(Null).exe's Half-Life 2 Hev Suit

[null]

Alrighty, so, I'm a Pepakura and 405th n00b, but I've been doing cosplay for over 5 years, so hey all.



Anyway, I'm going to be building the HEV Suit that Gordon Freeman wears throughout the HL series, and using the high-res images from Half-Life 2 as my design base.



Source Image:

Materials:

Georgia-Pacific 110lb Cardstock, White

Aleene's Tacky Glue



Models:

Modeled by Nugget, Unfolded and Scaled mostly by me (Loess helped )



Phase 1, Pepping

Step 1, Belt:

As I'm completely new to Pepakura, I'm starting off with the simplest model, the belt piece. Took about 1.5 hours from printing to pep complete, yes it's single sided, but I'll be putting on the other side after I glass and resin.

More updates to come (probably tomorrow).

I'm going to pep the whole HEV suit before I start glassing and resining.

 

[moonwildflower]

Glad to see that you made it online. Good luck with your endeavor. Maybe the group can get together in the future for some armor making.

 

[fjordman587]

Yea Verily, Good luck on that HEV. BTW, where'd you get those HEV peps?
Please excuse the previous error, found your peps.
Great job!
Fjordman587

 

[warhound]

Looks like its going to be hard to move with that whole suit on lol. Looks nice so far though, can't wait to see an update.

 

[LastSpartan]

Yea Verily, Good luck on that HEV. BTW, where'd you get those HEV peps?
Please excuse the previous error, found your peps.
Great job!
Fjordman587

Look up.

Well it's a start!

I would do it with clay if I were you, but Pepakura can do miracles.

 

[NuggetWarmer]

Looks great. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

 

[null]

Glad to see that you made it online. Good luck with your endeavor. Maybe the group can get together in the future for some armor making.

That would be teh sweet!

Looks like its going to be hard to move with that whole suit on lol. Looks nice so far though, can't wait to see an update.

Shouldn't be any harder to get around in than MkVI armor, perhaps even less since you're not having to deal with space diaper/knee plates/shoulder plates/helmet all running into each other. And now that I think about it, no armored boots either to clunk around in

 

[null]

Ahhhh the dreaded double post...but I can do it if I want to, because it's my topic AND I'm updating with pictures, so there

Step 2, Left Upper Arm:
OK, so I started my printer chugging after my last post above, moving onto the Upper Arm pieces. I tried something new on this piece. Using straight pins designed for sewing to hold the lip pieces together while the Tacky Glue dries enough to hold it on it's own, as I noticed with the belt that the top and bottom edges tend to try and slide up or down. Result: worked great, just glue, press for a moment with fingers, then shove the pin straight through the two pieces, making your model start to look a bit like pinhead. When the glue is dry enough, just pull out. The resulting small hole will be easy enough to cover once the resin goes on.

Now onto the pictures (something is off on my camera's white balance, making the paper look brown/orange):

Outside (Away from Body) Face:

Back Face:

Inside (Toward Body) Face:

Bottom Lip (Back Face is on the Right):

Constructive criticism is always appreciated, especially from the veteran/elite pepakura-ninjas.

If I do anything significantly different for the Upper Right arm piece I'll post an update for that, otherwise I'll just make a small update with a picture or two and then move on to the Lower Arm pieces.

Sleepytime now...

 

[null]

Step 3, Right Upper Arm:

Just some pictures, nothing mind-blowing about the construction. The straight pin method for holding pieces together is still working well.

Step 4, Left Lower Arm:
This one was a little more in-depth; smaller pieces, more convoluted angles and whatnot. Pin method continues to be fantastic, but since I did this unfold myself, if more people are interested, I'm going to edit the unfold, because a couple of things were a little wonky. I'll cover that in the individual pictures. All right, onto the good stuff:

This side folded well, no major problems

Same here, a couple of things I tweaked, but overall nothing more than I expected.

OK, this was the hardest side, surprisingly not because of the extrusions. Down on the bottom you can see where the paper is puckered, I could -not- get it to match up to its fold lines properly. I think it had to do with how it was unfolded, so I'm going to edit my unfold to fix it. The imperfection will get fixed with resin and bondo, so it's not a crisis or anything.

Again, easy. You can see at the top of the image another view of that puckered edge.

And just to be thorough, here's a shot of the back lip.

Overall, for being a decent step up in complexity from the last 3 steps, this really wasn't so bad. I'll probably die when I get to the chest, but we'll see.
Also, much like people are commenting with the MkVI and ODST armors, I cannot fit my hand through the wrist of the gauntlet. It's scaled just fine, but it's going to need to be cut during the resin/glass phase.

