?

 

[GeneticSpartan]

great job on the helmet. i thought the eclipse were cool in the game. are you going yo make another weapon?

The only weapon needed for the film is the M-3 Predator, so probably not. But there's a chance I'll make another weapon prop for a future film project or something.

 

[onmi shift]

are you going to do the yellow and black paint job with the sun logo?

 

[GeneticSpartan]

are you going to do the yellow and black paint job with the sun logo?

Ya, I actually just finished putting masking tape all over my straps and buckles to begin painting on the plasti-dip, adhesive promoter, and a flat black. Then I'll do all of the color using acrylics, which will be the yellow with black logos, the metal trim, some weathering, and finally the clear coat.

 

[Danjitsu]

Whoa that is extremely sweet. I was thinking of making the Blue Suns (same armor, different color) Merc armor. Did you fashion the pattern for the armor yourself or did you find it somewhere? I'm trying to hammer some out before Dragon*Con to be a disposable badguy in a photoshoot for the face of Samara/Morinth who's going to be there.

 

[GeneticSpartan]

Whoa that is extremely sweet. I was thinking of making the Blue Suns (same armor, different color) Merc armor. Did you fashion the pattern for the armor yourself or did you find it somewhere? I'm trying to hammer some out before Dragon*Con to be a disposable badguy in a photoshoot for the face of Samara/Morinth who's going to be there.

Oh okay, that's cool. I actually drew out all of the templates myself onto poster paper by just looking at screenshots, gameplay, and trailers, and then measuring myself to make a best guess of how each piece should be sized or proportioned. It's quite a difficult armor to work with because the in-game model requires the armor to often bend unrealistically or phase through itself. I do believe you can find a pepakura version of the armor here on 405th somewhere, and you could use that as a template for your foam pieces if that's the material you want to use. I'd probably recommend foam for the armor anyways because it does bend a little.

 

[Danjitsu]

Oh okay, that's cool. I actually drew out all of the templates myself onto poster paper by just looking at screenshots, gameplay, and trailers, and then measuring myself to make a best guess of how each piece should be sized or proportioned. It's quite a difficult armor to work with because the in-game model requires the armor to often bend unrealistically or phase through itself. I do believe you can find a pepakura version of the armor here on 405th somewhere, and you could use that as a template for your foam pieces if that's the material you want to use. I'd probably recommend foam for the armor anyways because it does bend a little.

Yeah I'm definitely doing foam, it's just so much more complicated than the ShepN7 armor that I was hoping for patterns or a pep file (haven't seen any for a while, anywhere, but I might just suck at looking).

And seriously, the Eclipse/Blue Suns armor is way more unrealistic. I've got a rough pattern out now, but I need to actually have smooth lines and scaling, you know, the small, non important details.
You could do me a really big favor though, and take some more pictures of the armor? Not only does it look pretty sweet, it'd probably help me get ideas on how to design my own as well (like how to have close seams where the armor meets).

The reference pictures I'm using come from Troodon80 on deviantArt, which have been both incredibly helpful and incredibly frustrating. They've got a buuuunch of references, from weapons, to armor, to ... well just about anything you can imagine. Pretty comprehensive, actually.

But yeah, if you could take a couple more pictures of your armor (particularly from a top down angle on front and back like the first one on the second row of ref pics) and maybe some of just the armor itself (so I can see strap/connection points) that would be super awesome.

And hey, if you're going to be at Dragon*Con, you're definitely more than welcome to the N7 super shoot we're having (70+ people?) or if you're at any other conventions I'm at, let me know.

And thanks for posting about the armor, pretty inspiring and helping motivate me enough to get this **** done.

 

[Cloviz]

The amazing thing about this is he only has 13 posts and yet his work puts DeVinci to shame! Great job man

 

[Admiral Tiberius]

Awesome work! That is some super clean foam work. Hope to see it painted soon!

 

[briciius]

wow !!it's look so real u_u

awesome

 

[onmi shift]

"I'm commander shepherd and this is my favorite armor on the 405th"

 

[ajfromnj]

Awesome! Cant wait to see this painted!

 

[GeneticSpartan]

Thanks for all the awesome compliments everyone!

I finished the suit, and we have already finished filming for the Mass Effect: Eclipse short film.

CLICK HERE to see some pictures of the painted armor. Don't mind the white socks. I used black socks during filming, don't worry. XP
Also, I actually play two Eclipse mercenaries in the film, so that's why I have two different sets of gloves to help distinguish them.

 

[Admiral Tiberius]

:$
wow! That. Looks. Amazing.
Pure awesomeness.

 

[GeneticSpartan]

Here's a pic of most of the cast and crew.

 

[Spartan 010]

The detail on this build is insane! Great job!!!