[Horgh]

Sup, first post etc.

I've been looking around the cosplay/larp/derp section and I was somewhat unimpressed that there weren't any attempts of making Astartes power armour by any members of this forum. Shame on you, heretics!

So, I thought it'd be nice to sign up and announce:
I'm making Chaos Space Marine armour - it's true!


Here's the progress so far:

In fact I've gotten a little further than that, I've got two shoulders done, and working on the bolter.

But it's made of paper! - That's right, paper. Heard of papercraft? Made my own on 3D editing software Blender and imported it into pepakura designer, which essentially breaks the 3D model down into 2D plains with tabs and numbers, stick tab 43 to tab 43, tab 20 to tab 20, fold this line, fold that line, and turns this:

into this:

That's my bolter so far, incomplete obviously, but coming along nicely I think.


Some of you may be wonder why paper? Well, the idea is to coat it in resin and fibreglass to make it solid, and then apply automotive body filler to the outside, smooth it off and start painting. I can tell you I'm no expert at this, I'm getting my lessons over at 405th.com, who do the same but with Halo and other costumes (including a few other Space Marine costumes).

I'm not just here to show off, I'm here to get advice, as many of you are enthusiasts and would know what looks awesome on a chaos space marine and what doesn't, so I'll be coming here every so often to update and post my pepakura files for your professional opinion. Which is a point:

Just finished this helmet, this is the version without the horns (obviously), and I'll do the horned version later, but what can you suggest? Smaller grill? Different eyes? Pipes were purposefully left out so they can be added once the fibreglass/body filler was done, but should I add them anyway? Any feedback, criticism, encouragement, discouragement, anything would be helpful.

Oh and if you want to make the armour yourself, just ask, and if the request is popular enough I might have to make another topic.

 

[son of nocturne]

Absolutely awesome! To think of the shape as paper thats still to be moulded cant wait to see more!

 

[ClassyRaptor]

lol very small hands.
Any plans for a warp blade or chainsword?

 

[Horgh]

I think I'll just have a bolter and a permanently sheathed blade on the outer thigh.

 

[Viscount Vash]

Sorry that there's not much in this forum we only just got it set up.

I'm very glad we did because now we get to see CSM power armour from start to finish.

Oh and hey if this is the quality to show show off as much as you like!

Looks good on the scale Vs practicality front.

Which chaos Chapter or Legion are you thinking of doing?
We can defiantly bombard you with the right symbols etc.
If you have not decided, let us know and we will try to help with that.

Excellent intro to the site I look forward to seeing more and helping in any way possible.

Vash

 

[Horgh]

Well I'm thinking either Black Legion or Word Bearers... but I might go for Red Corsairs. I might finally decide when I've got the whole thing basically set up, then I can decide and start to customise it.

 

[imm0rtal reaper]

This looks fantastic so far. I was going to suggest pepakura but you're one step ahead of me

The most important advice I can give is to take your time with it. If it takes you three years to make a perfect suit of armour it's better than knocking out a cheap, shitty version in a week. The fact your using pepakura already suggests you will take your time but its worth mentioning anyway lol

Now there are several ways you can go about an undersuit. The easiest way would just be to wear a one piece black bodysuit, much in the same way stormtroopers do. But, for a more acurate look you could try to replicate the ribbed look that the inner elbows and knees of power amrour has.

Off the top of my head, the best way to do this would be to get a square piece of black, elastic like material, big enough to cover the gaps and also overlap into the armour.

Once you've got a piece that covers the gap with some overlap, you'll want to add velcro strips to the inside of the armour ( A note here, use the loop velcro, not the hook velcro for this part, as it wont snap on any clothes you are wearing beneath). Use industiral velcro as it will last longer and it's self adhesive is far superior.

Next you'll want to sew the hook velcro onto the material so it wont come loose. Once this stage is done, you'll have something that closes the gap and also joins the plates, keeping them more secure.

Now for detailing. Measure out the area of exposed material. Then take strips of leather, cut about 1cm wide and to length. Sew these to the material to give the exposeda area that ribbed look. It should look good, offer good flexability and also serve as a way to fasten your armour plates together.


Another tip I have is that the suit will get HOT!. This is a really important thing to take note of. If your out at an event all day with no way to cool down, it could end up being real nasty lol. There is an easy way out though

First, once the helmet build is finished, you may way to carefulyl cut out sections of the gril, to allow airflow into the helmet. You can cover the holes with black screen mesh from behind.

Next you want to get hold of some 12v computer fans to mount in the helmet. There are a couple of videos on youtube on how to mount fans in helmets that will help. I reccommend searching for costumebot for a really good one.

Once you have sorted the air con, it may be time to consider some sort of voice projection. There are countless ways of mounting speakers in the chest piece, linked to a mic in the helmet that will give your voice that voxx sound. It's best to experiment and see what suits you best.

I hope at least some of this helps, and if I think of anything else, I'll be sure to swoop in an mention it lol.

Cheers

Reaper

 

[ClassyRaptor]

Maybe after this you could even make a Terminator suit, with twin lightning claws

 

[goldsmartie]

I cant wait to see this finished, it will be awesome, just, whatever you do, do not make the back pack to small, seen many a good costume ruined by a under (or over) sized power pack. If you make it and its to heavy put a helium balloon in it, as it will help lighten it.

theirs my mini rant done, but seriously traitor back packs are large, and probably heavy.

 

[Boc]

Looks badass!

Now out of morbid curiosity, as I've never really had experience with this type of thing...

Let's see if I understand the process:

You use the program to digitally design a 3D image which is then printed onto paper. Is there a certain type of paper you have to purchase (I presume so) and if so, where do you get it from?

