Pilot to Pilot Uplink Confirmed: Gypsy Danger and Cherno Alpha activated

[vargatom]

Gipsy could also use some bigger boots, right now the upper body is way too heavy. Lift shoes are also a good idea, no matter how tall you are on your own.

Apart from that, it's an amazing suit!

 

[captaincaliflour]

Gipsy could also use some bigger boots, right now the upper body is way too heavy. Lift shoes are also a good idea, no matter how tall you are on your own.

Apart from that, it's an amazing suit!

The feet are actually the same scale as the chest, as are the shoulders and forearms. The biceps and hands are underscaled and the head is overscaled relative to the actual model. Also the hips are a mix of overscaling (for the abs) and underscaling (for the hips) to get proper coverage without being comical

That was me and my friend! I didn't see your Pacific Rim suit, but your spartan armor looked awesome!

If it's cool with you I'm totally stealing that picture Always nice to see other Spartans out and about...we're far too outnumbered at cons

 

[Zero 071]

met you guys at comiccon in phoenix, lookin awesome! I wish I got to see the gypsy and alpha in person but i wasnt there that day

 

[RTWHOCKEY]

If it's cool with you I'm totally stealing that picture Always nice to see other Spartans out and about...we're far too outnumbered at cons

Totally fine by me!

 

[captaincaliflour]

Totally fine by me!

Thanks! BTW someone posted pics of us to Reddit's cosplay subreddit if you're interested!

I've begun work on the hands, and currently have CADD files developed for Cherno's palm, finger, and thumb, and just need to finish the articulator piece that will attach to the palm so that Hailee can grasp a handle to squeeze to open Cherno's hands.

I've also begun work on Gipsy's hands:

But it occured to me that I might be able to manipulate the pep file I have atm instead since Solid Edge can open .obj files. Unfortunately today (being super bowl sunday) the computer commons are closed, so I've been unable to work on them further (as well as unable to do my homework ). Instead I've begun researching how to make a Kaiju, since the girl in California who made leatherback has not gotten back to me and I haven't found anyone else nearby making any kaiju. After initially reviewing Alpha Proto's work I was looking at a foam musculature with a stretchy fabric stretched over it (or perhaps some latex) to give body structure while maintaining mobility and minimizing cost. However I've also been looking into bodycasting tutorials...and haven't found any (if anyone has some that'd be awesome). My only hesitation to bodycasting (besides my total inexperience at actually casting living things, considering I've only ever done sand casting before) is the cost inherent in the process, however I can't help but feel we'd get a more impressive look using a cast body.

Then again, the rigid look of foam may be better for doing Raiju.

The other thing I've been researching is my secret project X which will come into play at PHXCC if we can get a Kaiju there...Specifically, whatever Kaiju we go up with will get boatmurdered! Of course, finding references for the Tanker itself are an excercise in difficulty already considering the only time it appears is in a few blurry scenes in the rain...

Ultimately though, research and studying was boring the piss out of me, so today I made this:

complete with a crystal data chip to house an AI and slide into the helmet:

 

[captaincaliflour]

Got some more modelling work done, with Cherno's hands almost being complete:

Here's the palm

And here's the finger halves that will be printed out 12 times to make the fingers

Also got some more work done on Gipsy's hands, with the wrist in particular:

 

[Glitch]

Hey Captaincaliflour,
I've been stalking this thread for a while now and I just want to say that this is totally awesome!
It's been inspiring me to work on Striker Eureka (the files for which I got here: )
http://www.therpf.com/f24/pacific-r...-12-striker-eureka-coyote-tango-added-191528/
And I'll soon have peppable files up on that page just the feet and head to go

Keep it up! I'm always checking this thread to see if you've done more!

 

[captaincaliflour]

Hey Captaincaliflour,
I've been stalking this thread for a while now and I just want to say that this is totally awesome!
It's been inspiring me to work on Striker Eureka (the files for which I got here: )
http://www.therpf.com/f24/pacific-r...-12-striker-eureka-coyote-tango-added-191528/
And I'll soon have peppable files up on that page just the feet and head to go

Keep it up! I'm always checking this thread to see if you've done more!

I look foreward to seeing it at phxcomicon hopefully!

I feel a bit derpy though, totally forgot to update this thread amidst the chaos of life...got the palm done though!

Just need to finish the fingers and all the joint attachments and then we'll be ready to print!

 

[captaincaliflour]

Well...this past week was spring break so I predictably got almost nothing done outside of a few school projects...that said, we have begun work on a few things.

