Nintendude
Well-Known Member
For padding I use the padding you can find in the wal-mart craft section or at a craft store that would be 1/2 inch or 1" thick foam sheeting.
"Help!" for: Armor Mounting / Costume Assembling
- Thread starter 23Magnum
- Start date
- Status
For padding I use the padding you can find in the wal-mart craft section or at a craft store that would be 1/2 inch or 1" thick foam sheeting.
Yep, with Halloween quickly approaching, this topic is on my mind heavily too. Even more so, because our local Halloween festival is the weekend BEFORE actual Halloween.
Two years ago, I built a Robocop costume from scratch (you can browse through images of it in the directory at http://www.davidraasch.com/images/robo ), using reference photos only. I built it out of significantly light-weight materials: posterboard, craft foam, and those plastic "for sale" signs you can buy at WalMart. (I didn't know about this board's existence at the time. Used ideas from cosplay.com and robocoparchive).
Back then, I used sets of suspenders (cut up), old belts, and the kind of Velcro that has is "industrial strength" and has a sticky-backing (which I bought from a local craft store). This worked fine for keeping the shoulders and upper-arms on.
However, when it came to keeping the thighs "up", belts and sticky, strong velcro just could not "cut it". After an hour or so, the gluing on the back of the velcro started stripping off of the leather belt. A friend of mine and I determined that it was the back-and-forth action of the thighs, rotating at my hip bones, which was causing too much stress on the Velcro connection. Only one leg was experiencing the problem at first, so he busted out a rivet gun and riveted the belt-and-velcro back into place. This worked nicely for the rest of the night. (However, an hour or so later, the other leg failed... and I was at a costume contest without my friend or his rivet gun. I STILL took first place, even while trying to hide the fact that one of my thighs was slipping off every few seconds.)
So, I probably need to research riveting a bit and figure out how to do it properly on my own.
Now, regarding connecting the chest and back: I had tried using very wide (4 inch?) strips of velcro on each shoulder. Did some test runs with my duct-tape-dummy wearing the armor. The two pieces of velcro on each shoulder would start separating from each other after a while on their furthest ends. So.... I went back to the craft store and bought... snaps. Added those into the Velcro and the layers of posterboard / foam / plastic that were underneath.
This did manage to stay to attached for me for several hours at a time, but the velcro seemed to still "want" to separate. I had the feeling that the sheer weight, plus the curvature, of both the chest and back were contributing to that problem.
I'm telling you all that background because I thought perhaps that info might help somebody. But I do have a concern:
So, here we are this year. I'm building War Machine. And now I'm using the "rondo" method / fiberglass resin + bondo. Heavier stuff. This has me very concerned about how I'm going to connect the chest and the back this time.
I read earlier in this thread about the person who drilled holes and used bolts to connect the chest and back. I'm wondering: Are you putting the nuts UNDERNEATH the armor? I mean, I'm wondering how you put this on / take this off ? It sounds like you're trying to make the bolts blend in, which sounds great. But I'm thinking that you must have some padding between those nuts and your shoulders. Plus, you must need a lot of help taking this on and off ?
I was thinking on going with a hinge system, but honestly, the bolt method sounds less likely to fail. I'm assuming you use some rather large washers, to help distribute the tension?
Thanks!
-= Dave =-
Two years ago, I built a Robocop costume from scratch (you can browse through images of it in the directory at http://www.davidraasch.com/images/robo ), using reference photos only. I built it out of significantly light-weight materials: posterboard, craft foam, and those plastic "for sale" signs you can buy at WalMart. (I didn't know about this board's existence at the time. Used ideas from cosplay.com and robocoparchive).
Back then, I used sets of suspenders (cut up), old belts, and the kind of Velcro that has is "industrial strength" and has a sticky-backing (which I bought from a local craft store). This worked fine for keeping the shoulders and upper-arms on.
However, when it came to keeping the thighs "up", belts and sticky, strong velcro just could not "cut it". After an hour or so, the gluing on the back of the velcro started stripping off of the leather belt. A friend of mine and I determined that it was the back-and-forth action of the thighs, rotating at my hip bones, which was causing too much stress on the Velcro connection. Only one leg was experiencing the problem at first, so he busted out a rivet gun and riveted the belt-and-velcro back into place. This worked nicely for the rest of the night. (However, an hour or so later, the other leg failed... and I was at a costume contest without my friend or his rivet gun. I STILL took first place, even while trying to hide the fact that one of my thighs was slipping off every few seconds.)
