Mass Effect Gear part 2

I figured that for the Mass Effect 2 suit I would need a gun carry around. Unfortunately I did not have the money to buy one of EvilFX's M8 rifles, or enough time before Halloween to try and build my own.

Luckily for me, Nerfenstein/GirlyGamer blogged about a nerf mod that looks really good, and does not take very much time or money (granted hers looks much better than mine, but I am okay with that).

The pistol is a Lanard Shell Shock X-6, and while it is not an exact match for any of the guns in the game, it looks like it fits and it was good enough for a Halloween costume. While the paint job is pretty cool, I figured I would try something a little extra for the gun mod. In addition to shooting darts, I thought it would be neat if it made a shooting sound when fired (in addition to the click of the spring).

 I went online and picked up a sound maker that people put in teddy bears and such (I will add a link if I can find where I got it...). The sound unit supports a USB adapter which you can use to upload your sound file. I put a black base coat on the gun and opened it up to see if the sounds module would fit inside the handle.

Once I cut as much of the backing off as I could, and tucked the speaker behind the chip board, it just about fit.I had to dremel out some of the plastic in the handle, but no big deal. The push button switch that came with the sound module was way to flat to be immediately useful. Luckily I had a larger one laying around, so I clipped off the flat one and soldered mine on.

At that point, I drilled a small hole if the front of the handle, slipped the button through it, and glued it in place.

After that, I closed it up, and screwed it all back together. You can see the button sticking out slightly underneath the trigger assembly in the pictures above and below. With this in place, the index finger would shoot a dart, and the middle finger will make the blaster sound. I originally wanted to rig the sound to the trigger itself, but figured I would probably end up breaking the firing mechanism if I went that route.

After that it was just a matter of doing the paint job. I used some more silver Rub-N-Buff for the light areas, then I dry brushed on some acrylic black and gray that I had watered down to add some depth. Then I used some masking tape to make a trace for the N7 emblem and the stripes and I spray painted those on. Below are some pictures of the finished product with and without the clip.

The slight bulge on the back of the handle is a piece of foam I added because the edge of the chip board stuck out slightly from the handle (dremeled a hole for it to fit through). The foam did not stab my hand as much as the chip board did.

Mass Effect 2 Armor

For Halloween 2012 I decided to try a video game armor set. This was the first costume I did which was based on an existing character, so that definitely brought some challenges.

This armor set is based off of the suit worn by Commander Shepard in the video game Mass Effect 2. Great game, great story, but more importantly - very cool looking armor. I was inspired to try to make this armor when I stumbled upon the EvilFX blog at bioweapons.wordpress.com. This guy does an amazing job, and I think that he sells the pieces too, so definitely worth checking it out. I would never have been able to build my set were it not for all of his tips, tutorials, and progress updates. The armor is made from anti-fatigue EVA foam floor mats, which you can usually pick up your local hardware store, or online at Amazon (but I found it to be cheaper to get from Lowes).

I was originally using a heat knife and soldering iron to cut the foam and create the grooves, but I found I was charring the foam and getting some pretty uneven lines with that method. I tried cutting with a box cutter, and that was okay, but still pretty rough, and a pain to cut with (literally painful, I lost a fair amount of blood on this project...). Eventually I found that an Dremel oscillating cutting tool worked the best for me. It cut smoothly and quickly, and the edges did not require anywhere near as much sanding to get even.

Anyway, I found some templates on the 405th.com that were incredibly helpful for getting the dimensions right (you can download them here). The chest and back pieces on the template were pretty dead on for sizing, but all of the others I had to adjust significantly. I was pretty okay with that though, as the chest and back are definitely the most difficult parts.

For the lit sections of the back piece I used electroluminescent wire, which I ran through foam itself. On the two side pieces, I ran the wire through some clear vinyl tubing to give a little more heft, and to differentiate between the center section. The sections of armor are all held together with nylon webbing and plastic buckles. Originally I was trying to pick up the buckles and webbing at thrift stores and fabric stores... don't, it is way cheaper to just buy a bunch online. The links above are where I got it, and it was way less expensive.

I used Rigid Collodion to make the scar over my eye, and I think it worked out really well. I definitely got some comments from people who thought it was real.

Steam Punk 2

I got the idea for these bracers from a booth at a Renaissance Faire. The ones they had were incredibly well done, but cost more dollars than I was willing to spend. I did pick up a business card, and you can find them on Etsy at BruteForceStudios. My set is quite a bit simpler, but only cost me about $15 to make. The bands are made from vegetable-tanned leather that I had left over from another project. The lower band I painted over with a layer of brown acrylic paint, and the top layer is painted with black acrylic paint.

The typewriter keys I picked up from OrientalTrading, and I sewed them into the bottom layer of the leather, then cut holes in the top layer and pushed them through. The round piece with the map on it is made from a piece of pipe and a cap from the plumbing section at home depot. I cut the threaded end of the pipe off and glued it to the leather. That way the cap piece could be screwed on and off and different lenses and pictures could be dropped in.

