Voltron Legendary Defender: Pidge

[Fallen]

With Halloween coming up, I decided to make Pidge from the Netflix reboot of Voltron.

I plan to make this costume out of foam with a 3d printed bayard. This will be my first non-Halo full build, so it should be fun.

I'll cover the beginning of the helmet in a post to come soon.

Materials:
10mm foam
4mm foam
2mm foam
Foam mats
Utility knives
Metal ruler
Knife sharpener
Contact cement
Sandpaper
X-Acto knife
Plasti Dip
Posterboard
White spray paint
Green acrylic paint
Laguna blue acrylic paint
Paint brushes

Resources:
Evil Ted Paladin Helmet

 

[arma358]

That's pretty cool. I've been watching the series after a whole bunch of friends recommended it to me. Personally, I think it'd be cool to do some sort of Halo x Voltron mash up.

 

[Fallen]

Helmet:
I've been following the video by Evil Ted making a paladin helmet for Bex Taylor-Klaus, who does the voice acting for Pidge.





Assembled:

Currently the helmet is being coated with Plasti Dip, and I'm waiting for the visor to arrive.

Early in this phase, I had a couple of attempts that were either too big or I thought the seams were still too obvious. I'm finishing those off without the visor and giving them to a couple of coworkers to give to their kids. Here's one of them with a request for red.

 

[Beemo8bit]

This is a cool idea, really glad to see someone doing a Voltron build!

 

[Crimmson]

this is looking pretty good so far. how much trouble did have in finding voltron files or anything really?

 

[Fallen]

Need to post a larger update soon.

this is looking pretty good so far. how much trouble did have in finding voltron files or anything really?

I haven't had much trouble at all finding templates to use. For the helmet, Evil Ted has a video linked to above and in there he has a link to templates. You can also find them here. As for the rest of the armor, I was able to find search and find enough templates from other people to use as a reference to create my own. There's also this, but the armor pieces are simple enough without having to buy templates.

 

[xXDashIVXx]

Update please! It's looking so good and I am waiting so bad for you to one up Mr smith!

 

[PlanetAlexander]

I might have to make a Voltron armor build (or six...) in the future, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Although I haven't analysed it a whole lot, the mobility in the armor looks difficult, so I'm interested to see how you overcome this.

 

[Fallen]

Ok I finally have something worth updating.

I built the belt first because it was a simplest one to create a template for. Started by making a long strip of the width I wanted with some posterboard, wrapped it around my waist and cut to size allowing some extra for the thickness of my foam. Then I added the side pieces to that template and cut the whole thing out of foam. There are three pieces that go on top of the belt, so I cut those and the whole thing is glued together now. My bevels could use some work, but I need to get a picture from after hitting it w/ a heat gun.



Next up was to create all of my other templates and get them transferred onto foam.

I have a projector that I set up in my living room (sorry no pics) with posterboard taped to the wall. I then measured each distance I needed, adjusted my projected images to fit those dimensions and traced everything. Cut out the templates and transferred them to foam this weekend, so now I have all of my templating done. There are a couple of smaller, detail pieces that I haven't transferred to foam yet, but I plan on doing those just before attaching so I don't lose them. Also there's the jetpack which I have not templated yet. Waiting until I have the full upper body assembled so I'm certain it's at the scale I want before doing that.



Helmet keeps progressing. I've got the visor cut and a white base coat on the full helmet. For the visor, I still need to sand the edges especially to get the rounded portion on the bottom. Helmet should get masked and get its green coat at some point this week. Then I'll install the visor and the first piece will be complete.



Finally, my bayard has been printed and assembled for awhile now, I just haven't gotten the chance to sand out the layers and start painting. It's not as accurate to the show as I'd like, but I don't want to start on another right now, so it'll do for Halloween. If I use the costume for a con, then I'll reprint a more accurate version.

vs

This week the plan is to assemble the chest armor and possibly the arms. Ordered an undersuit and some shoes this week which should come within about a week.

Suit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J5GKMQQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
Shoes: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000T0PCAO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[Fallen]

I'll just leave these here for latest update:



As of right now here's the status:
Helmet: Almost done painting
Visor: Cut
Biceps: Assembled
Forearms: Assembled
Elbows: Cut
Chest: Not started
Jetpack: Not started
Thighs: Traced
Shins: Being assembled
Undersuit: Arrived
Shoes: Arrived

 

[Lemonade]

Nice! Ever since I started watching Voltron, I wanted to cosplay Pidge, but there's no way I could have time to make all my cosplay ideas, so it's nice to see someone doing Pidge justice.

 

[Fallen]

Helmet is done. I gave it a clear coat, dyed the visor, and installed the visor. I also dyed and installed the another visor into my mess up helmet that I'm giving to a coworker.



I'll get pics of the rest of the stuff soon, but this weekend was my big construction push. Friday afternoon I got some help with better measurements for the chest and back and got new templates made for those.

Saturday, I managed to complete building out the main portion of the shins, thighs, knees, chest and back. At the end of the day my board looked like this:



Today, completed assembly of the chest and back, shoulders, sides, and knees as well as smoothing out the seams on my bayard and creating some parts for the ankles. As of now the board looks like this:



The lower leg pieces have these circular parts at the ankle


I wasn't too happy with how they were coming out w/ foam, so I opened up Fusion360 and modeled a quick set of circles with a recess for the quintessence and gave it a chamfer. I 3d printed those, and will attach them to the bottom of the leg pieces after plastidip.

