Half Life 2 HEV Suit - My first costume build!

Bob McCormick

New Member
I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster and I wanted to share with you guys my first in-progress costume build. I'm going to attempt to build Gordon Freeman's HEV suit from the game Half Life 2. Wish me luck folks, because I've never done this before and I have no experience building any kind of costume or anything similar. :)

Since this is my first build, and I'm not exactly flush with free time, I've been looking for any ways to simplify and make this faster/easier. I figure if I can at least complete this first build, I can always get fancier and explore more in-depth techniques on future projects.

To that end, I've decided to go with the Foam/Pepakura building method. From reading about other people's projects here on the RPF and on other forums, that sounds like it's the most "noob" friendly method to get started building costume armor. Hopefully that will end up being true!

As near as I can tell, there seems to be only one set of HEV suit Pepakura files out there, which are the ones used in the "Enter the Freeman" mini-movie. Am I correct that those are the only ones? Anyone found any other HEV Pep files?

HEV Pep files:


First (mis)steps - building the forearm bracer.

The first thing I started on was attempting to build one of the forearm bracers. I built it first out of card stock, then rebuilt it as a slightly simplified version out of foam. It was pretty much a disaster.

Here's a couple of photos of the unfortunate forearm bracer:
IMG_20130629_170610.jpgIMG_20130629_170730.jpgIMG_20130701_180645.jpg

As you can see, it looked like crap. :(

I did learn a few things though:

  1. Glue sticks work much better than tape for building Pepakura models out of card stock. :$
  2. It's a mistake to use too much hot glue. I ended up with big blobs of hot glue sticking out of every seam. And blobs of hot glue are not as easy to remove as you might think, although I did find the smearing them out with the tip of the glue gun works pretty decently.
  3. Getting hot glue on your finger burns... badly. :cry
  4. Test everything on small pieces of scrap material first! If I'd done that, I could have easily figured out proper hot glue technique with minimal waste of material.
  5. Sizing is difficult. The forearm bracer built out of cardstock looked pretty decent, but after I built it out of foam it was pretty obvious that it was way to wide for my rather skeletal-like arm proportions.

I decided to tackle a simpler part next, and went with the upper arm piece. I think that's turned out pretty well so far. I spent a considerable amount of time attempting to estimate the size and I think it paid off. I was also much more careful with my hot gluing. :)

Here's a few pictures of both upper arm piece.

IMG_20130802_095600.jpgIMG_20130802_095608.jpg

Very simple pieces, but I think they turned out quite a bit better. It also gave me an opportunity to practice resizing. One of the problems with building an HEV suit is that it's supposed to fit like a glove. Which means you can't just rescale the model in Pepakura. If I did that with the upper arm piece, I'd have either ended up with something the correct length that was WAY to big for the diameter of my arm, or something the correct diameter but so short it'd look like I had a "LiveStrong" bracelet wrapped around my bicep. :) I'm not good enough with 3d modeling to change the proportions of the model, so what I ended up doing was a lot of cutting and splicing of the Pep template until I ended up with something the size needed that still seemed to approximate the shape and curves in the original model.

The next piece I'm working on is the upper leg piece. I like the way that piece has turned out so far. I'll post some pictures of it in the next day or two.
 
Last edited:
If I recall correctly, the HEV pep files floating around are built from the Half-Life 2 HEV model. The biggest issue with them is that the legs are not really in a human scale (I forget the problem, I think they are too thin?) and need to be heavily modified in order to fit. A while ago I had extracted the Black Mesa HEV model and was attempting to turn it in to a pep, since it has slightly more realistic human proportions. But that's been buried under projects which are taking higher precedence for me right now.

I also want to suggest using superglue rather than hot glue when working with foam. You get really strong bonds without the mess of seeping hot glue. Try to find a hobby shop or a hardware store that sells generic brand cyanoacrylate to save money.

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
 
If I recall correctly, the HEV pep files floating around are built from the Half-Life 2 HEV model. The biggest issue with them is that the legs are not really in a human scale (I forget the problem, I think they are too thin?) and need to be heavily modified in order to fit.

Well that explains a lot! :) I've actually made some progress on the legs, and I did have to modify them heavily to get them to fit. I'm a little worried about the chest piece, which I haven't started on. I'm REALLY hoping that'll be better proportioned, because I'm not sure modifying it will be easy.

Regarding superglue, have you had any difficulties with how brittle superglue can be?
 