I tried out green lenses and clock faces, but I ended up liking the clear color better with the antique map (that is my wife's arm above - I am not quite that scrawny). The bracer I made for her had more of the sacrificial jacket leather used for the bottom layer. I did not like the way that one looked, which is why I did mine the veg-tan leather and gave her the ugly one.

The bracers were held onto the arm using leather laces that I got from Michaels. The two layers of leather were held together with brass plated paper fasteners (I had no idea what these were called and had to do some serious Googling to figure it out).

The goggles were made with the same plumbing fixtures as the bracers (highly recommend PVC for the threaded piece - copper looks cooler but it is a pain to cut, it is heavier, and you are going to paint it anyway). The straps were made from some more straps form the purse that died making the arm piece. the pipe piece is wrapped in leather from the jacket as well (little bit softer around the eyes than PVC, and looks better too).

For the second pair I used a shorter section of PVC pipe (cut right at the end of the threading actually), and glued a piece of the veg-tan leather to it. I was going for more of an aviator look with this, and while they do not look as good in my opinion, they did stay on my face better.

I finished off the costume with a vest and pants from a thrift store, and some boots that I picked up from The Celtic Croft. I also got the rare opportunity to choke my boss, which made it all worthwhile.

Steam Punk Costume

For about five minutes in 2011 my wife decided that she was into Steampunk. As a result we decided to make costumes that fit the steampunk genre.

I made two pairs of goggles, a mechanical arm, some bracers, and modded some toy guns. I think that she managed to make some gear shaped earrings and bought a dress before she lost interest... Oh well.

The piece that really made the costume in my opinion was the mechanical hand. Aternox has a great tutorial on how to make one of these, as well as a gif of his in motion. My build is a bit different in appearance, but the mechanics are the same. Below is a video of mine in motion (please ignore the random pets photo bombing).

Rather than plating the backs of the fingers with sheet metal as Aternox did, I spray painted the springs a copper color, and used gold Rub-N-Buff to get the coloring. I did a base layer of black spray paint and then just rubbed the small amount of the Rub-N-Buff over it in streaks to get an aged bronze look. Rub-N-Buff is pretty awesome stuff and I used it to color a number of other pieces in this costume.

The piece over the back of the arm and the one over the back of the hand are both bent sheet metal, painted the same as the wooden hand (top left picture). To cover my real hand underneath I used the sleeve of a thrift store leather jacket that was sacrificed for a few pieces of this costume (top right). In order to be able to get my hand into the glove and over the rings that controlled the wooden hand, I had to be able to pull back the leather sleeve. To do this I glued fridge magnet strips to one side of the sleeve, and they would stick to the sheet metal over the arm, but could be pulled back to adjust things (bottom left). The glove itself is screwed into the strip of wood that is bolted to the hand itself (bottom right). There is also a velcro strap running around the wooden strip to attach to my forearm (you need a decent amount of leverage to pull those springs down on the finger pieces).

The upper arm section is where most of the thrift store leather jacket ended up. I cut the right arm and upper chest/shoulder out of the jacket, sewed the ragged edge together, and sewed a belt onto it to go down and around my chest to hold it on (that is the strange lump under the vest in the picture). The two hardware looking pieces on the shoulder are actually pieces of one of the nerf guns I painted for the costume.

The gun was a Nerf Raider and the shoulder stock was held in place using the snaps and straps from a purse that had to die to make the costume (also picked up at the thrift store). The ammo drum was held in place using a Kraft macaroni box that I lined with more leather from the sacrificial jacket and sewed onto the arm. On the front of the leather box I glued on a piece of plastic that I painted with more Rub-N-Buff. The pieces mounted on the arm could easily be removed and added onto the gun during wear.

The guns got a base coat of black spray paint, and then silver and gold Rub-N-Buff applied with a finger and Q-tip. The gun shown above is a Nerf Spectre. Next post I will talk about the bracers and the goggles.

Sheet Metal Armor 2

The next bit that I worked on was the chest piece. None of the medieval stuff that I saw really drew me in, so I ended up going with a simplistic "chest and fake abs" look.

I used an aluminum flat top door threshold (the little metal piece that goes under your front door) as a brace down the front middle (you can see the rivets in the chest in the picture). That helped hold the whole thing upright instead of caving over. The ribs and abs were cut from a cylindrical piece of ducting, so they already had the right shape. I used a couple of smaller pieces between the chest and ribs to bring the contours together.

To connect the front chest to the back piece I riveted an old broken pair of FLOW snowboard bindings over the shoulder area. This provided some padding for my shoulders, and was pretty stable for holding the two pieces together.

For the shoulders themselves I just cut out some chevron shapes from the cylindrical ducting and riveted them to the front and back. I wanted a multi-layered shoulder look, so I did a few of those directly to the chest, and then two more to a black hoodie that I wore underneath. By connecting the lower layer to my shirt, I was able to move those pieces pretty easily, which made walking a little bit more fluid.

