C2E2 After Action Report:
For the Con in general, it was a pretty good time. I always enjoy all of the Cosplays that I get to see, from the humorous to the international-competitor level. Hanging out with the 405th folks at the MNKr BNKr on Thursday night was fun, much Malört was drank. Friday I had a few photoshoots with some of the 405th, and then I hung out in the Hyatt lobby and drank some more Malört. Saturday was the photoshoot, show of force parade, official C2E2 Halo meetup, then I switched over to my Jayce Talis cosplay for the Arcane meetup, then switched into the Cowboy Spartan outfit for pizza with the 405th, and much Malört was drank. A small handful of us went to the Cosplay After Party and danced for the last hour of it (the party only ran for 2 hours total).
To wrap up the armor items from my previous post:
- I glued one knife sheath to the left thigh, which worked out decently. The main issue with this placement was actually the fanny pack that I usually wear for carrying my stuff (#foreveralone #nohandler) getting caught on the handle when I would try to move it forward or back to get out my phone or money.
- I found a balaclava instead of a neck gaiter, which works fine.
- I did manage to get the electronics working in my helmet, despite the brand new soldering iron I purchased dying on me during the first evening of use. Having a working fan was definitely very nice for the photoshoot and during the show of force parade. Having the lights definitely adds to the cool factor of the armor, and I'm excited to keep adding electronics to my cosplays. I did feel pretty cautious about battery life, which I have realized was pretty misplaced. I would turn off lights and the fan to conserve battery life, but I have been leaving them running since I got back from the Con and it looks like the 3x AA batteries can handle the 5 components (4 LEDs and 1 fan) for more than 6 hours of constant run time, which will be good to know for the next Con. There is also the issue that the switches and padding added to cover the wiring and hold everything in place makes the helmet harder to put on/take off.
- I added velcro pieces to the Carbine, and had zero issues with the cover or cannister falling off while wielding it.
Armor After Action:
- As mentioned, the helmet is a much more snug fit now. I would like to switch out the switches for something more slim and possibly accessible from outside the helmet (right now the switches are located a couple of inches from the bottom of the helmet on the inside, around the rear of the jaw). I am tempted to experiment with wireless controls placed in one of the bracers. I have a bunch of esp8266 and arduino minis floating around, so it could be a fun project to play around with.
- Having an added strap on the other side of the calf armor seemed to help keep it from rotating on my shins.
- The thigh armor still seemed a bit tight, despite having cut the inside part out a few Conventions ago. I also found that the fiberglass lining I added was sometimes catching on the leggings I wear for the undersuit, and could potentially cause a tear at some point. It also made it a bit uncomfortable when it would dig into my thigh.
- The shoulders seemed to cooperate, which is actually surprising because almost every time I've worn the Mark IV I've had at least one shoulder item (usually a buckle) break.
- Still refusing to wear the bicep/tricep armor pieces.
- One of the issues I ran into was needing both hands to put on/take off my helmet, but also having to be careful about how I handled the carbine (there's no way to balance it on it's own), so I often ended up wedging the carbine under my cod piece to keep it from sliding away.
Future Goals of Mark IV:
- Helmet wiring can definitely be improved. As mentioned above, I'd like to slim down the switches and/or move them to better locations. Potentially also add one more fan on the other side of the helmet (behind the other vent) or find a way to slip one into the rear of the helmet. I suspect there isn't any room for that though.
- I have been wanting to get back into dabbling with vacuum forming, and ordered some proper PETG sheets. I'd like to form a properly shaped visor.
- The cowboy hat gave me a taste of working with EVA foam and while I definitely did a shoddy job, I feel that I could do decent work if I took my time. I would like to revisit the idea of making foam versions of the calf armor, though I am also interested in either vacuum forming them and adding a foam lining, or even go further and 3D scan my leg and cast the calf armor out of some lightweight rubber. Basically I want to be able to run in my armor.
- I still want to do either a foam or rubber set of bicep/tricep plates so that I can wear them with my armor.
- The boot coverings also definitely need to be improved, with no specific plans for how I want to do that. I don't care too much about boots, though I will at the very least add some EVA foam to the undersides of the covering pieces to limit the amount of noise I make while clomping around.
In general, I consider this armor to be 90% complete. It's manageable to wear and I spent almost 6 hours in it on Saturday. The upgrades/updates listed above will mostly be for the purposes of learning new techniques, as opposed to directly upgrading the armor.
My next main priority within the 405th is going to be taking what I learned from this build and applying it to a new build. I want to combine the idea of building a Hunter shield with the Achilles variant helmet I have printed, and start focusing on a full Greek/Roman-esque armor build. I've spoken to a few people at C2E2 that have also mentioned similar build ideas.
I will start up a new build thread once I gather some more concept ideas and gather my thoughts. I'll probably shift that over to the "Halo Costumes and Props" category.
The next Con I plan to go to is Anime Central in mid-May, but unless I hear of a Halo meet-up or a substantial number of 405th members attending, I probably won't bring the Mark IV. It takes two full totes and I hear that ACen is pretty toasty.
The next Con that I will probably bring MJOLNIR armor to (either Mark IV or the Achilles project) is likely to be DragonCon. Maybe I'll bust it out at Kitsune Kon in Green Bay, though that Con doesn't have any escalators and I definitely don't plan on repeatedly dealing with stairs until I have foam/rubber calf armor.
I took a photo when I got back to my room after the meetup and was so ready to be out of the armor that I didn't even notice the carbine was upside down. Oops.
[ATTACH=full]360536[/ATTACH]
