Monster hunter - Barioth

Kommissar

been really preoccupied with actually building, to keep posting images, so my apologies about that, i'm feeling the crunch time.

all the front plates of armor have been cut, and i started shaping them,


the kidney armor pieces were kind of tricky to get right, since i needed to have the bone 'nubs' line up properly, it took me a few tries to make something i felt looked good, some of the other attempts were varying in success.. and most just experimentation.


speaking of the nubs, this is how i throw them together.



then i just smooth them down and add the grooves on the lip.

so all these armor plates are attached by snaps, i was originally going to have the shoulders buckle in, like on the art, but in the end, that would have pulled and streched at the leather too much, so i went for a more practical route to keep my costume in better condition.
thicker leather (same grade as i used for my belt pouches) with the snaps attached and then riveted into the leather on several points.
it comes together pretty well,



this is a fast attempt to lace up the sides on a friend of mine who has a similar build, i skipped i think 2 out of every 3 eyelets, and it worked out really well,
though when i actually wear the armor myself i'll be lacing it fully.




obviously, not lacing up the armor makes it look pretty baggy and odd, as demonstrated


the pec armor was a little spaced apart, so under some strong armed advisement of friends , i extended them inwards a bit,


i've also been working on adding straps to the bracers, and rigging the bicep armor onto the bracers as a sort of extra long armored glove.
i'll show pics once what i'm trying to accomplish, has been achieved, otherwise it may just be a duff plan.

Sandman0077

This is getting to be incredible.

Gideon Vanguard

Long, long time fan of the Monster Hunter games and it's unique armor/weapon designs. Your build really looks fantastic and it's pretty amazing to see what you do with the sintra which I've never really worked with myself. I was curious as to what thickness sintra you typically use on project such as this.

I also wanted to thank you for being so thorough in documenting your builds, its pretty amazing to see how a flat sheet gets turned into something as complex as the arm/shoulder and leg/shin armor. I really enjoyed your NCR build and this is build is shaping up to be nothing short of perfection.

Kommissar

i usually use 1/8th, though the neck guards on the shoulders are 1/4th.

and thanks for the kind words! i really hope people try these techniques with their own monster hunter costumes in the future.. if another one comes out in the US that is *grumble grumble*


so, progress!
i'm working on the arm bands that appear to hold up the bicep armor.. of course thats not too practical, so i'm more using the arm armor to hold up the band instead!
i'll need leather, and some elastic, and then rivets!


some fake buckles, and it really looks much better, i even punched some holes in the sintra and riveted the leather to it!
(word for the wise, sintra should not be cold when you work with it, if its COLD it shatters.
i give it a real quick blast from a heat gun before i try to hammer a hole in it)

i had to rivet leather straps to the forearm armor as well, so i heated around the horns i sculpted, and bent them back, hammered rivets in, and then heated and bent the sintra back again.

you can use leather dye, stain, inks or even just rubbing some acrylic paint into leather to make it seem more aged, which is what i done here.

one of the two finished (apart from painting) arm armor pieces. you'll note i added two more plates to each, and extended the forearm plate at the back with a piece of black sintra as well.
i also used elastic to connect the last two or three plates rather than nylon strapping, to give it more flexibility (suggested to me by MandaBear!)


the turquoise/teal paint ive been using worked fantastic on these black deer skin gloves i had laying around.
i've been stressing about how to find turquoise gloves, but i guess the fact that the leather paint i used worked so well as to perfectly block out the black leather underneath, that wont be an issue anymore.



the armor is really coming together, it still needs paint, and many many details, but i'm hopeful i can get it all done.
on a side note, the Barioth is a gigantic arctic sabertooth wyvern..
the armor emphasizes agility and flexibility, which i have to say, for the most part, this is making out to be some very comfortable armor thus far..
what i find amusing is i'm considering making a second undersuit to wear for the costume that involves covering my upper arms with some kind of fabric, because if its warm.. i can wear it normally.. but if its cold? ugh.. i will freeze my skinny ass off :/

Cal

Looks awesome. That heatgun is getting a workout.

Kommissar

been hermitting a bit, sorry,
work on the helmet,
looks kinda crappy, but this is step one.

and this is roughly step 16..




done some leather working, to produce this double buckle belt..
this will have horse hair and belt pouches attached.

a later shot of the front, the hair still needs to be cut and styled


leg armor got leather straps attached to make it wearable.


i have to attach these sort of.. sideburn like tassels to the helmet, so i cut a thin strip of metal and used plyers to crimp it around some hair, razor cut it abunch to mix up the lengths and such, and then put some apoxie in several stages around the top, and these will be later apoxied to the helmet,

the elastic is a quick rig to test lengths, but this is the work on the jaw bone that i wear with the helmet, works pretty well, but it needed some more coverage under my own jaw,

so thats what this is


i've also cut some deeper groves into the large crown teeth, and serrated them a little to be closer to the art for the monster they belonged to.

izabel

Hello Kommissar!

very cool build you got there!

I sent you a pm.

Gideon Vanguard

Looks like things are really starting to come together. I have to admit seeing your work encouraged me to pick up a few volumes of the Hunter's Encyclopedias for reference. I'm still in the process of settling into my new house and trying to get a basement workshop finished but I definitely will be looking to undertake a Monster Hunter project in the future.

I spent a good deal of time playing Tri online (250+ hours?) and although Barioth was a cool cat (literally) I think I spent most of my time running around in Gobul, Agnaktor, and Jhen Moran while trying to work on an Alatreon set, which I never did complete.

