Mass Effect 3 N7 Armor build

[DavesNotHereMan]

Are you just using the foam pads that you would get for a workshop floor?

 

[Rogue Spectre]

@ Davesnothereman:
Thank you. FYI though, this is not pepakura, nor were any patterns downloaded or traced. Yes, these are your standard EVA foam flooring mats from lowes.

 

[redhawk591]

Looks great! I was going to make an N7 armour, but i couldn't find any foam with the right texture/pattern Hopefully i will find some in the future All the best, can't wait for more updates!

 

[zmanz]

that's awesome. would you ever consider doing this suit? I'm really considering trying, but I have no experience...it was actually inspired by the Mass effect armor (which is fairly obvious):

http://howtocarveroastunicorn.blogspot.ca/2011/10/batman-meets-mass-effect-universe.html

...could someone post the pics here? I'm no good at this :cry

 

[Rogue Spectre]

Most of that costume is fabric and sadly I do not own a sewing machine.

 

[zmanz]

yeah you're right, I'm actually getting a grey wetsuit to attempt a decent replica.

 

[LoveofCountry]

Glad I'm not the only one that noticed wetsuits looking more "authentic" in the ME universe than lycra. Ordered 3 yds of neoprene from spandex world, gonna try my hand at sewing up my own ME style wetsuit in the next couple months.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Hey Rogue, let me pick your brain for a moment since you've worked with different mats. I know that EvilFX uses the ones from Harbor Freight because I see the wrappers in his pictures, but for the life of me, I cannot get a clean cut out of these. I know it's not my cutting, because I have another mat here that I can get perfectly clean cuts from, but it doesn't have the "carbon fiber" look to it. Do you see this typically with all the mats you use, or do the ones from Lowe's not give you this problem?

 

[LORDXBLACKWOOD]

Hey Rogue, let me pick your brain for a moment since you've worked with different mats. I know that EvilFX uses the ones from Harbor Freight because I see the wrappers in his pictures, but for the life of me, I cannot get a clean cut out of these. I know it's not my cutting, because I have another mat here that I can get perfectly clean cuts from, but it doesn't have the "carbon fiber" look to it. Do you see this typically with all the mats you use, or do the ones from Lowe's not give you this problem?

Dont try to use that carbon fiber mat look. N7 armor is not gray, its black. You can paint on the carbon fiber look and be much happier with the result. As far as a clean cut goes, you got to have sharp blades all the time otherwise its starts to pull at the foam giving you bad cuts. I get my foam from big lots as well. Comes in a huge roll for $18, its the 1/4 thick mats. You wont need more than that since everything is layered.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Well, I have black foam that I am happy with, so I'm open to suggestions. How do you paint on a pattern like that easily?

 

[Rogue Spectre]

Hey Rogue, let me pick your brain for a moment since you've worked with different mats. I know that EvilFX uses the ones from Harbor Freight because I see the wrappers in his pictures, but for the life of me, I cannot get a clean cut out of these. I know it's not my cutting, because I have another mat here that I can get perfectly clean cuts from, but it doesn't have the "carbon fiber" look to it. Do you see this typically with all the mats you use, or do the ones from Lowe's not give you this problem?

I always sand my edges with a dremel after cutting. As far as Harbor freight EVA goes, I'm not sure if different stores buy from different vendors, because the EVA mats that I bought from my local store were very very low quality and would not hold shape very well at all. Also they HB mats had low quality "carbon fiber" patterns on the one side, the quality of the EVA is very porous and not at all dense enough. I have seen Evil FX's work up close and have not noticed this at all, which make me think that either they had a **** batch, or different stores buy from different vendors.

I get all of my EVA from Lowes, the quality of their mats are the highest that I have seen from any local retailer. They are way more dense, sand better and hold shape better. The only down side is that they are twice as expensive as the HB EVA mats.

 

[Rogue Spectre]

I didn't have any issue with the carbon fiber printed pattern. Evil FX, Punished props and Volpin props all use the carbon fiber printed pattern as well. Don't paint it with a paint brush though, I used one of those little gray sponge brushes that you can get in any paint section of any home improvement store, and on the smooth parts I used my fingers or a scrunched up paper towel. I go more over my builds in detail on my page.

https://www.facebook.com/wmarmory

Any questions you have I will be more than happy to answer

 

[Jaedena]

I was never happy with the two piece compression lycra stuff that we wear under our TK gear; its fine for TK because you can't really see where the shirt ends and the leggings start. With the N7 gear the gap between the thigh pieces and the ab plate really shows this line to anyone who looks more than 3 seconds. This is why I decided to make one piece under suits for myself and my boyfriend.

The trick to this is, you really do need a surger. Trying to sew lycra together with just a zigzag stitch and hoping that your seams stay together when you're putting on the suit is kind of like a hail mary pass. Our suits are skin tight since that's what it appeared to be in the game (which I am playing through yet again - come hell or high water, I am getting *both* the Geth and the Quarians to play nice). I also sewed the military collars on to the bodysuits; the game models don't have scoop or v neck shirts:

To finish off the suit, we die-cut a weave stencil and used a semi-gloss black fabric paint. Like Volpin, I took the lazy way out and only painted the areas of the suit that would be visible when wearing the armor.