I haven't built an HEV yet but Johnnymuffintop has, and I *think* he used the same files. His chest came out pretty okay, check out his build:

http://www.therpf.com/f24/gordon-freeman-half-life-2-gravity-gun-160082/

I've not had any issues with cyanoacrylate becoming brittle, it bonds EVA foam extraordinarily well. In high stress places what I have done is bind the foam with CA, and then on the interior, go over the seams with hot glue almost like you're caulking it to reinforce the seams. I've not had any sort of major failures using this method.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I started building one years ago and the legs took 8 or 9 attempts before I got the scaling to a point where they fit and didn't look awful. I'd like to try it again in foam, but not the crappy EVA foam. I'd recommend using L-200. It isn't as expensive as people say, it's way smoother, and it bonds with Barge rubber cement, which melts EVA foam.
 
As I mentioned in my last post, after doing the rather simple upper arm pieces, I decided to tackle the upper leg. My reasoning BTW, was to go in increasing order of complexity, more or less. The upper arm/bicep pieces are the smallest, simplest pieces of the HEV suit. Even simpler after I eliminated the odd elbow bump that's in the pep model. The thigh pieces are pretty large, but they're relatively simple, so I thought I'd tackle those next.

Here's a few picture of the thigh built out of card stock straight from the pep model:
IMG_20130716_193724.jpgIMG_20130716_193730.jpg

It's not obvious from the pictures, but the thigh pieces are actually way too wide for my legs. Time to re-size again (sigh). I had more than enough of attempting to size to fit via trial-and-error modifications to the card stock model when I built the bicep piece. I could see that wasn't an approach with a future, so I really needed to find a better approach. What I decided to do was pick up some tracing paper from a local art and hobby shop, and try to use that to build a sizing template for my thigh.

Here's a couple of pictures of me trying to using the tracing paper to template my leg:
IMG_20130725_190746.jpgIMG_20130725_191114.jpg

Then I rearranged some of major card stock pieces from the pep model onto the tracing paper to try to create something that was pretty much the right size, but preserving as much as possible of the original shape.
IMG_20130725_203952.jpg

I then outlined THAT onto some more tracing paper, cut it out, then sized it to my leg again:
IMG_20130725_204021.jpgIMG_20130725_204959.jpgIMG_20130725_205010.jpg

Things were looking pretty good, so I taped up the card stock pieces into their new arrangement and did one last sizing test.
IMG_20130725_215037.jpgIMG_20130725_215548.jpgIMG_20130725_215606.jpgIMG_20130725_215613.jpg

Still happy with the results, so I went ahead and cut it out of foam. Here's some pictures of the foam piece on me.
IMG_20130726_213239.jpgIMG_20130726_213307.jpgIMG_20130726_213328.jpgIMG_20130727_192548.jpgIMG_20130727_192559.jpg

After re-sizing the thigh piece so much, the cutout for the inset piece in the side wasn't really correct anymore, so I had to re-size that a little also until I thought it looked about right again. Then I cut it out of the thigh piece, and cut a slightly larger version out to actually glue behind the cutout. After that, I used a heat gun to curve the foam into a cylinder, and also to add the slight inward curve that the thigh of the HEV suit has at the top and bottom. I ran into a little bit of trouble at this point. I wanted to glue the inset piece onto the back of the thigh first, but I can't seem to find a glue that can stand up to the heat of the heat gun. :confused Oh well, it held together well enough, I just had to do some touch-up gluing afterward.

Here's the final result, the thigh piece of the HEV suit:
IMG_20130802_095531.jpgIMG_20130802_095537.jpgIMG_20130802_095542.jpg

The next step will be the calf pieces, and I suppose I should take some pictures of the bicep and calf pieces ON me. :)

I'm still a bit concerned about how I'm going to keep everything on. Any sort of straps or buckles are likely to show. I'm leaning toward trying to line the pieces with a soft foam, like pillow or mattress topper foam, and see if the pressure of the foam against whatever I'm wearing under the armor (still haven't decided that either) will hold everything on. I'm definitely open to suggestions though.
 
Looking really good so far!:thumbsup
I have plans to make mine this way (eventually!)
Have you thought about using a morph suit for the undersuit?,what about stick on Velcro for the armour attachment?
 
I believe velkro will work for mounting pieces on if you don't want straps to show. You may want to use the kind with sticky back or sew it to the under-suit.
 
I started building one years ago and the legs took 8 or 9 attempts before I got the scaling to a point where they fit and didn't look awful. I'd like to try it again in foam, but not the crappy EVA foam. I'd recommend using L-200. It isn't as expensive as people say, it's way smoother, and it bonds with Barge rubber cement, which melts EVA foam.

