First Build - Gen 3 Mark VI Inspired Armor; Scaling opinions?

[bearbot]

Very new here but I've been lurking for a while desperate to do my own Donut from Red vs. Blue-inspired build. I just received a 3D printer as a gift over the holidays and have been anxious to start printing since finding Moesizzlac's files on Thingiverse. I'm on a relatively tight budget so I was stoked to find free files with so much effort and attention put into them, so a huge shout out to him and all other creators in the forums who have shared so much of their talent.

After receiving my last paycheck, I went ahead and downloaded Armorsmith because I figured it would pay for itself in saved hours and misprints (as I'm definitely not numbers-savvy). I've been playing around with it for a handful of hours and find myself obsessing a bit over the scaling and how it's all coming together.

I wanted to post the screenshots of my current progress to see if anything stood out immediately as disproportionate before I finalize it and start slicing. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Looking forward to starting this journey with you all!

 

[SigmaProps]

Welcome to the 405th! Your scaling looks awesome, though the forearms might be a tad short, can't wait to see this build progress!

 

[SgtSaint]

I'd suggest you scale multi-part pieces together. You're going to want mating parts to match all your distortions or they may not fit together correctly. It looks like you've left out forearm insert, chest buckles and so on.

 

[bearbot]

Welcome to the 405th! Your scaling looks awesome, though the forearms might be a tad short, can't wait to see this build progress!

Thanks so much! I spent a lot of time using reference photos and rearranging so I'm glad it's pretty much there. I'll play around with the forearms a bit and see what I can do and will post updates as soon as I can!

 

[bearbot]

I'd suggest you scale multi-part pieces together. You're going to want mating parts to match all your distortions or they may not fit together correctly. It looks like you've left out forearm insert, chest buckles and so on.
View attachment 356035

Great piece of advice, thank you! At this point in the process I got a tiny bit lazy and was going to just scale them to the same values as their respective pieces, but I will definitely throw them back into Armorsmith and play around a bit to make sure all is in order!

 

[SigmaProps]

Great piece of advice, thank you! At this point in the process I got a tiny bit lazy and was going to just scale them to the same values as their respective pieces, but I will definitely throw them back into Armorsmith and play around a bit to make sure all is in order!

Unless you plan on exporting the scaled models out of Armorsmith I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure the greeblies are scaled to the same size as the other parts!

 

[bearbot]

Unless you plan on exporting the scaled models out of Armorsmith I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure the greeblies are scaled to the same size as the other parts!

Will do! Stoked to wrap up scaling.

 

[Hyprfixate]

I’m a little late to this party so hopefully you got it figured out and started! But in case you’re still looking for tips - I’m relatively knew still but working on wrapping up my chief build. Armorsmith was tremendously helpful, despite all the bugs and quirks. Galactic Armory is actually developing something similar bc Armorsmith apparently stopped getting updated a while back.

Anyway, looks good overall. I basically mimic the stuff that’s been said about the forearms, uploading the parts put together rather than piecing it together later, etc. couple things I’ll add is pay close attention to the space behind your knee and how they move together if you want to be able to walk up and down stairs or bend at all.

Next thing is more my personal preference, but it seemed to help me a lot once I learned I could do it after watching a FranklyBilt YouTuber video on armorsmith. I recommend changing the color of your armor pieces and then messing with the opacity to see how it’s sitting on you. The contrast makes it easier to see where changes need to be made.

Good luck man! I look forward to seeing the progress!

 

[bearbot]

I’m a little late to this party so hopefully you got it figured out and started! But in case you’re still looking for tips - I’m relatively knew still but working on wrapping up my chief build. Armorsmith was tremendously helpful, despite all the bugs and quirks. Galactic Armory is actually developing something similar bc Armorsmith apparently stopped getting updated a while back.

Anyway, looks good overall. I basically mimic the stuff that’s been said about the forearms, uploading the parts put together rather than piecing it together later, etc. couple things I’ll add is pay close attention to the space behind your knee and how they move together if you want to be able to walk up and down stairs or bend at all. View attachment 358661

Next thing is more my personal preference, but it seemed to help me a lot once I learned I could do it after watching a FranklyBilt YouTuber video on armorsmith. I recommend changing the color of your armor pieces and then messing with the opacity to see how it’s sitting on you. The contrast makes it easier to see where changes need to be made.
View attachment 358662

Good luck man! I look forward to seeing the progress!