Once you build the suit, you mentioned coating it with resin, etc. How well does the paper-material hold up to the additional weight, and do you remove it once it has dried? (Yes I know, I'm getting way ahead!)

Great work so far though, look forward to seeing more :victory:

 

[reddog9287]

Wow Absolutely Fantastic! I'm from 405th and I was going to do a freehand fold and fiberglass then resin since my friend introduced me to Warhammer for Gamesday 2010. I was unaware that there were actually pep files for Warhammer characters until now! Would have been much harder to make armor without them. Your suit looks great. Is there any way that you can upload the files or send them to me?

 

[reddog9287]

lol very small hands.
Any plans for a warp blade or chainsword?

Do you guys want to see my Bolt Pistol and Chainsword plans? I will post them if you're interested.

 

[Horgh]

Looks badass!

Now out of morbid curiosity, as I've never really had experience with this type of thing...

Let's see if I understand the process:

You use the program to digitally design a 3D image which is then printed onto paper. Is there a certain type of paper you have to purchase (I presume so) and if so, where do you get it from?

Once you build the suit, you mentioned coating it with resin, etc. How well does the paper-material hold up to the additional weight, and do you remove it once it has dried? (Yes I know, I'm getting way ahead!)

Great work so far though, look forward to seeing more :victory:

Fair enough, this is the process I'll be using:

So far I've started to resin my Chest, Helmet, Shoulders and part of my Bolter (started again and did it in cardboard for structural reasons), and I'll do the other parts later on. I have applied a few thin layers of resin over the top of the paper structures, once I've done this I'll be adding the extra detail, like ridges, arrows, spikes, things that are going to be a part of the armour. After this I'll then be taking some fibreglass and coating it on the outside (possibly on the inside too), this is to strengthen the structure.

After I've applied the fibreglass I'll be sanding it down, ensuring there are no enormous bumps, then after that I'll be getting body filler (Bondo if you're in America, which I'm not, so it's just automotive body filler for me) and smearing that on and sanding that down. That will make everything as smooth as possible so then I'll be able to paint it.

For obvious reasons, thick paper is much better. I'm using 150 gsm (grams per square metre) and most of the 405th guys are using 200~300 - but I'm happy with 150. You must be careful though, as some printers might be severely damaged if you try to print on paper that's too thick for it. For glue I use either PVA or my Glue Gun. The paper structure holds up fine against the resin, better than I thought, but it does depend on how strong the structure is in the first place. What I should have done and will be doing for my future pieces of armour is making a temporary drying stand (just made out of cardboard with the glue gun) so that it can hold the pieces in place, but not warp them while I work or while they dry.

You can't really take the paper out of the piece, it's basically what's holding it all together. It won't resemble paper when you're finished with it anyway (if you do it right, that is). This is the finished product of the process above, just with halo gear.

And all of that was paper (minus the soft armour underneath the plating) It's very surprising how good it can look afterwards, you just need to take your time. If you are considering doing this, then you can do worse than joining 405th and asking there.

Wow Absolutely Fantastic! I'm from 405th and I was going to do a freehand fold and fiberglass then resin since my friend introduced me to Warhammer for Gamesday 2010. I was unaware that there were actually pep files for Warhammer characters until now! Would have been much harder to make armor without them. Your suit looks great. Is there any way that you can upload the files or send them to me?

http://www.4shared.com/dir/-dhpIoyO/sharing.html <-- that my 4shared folder full of the stuff I made (didn't make the 'regular space marine' stuff though), there are some doubles, and I really need to organise them at some point, so I suggest just download everything and go through and use what you want.


Good god this post is long.

 

[Viscount Vash]

Good god this post is long.

But very useful.

Thankyou for sharing and explaining. Great thread.

Have some Reppage.

 

[reddog9287]

http://www.4shared.com/dir/-dhpIoyO/sharing.html <-- that my 4shared folder full of the stuff I made (didn't make the 'regular space marine' stuff though), there are some doubles, and I really need to organise them at some point, so I suggest just download everything and go through and use what you want.

Nice! Thanks so much!

 

[Horgh]

So here's a tiny update, I remade the arms, because the previous ones were WAY too flimsy for fibreglassing, there was no inner support or anything. Anyway, so here's what I constructed:

It's sturdy as hell, so it can take the fibreglass and some. My first criticism, however, is that I think it's a bit too big. I aught to scale it down a touch, otherwise bending my arm will be more or less impossible. While I'm making changes, I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask you guys what you think of the arm so far:

Sketch, draw, doodle anything that you think you'd change, or you'd want to see different about this arm. Come on, I need your help here.

 

[imm0rtal reaper]

Looking good so far mate. My only suggestions are, as you've sais, scale it down a little. And I'd like to see the rim at the elbow, where the spikes come down, a little thinner, at the moment i think it's thickness takes away from the awesome spikes.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Horgh]

How do you mean? If you could point it out via paint, that'd be more helpful.

 

[emporershand89]

very nice, use of computers will ease your way, however, make sure you focus on the joints, for if you cannot move, then you might as well be making a statue

 

[Horgh]

Update with the arm and jazz.

The previous one was pretty hefty, after resizing it, it's at a good size.

Comparing the two shows just how monstrous the previous really was.

Enough of that, the one things that are missing are the legs and backpack (which I'll be doing from scratch cardboard). These are the designs for the legs so far:

Just a normal leg with a spike, and this one:

Which will have space for a skull:

Any criticisms? Changes? Etc, please let me know.

The lady friend has gone away for a week, and I've finished education until October so I'll be working on this thing a lot over the coming days.

As always, the stuff I've posted is freely available on my 4shared library, help yourself if you want to have a go.