Lots of small updates on the progress I've made this past week or so. Printed out the Gungnir shoulder pad, boot armor, and one shin. Prototyped out some boot padding and support. Worked on finalizing the planned color scheme. Picked up some fabric for the under suit. Also did some writing, which you can check out above, Chapter 4 of Tales of the UNSC's Valkyries.
Gungnir Shoulder Pad
Printed off Nerdforgedesign's Gungnir Shoulder. I printed at 102.3% scale with Elegoo's PLA+ on a N4 Plus using Klipper at .28 layer height from a .4 nozzle. Print time was about 11 hours I want to say. As modeled, the pad actually sits lower than the in-game assets. I'll be breaking out the rotary tool to carve out the back of the pad print so I can mount it higher up.
[ATTACH=full]339545[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339546[/ATTACH]
Boots and Shin
I started by searching for some cheaper platform shoes that could give me another inch or two of height, I found some Dirty Laundry Monet (no idea why it's named that) on sale for $27 USD. They are a women's 10, so a bit snug on my toes, so I'll be cutting off section of the front. Possibly inviting a new shoe, the toeless platform boot (who am I kidding, I'm sure some fashion company has kicked these out before).
[ATTACH=full]339544[/ATTACH]
Printed off Titlewave's Boot covers with the same setting as before, though I did scale the height up to 102% to fit the platforms. Print time for each was around 22 hours. I then started using some packaging foam (again I urge you, if you buy a printer keep the foam!) and 3mm EVA Foam to templet out some padding to help bulk out my tiny ankles. I'll be wrapping the final foam cut outs in fabric, then permanently attaching them to the platform boot prints. I went back and forth on how to give the whole boot a good structure that could hold up to walking around. I decided to make a base plate for the toe and heel section which is currently attached to the plastic armor. I'll putty, sand, and prime the plastic as one piece. Then when it is time for full assembly, I'll put a blob of epoxy on the inside for the platform's soul and toe to squish into and hopefully lock together.
[ATTACH=full]339547[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339548[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339549[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339550[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=full]339551[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339552[/ATTACH]
Printed off Titlewave's shin, same setting as before. This time the scale was 95% in the x&y and 100% in the z. Need to print in two pieces which totaled about 24 hours on the bed. I'm a bit worried it's too wide.
[ATTACH=full]339553[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339554[/ATTACH]
Colors
Using that incredible photo editing software we all love called Paint, I did some basic laying out of where I want to put color. I'll be passing the pattern of the Tempest Lilac armor coating from Halo Infinite. It's for Mark VII armor but I think it should translate over easy enough. For the main purple I picked up some Rust-oleum Gloss Grape, which I'll hit with matt varnish to cut back the shine, example below. For the white, I'll just find a basic white primer, and for the orange I'll dip into my miniature painting supplies and make a blind close to Montana Gold's Blast Orange.
[ATTACH=full]339555[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339556[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339557[/ATTACH]
Fabrics
I have a supply of four way Strech black leather (though it's more like jegging pants leather) which will accompany my newly purchased Black Optical Faux Leather and some White Stretch Scuba Hexagon (which I will need to dye black). Luckily both fabrics were on a near 50% sale. Again, I used that super user friendly and fast software called Paint and mapped out where I want the fabric. I originally was going to use a pixel print but switched to the hexagon pattern halfway through the mapping. And there was no way in hell I was doing that all over. I'll use a combo of EVA foam glued to the fabric to get some of the under suits shape, like elbow pads and the back of the knees.
[ATTACH=full]339558[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]339560[/ATTACH]
That is my update for now. Hopefully next week I can just go full speed for a week or two. This is definitely an interesting build because lots of steps kinda need to happen simultaneously. This project has been blessing, keeping my hands busy while my mind has been processing some life stuff.
