New Zealand Space Marine - Designed to Party Hard!

Dynofiend

Well-Known Member
Well I finally seem to have got the hand of this new dad malarky, and got to the point where I have a little time to myself in the evenings while everyone else is asleep. To celebrate, I've started on another project!

Two years ago I successfully completed a foam Iron Man Mk4 and wore it to a two day event in New Zealand called 'The Sevens'. Loosely based around a fast paced version of Rugby Union played internationally as a league, in New Zealand it's morphed into a sporting competition/huge dress up party. My Iron Man suit was so unbelievably successful with everyone, culminating in me winning the costume contest in it and being presented with the award on the field in front of 23,000 people, that I decided I wanted to do something for the 2015 contest in February. It had to be visually imposing and impressive as well as obviously having plenty of effort put into it, and really standing out from the crowd.

I chose a Space Marine.

Whilst not well known outside gaming circles, it will be (at about 6'2" with no stilts, and taller with them) pretty visually imposing anyway and hopefully well executed enough to look cool and not too 'home-made'.

The build requirements:
Must be able to walk easily.
Either can sit in it, or can easily de-suit to sit.
Must be able to accept, hold and drink a beer without assistance (acknowledging the helmet may need to be off for this part!).
Must look well done (not look obviously like a home made foam suit).
Must be reasonably well ventilated/cooled (the event is in the middle of our summer).
Must be fairly comfortable to wear (8-9 hours on and off at the least).

Some other initial ideas that I've had:
12mm EVA foam main construction.
Scaled to around 6'2" but with floating ankle, knee and hip joints to allow me to insert platforms of several inches in the boots to extend my height for 'special occasions'.
Narrower cod and waist to make the proportions more 'superhero-esque'.
Integral sound system with walking robotic sounds and the ability to play music (phone mounted in vambrace)
Glowing eyes/other detail lights easily able to be turned on and off.
Naked camel-back filled with ice water inside chest for cooling/hydration. Refillable without de-suiting.

Here are a few pictures of progress starting with my 'concept' design.

Storm_Wardens_Tactical_Marine copy.jpg2014-05-08 21.26.39.jpg2014-06-07 13.50.41.jpg2014-07-05 20.53.31.jpg2014-06-22 14.24.02.jpg2014-06-22 14.18.51.jpg
 
If you want it to be well-scaled and comfortable to wear and walk around in, don't just use pep files ripped from the games. Those models crash through themselves pretty horribly. I'd suggest getting a Forgewrold statue and working from that, as it's actually non-hero scale, so the legs and arms are the right proportion to the torso and head, which is where it seems everyone is falling flat.

The codpiece is just that, a codpiece with the loricating butt-plates not connected to it, so it's really not a diaper as such.

Personally, I don't think foam is the way to go with SM armor, but that's me.
 
If you want it to be well-scaled and comfortable to wear and walk around in, don't just use pep files ripped from the games. Those models crash through themselves pretty horribly. I'd suggest getting a Forgewrold statue and working from that, as it's actually non-hero scale, so the legs and arms are the right proportion to the torso and head, which is where it seems everyone is falling flat.

The codpiece is just that, a codpiece with the loricating butt-plates not connected to it, so it's really not a diaper as such.

Personally, I don't think foam is the way to go with SM armor, but that's me.

That's all good feedback. Fortunately this armour has already been scaled to fit a normal person so the arms and legs are pretty well in proportion already. I can tell by standing next to it that the joints largely align with my own. With it being foam, I can very easily adjust the size and proportions of the pieces by inserting or removing portions of foam, especially in the arms, legs and abs sections. Whilst foam may not be ideal, a FG pep is just not an option, and nor is a scuplt and cast. Too expensive, too time consuming and not something I would do as a first time foray into the world of resin and matting! There is the option of using urethane to finish the pieces (which are already pretty rigid as they are) for an ultra smooth finish, but given it's intended use it's realism and accuracy are less important than ease of construction, cost, and wearbility.

We'll see how it comes out though, I may end up eating my words!
 
Hey dude, I've seen part of this build from your post on Cosplay New Zealand, Pure luck that I saw your build in here. Absolutely spectacular man, deadly

crack up that the initial reason was the 7's haha, love it
 
I am really impressed! Nice work. How do the knee supports work for you? Flexible enough? Any issues with walking and the thigh pieces getting in the way?

I'm going to try those!
 
I am really impressed! Nice work. How do the knee supports work for you? Flexible enough? Any issues with walking and the thigh pieces getting in the way?

I'm going to try those!

It's kinda hard to say as I've not finished rigging up the rest of the leg/foot joints in order to do a walking test. I'm fairly confident that the knee joints will be fine. It's more a case of trying to keep the legs apart to make walking a less 'bow-legged' affair. I need to put about a 2" platform in the boots to give me the thigh joint space I want first, ill also be trying to pad out the thighs and greaves to make them touch on the inside of my real legs to give more clearance for walking. My feet will also be placed towards the inside edge of the boots for the same reason.

