Invidiax4fan
Member
- Member DIN
- S935
phenomenal job! That looks insane.
- Member DIN
- S111
The Helmet
Even after doing this stuff for 20 years, you can still fall into the same traps, which in this case was being impatient and going against my better judgement. See, excited by the progress on the armor, I had really wanted to wear the full kit to OhayoCon, as I knew that would be one of my only opportunities to wear it for a while. I normally would have ended up buying one of the several resin casts available in the community, but with the time crunch and the weather in the MidWest not being conducive to painting in December, I looked into other options.
There was a shop that specialized at the time in Foam helmets and advertised relatively frequently in the various Facebook Groups, and had decent reviews, including several that mentioned items shipping early, and the helmets came finished. With the outside of the quoted shipping window in the sales post being the same week as OhayoCon, I went ahead and ordered one. Going for the black and tan paint scheme I had in mind, I also requested a plain black helmet, no secondary colors, in the hope that might expedite the process.
It did not.
The initial quoted shipping window came and went, as did the con I intended to wear it at. Eventually the seller updated with a new shipping window of 20 days due to backlog. That came and went as well. Finally I asked for a new update and was promised it would go in the mail the next day. The next day a shipping label was generated, but, the helmet was not actually dropped off to the Post Office and actually shipped out for another week. This is a common tactic among some less than stand up sellers. By generating and printing the label, many online retail sites Mark the item as "shipped," which buys a seller some more time, like in this case, with the buyer unable to really escalate the issue as the site considers the item as shipped out and out of the seller's hands and now an issue with the Post Office.
Helmet finally in hand, it's not bad. I've only worked with EVA Foam a few times, and never for a helmet, so, I can definitely appreciate the craftsmanship involved. There are a few spots where the cuts seem a little rough or jagged, like you get with a dulled blade, but, overall the quality seems decent. I don't know if I would recommend this shop when other Resin cast ODST helmets are out there, and if I had not been swept up in the con crunch I would normally have gone with, but I have it and I'll make it work.
I started painting over the weekend. The color scheme is, as mentioned, Rottweiler inspired. So, I have attempted to emulate the placement to the tan to roughly where it would be on a dog. Mainly, the lower jaw, and the ears, and the brow. I am undecided on the jaw paint, if I want to leave it as is, or extend it up and just leave the "nose" black.
Most depictions of ODSTs tend to have them as a gun metal gray with a matte black framing the visor. Since my primary color for this build is matte black, I decided to invert that and have the visor framed by a gunmetal gray. I thought this might also help the visor stand out against the rest of the helmet and not just be muddled into it.
On the back of the helmet the shop had place a rather large logo etched into the Foam, which was not visible in the example photos in the listing. Not really feeling like being a walking billboard for a shop I wasn't a 100% on recommending, I just slapped a piece of cloth tape over it on which I place a small tribute to Gozer. Since she was a purebred Rottie, she had to registered with the AKC, and if you have ever watched a Dog Show, you know those AKC names can be long and ridiculous. So, when she was registered, my wife gave her the full formal AKC name of "Raptor Squad Alpha's Gozer the Gozerian." So, on the back of my bucket is a little "Raptor Sqaud Alpha" tag.
I also placed a spare name tag MrJamin sent with the other decals he cut for my chest plate.
I also am going to be further weathering the helmet. As it came, the silver weathering is a bit clunky, as you can see in these shots. I am hoping to tone it done while adding some further dirt and grime to the helmet.
Even after doing this stuff for 20 years, you can still fall into the same traps, which in this case was being impatient and going against my better judgement. See, excited by the progress on the armor, I had really wanted to wear the full kit to OhayoCon, as I knew that would be one of my only opportunities to wear it for a while. I normally would have ended up buying one of the several resin casts available in the community, but with the time crunch and the weather in the MidWest not being conducive to painting in December, I looked into other options.
There was a shop that specialized at the time in Foam helmets and advertised relatively frequently in the various Facebook Groups, and had decent reviews, including several that mentioned items shipping early, and the helmets came finished. With the outside of the quoted shipping window in the sales post being the same week as OhayoCon, I went ahead and ordered one. Going for the black and tan paint scheme I had in mind, I also requested a plain black helmet, no secondary colors, in the hope that might expedite the process.
It did not.
The initial quoted shipping window came and went, as did the con I intended to wear it at. Eventually the seller updated with a new shipping window of 20 days due to backlog. That came and went as well. Finally I asked for a new update and was promised it would go in the mail the next day. The next day a shipping label was generated, but, the helmet was not actually dropped off to the Post Office and actually shipped out for another week. This is a common tactic among some less than stand up sellers. By generating and printing the label, many online retail sites Mark the item as "shipped," which buys a seller some more time, like in this case, with the buyer unable to really escalate the issue as the site considers the item as shipped out and out of the seller's hands and now an issue with the Post Office.
Helmet finally in hand, it's not bad. I've only worked with EVA Foam a few times, and never for a helmet, so, I can definitely appreciate the craftsmanship involved. There are a few spots where the cuts seem a little rough or jagged, like you get with a dulled blade, but, overall the quality seems decent. I don't know if I would recommend this shop when other Resin cast ODST helmets are out there, and if I had not been swept up in the con crunch I would normally have gone with, but I have it and I'll make it work.
I started painting over the weekend. The color scheme is, as mentioned, Rottweiler inspired. So, I have attempted to emulate the placement to the tan to roughly where it would be on a dog. Mainly, the lower jaw, and the ears, and the brow. I am undecided on the jaw paint, if I want to leave it as is, or extend it up and just leave the "nose" black.
