Another Robocop Build

[askernas]

Hello!

In order to not shanghai another thread that I've been active in, I'm going to do some documentation of my own Robocop Build in here =)

I have splurged on two separate models, and done some modelling myself.

The original 3d model I purchased had a lot of things that needed changing, so I redesigned some parts, like the neck, the helmet, the biceps...

But the work I've done today is the midsection, the abs.
I've decided to go with building this out of EVA foam, glued with contact cement on a lycra undersuit.


So, I've started working on my EVA foam midsection. I've used a lycra undersuit (got 4 of them) to try and do some glue tests on, and foam sticks well with contact cement!

After trying to remove all glue tests, I started a proper attempt.

First off, I used masking tape to create a template that I then removed, flattened and cut out.

As the mid section is made of horisontal strips, that's how I decided to build it. In strips.

Here's the right section left on the lycra suit on the dummy after I removed the left part and cut out..

... and cut out the individual strips and mounted them to papers which I photocopied (since I didn't have the computer with me in the workshop today)

Then I built a mid section for the chest and started attaching the "ribs" as I started seeing them as from the top down..

The ribs will all be glued down one at the time to the Lycra undersuit.
There is still more work to do on these finished ribs. Some sanding and possibly dremel work to smooth everything out before finally heat sealing the foam with a heat gun (which will also make the ribs more pronounced) and painting it with plasti-dip.

A quick test with the torso looks promising, I think:

 

[davewhite152]

I'm building using the same files as Chris Bosh and like you want to make the torso flexible. I like the idea of Eva foam but the cod piece looks a bit tricky. I am wary of the cost of making it in pla and then casting it as I am on a budget. I will be following this!

 

[askernas]

I'm building using the same files as Chris Bosh and like you want to make the torso flexible. I like the idea of Eva foam but the cod piece looks a bit tricky. I am wary of the cost of making it in pla and then casting it as I am on a budget. I will be following this!

I've printed most of the old suit that Chris did as well, and when I saw he found a new, better one, I started reprinting some of the trickier parts.

The cod piece is not all that complex. With layering of foam, it will work fine.

I have contemplated making the main front part attached by magnets, so it allows me to remove it... and install a small strategic zipper on the undersuit. We'll see, haven't decided yet.

I'll keep you guys posted on the progress of this.

I have made enough to test the results with plasti-dip, so I will do some sanding and painting later on today and see how it pans out.

 

[joberg]

Looking good askernas! Before painting, are you going to seal the foam or plasti-dip it right away? I'm asking, because I've never worked with foam and plasti-dip before. I always sealed my foam with white glue, prior to paint it

 

[askernas]

Looking good askernas! Before painting, are you going to seal the foam or plasti-dip it right away? I'm asking, because I've never worked with foam and plasti-dip before. I always sealed my foam with white glue, prior to paint it

Well, the plasti-dip works really well as a sealer...

My plan is to first heat seal the foam with a heat gun, then spray plasti-dip right on it.

This one is only a test piece, so I'll do a few more ribs and give it a try accordingly in a day or so.
The lycra undersuit have had things glued to it before, so at the moment, it's all testing at this point before moving on to the "hero" undersuit =)

 

[davewhite152]

Well, the plasti-dip works really well as a sealer...

My plan is to first heat seal the foam with a heat gun, then spray plasti-dip right on it.

This one is only a test piece, so I'll do a few more ribs and give it a try accordingly in a day or so.
The lycra undersuit have had things glued to it before, so at the moment, it's all testing at this point before moving on to the "hero" undersuit =)

Really looking forward to how this turns out

 

[askernas]

Ok, this is just a quick and dirty test of EVA foam + plast-dip for the torso.

I did not do a solid good glue down job on this, as it is only a test.
I did not sand the foam and make everything 100% because of proof of concept.
The only sealing of the foam done is that I went over it once with a heat gun. Could probably have gone a bit harder with it.