How do you hide your seams so well?

I used superglue to glue the seams, making sure that there was glue right to the edge of the seam before pressing them together. In some places there are small gaps, but ill use acrylic paintable caulk to fill those spots. I then used an 80 grit orbital sander to smooth it all out. Ill also do another pass with finer grit prior to sealing/painting.
 
I used superglue to glue the seams, making sure that there was glue right to the edge of the seam before pressing them together. In some places there are small gaps, but ill use acrylic paintable caulk to fill those spots. I then used an 80 grit orbital sander to smooth it all out. Ill also do another pass with finer grit prior to sealing/painting.

OK this is handy to know. In the images you posted, the images with the 2 ball shaped items are a good example. My joins turn out exactly like the one on the left - and there is nothing I have found that you can apply that will adequately smooth that out (caulk seems to fill it to a point, but it appears to sink into the gap when applying the PVA).

So you use superglue to do the joins, and then you use the sander to sand it all smooth (2 runs with different grits). Then before you seal it you fill any imperfections with the caulk (obviously you can't sand the caulk because it just peels away)?
 
So you use superglue to do the joins, and then you use the sander to sand it all smooth (2 runs with different grits). Then before you seal it you fill any imperfections with the caulk (obviously you can't sand the caulk because it just peels away)?

Spot on. The sanding pre-sealing/caulking is the crucial part and takes the pieces from looking like the ball on the left, to the ball on the right. I made a video which covers this (and other videos in the series cover lots of other things too!)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjAwjDIYj5JbQ8b773QWWK_xP-SK1W54j

Actually the caulk I used is sandable. It's not silicone, but acrylic paintable caulk. I know others use silicone, but I happened to have the acrylic stuff already and it is still flexible, paintable, and water based so seemed to work just fine. I experimented with sanding it, but oddly, it actually gave too good a finish (like mirror smooth) which was at odds to the rougher texture of the foam/PVA near it. In the end it looked more uniform without sanding.
 
Spot on. The sanding pre-sealing/caulking is the crucial part and takes the pieces from looking like the ball on the left, to the ball on the right. I made a video which covers this (and other videos in the series cover lots of other things too!)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjAwjDIYj5JbQ8b773QWWK_xP-SK1W54j

Actually the caulk I used is sandable. It's not silicone, but acrylic paintable caulk. I know others use silicone, but I happened to have the acrylic stuff already and it is still flexible, paintable, and water based so seemed to work just fine. I experimented with sanding it, but oddly, it actually gave too good a finish (like mirror smooth) which was at odds to the rougher texture of the foam/PVA near it. In the end it looked more uniform without sanding.

Mate thanks for the videos - awesome stuff. So many great tips in there. If you get a chance, wouldn't mind seeing how you did the skulls and the other items on the armor. Guess its a bit late to make a vid on them now, but any info would be great. The banner on one of the shin guards looks especially good!!!

Good to know about the sealing. I've actually sealed it with a coat or 2 of PVA then 3 coats of Plasti-dip. But as you said, down our way, that plast-dip is expensive. So should be able to run future work without the plasti-dip (although it is pretty good stuff). And there is a paintable silicone caulk - but as I mentioned before, you can't sand it.

Another thing I do for the angles is use the rotary tool. you can get some pretty good angles using that and it works quite well with the joining. Probably just takes a bit longer to sand the angles back.

Also, great music for part 9. Those guys remind me of Lonely Island a little bit.
 
If you get a chance, wouldn't mind seeing how you did the skulls and the other items on the armor. Guess its a bit late to make a vid on them now, but any info would be great. The banner on one of the shin guards looks especially good!!!

Cheers dude :)

The best place to see how I did the details is on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/WellingtonIronMan

I have a photo album which documents almost everything and should point you in the right direction.

The skulls are cut down plastic halloween decorations just glued onto the armour and repainted. The scroll, chapter badges and tactical markings are simply EVA foam bent into the right shape. The lettering is pre-cut cardboard lettering designed for scrapbooking/crafting. I've got tons of letters left too as I bought three packs and only needed one or two haha.
 
Cheers dude :)

The best place to see how I did the details is on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/WellingtonIronMan

I have a photo album which documents almost everything and should point you in the right direction.

The skulls are cut down plastic halloween decorations just glued onto the armour and repainted. The scroll, chapter badges and tactical markings are simply EVA foam bent into the right shape. The lettering is pre-cut cardboard lettering designed for scrapbooking/crafting. I've got tons of letters left too as I bought three packs and only needed one or two haha.

Thanks mate - will definitely check out the facebook page.
 
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