DragonCon After Action Report:
I managed to slap together a single fan for the inside of the helmet which 1000% is the only reason I was able to walk the entire parade with the helmet on. The batteries and wiring held up just long enough for the parade and the walk back to my hotel room, but something broke/died when I tried to turn them back on for the photoshoot. Not a big deal though, I only considered them to be temporary.
The Atlanta heat was absolutely crazy for this Con and the Cosplays I choose, paired with the amount of alcohol I consumed. I basically spent every Con moment being drenched in sweat.
The gear mostly worked well. I'm pretty satisfied with how the chest and back armor have held up, as well as the improvements I made to the belt/cod piece.
The shoe coverings actually held up decently, though the gap I placed under them in an attempt to reduce sounding like a Clydesdale horse was apparently completely futile. I saw that several other members put an full length layer of EVA foam under the boots, and I think I might do something similar. They didn't fall apart though, so I'm happy with that.
The bicep/triceps armor continues to be annoying and a hindrance to both flexibility and general comfort. Since I was constantly either wiping sweat off of my face or holding a water bottle up to drink, the left arm bicep/triceps plates were constantly pinching against my forearm. This wasn't as big of an issue for the right arm due to the strap of the larger pauldron sitting below the bicep/triceps plates, but on the left arm, the strap sits above them, and the smaller pauldron tends to push them down my arm and towards my forearm.
The thigh armor suffered an almost full failure, unfortunately. My left thigh armor broke apart at a weld seam while waiting in line to load the parade shuttle bus, while the other side popped a different weld seam but was hanging on just because of the paint layers, so I pulled it off before we stepped off just to avoid having to deal with it. For both sides though, the very front of the thigh armor is where my buckles attach to, so that piece still hung against my body and gave a decent illusion of having enough thigh armor. There was also a pretty aggressive rub point on my hip due to the bolt I use to attach all of the nylon straps. That bolt dug into my hip for most of the day.
The calf armor continues to be annoying, but technically held up. The lighter weight and wider fit provided by cutting out the back meant that I didn't have to tighten the straps holding them up nearly as much. However, it did mean that I had some pretty aggressive rubbing against the back of my calves, and if the piece was allowed to dangle too loosely, it had a strong tendency to want to rotate on my leg to point outwards instead of forward.
The H-harness was a much more comfortable fit now that the leg armor isn't putting so much force on pulling it down against my neck. I did still build up some rubbing sores on the back of my neck from wearing it for so long though.
The final equipment issue was that one of the ears fell off of the helmet as I was taking it all off after the photoshoot. Not a big deal though, as they were both just attached with hot glue in anticipation of removing them to run wires in the future.
Fixing the issues:
- Calf armor: I am once again pledging to replace the calf armor with either foam or cast rubber. I think I need the ability to tighten it while having some flexibility.
- Thigh armor: I will likely reweld these for the moment. The welds broke because I am asking the PLA to flex ever so slightly, which obviously it doesn't want to do. I am tempted to either line the inside with fiberglass or just make a mold and then make the actual thigh armor out of fiberglass. I would have lighter armor, plus the walls would be thinner (giving me slightly more room without reprinting them a third time). It would also still be strong enough to bolt mounts to for either my camera (still an eventual goal) or any hip-mounted weapons.
- Biceps/triceps: I've basically defaulted to removing these any time I'm not doing a photoshoot. I think I will explore the idea of printing them slightly smaller, as well as finding a way to attach them to either the pauldrons or the back armor to hold them up high on my arms, instead of relying on elastic straps. They would also be good candidates for moderately easy foam work that wouldn't have to be perfect.
- Helmet fan: I need to completely pull out the fan/wiring and do it properly. I used some very questionable means to attach the wires which aren't efficient or reliable. I'd also like to play with adjusting the direction of the airflow.
- Rubbing points: thigh armor bolt point will be re-evaluated for hardware size. I might either cap/cover the entire bolt or move to multiple bolts so that they have fewer pieces of nylon to hold (and can therefor be shorter). Right now the calf armor strap runs all the way up to the top of the thigh, I might move that connection to the bottom, unless switch to foam allows me to skip the strapping entirely. For the H-harness rubbing along the back of the neck, I am going to sew a strip of EVA foam to the part the rubs against my neck. This isn't a perfect solution, but should help for the long wears.
- Shoe clomping: for now, I'll just add a full-sized strip of EVA foam as a sole. Though honestly I also think I need to play with the scale a bit, so a full reprint might be in order. I kind of want to do at least the heel and top strap out of foam. At that point though, I might as well make the entire thing out of foam, and just build a full set of boots (maybe attached to the calves?)
The next Con I intend to wear the Mark IV is Colossalcon North, in approx 80 days. I'd like to have the helmet fan and thigh armor fixed at the minimum before then.
Overall I had an amazing time at DragonCon, and will absolutely be back next year (I'm probably going to buy my ticket this week for DragonCon 2025). However, I definitely need to make some specific cooling improvements before that one.
The first goal is better helmet cooling. I definitely need to make at least the current fan rock solid, but I'd also like to add a second fan. Something one of the other members showed me was that he had a larger fan clipped inside of his chest armor that pointed up into the helmet. This gave him a much more powerful fan without needing to fit anything into the helmet. I might pursue a similar idea.
I'd also like to attempt a hot weather specific back-armor. I am thinking about making the back armor out of fiberglass, and then opening up the shoulder vents to install fans with ducting that blows the air over my back (where I sweat so, so much) and out another vent at the back (or maybe at the top, to avoid blowing sweaty air into the person standing immediately behind me). Right now my back armor is filled with expanded foam to give it a better fit and some rigidity, but is a pretty major heat sink/holder.
I would also like to explore blowing some air over my chest, but I think having a non-sweaty back and head will keep me cool enough to not really need to keep adding fans to more places. I think I'll end up using the chest cavity to house any batteries needed. The next major upgrade to the armor will be adding various electronics, for function and fun. I'll be needing a lot of power.