Anyway, moar updates soon!

 

[Loess]

I'm loving this, and your pieces are looking great!

One thing to look into when you re-edit the files, take every opportunity to make the unfold symmetrical. A symmetric file will distort less as you build it (less chance for things like that puckered edge).

The chest is actually a pleasant build, the scale test I did of it way back when went really fast (8hr, i think).

 

[null]

I'm loving this, and your pieces are looking great!

One thing to look into when you re-edit the files, take every opportunity to make the unfold symmetrical. A symmetric file will distort less as you build it (less chance for things like that puckered edge).

The chest is actually a pleasant build, the scale test I did of it way back when went really fast (8hr, i think).

*nods* thanks for the tip!

As I get closer and closer to the chest (it's going to be my last step of the build) I'm getting more and more excited.

 

[NuggetWarmer]

Looks like this is going to be great. It inspires me to continue making some models for it. If you'd like me to model anything HL2, feel free to ask me.

 

[null]

Step 5, Right Lower Arm:
First off, damn. Redoing the unfold to give me simpler pieces to work with did wonders, I like this piece so much I'm going to redo the Left gauntlet later using the new model. It was crisper, easier to fold and glue and turned out a generally better product.

OK, pictures:

The only thing that was tricky was getting the protrusion on the left side (the wrist side) to meet up with the main piece, it kept wanting to move toward the center of the piece. Nothing a few extra pins and some judicious gluing couldn't fix though

Nothing special here, just nice and crisp.

Again, nice and crisp. It's a little more angular, but that's what bondo/thickened Aquaresin is for, amirite?

The boring side.

And finally, I noticed that my other gauntlet wanted to flex when I completed it, so on this one I glued sticks to the inside for extra strength. They're attached to the flat sections, so they don't show, and when I glass/resin or hotglue the inside, they'll get even more covered and stuck to the model.

As always, Comments appreciated, criticism honored.

Next time on: ZOMG HEV build, watch (null).exe explain the steps he took in building his Thigh pieces! Stay tuned!

P.S. Nugget, I PM'ed you about models.

 

[part 2]

awesome stuff

 

[Jakkrit]

Wow, I want to make it one...

 

[Loess]

Beauty.

 

[Jonny]

Looking awesome so far, can't wait to see the chest piece.
Good idea with the sticks aswell.

 

[bilsy28]

Looking good so far, Welcome to this site, you seem like your going to be a good asset!

 

[null]

Alright, so I've been taking a break from construction to do some more planning/designing, working on the undersuit.

Ok, so to break it down:

The RED lines will be a plain black lycra bodysuit, such as linked below:



Where the "shark skin" texture is around the neck, I'm planning on attaching something over the top to simulate the look.



The GREEN lines will be a dark grey bodysuit, modified by the manufacturer without legs, arms, or hood. To the inside of this, I'll attach sheets of craft foam to give it the layered look, and to the outside, more of the material I used on the neck for the "shark skin" effect.





Finally, the MAGENTA lines might be the detachable gloves from the black bodysuit, but I think I'll get some all-black armored motorcycle gloves instead. Anything with enough of a cuff to ensure that no skin will show when I move my hands/wrists around (any links/ideas would be awesome). I saw these linked in the Undersuit Forum, I think they would work pretty well.





So, check these out and give me suggestions/improvements/etc

 

[null]

Step 6, Left Thigh:



Hmmmm I accidentally deleted my addition to my earlier post, so I'll just retype it all >.<



So, the thigh was a definite step up in difficulty, not only because it was 9 pages to my other pieces 4-5, but the inset panel on the outside 1/2 with its 90-degree angle all the way around was a bit difficult to keep in place. Did a little creative recutting of the seams to make sure everything was flush.



You can see the 90-degree angle here, I think it turned out pretty well overall, but a few places still insist on being more obtuse. I might leave it that way though, makes the armor piece look a little more sleek, less choppy.

The declination from the outer high edge to the inner low edge was a little steep when I test fit the piece, might need some adjustment to avoid poking me in the hiney while I walk. I don't know though, I might just wear the whole piece lower.

Ahhhh the boring side, just need to make sure that when bondo time comes around that everything is nice and smooth to avoid wearing pain.

So I've been cruising around the forum and think I might steal BFDesign's $5 trick for the edges (see it here) and putting vinyl tubing around the edges of the armor before primering/bondoing. It should make it look a little more professional and mesh well with the red fabric-covered padding I'll be putting inside (see HEV neck area, forearms and shins for reference). Ah well, that's still a long ways off. More updates soon as I complete the other thigh and move on to the shins!