I went a little bit ghetto on the chain mail armor for the upper arms. As you can see from the picture above, those are soda can tabs clipped together. There is a great tutorial on how to do these by CraftyMommy (plus she looks a lot better in the chainmail than I do).

The back piece was just a flat sheet of metal with nylon webbing riveted into it to link with the front piece. The front had some webbing riveted to it as well, and metal D Rings were used to tighten and hold the two pieces together (please forgive the crappy MS Paint drawing, I could not get a good angle for a picture).

 The greaves were pretty simple, essentially just some chevrons cut out of metal cylinders and riveted together. I used more nylon webbing and D rings to hold it onto my leg, and some foam at the top to push it out far enough that it did not stab my leg when I walked (lost a bit of blood before I thought of that...).

 The feet were extremely simple as well. Cut out a foot shape, bend it over your foot, and hold it together with the nylon webbing. The boots I wore underneath had a slight heel, so could put one strap under the boot, and the other behind it, and they held on fairly well.

I wasn't sure what to do for the upper legs, and I ended up going for battle kilt type thing... with limited success. My goal was something along the lines of these (photos courtesy of Elads and Figure Realm):

I picked up some fake leather material from the fabric store and some poster board. I traced out the shape I wanted and cut it out of both materials, gluing the fake leather over the poster board so it would hold its shape better. Then I cut some more sheet metal and riveted it over the fabric for an armored look. Finally I riveted the whole mess to a belt (which was backwards so that it could clasp in the back).

The last piece was the shield. I cut a piece of plywood into a generic shield shape, then I bent sheet metal over it and riveted it on.I traced and cut a smaller shield shape in the fake leather, and another smaller one in sheet metal, then riveted these layers to the front of the shield. To finish off the front of the shield I sketched out a dragon head and cut that out of the fake leather too. This was just glued to the surface of the metal.

The back of the shield has an old belt riveted on for my arm, and a dowel rod screwed in place to hold on to. I meant to go back and clean up the back of the shield, but never got around to it.

I think that was it for the sheet metal armor. Questions and comments are appreciated, and please let me know if I left out any sources.

Suit of armor in sheet metal...

(a lesson in why you should wear gloves when making sharp things)

Hey everybody! I have been building random costume stuff for fun for a couple of years now and I thought it might be worth sharing some of my projects. I am going to start with some that I have already finished, so it may be a little light on the progress pictures. If you have any questions or critiques feel free to comment.

One of my first projects was a suit of armor that I made for Halloween in 2010. The suit is made primarily out of sheet metal and pop rivets which you can pick up from your local hardware store. The eyes are red LEDs which I installed in the helmet.

The first thing I built is the gauntlets. These are based on an instructable submitted by the user Deathcapt. I went with a black glove as a base, and modified the plating design to cover more of the hand and smooth things out while still allowing a full range of motion.

Each piece of metal is riveted to the glove rather than another piece of metal (most of the main armor will be metal riveted to metal). Riveting directly to glove allows a lot of motion for your hand, while overlapping the metal plates makes it appear as though the metal is secured together directly. To make these you would need a couple sheets of ducting, some tin snips, a rivet gun, and some pop rivets.I would highly recommend wearing protective gloves while making these. I chose not to do so, and I was bleeding more often than not.

For a while I was torn on what to do for the helmet. My first idea was a crusader style bucket helmet... but about halfway through the build I decided that looked terrible. After some serious thought (aka doing some image searches on "helmet"), I decided to make a modified Boba Fett style helmet.

The guys at thedentedhelmet.com have some awesome Boba Fett helmet templates, and I used these as a starting point for my helm. WizardofFlight over there provided the templates that I used.. The main section from the templates that I used was this section (minus the ear flaps): 

I printed the template provided, cut it out, and traced onto the sheet metal with a dry erase maker. After cutting it out and riveting it together, I had the lower portion of the helmet (as you can see, I also left out the vertical strip on the front of the helmet - thought it would look a bit more medieval, and I was afraid the strip would prevent the rest of the piece from curving correctly). The top of the helmet was actually a actually a plastic construction helmet that I bought from a thrift store, cut the top off, and painted a metallic color.

Afterwards, I wired in some red LED lights to make some glowing red eyes. When not lit, the LED I used was clear in color, so they were not obtrusive or distracting. I picked them up from Radio Shack. Unfortunately, I forgot to wire in a resistor, so those fried after a little while. I rewired it after Halloween with some of the big clunky LEDs that I had lying around the house (as you can see in the picture below). They do not look as slick, but I will probably never wear the suit again, and the mannequin in my basement does not worry too much about his vision being obstructed.

You can see some cracking in the upper part of the helmet in some of the later pictures. Unfortunately I dropped the helmet a couple of times while at a Halloween party, and the metallic paint cracked some as it hit the floor and bounced around. Oh well, not the end of the world. 

That is probably more than enough rambling for my first post. If you have any questions or critiques, or if I forgot to credit someone along the way from the design phase, please let me know in the comments. Next post I will go over the chest, pauldrons, greaves and the mail over the upper arms.