Hailee's stilts are getting patched up. We're using a system not unlike Forest Gump's leg braces, just less restrictive, in order to allow her to move her stilts with her whole leg rather than just dragging them around with her feet. As such I got the aluminum measured and spaced with all the bolt holes to be drilled:

We've also begun work on another little something...

Since...well..now we have jaegers. But jaegers have no place in the world...without a Kaiju.

Also the lady who video'd us at Amazing Arizona Comicon finally released her video!

 

[captaincaliflour]

Blegh, these past few weeks have sucked...got a speeding ticket for 7 over, had my casting project break while we were molding it, a bunch of other stuff...so today I decided to get over it and keep working:

As such, I got the leg brace portions of hailee's stilts almost done (just gotta finish attaching everything together)

Also finished the crutches that Coulton will be using for his Kaiju:

And hopefully Cherno will be done-ish for tuesday, where we're heading up to tempe to give a presentation on our armor making to ASU Tempe's cosplay club (don't know their official title off hand unfortunately) but the plan is for it all to be good by then.

 

[Jen A266]

HOOOOOO DAAAAAYUMM THAT FOAM WARRIOR HELMET!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway nice work on the armour. The progress is great

 

[Glitch]

wicked cool!
any hints on which kaiju you are doing?

Also my buddy Dumont has been building Striker Eureka from my pep files here!
http://www.therpf.com/f24/building-jaeger-striker-eureka-pic-heavy-209868/

 

[captaincaliflour]

Well this should probably give it away:

Though this is just the foundation, I'll be sculpting the foam and adding layers on top of it to get the right look.

"99 little bugs in the code, 99 little bugs...take one down, patch it around...228 little bugs in the code"

So the stilts worked great...unfortunately they weren't very fitting with the rest of the legs. We'll be vacuforming them probably so they can clamshell around the stilts...that way we can effectively strap them to her legs (which is a problem we had on sunday when we tested them out)

On the other side of that...well...

I need a sword:

So here we have all the plates that I vacuformed, but they still need some work, some sanding to get them smooth and some proper spacing to allow it to release and retract, then it'll be inserted into my forearm since the whole thing is about this big folded up:

 

[captaincaliflour]

The sword has proved to have some problems with aligning everything properly so it slides in and out easily, not to mention a wealth of other things have delayed me. Every class I'm taking has had a class project of some sort due this past week and finals start tomorrow...

On the plus sides I've gotten Leatherback's hands done:

With the yellow bits being sanded so they fit flush against the hands, making the spikes look like they're bone pushing through the skin

Also the foam for the rest of his body has arrived!

And who boy is it enormous...so if anyone shipped some L200 foam about a week and a half ago, thanks a lot!

 

[captaincaliflour]

So sadly things got really hectic these past couple weeks, in part because the two classes I was going to take over the summer in order to graduate by august got cancelled due to not enough people signing up for them, but also because we were actually making two suits: Leatherback, and a Spartan IV. Specifically, Cherno was making her own spartan IV, which meant she was unable to help us work on leatherback despite putting in literally 12 hour days nonstop for a month...and here's the fruits of her labors:

The visor was originally transparent (vacuum formed by me) but when following the "how to make a transparent master chief visor" tutorial over at the 405th, we accidentally laid the metalizer on too thick and it became too opaque to see However, for a month's worth of work I was suitably impressed, particularly since, while the Arizona heat was punishing to all our suits, the only critically important thing that broke on her suit...I made (the undersuit)

She went friday in it and things turned out pretty good (I went in my XV22, seen here:

But we managed to miss Roxyroo in her spartan (which is a bummer...wanted to thank her for giving me the idea to use duct tape to cast Hailee and make making the suit a lot easier)

Also unfortunately, because of how hectic everything was getting Leatherback wearable and ready for Comic con, we didn't really get a lot of pics of him, just stuff from the masquerade really. Still, here's what I've been able to find of our time there!

And of course a video someone was kind enough to post:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=312480662244395


Which, thanks to some awesome music we set up with Audacity and the sheer awesomeness of two Jaegers beating on a Kaiju at long last, we won First Place in the masterclass!

Though the heat meant that leatherback was not so intact by the end of things...we'll probably be completely redoing most of him with a foam musculature under a morphsuit style "skin". This will allow us to make the limbs separate pieces like halo armor and maintain structural integrity along with accuracy while still allowing Colton to be mobile.