While working on it today, I restarted watching Voltron and came across this scene when the paladins first put on their suits. Hunk's reaction when he first sees his makes me think I should have been doing Hunk.

Costume contest is Oct 26, so I have about a week and a half to make sure everything is good to go.

Any suggestions for my emergency repair kit?

 

[TurboCharizard]

Any suggestions for my emergency repair kit?

A small hobby knife, thin foam, super glue, nylon webbing. Basically with those you can patch any seams that blow out and still have flexibility in your suit with repairs that only take a few minutes to complete.

Well done on your build! I don't know much about the new Voltron stuff but your work looks awesome!

 

[Fallen]

A small hobby knife, thin foam, super glue, nylon webbing. Basically with those you can patch any seams that blow out and still have flexibility in your suit with repairs that only take a few minutes to complete.

Well done on your build! I don't know much about the new Voltron stuff but your work looks awesome!

Thanks. I don't think highly of my work, so hearing good things from others always helps my motivation. Also thanks for the recommendations for what to take. I've got all of that stuff, so I'll plan on packing my emergency repair kit this weekend.

Another small update.

Started on the plastidip/painting phase of the project. Did a first coat of primer on all of my 3d printed parts. There's the bayard and ankle pieces.



I've also gotten a few coats of plastidip on the belt, elbows, knees, and biceps. I have a feeling it's going to take quite a few coats of white plastidip and white paint to cover up that gray foam. My laundry room has turned into a makeshift painting booth for the time being. I've got spray cans on the shelves (not shown) and more on my washer/dryer. The folding table is where I've set up the actual spray booth. Windows are remaining open with a fan blowing air out of them anytime I spray.



There are a couple of parts that still need adjustments before I start painting. For the quintessence areas on the thighs and neck, I cut out the slots completely, and I want to back that with thin foam rather than the typical set the cut out halfway back. I think this will give me more freedom to clean up those rounded edges in particular. As for the jetpack, I'm not a huge fan of how it turned out, but I think using my dremel to clean up a few edges and round some corners will at least help for the purposes of this event.

I realize I don't have pictures of all of these parts up yet. I'm working on it, but haven't made that a priority.

Last, here's the latest board update:



Deleted 3 columns no longer in use, yay!

 

[Fallen]

Less than a week to go! I should be close to finished if not finished with painting today. Picked up velcro and elastic along with more cans of Plasti Dip this weekend.

I took Friday off work so that I could partially play Assassin's Creed Odyssey and work on my costume. I rebuilt the back to make the neck fit a little better (not pictured) and finished applying Plasti Dip to everything else. Also managed to get the white painted on the shins, small pieces, and the bayard.



Saturday I completed any white base coats needed on my pieces, completed the bayard, and got the teal or green necessary for the remaining pieces.


The image on the right has all of the pieces completed so far minus the shins which were still drying from their final coat of green paint.



The jetpack might be ready for paint, and the chest/back plate likely needs one more coat of Plasti Dip. I haven't gone to my workshop yet, so we'll see. Other than that, the thighs are ready for paint and then I can get to work strapping pieces. I may actually make this deadline without rushing the night before to figure out how to strap everything.

The updated progress board:

 

[Fallen]

Almost the final update!

Everything is painted finally. I'm giving them a quick clear coat to protect the color, then strapping begins tomorrow after work.

Ultimately I think I gave each piece 3-4 coats of Plasti Dip followed by 2-3 coats of white (or green if that was the only color). I hand painted any smaller sections.


Here's the back after the white coat was complete:


Chest and Shins after painting:

For the chest decal I scaled an image of it and printed that off then traced it onto painter's tape. Then I cut out the decal and taped the negative onto the chest piece and painted the green. I actually hit it with one more coat of white after applying the tape just to further limit the green from getting under the tape.

And here's the whole set. The jetpack was probably the most rushed piece and has not been applied to the back yet. I'm planning on attaching it with velcro so that I can take it off while sitting.


One thing you might notice in the chest plate is that the neck isn't quite right. This is because I actually used the template from DFT's Marine build to get a shape that was close, but I extended the flat edge even more. I decided ultimately I liked that better, so I kept it instead of adding material to bring that down more in line w/ the actual paladin armor.

Last up, the board. For the sake of the image I had to make two 'Completed' columns so that I could fit all of the cards without scaling way down.


I'm getting excited for Friday with the costume contest. As of now the only other change I've made to my plans is that I had originally intended to wear a morphsuit as my undersuit. I'll keep that to wear for cons and if ever do a spartan (I'll get back to my ODST soon... I hope). However, for this case, I'm going to wear somewhat looser black pants and a longsleeve black shirt along with some black gloves. It'll be more comfortable for me throughout the day.

Next update will likely be the last and will come after Friday.

 

[Fallen]

I'm waiting for some friends to send me pictures from the day, but here's a little update on how today went. First off, I won the costume contest. Even better was walking around and hearing kids and/or their parents shout out things like "Voltron!" or "Pidge!" I'm exhausted even from the couple of hours of wearing my costume, but it was well worth it. I promise to post pictures as soon as I get them.

 

[AsphyxiaOrange]

Aaaaa you look amazing! You definitely did Pidge Justice.