Foam ODST Build - Upgrade Time Again

[Fallen]

I don't have any big updates to report at this moment. House projects have taken a lot of time away, but those are nearing completion.

Chest plate, side hip plates, and stomach plate are all in the bondo phase and slowly making progress. Eventually I'll have to decide to stop trying for perfection as I need to get this done. Nothing says I can't make adjustments afterwards, as long as I have a full suit by my deadline.

I stopped on the backplate so that I can focus my energy on moving everything else to the painting stage.

Printed both a left and right buckle and smoothed them to prep for casting. I'm mostly doing the casting so that I can get the experience. Waiting for my silicone to be delivered, but those are in no rush.

In short, no pictures, and there likely won't be many updates until everything has been bondo'd.

 

[Hein B287]

I'll keep a close eye on this thread then. Need those buckles too. From the pictures here and the description its going to be awesome fellow trooper

 

[Fallen]

Cast the buckles to get an idea of how to do this. I pretty much followed a video by Punished Props (found here)

Steps:
- Model parts in Fusion360: These were simple parts, so a great intro to modeling with Fusion
- Clean up prints using spot putty and sandpaper up to 800 grit, sanding twigs and files
- Create a box to contain the parts and mold. Let cure 24 hours before removing master.
- Mold the parts.

Supplies:
- Fusion 360
- Mold Max 30
- Mold Release
- Casting Resin

Here's the result right after pulling the pieces from the mold. These will need some cleanup before being able to prime and paint, but overall not awful for a first try.

 

[Badkitty]

This build looks great!! I'm glad you didn't give up. I hope all goes well!!

 

[CollinMcCaf]

Word of advice on your castings, if you had prime and sand (300+ grit) before making your mold you'll have a lot less sanding to do later on.
Simply sanding with filler alone, even if you're going to 800 grit, will almost always leave low spots. I ensure my parts are glossy smooth before making my molds.
Mostly, I just hate sanding resin... Hope it helps!

 

[Fallen]

Still working on sanding and shaping. Was getting closer on the chest and hip plates, so I gave them a coat of primer to see where I stand.



As we all know, once you make it all one color, you start to notice the imperfections even more. There are several high spots still where I need to sand down more, and a few more low spots. On the hip plates, I still haven't done the indented section. I wasn't certain how noticeable any ridges would be in there until it was one color, so I'd been putting it off. I'll definitely be working on those areas in the coming week(s).



Here's a better image of one of the cast buckles along with the master after removing that from its backing. I still haven't done any sanding, filling, or priming on the casts, just a quick rinse. I'll add that to my list of sanding work to do this week.

Once these pieces are through shaping, I'll move to the stomach (somewhat started already) and forearms. The forearms have a lot of little details I'll need to add, so I want to get their shape right and have the time to focus on them more.

 

[Fallen]

Gotta keep moving forward. I'm starting to get a little stressed out trying to have everything done by August. I realize that's a couple of months away, but I keep looking at what I have to do and thinking I may not make it.

I keep forgetting to take pictures along the way! I'm so focused on trying to get everything done that I don't pause to take a photo in between steps. Need to get better at that.

There are a few pieces that I do want to make before August including the back plate. Since my last update on that, I still have not done anything for it. I have a total of 15 pieces (left and right considered different parts) still going through shaping.

Cast a couple more buckles, filled in some imperfections, and primed. Those are ready for paint. Really they just sat around until I had some downtime (and motivation) waiting for Bondo to cure.


This past weekend I got the chest plate, and hip plates moved on to painting, so here's a collection of everything in the painting phase right now.

Show are the chest plate, hip plates, front hip plate, shoulders, biceps, butt plate, and belt. Those in silver were finished recently. The rest were done a long time ago. I'm now not considering things through shaping until they have the silver undercoat.

This weekend was all about getting the gauntlets going, finishing the outer sides plates and the stomach plate. When I built the stomach plate, I didn't like how the model did the inner circle detail, so I ended up modeling a quick piece and 3d printing it then gluing that on top. Definitely like how that turned out better than my original plan to use PVC pipe and a bottle cap. Took about 10min to model and 20min to print at .1000mm layer height


Of course now I'm looking at my workbench and thinking how much I need to clean it off.

