New Odst Armor Started

[rube]

Hello all,

Browsing the net one day I ran across this site by accident and saw the ODST pep files. Had to start building myself a set of armor. The helmet took me 3 days to glue up. My thanks to the people who created these and make them available for free.

Glued and resined. Fiberglassing started.

I made a plaster mold of just the visor pep then used that to cast a Bondo positive to sculpt a buck for vacuum forming an acrylic visor. The red paint still needs sanding and polishing. I think this shape was as close as I could get to the ODST visor shape without major modifications to the helmet.

Way better than Bondo polyester filler, sands much easier

Updates as I do em...

 

[gamerguy55]

Welcome to the 405th!

It looks really nice, 'can't wait to see it finished.

 

[tlither]

Looks like you are off to a flying start! Really good job so far. Keep it up and let us know how it's going.

 

[Gearsofhalo]

this looks like it is going to come out well. keep it up dude!

 

[boryenko]

Looks pretty groovy so far, nice work on that visor!

 

[rube]

Thank you all for compliments. I have sanded and polished the paint on the buck. I had hoped to have a pull to show but I'm slowed by the flu. Bleah. Maybe Sunday...

 

[Overlord Ian]

Looks better than anything I've ever made! Great job!

 

[zabicvamere]

this may be a stupid ? but what is that red thing

 

[rube]

That is the visor buck for vacuum forming over.

 

[zabicvamere]

oh duh im stupid i should have known that lol

 

[rube]

I was able to get a little work done today on the visor. Here's my improvised vacuum former:

The frame to hold the plastic.

The bed.

Back of the buck showing the attachment method. The back of the buck is filled with 2 part foam.

Test pull using thin stock.

I learned that I need to use a release agent on the buck. The plastic wanted to stick to the paint a little bit. The plastic I used was of an unknown type, just something I had lying around and it gave me trouble trying to trim it off. It was very brittle and pretty much shattered when I tried to cut it. I'll have to go hunting for something better.

 

[Adam]

Wow, now here's a man with a plan. Lets get ya outta the n00b forum.

 

[rube]

Me? Plan?

I don't plan well but I do know what failure smells like. It smells like overheated Lexan. I bought a couple of pieces of .090 Lexan at the home center and fubared both. One not hot enough and the other way too. I'll head over the the hobby shop tomorrow for some thinner stock and try again. I've only formed styrene in the past but I think I've got a handle on the Lexan now.

Mmmm, toasty!

 

[SGT Razor]

Better luck next time. When you get one of those visors finished, you may receive a PM from me.

 

[volkov]

wow sick, will be keeping an eye on this!

 

[Bloodl3tt3r]

Just wondering, how do you plan on doing the visor tint?

 

[SpartanIII 0324]

i am psyced for this, i am currently working on a pep of the Halo 2 ODST armor, going to resin (inside and out) then bondo over the rough spots then re resin the outside. i hope it looks half as good as your halo 3 ODST looks to be. could you send me a PM explaining how you made your small vaccu-form?

 

[Spartan 270]

Welcome to the 405th! Looks like you're off to a great start. Can't wait to see this one done.

 

[rube]

I have .060 Lexan on order since I can't pull enough vacuum to completely form .090. I posted a pic above showing a sheet that I thought I overheated. As it turns out I didn't overheat it. Polycarbonate absorbs water from the environment. It must be baked for a time to drive out the absorbed moisture. The bubbles are actually little pockets of water that flashed to steam in the oven. Styrene and ABS are so much more forgiving.

I tried again anyway:

Painted for clarity.

It actually looks better in person than that photo

Bloodl3tt3r:
I plan to tint the visor by painting it with automotive clearcoat paint mixed with a little black. I remember seeing ready to go spray cans for tinting plastic taillight lenses in an auto parts store but I can't seem to find it now.

SpartanIII-0324:
The vacforming setup is pretty much what you see in the photos. There is a shop vac connected to the base. The frame holding the plastic goes into the oven. When the plastics sags, I take it out and press it down on the base. there is a foam rubber gasket to seal the frame and base to each other.

I've had four people PM so far looking to buy one. Assuming I don't get swamped with orders, I'll make them for free other than the shipping cost.

Thanks for your support!

 

[boryenko]

Looking great so far.