We also met some great people at 8 Bit brewery who gave Hailee a nice mug that was awesome (don't have pics unfortunately ) and a guy at the booth next to them who gave me a pretty cool poster:

And what I believe is his tumblr @DXVISUAL (but I don't know if that's a tumblr account, deviantart, or what). The poster was a conglomeration of a bunch of pins and temporary tattoos he was selling, which look I think pretty bitching as tats and I totally wish I had more of them

 

[Kyre]

Cherno and Gypsy look amazing, and Leatherback was awesome! Too bad you have to redo all of Leatherback though... Hey, nice to see some Tau love, haha! A purple scheme as well, I love, since I paint green and purple armored Tau!

 

[axelhead1097]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=312480662244395

That video is literally one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Very awesome work guys

 

[WandererTJ]

Absolutely amazing work.

Have you guys considered doing any Real Steel builds?


And what did you use to construct that head mold?


While I don't have tips on making the sword retractable per say, I do know how you could make it into a whip vs. a sword as per the .gif image you supplied.
Basically, you want to limit it so that it can only shrink in size to a certain degree (ie, the minimum length the sword needs to be). You have the links of the whip attached on a rope, and when you pull on the rope, it tightens the whip so that it is sturdy and straight like a sword should be. It won't retract, but it makes it so that it can be a whip or a sword.
Also, you don't want to add too much slack between the pieces, because if you do, then they have the chance to slide out of their grooves in the piece that the rest within and when you try to tighten it into a sword, you'll have a piece that won't slide in and is sticking out and rotated at an odd angle.

Alternatively, if you will primarily have it as a sword rather than as a whip, you can add a spring at the end to hold the cable tight, and when you want the sword to become loose and turn into a whip all you would need to do is compress the spring.

Just my $0.02.

 

[captaincaliflour]

Cherno and Gypsy look amazing, and Leatherback was awesome! Too bad you have to redo all of Leatherback though... Hey, nice to see some Tau love, haha! A purple scheme as well, I love, since I paint green and purple armored Tau!

It's alright, whenever we get around to it we'll make him the way I wanted to originally...I just don't know anyone who can sew...

I've actually long awaited the chance to wear my XV22 again...every time I wear it I never get pictures xD.

Absolutely amazing work.

Have you guys considered doing any Real Steel builds?

Reel Steel..? As in, using metal in the construction? Or trying to make it based on that Hugh Jackman Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots movie?

And what did you use to construct that head mold?

Nothing, it's not a mold Everything on it is basically foam, except the eyes, teeth, and head tentacles which are all vacuum formed. Eventually I'll cast the head tentacles properly because I want them to be actual tentacles...I just couldn't get the silicone rubber to cure previously and had to pull something out

While I don't have tips on making the sword retractable per say, I do know how you could make it into a whip vs. a sword as per the .gif image you supplied.
Basically, you want to limit it so that it can only shrink in size to a certain degree (ie, the minimum length the sword needs to be). You have the links of the whip attached on a rope, and when you pull on the rope, it tightens the whip so that it is sturdy and straight like a sword should be. It won't retract, but it makes it so that it can be a whip or a sword.
Also, you don't want to add too much slack between the pieces, because if you do, then they have the chance to slide out of their grooves in the piece that the rest within and when you try to tighten it into a sword, you'll have a piece that won't slide in and is sticking out and rotated at an odd angle.

Alternatively, if you will primarily have it as a sword rather than as a whip, you can add a spring at the end to hold the cable tight, and when you want the sword to become loose and turn into a whip all you would need to do is compress the spring.

Just my $0.02.

Actually the point is to make it retractable. I don't want to make just the sword or make it whip-like if I can't retract it, mostly because A) I don't wanna have to carry it out all the time or carry it separately and have to attach it all the time and B) everyone always makes the sword fully extended and I wanna make mine more screen accurate by making it retractable Your idea however would totally work if I was making it that way, it'd just require a motor, some guitar wire, and the individual sword segments, and activating the motor would keep it taught no problem. I just don't want to make it that way

I spent the better part of the last week moving and trying to work up the courage to toss my ironman I'd still rather sell him, but no one wants to buy him...which I guess is reasonable since my body is so weird and his magnets are compromised that people don't want to spend 100 bucks for what amounts to a display piece So many magnets to remove...

Anyways, I've started testing to see if I can get the design down for Cherno's hands to allow them to move properly:

I just need a way now to undo super glue xD I think acetone or something will get rid of it? Anyways, once that's solved I'll go on to finish casting gipsy's fingers that I can then use to fashion the plasma cannon and a proper hand.