Other item of note: I stripped the paint off of the helmet and started over on that. I was growing increasingly unhappy with the paint job I gave it. I like some damage, but I felt that the chips of "missing" paint were too much, so I stripped and sanded and hit it with primer and the silver coat again. It'll get repainted when everything else does.


Goal for the week: Finish arms, outer sides and stomach. Start on calves and inner sides

Month Goal: Complete the shaping phase to start on strapping

I have a wedding to go to Saturday evening and a family reunion next Saturday, so I need to get plenty of hours in during the week to make up for lost weekends.

Crunch time.

 

[Fallen]

Small update: Not much progress in the past couple of weeks. My basement remodel had to take priority, and I've found trying to do two big projects is wearing me down. So I've halted where I am until the basement is done. Good news on that: I've almost finished priming the walls, and half of the floor is done. Moved the weight machines so that I can start on the other half. This week/weekend getting the priming and floor nearly done (have to move the machines one more time to finish the floor). Next week I'm taking some days off so I can finish the floor. At least when that's done I can turn the space into its intended purpose before worrying about final paint color and trim. That will free me up to get back to work.

That project plus looking at my budget currently after two remodels within 6mo of each other makes my original plans to go to DragonCon a no-go. As such I've called off the deadline and will shoot for having a costume by Halloween for my company's costume contest and make adjustments to have something better for DragonCon next year.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Good to have priorities. Also good to hear remodeling is going well.

Love to see what progress you make as you go, but totally understand what you mean by budget restraints. :'(

 

[Fallen]

Finally back to work!

As posted previously I stopped working on my ODST in June of last year to focus on other things. After that I made my Pidge costume for halloween last year. I ended up taking a break after that until about mid-January when I decided to rebuild the thigh plates. Reason? I was super unhappy with the way the previous ones turned out, and thought it was better to re-pep than try to fix them with bondo. I'd also separated the lower part that goes around the leg after hardening thinking I'd do some change in attachment and decided I'd rather try to keep that intact. That said here are the new thigh plates, better scaled using Armorsmith. I've tried them on several times, and am pretty happy with the fit. This week I should be able to add a thin layer of rondo inside. I like to do that over the fiberglass because it smooths over the fiberglass.



Ordered some foam to create the torso armor that goes underneath the plates and plan to start on that as soon as foam arrives. Looking at my progress board from last year I see that 10 pieces are ready for paint, 2 in painting, 2 adding detail, 6 in the shaping phase, 2 in hardening), and 1 in not started.

Teaser of new prop build:

 

[Fallen]

So this past week I managed to get the thigh plates hardened completely. I also sloshed some rondo around the insides of the thighs to cover the fiberglass more. Ground away any sharp edges and tried them on. They fit, but the edging is quite uncomfortable even over my undersuit, so I'm still going to sand away more of that to have a looser fit around the edges. I accidentally knocked one of the plates off my workbench and chipped the raised part. I always already going to rondo the outside to get an initial smoothing before the bondo phase, so I poured rondo into the hole to fill it some. I'll be able to fix it more when I do the rest of shaping, but will ultimately turn that into some level of damage.



As for the helmet, I've repainted and am pretty happy with the final color choice. I went with Rustoleum Black Stainless Steel which is just slightly lighter than the Oil Rubbed Bronze, but I like it much better.



As always, I like to add a clear coat to give it some protection when I tape over to do the stripe.

Wait a day, and the stripe:



Picked up Tester Blue Metal Flake and paint it in light strokes. Still needs another clear coat and some light weathering before I call it complete, but it's starting to look like something I want to wear.

As for the visor, I purchased the silver visor from Sean Bradley when I bought the helmet, and have since bought the black as well. For lining, I've got this helmet padding kit, and I'll add a little more foam under each piece to give it an ever tighter fit. Add some fans and we'll call that done.

Thankfully, my foam purchase arrived, so I should get started on building the chest core within the week. WizardWorld is next weekend in St. Louis, and I'm going, so that'll eat up a day of working time. Bring out the old marine build for that.

 

[Fallen]

Promise to get a new update soon. Been working hard at getting this suit done and have some decent progress to share.

In the meantime, what do some of you use to transport your armor? Looking to upgrade in the not-too-distant future and looking for ideas to protect my kit. In case it helps, I don't tend (or plan) to fly with my armor, so that's not a factor in my decision, but I do plan to drive 5+ hrs with it in the back of the car.

