'ello, greetings, oy!
I’m a little low tech (currently) with out much of an online presence; yet, but I’ve always been into robots and armor – (born 1978, I grew up in the Star Wars Generation).
I’ve also been a workaholic for a VERY long time, however during the Halloween of 2009 I made trio of Transformers costumes for my nephews. After starting with the Bumblebee toy arm and helmet, I wired in LED lights into the mask, repainted the toys and then sliced up foam board to make the costumes (armor). I had a BLAST doing it! I realized it was a fantastic creative outlet.
The next year, there was only one armor based costume, and the final line up that Halloween was Wolverine, Batman, the Goddess Athena, and Optimus Prime, however early that November Iron Man was discussed which got me doing more research online, that’s how I came across the 405th. The Pepakura approach was fantastic; I’d never seen that before.
I had been familiar with the 501st but having been around longer they used more vacuum molding process, which got me interested, but on a budget (mine) the cost, space and tools involved has been impractical for me. Who knows, maybe I’ll get there someday, but the layered process of Pepakura with its paper, folding, sanding and painting struck me as very much within my reach and not very far outside of my current skill sets, and that was exciting.
So, my rough plan is to start with a few adult sized armor attempts. Many men I know would love the armor, but buying, building and all that’s involved in obtaining a set somewhat dims their child-like enthusiasm. A good friend and my brother in law, knowing that I’d be the one building the armor, have volunteered to be guinea pigs in my first pair of attempts, most interested in the Ironman: War Machine armor and the Halo: Recon armor. My hope is that as I learn, try, fail and learn more build those two armor sets my skills should grow to the point that by Halloween of 2011, should my Nephews be interested in Ironman, Transformer, or Halo based costumes and armor, I’ll have the skills and knowhow to scale, alter and build child sized Pepakura armor for child sized growing bodies, quickly enough for them to fit, be worn, played in and enjoyed.
I am very excited about this community of craftsmen (and women), artists and artisans. Just skimming the site the imagination, creativity and ingenuity I've seen is fantastic and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn from the other people here.
Great fun building,
Brad Feaster aka Oshima422
), and I am a high school student at the moment. I am 18, and plan to attend university for a degree in mechanical engineering.