I agree that the EVA floor mats are pretty crappy quality. Here's an example. In the picture below you can clearly see the kind of holes and imperfections that are all over the foam. You can also slight see what IMHO is the larger problem. The rubberized pattern on what's normally the "top" side of the mat prevents you from being able to cleanly build up layers by glue the foam in layers. I'm going to use regular paintable house caulk to patch up both issues, but it'd be nicer not to have to.
Foam Problems.png

I really like the quality of the foam in those little craft "foamie" sheets if the L200 foam is anything like that, I'm sold for my next project!
 
Just did a price check on L-200 foam. Fist hit was to foammart.com which has a 48x72 sheet (1/4" thickness) for $24.50 plus shipping. That ain't bad.
 
Yea, L-200 is much higher quality and a different composition than eva. Its better than the foamies as well. When I finally get around to making a foam cyberman it will be made from L-200 glued together with Barge rubber cement and coated in Smooth-On Epsilon.
 
I did a quick materials test yesterday in preparation for when I finally get to paint this thing. The goal of the test was to find the right way to prep the surface of the foam before painting.

I tested 4 methods:
  1. Mod Podge
  2. Paintable Caulk
  3. Diluted Paintable Caulk
  4. Bare Foam

First up was Mod Podge. I know this seems to be used a lot for coating foam, and I was pretty excited about it at first. A couple coats on a piece of scrap foam created a really nice, smooth, almost shiny surface that just looked awesome. Unfortunately my excitement turned to disappointment as soon as I flexed the test piece. It seems that even relatively modest amounts of flexing leave very distinct and permanent wrinkles. :cry

Next up was Paintable Caulk. I'm already using this to fill any joints and gaps, including the annoying surface defects in my foam roll, so I thought, what the heck?. Well, the caulk works great for filling gaps, but it's damn near impossible to get it put down as a smooth coating across the entire surface of the foam. Mostly because it's so damn thick.

Which led me to my third test, watered down caulk. Basically I added water to the caulk until it had a "milky" consistency similar to the Mod Podge. This brushed on *much* better and also seemed to do a good job soaking into and really bonding with the foam. A couple coats of the watered down caulk and the foam was looking pretty good. Not as shiny and smooth as the Mod Podge sample, but not bad.

And the fourth test was just the raw foam.

For all 4 test pieces, I sprayed a basic spraypaint primer in 2 coats and then photographed the results.

Paint Test 1.jpg

As you can see, I think both the Mod Podge and the diluted caulk samples look pretty good. I'm not sure there's a clear winner yet though. The Mod Podge sample wrinkles badly if bent (you can see some of the wrinkles in the picture). The caulk sample on the other hand, handles bending and flexing awesomely, but because the foam is still soft, you can snag it with a fingernail, etc and kind of scratch the paint up and sometimes off pretty easily. It doesn't feel like the combination of caulk and paint is really adhering strongly enough to the foam. I also think the bare foam *might* end up decent with a few more coats of primer.

BTW, for reference, here is the specific caulk and paint I was using.

IMG_20130808_091836.jpg

Any suggestions for a good, durable topcoat that doesn't wrinkle? :confused

My ideal coating would be something like in this video, but he's using the smooth craft "foamies", and I'm not sure his method would give the same results with the more porous floor mat foam. :unsure
 
That I don't actually know. I used water diluted PVA to coat my War Machine last year and I didn't have issues with cracking or flexing. The biggest drawback was that it didn't hold up to extended wear and tear very well - after about 3 cons the armor was definitely showing signs of age. But then again, foam armors aren't meant to be archival costumes.
 
I've had a bit more progress since my last update. I built the other thigh piece (looks just like the first one, so there no real point in posting a picture) and built one calf piece.

The calf piece was probably the weirdest sized piece yet. I'm not a large guy, but the size in the pep file was puny even for my legs. Which is odd, considering how large the thigh piece was. I re-sized it larger in Pepakura to make the length approximately right, but then of course it was now way too big around. <sigh> So far none of the pieces have been very close to my proportions, and I can't imagine they all are properly proportioned for any human being. They seem almost randomly sized and proportioned. :lol. I'm REALLY hoping the chest piece is closer. Much like the other pieces, I re-sized the calf by first using tracing paper to make a template of my calf, then cutting and rearranging the printed pep pieces on that template until it was pretty close to what I wanted.