 

[Fallen]

Chipping away at the thigh plates right now. Got the raised section filled and smooth. Now starting on the top half. One of the parts has a pretty low spot that's taking awhile to fill, but it'll happen. Just gotta go slow and steady building up the proper layers.



You can also see in the last image a little taste of an upgrade to the shoulder plates. If you recall, I originally pepped the shoulder plates, and those are primed and could be used if I wanted to. However, I always planned on making a v2 for them, and it just worked out that I ran across an ODST shoulder file on Thingiverse. My printer was sitting idle, so why not put it to good use and let it print out some v2 shoulders while I keep working on the rest of the parts? Just working on sanding down the layers and applying spot putty where necessary. Fills in the short time while waiting for the Bondo to cure just enough to take a razor blade and cut off any overhangs or high ridges.

Finally a look at my helmet with the silver visor installed. Always a good motivator to see a part completely painted. Just needs padding and fans and it'll be done.


Plan for more in the coming weeks as well as a post on any tools and supplies used.

 

[Fallen]

Warning: Double post incoming

Not much to update since my last post, but things are still progressing. Thighs are getting closer every day. The majority of it has been rounded nicely, but there are still a couple of areas (usually where the pep had awkward angling that ended up being lower spots than I would have liked. That said, I do want nice rounding to the edges, so always pushing towards that.

Below was after the first or second round of bondo and about halfway through sanding down. You can see where it's still low compared to the edges. Ultimately I sand down until most of those high points reach the paper and go back in a fill up in smaller sections. I probably apply too much Bondo to begin with, but I don't mind the extra sanding. Usually start with a mouse sander to begin with when I do large sections as it is then move to hand sanding as the


After getting the basic shape I want, I hit it with some primer to see any remaining spots. Nothing that requires mixing a batch up specifically for the top, so time to start working on the part that goes around the inside of the leg. You'll notice that it's not sanded anymore than a rough sand at this point. When I get the inner thigh section basically shaped, I'll go back and sand down to the smooth surface I want as well as hit any dings with spot putty before spraying a final coat of primer. All in all the basic shape is coming together. I plan to model and 3D print the detail that goes inside the squares on the raised section.



I other news, I mentioned going ahead and printing new shoulder plates, those are printed, layers sanded, and primed. I see a big on one of them the layers separated, so I need to go back and fix that up, but no worries.



Hopefully this week I can get those thigh plates done with shaping and moved on to adding those detail pieces. Then I need to go through my part box and finish the pieces in there. I'm saving the inner chest for last and/or when weather is bad and I need to park my car in the garage and lose my workshop temporarily.

 

[Fallen]

TOOLS!

Been wanting to add a post with some of the tools I've been using and have decided to split it up depending on the step in the process. Will try to add links to buy some of it as I go.

Here are the tools I tend to use while shaping:

List:
Safety Glasses ($2 at Menards)
Respirator ($18 at Amazon)
Dust Mask
Flexible cutting board (3pack for $1 at dollar store)
Putty Spreader ($5 at Amazon)
Putty Knives (< $5 at Lowes for plastic)
Razor Blade ($8 for 100pk at Lowes)
Stanley Surform Shaver (~$2 at Amazon)
Brush (I buy in packs of 75-100 also used for resin)
Tube Squeezer (3D printed)
Bondo Filler ($15 a gallon, smaller size displayed)
Bondo Spot Putty (~$4 at Walmart)
1-2-3 Blocks (varies Amazon)
Air Duster (varies)
Mouse Sander and Sandpaper (40-grit to 1000-grit)
Sanding Blocks ($6 at Amazon)
Sandpaper Cleaner (Menards)
Sanding Sponge (varies)
Sanding Twigs (Amazon)
Sanding Sticks (DIY with paint sticks and sandpaper)
Wood Block (grabbed out of a wood block set I had as a kid at my parents')
Detail Sanding Block (~$2 at Walmart)
Needle Files (Amazon)
Gloves (Lowes)
Sandpaper (40-grit to 400+ grit in various sizes)

Not displayed:
Dremel with stand a flexshaft
Various clamps

It's worth noting for beginners, that you don't NEED a lot of this stuff. I spent the first 2 years of getting into this by having nothing more than a respirator and/or dust mask, safety glasses, gloves (PPE is a must), some putty spreaders, Bondo, sandpaper of various grits, and a wood block. Everything else has come later to make my life easier when I'd decided I really loved doing this and wanted to continue.