Finally, I did not do a good solid paint job. Just two medium layers of plasti-dip with some hair dryer inbetween to cure it.

The results?

Considering the minimal time spent on this POC...

I am blown away by this.

The torso moves, is definitely flexible and I grabbed a corner of the 2mm foam I lied down in the middle that I hadn't glued, and I could lift my cloth-filled duck-tape dummy in it, so it definitely sticks to the lycra!

With a proper glue-down and letting everything set as it should, this foam is going nowhere.

Next up is finishing up the proper pattern to get all the lines straight and conformed around my body, then cut out and glue down on the "hero" undersuit. This was mostly just eyeballed to see if it was a viable solution.

The chest piece will be reprinted with a much more screen accurate version as well, even though I've done a few minor tweaks to this one, but first I've got to wait for this 100+ hour print on my large machine to finish...

Hopefully I've got some more abs section done properly after the weekend.

 

[davewhite152]

Ok, this is just a quick and dirty test of EVA foam + plast-dip for the torso.

I did not do a solid good glue down job on this, as it is only a test.
I did not sand the foam and make everything 100% because of proof of concept.
The only sealing of the foam done is that I went over it once with a heat gun. Could probably have gone a bit harder with it.

Finally, I did not do a good solid paint job. Just two medium layers of plasti-dip with some hair dryer inbetween to cure it.

The results?

Considering the minimal time spent on this POC...

View attachment 1449555

View attachment 1449556

View attachment 1449558

I am blown away by this.

The torso moves, is definitely flexible and I grabbed a corner of the 2mm foam I lied down in the middle that I hadn't glued, and I could lift my cloth-filled duck-tape dummy in it, so it definitely sticks to the lycra!

With a proper glue-down and letting everything set as it should, this foam is going nowhere.

Next up is finishing up the proper pattern to get all the lines straight and conformed around my body, then cut out and glue down on the "hero" undersuit. This was mostly just eyeballed to see if it was a viable solution.

The chest piece will be reprinted with a much more screen accurate version as well, even though I've done a few minor tweaks to this one, but first I've got to wait for this 100+ hour print on my large machine to finish...

Hopefully I've got some more abs section done properly after the weekend.

Looks good. If I can cut and shape the foam nicely then I'll do the same rather than print the torso and mold it

 

[askernas]

Looks good. If I can cut and shape the foam nicely then I'll do the same rather than print the torso and mold it

Thanks. It is a lot easier to work with than you'd think. Just keep a sharp knife to get good cuts. Take your time and sandpaper works great.

I have bought several thicknesses and for the back, I will do a lot of layering with 2mm foam. I have a vinyl cutter I might use, and in workst case, my makerspace has a laser cutter, so, might go for that in the end.

As far as some of the details you were worried about.. well... tiny details I might still 3D print and glue into the foam. Best tool for best use

 

[askernas]

One of my feet from the old 3d model that I've finished. Second one is not far behind.

I built them around a very comfortable plastic slippers. Since they basically are a shell, I can switch the shoes out for something else if I need to, but it is not a lot of room inside.

I will also change out those bolts to button head socket screws, as I think they are more screen accurate, but at the time, I was all out of them.

The plan is also to add a microswitch into the feet to trigger sound effects when I walk.

 

[askernas]

Proper foam build of the torso initiated!

this has potential!

 

[joberg]

Most excellent mock-up You`re right; with the proper seal treatment and sanding, spraying, it`ll be ready to wear. Are you planning a satin look or a high gloss? Also, stress-wise: did you fold, creased the foam to see how the Plasti-Dip reacts?

 

[askernas]

Most excellent mock-up You`re right; with the proper seal treatment and sanding, spraying, it`ll be ready to wear. Are you planning a satin look or a high gloss? Also, stress-wise: did you fold, creased the foam to see how the Plasti-Dip reacts?