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply! I've already made the changes to the forearms and smaller bits. The thigh/knee area has actually been bothering me so I'm glad you mentioned it. I left a lot of pieces a similar scale to the original model, which was meant for someone a bit taller and slimmer than me. Because of that, a lot of the pieces still fit well with length being the primary issue. The thighs were a huge challenge to scale and I'm still really iffy about them. I was thinking of maybe just shortening them so I'll probably go ahead and play around with them a bit more. Aside from the thighs, the chest is the only other thing making me really nervous. These are all great tips, thank you! Good luck with wrapping up your build!

 

[FuzzytheWolf]

Can't wait to see the journey of you making this, Donut was such a fun character ^^ I'm basically in a smiliar boat; this'll be my first time making armour, as well getting into 3D printing. Something I started doing is making sizing rings and printing those. I just make them in my slicer by cutting a little section out. Armorsmith is great for sizing up, then the sizing ring just helps me double check it physically without printing an entire piece.

 

[Hyprfixate]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply! I've already made the changes to the forearms and smaller bits. The thigh/knee area has actually been bothering me so I'm glad you mentioned it. I left a lot of pieces a similar scale to the original model, which was meant for someone a bit taller and slimmer than me. Because of that, a lot of the pieces still fit well with length being the primary issue. The thighs were a huge challenge to scale and I'm still really iffy about them. I was thinking of maybe just shortening them so I'll probably go ahead and play around with them a bit more. Aside from the thighs, the chest is the only other thing making me really nervous. These are all great tips, thank you! Good luck with wrapping up your build!

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it! Armorsmith definitely has a learning curve. I actually just finished reprinting my thighs and calves, this would be my 3rd full attempt to get it right lol. It wasn’t bad, just pinched my thigh between the cod and thigh and also that part i circled behind the knee made it so I couldn’t sit down or walk up stairs. So this time I shortened the thighs a little as a whole. Then did the free form mode and shortened the inside even more. I used free form to shorten the top rear of the calf to so I have more room to bend. Lmk if you have any questions or anything. I have a full thread on my build to this point. It’s a little chaotic bc I am learning as I go, but I cover a lot of the mistakes I made- linked below

Link to my thread

 

[bearbot]

Can't wait to see the journey of you making this, Donut was such a fun character ^^ I'm basically in a smiliar boat; this'll be my first time making armour, as well getting into 3D printing. Something I started doing is making sizing rings and printing those. I just make them in my slicer by cutting a little section out. Armorsmith is great for sizing up, then the sizing ring just helps me double check it physically without printing an entire piece.

View attachment 358719View attachment 358720

Hell yeah! We're on this journey together. And so happy to see so much Donut appreciation. Just before seeing this reply I actually printed a sizing ring for my first forearm piece! It came out a bit large so I'm deciding whether I'd like to reprint for a more snug fit or just pad it out to keep the whole build more proportionate. Such a good piece of advice, thank you so much for sharing. And good luck with your build!

 

[bearbot]

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it! Armorsmith definitely has a learning curve. I actually just finished reprinting my thighs and calves, this would be my 3rd full attempt to get it right lol. It wasn’t bad, just pinched my thigh between the cod and thigh and also that part i circled behind the knee made it so I couldn’t sit down or walk up stairs. So this time I shortened the thighs a little as a whole. Then did the free form mode and shortened the inside even more. I used free form to shorten the top rear of the calf to so I have more room to bend. Lmk if you have any questions or anything. I have a full thread on my build to this point. It’s a little chaotic bc I am learning as I go, but I cover a lot of the mistakes I made- linked below

Link to my thread

The scaling was driving me nuts so I appreciate hearing that you've embraced the trial and error process. Gives me some hope LOL. I actually scrolled through your thread a while back! The way you approached the build is very similar to how I take on projects so it helped to give me the confidence to get started. Good luck reworking the thighs! I look forward to following your progress!