 

[Fallen]

Not a pic heavy update. Got too involved with getting trying to get things done that I forgot to take pictures along the way. Good news is... thigh plates are done being shaped.

It took awhile to get everything where I wanted it, and I didn't do a lot of work the previous weekend as I opted for landscaping instead.

I also went back through my older parts that had been primed and determined which parts got chipped, or I wanted to do some more work filling in imperfections on. While working on the thigh plates I also repaired the chest plate and hip plates. Finally, I opened my box of hardened but not shaped parts and pulled out the inner side parts and completed the basic shaping. Still need details on these parts, but it's nice to see them with their basic shape and in one color.

Thinking about what's left, for basic shaping I still need to complete the knees and shins. I also hope to fix some imperfections on the forearms, outer sides, and front hip plates before going into adding detail pieces. The final part that hasn't been started is the inner chest which I'm making out of foam. I have it scaled and templates printed. Need to get that started soon.

My one worry at this point is the fit of the shin and knee armor. I scaled it in Pepakura Designer instead of Armorsmith and therefore scaled on height and not width and depth with the plan to split the shin knowing there'd be a gap between the parts. I hardened the parts and tried them on several times before putting them in storage, but I haven't tried them on since, so I'm a little concerned that they won't fit now. I plan on doing this tonight so I can determine if I need to rebuild at a larger scale or can deal with the current size for now.

 

[Fallen]

Well tried on the shin/calf armor. If I wear my old boots, they'll fit, but they won't fit over my new boots. I was at least glad that they fit over my leg w/ my planned pants on and that the problem is the different size of the rim of my boots. Those parts were already split after being hardened about a year ago, so I'm going to take a risk and only rebuild the calf portion. There's fewer small detail pieces to worry about doing that as well, so I'm hoping this saves me some time.

Printed the parts last night and will score and cut them today and begin assembly on the first part. Trying to get one piece assembled and maybe even started hardening by the end of the weekend. I've finally updated my progress photo to reflect the new status, and will update the one in the first post.

Noted, I will not be doing the boot covers until everything else is done. They are a great to have, but for the sake of time are not counted in my priority list and therefore not a must have at the moment.

 

[Fallen]

Smaller update with no pics. Rebuilt the calves a couple of times. I didn't like how pieces were being cut by my Cameo, so I went ahead and reprinted and cut by hand. Much happier doing that. The ones out of the cameo were just off enough it was frustrating me. First one of that has been braced and gotten a coat or two of resin. Will fiberglass tomorrow and post an update with pics after that. Also want to get another supplies post up.

With a long weekend this week I hope to get at least a rough finishing of the shins and calves before next Tuesday.

And finally...

LET'S GO BLUES!

This post might have been a diversion to be able to post that.

 

[Harri51]

For pep. You are killing it! great work. Welcome to the trooper family man. More troopers the better!

 

[Fallen]

Got the calf plates pepped at a scale I can live with and hardened. Now every pep part that I labelled required for my build is back into the shaping phase. Based on my tracker, that means that the knees, shins, and calves are in the shaping phase. I have a lot of pieces that are awaiting touch ups and/or details such as the gauntlets and the front hip plate. Those details will depend entirely on time remaining when I get the lower legs and inner chest done. Seeing as I already have upgrades for v2 planned I'm not stressing out over getting all of the minute details in this batch. Plus I still need plenty of time to figure out strapping and padding, plus a fan system in the helmet.



Unfortunately I only remembered to take pics during the layout fiberglass phase. As you can see though, I measured the distance I needed to fit the parts over my boots and hot glued the foam to hold that shape. Given I built the parts focusing more on the height I needed to fit my leg, I was forcing it wider than the original shape of the model. Given more time I would have preferred to scale in all directions for what I needed and built from there using Armorsmith. I'll still need to cut out some material on towards the top to allow me to crouch comfortably. But now... Bondo time.

A little teaser for v2:


I'm 3d printing several pieces for v2, and here are the inner side parts being printed. Starting with any parts that I'm really not happy with in the original pep files. The parts aren't on my priority list to work on, but if my printer isn't in use and I'm waiting for something like bondo to cure I'll work on a part here or there. So far replaced and able to go with the current suit are the shoulders and belt buckle.