First Ever Build - Another Mark V(B) (In Progress)

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Wow, THAT is some well done painting on the prop! And this is your FIRST build?! Wow!
 
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Would I have to worry at all about the hot glue warping/messing up the helmet since it's just printed with PLA? Or do you just use such tiny bits that its no worry?
I use only hot glue to attach my visors into printed helmets. I haven't had any warping issues
 
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Would I have to worry at all about the hot glue warping/messing up the helmet since it's just printed with PLA? Or do you just use such tiny bits that its no worry?

And is it very hard to trim the sheet once it's tacked in place? I feel like I'd struggle to position scissors or a blade to get good cuts.

Sorry to barrage you with questions, I'm really just cluelessly stumbling my way through making this so everything helps
Since the steelstick holds everything in place you shouldn't have to worry. Also you're not using that much hot glue.

I didn't have much issues getting a craft knife in to carve off any bits that were poking me.. but you will want to make sure you have the approximate shape before inserting the visor. I don't think you'll have a good time with scissors.

Hope that helps :)
 
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Trying to keep the momentum going here. Over the weekend I put a vote in the discord on whether people thought it looked better with or without the UA, and with ended up winning by a good margin. I went ahead and glued the mount for it onto the helmet and then went ahead with the wash so I could make sure I reached everything underneath before the UA plate gets put on.

Now that the wash is on, I'm VERY pleased with how it turned out.
I just slathered a ton of it on and let it run into the crevices and sit for a bit to tone down some of the gray.
20230617_215004.jpg

Then I went in and cleaned a bunch of it off and just kinda smeared it around to stain the gray and add some more grime to the whole thing. I didn't want it to be "dirty" but it needed to be way less clean than it was. I'm loving how it looks now. It might not capture super well on camera, or maybe even look all that different without seeing a before-and-after, but it looks so much better now.

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Next on the agenda is mounting the UA plate. But before I do that, I wanted to try and add some more flair to it. I'm going to try and add the white markings that it has on it from the game, as well as probably paint the small square on the mount red as seen here...

1687143552265.png

To start off with this, I went ahead and just eye-balled some masking tape onto the plate and I think I did a pretty okay job at making each side symmetrical. I'll go in and hand-brush on the white into these spots and then maybe do some other wear and tear/scuff marks like in the picture above.

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We are rapidly approaching the finish line!! Thank you everyone for the constant encouragement and compliments :)
The AR is very loved and, until I mount it on a wall, it will be living in luxury at the top of my office shelf right above some familiar faces.
20230618_211801.jpg
 
Trying to keep the momentum going here. Over the weekend I put a vote in the discord on whether people thought it looked better with or without the UA, and with ended up winning by a good margin. I went ahead and glued the mount for it onto the helmet and then went ahead with the wash so I could make sure I reached everything underneath before the UA plate gets put on.

Now that the wash is on, I'm VERY pleased with how it turned out.
I just slathered a ton of it on and let it run into the crevices and sit for a bit to tone down some of the gray.
View attachment 332632
Then I went in and cleaned a bunch of it off and just kinda smeared it around to stain the gray and add some more grime to the whole thing. I didn't want it to be "dirty" but it needed to be way less clean than it was. I'm loving how it looks now. It might not capture super well on camera, or maybe even look all that different without seeing a before-and-after, but it looks so much better now.

View attachment 332633View attachment 332634
Next on the agenda is mounting the UA plate. But before I do that, I wanted to try and add some more flair to it. I'm going to try and add the white markings that it has on it from the game, as well as probably paint the small square on the mount red as seen here...

View attachment 332636
To start off with this, I went ahead and just eye-balled some masking tape onto the plate and I think I did a pretty okay job at making each side symmetrical. I'll go in and hand-brush on the white into these spots and then maybe do some other wear and tear/scuff marks like in the picture above.

View attachment 332638
View attachment 332639
We are rapidly approaching the finish line!! Thank you everyone for the constant encouragement and compliments :)
The AR is very loved and, until I mount it on a wall, it will be living in luxury at the top of my office shelf right above some familiar faces.
View attachment 332640
I love the display!

Also, it's amazing what a small amount of weathering will do to a piece. I'd tend to agree it looks better with the UA. Great stuff
 
Looking fantastic! Really like the UA addition and the weathering work, looks like the live action trailer.
 
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We are on a roll this week, gamers. And we are lookin' GOOD.