Kommissar

getting real close to needing this all finished,
it's rather exciting.
and pretty tough.

but its coming together.

so first up, priming time!

fist, in grey, as above, why? because i have a mix of white and black plastic pieces,
this means a neutral color to bring the pieces to an even ground is going to be smart when i.. give it an off white color as the 'base' color.

got a great shot of my thumb here...
and thats one of the pectoral plates, with its off white base color.


the build involves 8 double ended kunai dagger things, so i made one, chopped it into little pieces, watered it every day for a week, and grew some more!
i actually just made a mold, and then cast up 8 of the puppies.
one of them is rather sticky.. so i may recast it..


so, onto my bone paint job, first, we have the off white piece

then rub in some brown acrylics,
forethought here was my overheating of the plastic to give it that rough porous texture, so this is where it can really be used.

then finish up with detailing any cracks i carved, with a paintbrush

got a few pieces done, thus far.. i'm considering more detail some how.. but unsure of what to do.. it already looks pretty good i think.. anymore and i risk the double edged sword of adding too much detail.


i looked over the pieces ive done, and i realized i was missing the gorget, so about an hour spent on it, i hammered out a pretty good one to use, just needs paints.


i also painted up the jawbone that i wear on my chin for the armor,
i was not sure how this would work, since the other pieces ive done thus far were quite textured, this was rather smooth, lacking the porous texture, but the same technique worked out great in the end.

Sandman0077

This is the best scratch built costume I think I've ever seen.

Judge Spartan

Just Beautiful! other than that I'm speechless...

Finnlock

You really nailed the jaw bone. I think if this doesn't land you a job doing props..well, then there is always accounting :P

But really, top notch work as always mate!

Wes R

Looks great. Monster Hunter doesn't get much love in the US other than as a bit of a cult classic of sorts.

Kommissar

the power of repetition, applying the same paint concept to all the armor i made, which isnt easy, or fast.

pandamajik

But boy does it look great. I know that it's been a lot of work but geez you make working with sintra look easy.

littleemochibi

absolutely fantastic job so far. on a side note if I remember correctly isn't the barioth a frost/snow wyvern, so wouldn't it be a little whiter?(not saying do it over or anything mean but I'm just wondering)

Kommissar

Correct, the Barioth is a giant sabertooth snowwyvern tiger thing, i've been going for a slightly more realistic approach, so i'm going for a partially aged bone look.
also, i wanted to have it look perhaps closer to a concept that most of the armor plates are actual bone, rather than scales, so the darker color would not be all that unusual, since its not surface armor of the monster, and thus not really environmentally camouflaged

Hourai

This is incredible. How much apoxie sculpt did you end up using?

Kommissar

i've made my way through about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a 4lb tub.

littleemochibi

Thanks for the clarification, and again fantastic job.

Judge Spartan

I finally bought some apoxie sculpt and have worked a little with it and absolutely LOVE this stuff! I think your work is fantastic and the paint job is outstanding. I'm in the process of looking more into Monster Hunter because of your build and may have to try one myself.

Uopap

I bow before your awesome skills...

Kommissar

So we got started on trimming the horse hair loin cloths..
man this made a mess, and boy do small pieces of horse hair turn out to be killer spiky!



i'm very quickly coming to ADORE rivets as my go to attachment method.
i need to have armored hand plates attached to gloves? RIVETS!


works a charm (sadly the paint caused issue when i was wearing the full armor, but ive gotten some advice and i know a good chemical sealer now

quick test shot i took to see how the glove matched the arm and shoulder.


next up.. rather important, the wig that needs to be attached to the helmet.

Zip ties worked out really well for securing the hair,

the wife went to cutting up the hair when i had attached a few "wefts" to the front of the helmet of horse hair,

why add wefts? the wig covered about 3/4th of the helmet, we needed some hair at the front to cover this bald spot right by the visor/jawbone armor. it turned out really well though.
and im really glad she styled it and not me.


next up, i needed to make these damn weird kunai bandoleers, i expected this to be a 2 hr job.. a full day later.. i proved myself wrong.

4 kunai for each bandoleer? yeesh im glad i only have to hold these on my belt.

they turned out well enough, the front had a series of rings attached to a snap based belt loop.

and the back was a straight snap, and the other side was set into the belt directly.

being pretty concerned with all the articulated areas rubbing, i took some measures to prevent as much of that as possible.


so after all that.. i was pretty ready to suit up at the convention. but i didn't have a weapon ready!
i did a test run before i left, and the armor pieces worked out fine and well proportioned, and Volpin sent me a package in the mail,
it was the mold of his infamous FF11 Kracken club,
he, no longer having any real use for it, passed it onto me, of which i am honored.
so i cast up a copy and gave it a quick paintjob to give me SOMETHING to take to the con,
i felt a little bad it wasnt accurate, but the club looked great and no one seemed to mind.


i forgot to mention that i done some airbrushing on the horns of the armor, but i was too rushed to take photos of that

Kommissar

Well, the costume was really successful, and came together really well.
minimal wear and tear, i wore it for about 3-4 hours one day, and 8 hours straight the second day.
Anime LA 2012 (DD) - 01 - YouTube
this youtube link shows off some of the nicer parts, watch out for the gaining volume of the music though.

so i figure you may wonder how i put this all on?
well i start with the pants

vest

belt and bandoleers

gorget

shin armor and then the foot plates

arm armor and sleeves
jaw and shoulders

and finally the helmet and gloves.. !

for some additional pics there are a few direct links and galleries.
Anime Los Angeles 2012 - a set on Flickr
Monster Hunter | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...8573739&type=1
i'll add more when i get ahold of them,
the first flickr gallery will have some more uploaded to it soon, once my wife in finished editing them

Judge Spartan

Flat out FANTASTIC!!! I saw you in a video clip walking around with 2 other characters and you looked amazing.. Great work sir.