Just like the first thigh piece, I glued the inset piece behind the cutout first, then used the heat gun to bend the two pieces of foam together. And again the glue really didn't hold put to the heat. I'm definitely going to have to try a different approach next time. I was more careful with the heat gun though, and the glue only popped up a bit on one side. Which was pretty easy to fix, once I figured out a way to press the two pieces together without pressing the curve back out of the foam. I couple of bomber bottles full of beer came in handy for that. :lol

IMG_20130805_185226.jpg

Gluing was also difficult, because after heat curving all of the pieces, they really didn't want to fit together anymore. I think it turned out O.k. Although I'm definitely going to need to smooth it out a bit with some sandpaper. :-(

IMG_20130808_182246.jpgIMG_20130808_182252.jpgIMG_20130808_182256.jpgIMG_20130808_182303.jpg

Here's some poor quality pictures of me with both leg pieces on. You can kind of see in the picture that I have to hold the thigh piece on. I'm going to try some velcro to attach that piece to my pants, just haven't had the chance to make a run to the store to get some.

IMG_20130809_194230.jpg
IMG_20130809_194251.jpg

I also have a small update to my previous paint prep tests. As I mentioned before, the two materials I'd tried so far for coating the foam are Mod Podge and painters caulk. The Mod Podge had an awesome looking smooth finish, but was super susceptible to wrinkling, even with relatively minor flexing of the foam. I'm concerned that could be a problem if the foam flexes while I'm putting the costume on, while I'm transporting it, or when I sit down. The caulk on the other hand flexed well, but was so soft that the paint would "snag" easily and scratch right off.

If I had to go with either coating right now, I'd go with the Mod Podge and either just be very careful not to flex the costume, or try to reinforce it from the inside. But I'm not happy with either one so far. I haven't decided if I'll try some more options (diluted PVA, etc.) or just skip straight to PlastiDip which seems to be the most commonly used option.

One slightly larger paint related problem I've noticed is that in all my paint samples, now that the primer has had a couple days to dry, the primer itself cracks badly with even the slightest flexing of the foam. This is happening with all my samples, including just primer on bare foam. I'm not sure if this means I need to use a different primer, or if I need to use something like an adhesion promoter. For reference, this is the primer I've been using, it's Rustoleum Painters Touch Ultra Cover. If anyone has any suggestions I'd certainly welcome them.

IMG_20130808_091836.jpg

Well, that's it for now. My next tasks will be building the other calf and finishing re-sizing the forearm. Wish me luck! :)
 
The OP of this thread: http://www.therpf.com/f24/docs-foam...elmet-very-detailed-chest-149883/index47.html (reply #1170) gave his technique for sealing and painting foam. If you have to time to read his entire thread, he has used several different methods but finally felt the latest method was the best. His work is superb and I recommend giving his technique a try but one caveat is that while the materials used are not overly expensive, it can add up depending on how much you use. Hope this helps!
 
The OP of this thread: http://www.therpf.com/f24/docs-foam...elmet-very-detailed-chest-149883/index47.html (reply #1170) gave his technique for sealing and painting foam. If you have to time to read his entire thread, he has used several different methods but finally felt the latest method was the best. His work is superb and I recommend giving his technique a try but one caveat is that while the materials used are not overly expensive, it can add up depending on how much you use. Hope this helps!

I do NOT know how I've managed to miss that thread in all my searches, but THANK YOU very much for pointing it out to me! That's a wealth of information!
 
I don't have many pictures to post with this update. I now have both calf pieces, both thighs, both upper arms and both forearms pieces. I'd built the one forearm initially, but I didn't like the way it turned out and I also wanted a slightly tighter fit to my arm. I again used tracing paper to create a rough pattern sized to my arm, then drew in the curve that the upper part of the HEV forearm is supposed to have, as well as the shape for the cutout. I did the cutout slightly different this time. Since the forearm is rather small, I used a thin craft foamie as the backing for the cutout instead of using a separate piece of the 1/4 inch EVA floor mat.

Here's a comparison of the original forearm from the beginning of this thread, and the current forearm:
IMG_20130812_104919.jpg

I've also partially built the chest piece of of cardstock (no pictures yet, sorry). I didn't build the whole thing, just enough to gauge the size. To my surprise, it fits!! The piece I was most dreading having to resize, is actually the only damn piece that seems like it's going to fit perfect. :) Finally something is going my way.

I made a quick shopping trip to pickup some spray Mod Podge and Liquid Electrical Tape so that I can try something close to the "docholiday" painting technique that infymys linked to above. Hoping to start on that this evening.

I still need to figure out what to do for the waist piece of the HEV suit. There's no Pepakura models for that, although it should be relatively straight forward. I'm considering doing it in the thin craft foamies rather than the floor mat in order to make it more flexible and easier to wear.

Thanks, thats all for today folks!
 
Last edited:
This thread is more than 8 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top