Most depictions of ODSTs tend to have them as a gun metal gray with a matte black framing the visor. Since my primary color for this build is matte black, I decided to invert that and have the visor framed by a gunmetal gray. I thought this might also help the visor stand out against the rest of the helmet and not just be muddled into it.
On the back of the helmet the shop had place a rather large logo etched into the Foam, which was not visible in the example photos in the listing. Not really feeling like being a walking billboard for a shop I wasn't a 100% on recommending, I just slapped a piece of cloth tape over it on which I place a small tribute to Gozer. Since she was a purebred Rottie, she had to registered with the AKC, and if you have ever watched a Dog Show, you know those AKC names can be long and ridiculous. So, when she was registered, my wife gave her the full formal AKC name of "Raptor Squad Alpha's Gozer the Gozerian." So, on the back of my bucket is a little "Raptor Sqaud Alpha" tag.
I also placed a spare name tag MrJamin sent with the other decals he cut for my chest plate.
I also am going to be further weathering the helmet. As it came, the silver weathering is a bit clunky, as you can see in these shots. I am hoping to tone it done while adding some further dirt and grime to the helmet.
N8TEBB
Sr Member
- Member DIN
- S410
Bruh that's a little funky. Late shipping, bogus shipping labels, and logos not seen in the listing? Don't know why people think this is an acceptable way to do business. Bummer you couldn't get the helmet in time.
Pffff there's no such thing as bad weather! Grab some extension cords and space heaters and warm that garage up, or paint inside! Just be sure to do it when there's nobody in the house so you don't get complaints about fumes.... /s
- Member DIN
- S111
Full suit up test fit with the helmet.
Still need to weather everything a bit more.
The other upgrades I want to do are to make the inner thigh ribbing out of leather and I still need to figure out and better situate the shins. I'm not sure if it is just the way the previous owner trimmed them or what but I am still having a but of a time getting them to sit satisfactorily.
Still need to weather everything a bit more.
The other upgrades I want to do are to make the inner thigh ribbing out of leather and I still need to figure out and better situate the shins. I'm not sure if it is just the way the previous owner trimmed them or what but I am still having a but of a time getting them to sit satisfactorily.
- Member DIN
- S970
Looking good! I can't wait to see what it looks like with more weathering!
- Member DIN
- S111
Worked on upgrading the thighs this weekend. I wanted to add the inner thigh ribbing, and decided to go all out and do it out of leather for the durability. I got a 3oz double shoulder on sale at my local Tandy Leather. I used my Clonetrooper armor thighs as a template, and did the duct tape dummy method on them. Wrapped them in cling wrap, then masking tape. I then put my Sean Bradly thighs on top of them, held it in place with some clamps, then patterned out what I would need to pull off the ribbing.
In order to pull what I had in mind, I would need two layers, a base layer, then the top layer of the ribbing material, this is because if you look at the in game ODSTs, the ribs have little notches in them at the front and back where they don't fill in the space completely. So, I took my pattern, cut out the base shapes, then cut the pattern up to get the individual ribs. Once I had them, I glued the pieces down with barge leather cement.
Up next will be dying them black.
In order to pull what I had in mind, I would need two layers, a base layer, then the top layer of the ribbing material, this is because if you look at the in game ODSTs, the ribs have little notches in them at the front and back where they don't fill in the space completely. So, I took my pattern, cut out the base shapes, then cut the pattern up to get the individual ribs. Once I had them, I glued the pieces down with barge leather cement.
Up next will be dying them black.
- Member DIN
- S063
Idk how it took me so long to find this thread, but it's coming along great!
- Member DIN
- S111
Stopped by a new local Anima con on Saturday to test out some of fixes and improvements. Unfortunately, the two things I wanted to give a dry run for, my new inner thigh panels and the attachment system for the belt "buckle" piece, were left on the work bench. I did mess more with the shins and now that I know the proper positioning for them, I plan to swap out the cotton strapping that came from the previous owner with at least some nylon webbing, but possible some elastic, in order to get a better hold, as the cotton webbing slides very easily.
Goal is to have everything running smoothly in time to march in the parade at DragonCon without worrying about comfort or anything shifting too far out of position.
Here's the one picture I did manage to get.
Goal is to have everything running smoothly in time to march in the parade at DragonCon without worrying about comfort or anything shifting too far out of position.
Here's the one picture I did manage to get.
BinaryHe1ix
Jr Member
Armor is looking great and I absolutely LOVE the idea of a UNSC K9 handler. A Malinois going after an Unggoy is a great mental image! Though I must agree, doggo needs some armor too!
- Member DIN
- S111
Most recent test fit. This was primarily to test my thigh gaskets and duty belt based system for the, well, belt pieces. I have installed magnets to hold the pistol to the thigh, and found a brand of silicone dog treat containers that fit very close to the dimensions of the in game thigh pouches. These are sized perfectly to hold trading cards or I can even fit my wallet in one. Plus, being dog treat containers they fit with the over all theme of the armor.
- Member DIN
- S063
Looks great! Sorry I missed the new suit
tahu505
Sr Member
- Member DIN
- S505
I really love the matching color scheme here! It's so good! Also how did she react the first time seeing you in armor? When I had a dog he would sometimes panic and not recognize you if you came home wearing a hat, so I didn't want to risk scaring him with my armor.
