Noob here: Gears of War 3 armor progress

[Darth Hammer]

Hey everyone,

Stumbled upon this site a few months back and decided to build a Gears of War 3 COG costume. I am kinda finished and I spent about 3 weekends on it. It is Gears inspired. It is not cannon and it is a mix of all of the characters armor, so it isn't really any one characters armor, although it has turned into a bit of a Carmine build.

I mainly did it for fun, just to see if I could pull it off. Could it be better, yes! But for $100 and 20 hours I think it looks pretty cool. My son (he's 13) is excited to wear it for Halloween.

Here is a teaser:

It's all made out of foam and the templates were hand drawn and cut by myself. No downloaded patterns or anything. Then painted and weathered. I also did 2 Nerf guns to go with it. I will try and post a build thread in the 'Creation' forum if I can access it, with more detailed photos and info..

There are a lot of GREAT artists on here and by no means is this a pro costume. Just some fun I had in the garage.

Hope you enjoy!

 

[Darth Hammer]

Here's a shot before the blood:

 

[R3Dracoon]

Judging from the pics you have for us it looks like an EPIC build. show me more Plz.

 

[Powercheif]

from what I am seeing, this is gonna be one sweet looking costume. Are you going for a specific COG armor or are you making this all custom?

 

[Darth Hammer]

No specific COG, just inspired by Gears. This is my first attempt at anything like this. I know I could make it way better but all it takes is time and money. I was trying to slam this out for Halloween. Here is close up of the COG logo on the front of the chest. This photo is unfiltered so you can see the weathering detail better.

 

[aabateries2]

cam we see more? mabey the rest of the armor, progress pics, ect?

 

[Darth Hammer]

STAGE 1

Ok, here is how the build started out. Hand cut foam pieces from a hand drawn pattern. Then hot glued together. Spray can of plasti-dip for the base coat. I used the dremel to get the spots located for the real screws I added. I also used the dremel to gouge the foam and run it across at high speed for damage effect.

The round chest pieces are actually covers for pre-wired ceiling fans. They cover up where a ceiling fan would mount on your ceiling. I stole them from my house and need to replace them. My wife is already mad at that.

Here is me being the geeky 40 year old that I am:

This was my first fit session. I had some things I needed to modify off the bat.

This was also with a quick layer of metallic grey and silver spray paint to start the metal effect.

 

[Darth Hammer]

Here is the Nerf Longshot that was painted with a flat black base. Then drybrushed with metallic gold (which looked more like dirty metal), and then drybrushed again with metallic silver for the highlights. You can see the paints I used sitting on the counter.

Oh, and the barrel of the gun is a pop-up sprinkler cemented with PVC glue to the end of the gun.

More photos in a few....

 

[Darth Hammer]

Then I missed a weekend because I went to the Monster Energy Cup in Las Vegas:

And hung out with this guy for a bit:

 

[Darth Hammer]

Here is a couple of detail shots of the gun. All hand drybrushed:

 

[Darth Hammer]

Here is a semi-final shot of the front chest. Added blue metallic spray paint for some coloring. Then drybrushed all of the texture and weathering to give it that abused look. Washed it with a diluted black wash to give it splatter, drips and age. Then added fake blood for the true Gears look.

For the Gears logo I printed one out from google then cut out the parts I wanted painted. Taped it down on the armor and dry brushed it on. I then sanded some of it off to give it the worn look.

The semi-final back. I have since added additional weathering and more blood, as I liked how it came out and it dried nicely. As you can see the dry brushing of the silver really sets off the weathered, scratched aluminum look. Spray painting alone makes the armor look very one-dimensional. This step is a must!

 

[Darth Hammer]

Here is a shot of the Nerf squirt gun I used for a pistol. Same dry brush method.

A shot of the rifle with blood added, my arm guards and gloves and some of my examples from te web. And in the background you can see my pistol, holster and belt coming together.

Here are my arm guards and gloves. Just more foam.

 

[Darth Hammer]

Here is a shot of my leg armor. These are just hot glued to a cheap set of motorcycle shin/knee protectors. Again, I can't stress enough how much that dry brush brings out the real worn metal effect.

 

[Darth Hammer]

OK, here are some more goofy pictures of me trying on the costume. Please note that I know this could be way more involved, with boots and more thigh packs and lots more accessories. I did only spend about two weekends and 20 hours or so on it, with a limited budget. Knowing all that, what do you think??

Also, do you have any tips, pointers, things I missed that could make this setup look better?

I think I am going to get some black camo cargo pants instead of the jeans and I am not sure about the undershirt.

Again, this is Gears inspired, so it isn't really meant to be a particular character. It is Gears 3 themed though and the style is much different from the first two games. I think I need some welders goggles to make it look more like a Baird costume

Here you go:

Let me know if you have any questions about the build as well. It was my first attempt at anything like this. I had a lot of fun with it.

 

[Darth Hammer]

So here is the chest armor pretty much complete.

I also added some LED lights to the chest and back. They will work good for Halloween but they are RED and everyone knows the red color is for the Locusts. They should be blue for the COG. But no one at Halloween will know. I will maybe fix them later. Running out of time. They do pulse really cool though. Got them at Lowes in the Christmas section.

 

[Darth Hammer]

And a few more detail shots.

 

[drack]

Those guns are awesome. After finishing my Iron Man MK VI suit want to look into how to make some realistic guns. You hit the nail on the head there they are the balls!

 

[R3Dracoon]

PURE EPICNESS!!! i luv this you should totally show a tutorial, nah i kidding only if you want to.

 

[Darth Hammer]

I would do a tutorial but I didn't document any of the process other than what is here. I should have taken step-by-step photos or even done a video. It was actually pretty easy. Just time consuming.

 

[Darth Hammer]

I'm going to try and take some really good photos wearing the costume this weekend. Maybe in a parking garage or something dirty and urban.