So, I probably need to research riveting a bit and figure out how to do it properly on my own.
Now, regarding connecting the chest and back: I had tried using very wide (4 inch?) strips of velcro on each shoulder. Did some test runs with my duct-tape-dummy wearing the armor. The two pieces of velcro on each shoulder would start separating from each other after a while on their furthest ends. So.... I went back to the craft store and bought... snaps. Added those into the Velcro and the layers of posterboard / foam / plastic that were underneath.
This did manage to stay to attached for me for several hours at a time, but the velcro seemed to still "want" to separate. I had the feeling that the sheer weight, plus the curvature, of both the chest and back were contributing to that problem.
I'm telling you all that background because I thought perhaps that info might help somebody. But I do have a concern:
So, here we are this year. I'm building War Machine. And now I'm using the "rondo" method / fiberglass resin + bondo. Heavier stuff. This has me very concerned about how I'm going to connect the chest and the back this time.
I read earlier in this thread about the person who drilled holes and used bolts to connect the chest and back. I'm wondering: Are you putting the nuts UNDERNEATH the armor? I mean, I'm wondering how you put this on / take this off ? It sounds like you're trying to make the bolts blend in, which sounds great. But I'm thinking that you must have some padding between those nuts and your shoulders. Plus, you must need a lot of help taking this on and off ?
I was thinking on going with a hinge system, but honestly, the bolt method sounds less likely to fail. I'm assuming you use some rather large washers, to help distribute the tension?
Thanks!
-= Dave =-
A little twist to the chest strapping question...
Alright, I am planning to go to a huge Halloween party this year and i have all of my pieces done, the problem i have now is when i wore it for launch night i had my brother just spend a couple hours attaching "Industrial Strength" velcro to my body and the pieces and it held for a while, but eventually the sticky backing came off.
Now i made all my pieces to pretty much "Fit" my body and so it was nice and tight. My chest piece i split in two like any normal person would do but if i hinge the top my head will not fit through the hole! That and a lot of my pieces are really tight against my body so when i flex any muscle it puts pressure on the velcro, or whatever i would use. What would be the best way to strap these pieces? And any help with strapping the cod piece would be great too cause that started coming off before anything else and i did not plan on changing out of the costume till after i got back home.
Here is my facebook album of the armor and a little of the individual pieces.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=533943&id=828755011&l=107202b98e
Thanks for the help in advance!
Alright, I am planning to go to a huge Halloween party this year and i have all of my pieces done, the problem i have now is when i wore it for launch night i had my brother just spend a couple hours attaching "Industrial Strength" velcro to my body and the pieces and it held for a while, but eventually the sticky backing came off.
Now i made all my pieces to pretty much "Fit" my body and so it was nice and tight. My chest piece i split in two like any normal person would do but if i hinge the top my head will not fit through the hole! That and a lot of my pieces are really tight against my body so when i flex any muscle it puts pressure on the velcro, or whatever i would use. What would be the best way to strap these pieces? And any help with strapping the cod piece would be great too cause that started coming off before anything else and i did not plan on changing out of the costume till after i got back home.
Here is my facebook album of the armor and a little of the individual pieces.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=533943&id=828755011&l=107202b98e
Thanks for the help in advance!
sry
SRY I just notice!!! LOLWhat stuff will I need to start my own ODST helmet and ODST Spartan3 suit? (Sofware and Materials)
Does anyone have ideas for my post #23?
Here's the rough diagram I promised explaining what I wrote.
Yeah, that was my original plan. However, those two pieces were the first pieces I ever resined before. And two days ago, when I went to match them up to start planning the hinges, I found that the resin had really, seriously warped the parts on the shoulder, to the point where the back and the front were seriously out-of-alignment. And since I'd just finished rondoing the inside of both pieces (well, about 95% of them anyways), the two halves weren't bending very much / cooperating with me as I tried to join them up.
So, what I did is I joined the left shoulder, both halves, with masking tape, forcing things into position. Then, I rondoed that area heavily (I had only done a really light coat of rondo there earlier, anticipating having to make some adjustments). Now, this morning, I came out to the garage and saw that at the right shoulder, both halves were out of alignment by like an INCH. That's quite a bit. I tried forcing them together and ended up tearing the piece at the back of the neck.
