Foam ODST Upgrade/ new ODST

[S229]

So i've been chugging away at my thigh piece, and i've gone through about three iterations, and i just cant seem to get it right. On the part of the inner thigh where the armour is like, Ribbed? I guess is the correct way to say it, it always is too tight. i'm doing it as one solid piece, and just scoring in the lines where there is separation as seen in the pic.

What i'm wondering is if it would be better to just cut out each of those strips separately and glue them in a stair step fashion, or if it would be fine to keep it as one piece of foam like i've been doing it. (for this particular piece, i'm using 2mm foam)

 

[S229]

When I get home later this evening, i'll post a pic of my current progress so y'all can get a better look at what i'm talking about.

 

[FalseShepherd]

I worked on that exact part on my odst thighs last weekend. Didn't get it done, but I determined that I am going to try a two layer approach with one flat layer and then the individual strips added on separately. This giving it that 3d look and having good/clean separation between the strips. The whole piece I'm thinking about using velcro to attach it so it doesn't contrast the hole too much to get my leg through. I don't have pics but I hope that description makes sense. I will be excited to see how you handle that section. It's definitely a tough section.

 

[S229]

I ended up using a single layer of foam that I scored and heated to make the inner thighs. Around about Wednesday of last week, I had an epiphany, realizing that the fantastic MoeSizzlac has the thigh files on Thingiverse, which proved to be a great reference. After much trial, tribulation, loss of motivation, and a couple of late nights later, however, I have finished one thigh, and the second should be coming a whole lot sooner as I now know what i'm doing (mostly). Pics will come tonight! (I mean it this time)

 

[S229]

Thank you all for bearing with me as I struggle to upload posts and/or pics. I hope to have the armour done by the time June rolls around, but with school and work, we'll see.... but, I am super excited to be finally finishing my suit, and i'm also really happy with how it's turned out so far.

 

[S229]

As promised, here are some pics of the thigh armour. More will be on the way soon, but for now heres what i'm rockin'.

 

[S229]

As you may notice, the plate that sits on top of the main body of the thigh is from the DFT files, attached to the structure of the H3: ODST game.

I cant wait to paint everything though, i think it will look really cool once its all weathered and finished.

 

[S229]

Here are more angles to see, the glue work does need a once over to clean up some stuff, as well as some of the edges could use a dremmel to even them up.

 

[S229]

 

[S229]

Update time!!! I ended up banging out the second thigh in like an hour and a half, and then the following evening I attached them to my belt that I made.

 

[S229]

I have decided to reuse the kneepads from the previous iteration of the suit, and so basically all I need to do is make the shin armour, then it’s all ready to paint!

 

[S229]

Over the past week, I have made a bit of progress. I disassembled the shin armour portion from the knee portion on the old armour piece and set to work fixing a couple of busted seams, reenforcing the whole thing over all, and going over exposed seams with some EVA foam clay that I have. everything is properly dried, and they are all good to go. construction begins on the shin/ calf section this weekend!

 

[S229]

Hello everyone!
I am, in fact, still alive! I honestly forgot I have a thread to update, but here comes a big one.

So, the idea of using the previous build's knees didn't go so well, so I scrapped it and began work on the shin/knees that are seen in H3:ODST.
it went went well for the most part, and they came out well, albeit a bit bigger then I was expecting, but I am happy with it.

The construction of the first shin went smashingly, taking a loooooong time, but it was well worth the effort I think.
The second shin took significantly less time to complete, but I feel came out slightly more..... janky? Idk, I chalked it up to the quirks of hand making something.

So, i'm organizing this post in order of my last one, for continuity purposes, but before I actually got started on the shins, I had hit another motivation wall, because I had never done a full calf armour around my legs, only shinguards like in the DFT ODST, and so the task was a little daunting. So, instead, I just worked on the other thing that needed done.

The backpack!

It isn't 100% game accurate, but I didn't worry about it. The inside is hollow, but I couldn't figure out a way to make a sort of lid or anything like that to utilize the storage space, so for now its more form over function, but i think it came out well.


So, what does it look like with everything else?
Well, that a topic for another tim-


nahhhhh... im joking, here yall go!

So, with all of the building out of the way, all that must be done is painting and weathering, so updates on that soon. (hopefully) I may or may not upload a suit-up pic, but i'm debating wether or not I should wait until its finished to build maximum maximum suspense...

But, updates may come in a while, because I have turned this hobby into a profession, and a string of commissions have just come in, so those will be taking most of my time. I'll update when I can!

Cheers!

-S229

 

[S229]

I have returned. I'm still alive and i will be posting soon. Im super excited to show all of you what i've done.

the current plan for the rest of everything goes as follows:
-Apply base coat of black paint to all pieces
-Add red highlights for secondary coloring
-seal any areas of grey foam that are tertiary coloring
-Blackwash, blackwash, blackwash
-battle damage

Painting doesn't take too long since its mostly spray paint but i've never done blackwashing or battle damage and i have to have it finished in time for a convention (my first ever convention) I'm going to in November. I'm excited but also nervous (Nerv-cited?) about doing this but i've been happy with what i'm building so far so i have confidence that it'll work out.

Thats all for now!

Cheers!

 

[S229]

So, I’ve been sleeping on my updates, but I’ve finally finished the suit!!!!! I’m super excited to show it to everyone!

So, I did some additional coloration and armouring on the helmet, as well as re did the visor, and it turned out pretty good.

Then, I did a tiny tiny update to the chest and fixed the pouches on the side of the main middle plate, as well as reposition the knife accordingly.

Side note: I ended up scrapping the S229 on the chest, as I had very strangely cut it out of printer paper and tried my best to glue it on, so I removed that and found a way to stencil it on using spray paint, so it looks a bit cleaner and more uniform.

Then, I re-did the inner thigh pieces, taking a more layered approach to it as well as making the radius slightly larger for a better fit.

Here you can see the old (right) vs the new (left)

Shortly thereafter, I painted the thighs.

After that, I forgot to take any more pics of the process, but I did a little red detailing on the rest of the suit, and then finally suited up for the first time!


So, without further ado, here is my custom ODST v2:

I forgot to put on my boots, oh well.
I’m super happy with how it came out, and I’m looking forward to seeing y’all out at conventions in the future! Thank you to all of you that have given advice and have supported me through this process, and I will see all of you over on my spartan build thread from now on. Thank you.

-S229

 

[PlanetAlexander]

Looks great Helljumper!

 

[Axeofares76]

Looking good, I was just able to pull mine out of storage,(life happened) now I'm going to try and salvage and finish it. Going to have to either build a new helmet or get a printed one. I'll post some pics later on, just waiting for materials to arrive.
ODST Helljumpers

 

[S229]

Looks great Helljumper!

Thank you!

 

[S229]

i went to my first convention, and took some pics, but i posted them on Instagram. However, i did crop a few for some pretty good full suit up pics, that are higher quality, as well as with my shoes.