I got straight to work on these UA markings. I started off by applying a light gray base coat so that the white would have an easier time building up.
I applied this with a dry brush in a dabbing motion to avoid any brush strokes and to try and give it a slightly worn look (this didn't really work).
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Then I came over the top with the white and did the exact same thing.
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Then we removed the tape! Aaaand....
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Hmm... I ended up a little heavier on the white than I wanted, but we still got it down. To fix this, I went in and did the same dabbing motion onto the white with verrrry small amounts of black to try and dirty it up and maybe give the appearance of some worn paint on the edges.
Then, I hit random edges across the whole thing with a metallic dry brush to give the rest of the plate some wear and tear.
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Sheeeesh, that really ended up working out. Which is good because I totally winged that...
Next, I hit the mounting plate with the little square of red that it has.
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And finally, we toss the UA onto it to see how it all comes together. I honestly couldn't be happier with the result.
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Overall I think it matches the source material pretty well...
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Next up is just hitting everything with some clear coat sprays to protect my hard work, trim the visor to fit/glue it in, and stuff in some padding.
The hard work is all done, and we're like ~95% complete with the helmet.

All I gotta say is thank you to everyone in the discord vote who said yes to adding the UA plate because this thing goes HARD.
I think it really brings this thing all together as a nice cherry on top and I can't imagine not having it anymore. :)

Progress from here on will start really slowing down (as if this was quick) as it requires new stuff to get printed, and I haven't even started on slicing everything up... It seems like a pretty daunting task, but I hope having this finished will motivate me to get the rest done.
 
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Looks awesome ! Just curious though, where did you get the visor from ?
Visor is from IconProps on Etsy. They have a few other colors and a hex pattern one too. I'd like to get a more detailed vacuum-formed one at some point, but the convenience of this one is really nice.
 
Visor is from IconProps on Etsy. They have a few other colors and a hex pattern one too. I'd like to get a more detailed vacuum-formed one at some point, but the convenience of this one is really nice.
Okay cool thanks ! A recommendation though, instead of as vacuum formed visor, a resin visor works a ton better imo, it retains the detail while being pretty durable itself. I'm not quite sure if he is on the 405th or is a member, but dat_boi_builds on insta is open to commissions atm I think. Also if you have a big enough resin printer then you could do it yourself and i could just give you the method. just lmk. :)
 
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Okay cool thanks ! A recommendation though, instead of as vacuum formed visor, a resin visor works a ton better imo, it retains the detail while being pretty durable itself. I'm not quite sure if he is on the 405th or is a member, but dat_boi_builds on insta is open to commissions atm I think. Also if you have a big enough resin printer then you could do it yourself and i could just give you the method. just lmk. :)
I'll look into it! I only have an FDM printer, but my University has a makers space with a resin one that I could maybe use.
 
Man this build is looking really crisp and is a great motivator for myself! I am really looking forward to these updates to see the rest of the armour considering how well the AR and helmet look already. Very well done!
 
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How'd you end up attaching the visor to the helmet?
While I was doing test fits before trimming and gluing, I was using some two-sided gorilla tape that I had laying around. I cut it into strips and just lined the contact points on the inside with it. It worked well enough that I figured I'd roll with it for now, but if it ever starts failing I'll just swap it out with some hot glue.

20230624_150443.jpg
 
While I was doing test fits before trimming and gluing, I was using some two-sided gorilla tape that I had laying around. I cut it into strips and just lined the contact points on the inside with it. It worked well enough that I figured I'd roll with it for now, but if it ever starts failing I'll just swap it out with some hot glue.

View attachment 332908
Sounds like a really solid alternative and maybe easy to swap out if you plan on upgrading/changing the visor later on!
 
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Experienced a big sad today...

I started printing the first piece of my chest armor today and everything was running smooth and it was looking clean. After about 30 minutes I was met with the sound of my printer screaming about a thermal runaway, so I ran over and shut everything down.

After investigating for a while I made a terrible discovery...

Hotbed cable.jpg

Somehow one of the cables leading to my hotbed looks to either have severed itself or shorted and burnt itself off.
Very disappointing, and I've already reached out to support to see where I go from here.

The build will be put on hold for a while :(
 
Experienced a big sad today...

I started printing the first piece of my chest armor today and everything was running smooth and it was looking clean. After about 30 minutes I was met with the sound of my printer screaming about a thermal runaway, so I ran over and shut everything down.

After investigating for a while I made a terrible discovery...

View attachment 335550
Somehow one of the cables leading to my hotbed looks to either have severed itself or shorted and burnt itself off.
Very disappointing, and I've already reached out to support to see where I go from here.

The build will be put on hold for a while :(
That is crazy! You've gifted me a new printer fear.
 
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