Latex armor/Commander Shepard suit update (Pics!)

Hey everyone!

I've been a lurker on the forums for a while, finally going to post on here! I've loved reading about everyones costume progress, I'm always so inspired. Anyway! So, I work a lot with fiberglass, latex, foam latex, etc etc, but I've never actually gone the rout of making superhero-style skin-tight armor. Whether that be urethane, latex, or foam latex. I'm going to be doing a quick turnaround update to my ME2-3 Commander Shepard costume for the upcoming launch and a few other events, and I want to experiment on a few new ways to create the suit. Right now its all sculpted, molded in silicone, and cast in fiberglass (the torso is fabricated using neoprene and a ton of barge glue, lol). The carbon-fiber texture was a heat-formed sticker I treated with a urethane gloss, just search carbon fiber sticker and you can find sheets of it online, easy. I want to try to do the toso-piece and the leg pieces like sort of a batman style, sculpted and then cast out of a rigid latex or urethane...rather than hard fiberglass. But I know absolutely nothing about this other than how I use slip latex to create masks, etc. And they're definitely not the same thing.

And who better to ask then you guys!!??

Anyway, here's my current Shepard suit (actually a few different renditions, one half ME3 and one ME2), I'm going to be adding more details for the new one, but you can see the general idea:











So far I've made two Krogans over the past two years (one officially for BioWare) as well as 2 Male-Shep suits for BioWare and one Fem-Shep suit as well. But I'm always trying to make them better and I want this new suit to be the best yet.

Thanks guys!!!

~Holly

My .02 - Use platinum silicones for your molds if you're casting urethane rubber. Many urethanes will not cure in tin.

Wow, you've done an amazing job there! Can't wait to see more.

I'd especially like to see more of those Krogens.

nice work, saw your performance at 2010 Comic Con - simply awesome!

Hey Holly, looking forward to seeing how you go about thi next one. Hopefully you get plenty of answers on how to go about it.

Wish I had some good advice to give but, judging from your past projects, I think anything you make will probably be badass!

Thanks guys!! I'm having a hell of a time finding answers to this. Smooth-on has some examples of dragon skin silicone armor-like costumes. They seem to work well, so I might give that a try. Making the fiberglass injection mold is is just a huge pain in the ass, but that may be the only way to get it thin enough and the right shape on the body cast if I do use silicone (barring that I don't get ten million bubbles the first time, I don't have a de-gasser for it because I'm cheap).

Oh and if you guys want to see more Krogan action we have it all on our youtube channel for myself and Crabcat ;D Here's a fun link with the Grunt animatronic we made a few years ago. I'm not sure where the videos of Wrex and Garrus are, but they're on the official BioWare stuff from last year.

Grunt Says See you at Comic Con - YouTube

Nice suits. Got a chance to see whichever one you were wearing at the TIFF premiere of the Comic Con documentary (I was the biker scout hanging out in the theatre and at the afterparty).

Looking forward to seeing more cool stuff!

How did you get the uh... Boobs part on the breast plate to work so well?

Awesome suit!!!

Saw the videos a few years ago and had to look for my jaw in the basement. Fantastic job ! Welcome aboard !

Looks great. Nice, very nice.