For a moment, I threw around the idea of throwing out both pieces and starting over. Like I said, they were the first pieces I'd ever done, and they had a lot of flaws.
But my deadline for my entire costume is in two weeks, and I have to work 12 hour shifts on half those days. So, I decided I'm going to simply repair the neck by making the whole piece at the rear of the neck a bit wider... a bit larger of an arc. I figure that's faster and nobody should notice that part anyways. If I'm lucky, I may be able to fit my head through it without having to actually put in hinges. However, if I end up needing hinges, I'm just going to take my Dremel to it and saw each shoulder back in half again. (At least by then, both halves will be positioned and shaped correctly.)
If I had known then what I know now, I would have probably taped the chest to the back, fully positioned the way it would be when I wore it... and THEN resin it and bondo it. Then, I'd simply cut it in two again and proceed with hinges at the shoulder, and velcro straps (underneath) at the sides.
LMNOspartan
Jr Member
For the shoulder pieces etc i saw an idea on a thread titled Wade's ODST suit". On the base of the shoulders it appeared as if there was a tight fitting shirt or maybe elastic that was glued to the inside of the shoulder piece which would allow you to just slip it on. Then there were straps (and plastic buckles) going from the top of the shoulder piece to the top of the torso piece holding it in place... Geez i hope that makes sense... If you need me to clarify let me know.
As for the chest...i'm not entirely sure i can only suggest putting the hinges on 1 SIDE (not the top) or just buckling them together... OR you may be able to use wing nuts. Because those would be easy to undue by yourself
Gosh i hope that made sense lemme know!
Spartan T71
New Member
How do you install a visor?
Thanks for replying.
I think im going to go with Adams way to secure the shoulders(a single strap going across the back of the neck attached to both shoulder pieces and just sliding them on like a tight jackets sleeves).
As for the chest if you could clarify that a little more that would be great. I kind of got the jist of it but not all of the content.
LMNOspartan
Jr Member
i don't think i quite know what your talking about with the shoulders... Is this it? like how does that make them stay up?
And the picture pretty much explains it of the chest
SPartan T71: one method to install a visor is to use hot glue around the extra edges that won't be shown from the outside
[/IMG]
i don't think i quite know what your talking about with the shoulders... Is this it? like how does that make them stay up?
And the picture pretty much explains it of the chest
SPartan T71: one method to install a visor is to use hot glue around the extra edges that won't be shown from the outside
For the shoulders that is exactly what im talking about but without buckles...it would be riveted straight into the shoulder pieces towards the top.
And the pic for the chest helps out a lot too! i think i have a good idea on how i can get that done! Thanks a lot man this really helped!
[/IMG]
i don't think i quite know what your talking about with the shoulders... Is this it? like how does that make them stay up?
And the picture pretty much explains it of the chest
SPartan T71: one method to install a visor is to use hot glue around the extra edges that won't be shown from the outside
Exactly how do buckles attach to those shoulders? Just wondering. I'm about to attach straps to my shoulders later today, I think. Was planning on Industrial Strength Velcro, but I'm curious about your buckles.
With the buckles you would attach a small piece of nylon (cord or strap) to the tops of each of the shoulder pieces. Then hook in a buckle to the ends of that. Now make a long piece of the nylon (cord or strap) that will be the length of your shoulders and attach the other half of the buckle to both ends of that. So when you go to put the armor on, you slide the pieces on your arms and then have someone clip the buckles together on both sides and adjust the nylon (cord or strap) to the preferred tightness so they will stay on.
Hope this helps if not i can take a pic of what i mean when i get to my house in a couple of hours.
Thanks for the info! I'm just having a hard time imagining how I'd get a piece of nylon strap to adhere to a piece that's been rondo'd ??? What, do you sew it on there ?
What i plan on doing for actually attaching the nylon strap is to drill little holes where i want the strap to attach to and then rivet it to the piece. Now this also all depends on how thick your layer of rondo is. Hope this helped! (and i have not tried this as of yet)
How about glue? Like hot glue (never tried that on clothing, but rumor says it works) or epoxy glue (tried that, works).
- Status