Yes. The plasti-dip follows the foam very well. It is highly bonded to it.
I will make an abuse video tomorrow

 

[askernas]

More torso work:

this is still RAW foam. This will be sealed, possibly with Flexibond and the coated with plasti-dip.

Here’s the quick abuse video on plasti-dip on foam:

Today also marked the final touches on this guy:

, so not I can fully focus on getting Robo done. I am still not sure how much of the old files I will reprint. The calves are on the printer already and should be ready in 30 or so hours:

I have printed this in 0.2, and I know I could have gone with bigger layer height, but the thicker lines, the more stuff to fix afterwards. I prefer letting the printer do most of the work, thank you.

 

[askernas]

So, a long time without updates.

That's not to say that the costume hasn't progressed, it most definitely has!

I've placed the abs section on hold for a while as I was going to reprint the chest and back piece. The old version was from Do3D, and I wanted to make sure that everything would sit in the correct place when it came to chest and back before committing to the rest of the foam abs/shorts build.

Here is the abs piece, just raw foan and no sanding or paint sitting on my mannequin with the old chest piece.

I've also built a neck seal piece in foam. This is an early version of that. I have since added on to it so it sits flush in the new printed torse, as can bee seen in later pictures. The neck is held together in the back by magnets.

So, the new back and chest have been printed, I've sanded, the front, covered it in acrylig spot putty, sanded it off and covered it with spray filler and it should now be ready for sanding.

I start with sanding the raw 3d print with a low grit sandpaper. Then I cover everything in bondo and start the job of sanding by hand. This is finished with 240-400 grit, depending on what was needed at the time. I'm not too worried about sanding lines at this point as it is going to be covered by filler primer.

All details have been carved out and sanded out with a set of jeweller's files and dental tools to get the lines as straight and crips as possible.
All sanding is done by hand. I make my own small sanding pads by making small rectangles of cheaper foam about 6x8 cm and contact cementing sandpaper to them. That takes care of the larger areas, but all finer details is just small pieces of sand paper folded and worked with my fingers.

Once this sanding is done, time for filler primer. I have applied a thinner coat and followed up with 2 thicker coats. It is not so thick that it obscures the details in the model.

There are still a few things that needs attention. Some more putty in a few areas are needed as you can see, and once this has been applied and the small hollowed out areas are filled in, the whole piece will be sanded smooth with 400 grit sandpaper. Hopefully it will be enough to get rid of the last signs of the facets in the 3d model.

As I need to make sure everything sits in the proper place, I have started making a harness out of nylon straps and buckles. I looked in to how other armor makers have made their harnesses and one thing that seemed very common was that the back piece was held by straps from the front, and the front piece is attached to the back piece.

This is an early version of the harness and at the moment, everything is adjustable. Once everything is fitted in place, I will reduce the straps and make it more fit for me, but at the moment, I'm keeping this.

All edges have been cut using my soldering iron, and the melted pieces have been melted together with the same. Quick and easy and holds really well.

I decided to attach the front piece using magnets. A while ago I backed a Kickstarter project for magnets to replace shoe laces. These are really strong and I had decided to use them in the shoulder area to attach the front piece to the back piece. Works like a charm and they snap in place and sit VERY firmly:

(A later picture with the new, expanded neck seal in place. This picture also features my own biceps model printed and just held in place. Left side of my chest is bondoed but not sanded yet, so you see how much I need to sand off to get it smooth.)

The side pieces under the arms are not helt together by magnets. My thinking was to attack two alignment pins, the type that IKEA uses to hold shelves in their cabinets. I designed and 3dprinted holders for these that were form fit after the model, and glued and heat welded them in place.

I've overdrilled the female side slightly to allow the alignment pins to fit easily without effort and at this point I've attached velcro on the inside, holding it together. I may change this for another locking mechanis. Possibly drilling and inserting a magnet in the middle of the bracket, as it is slightly fiddly to work the velcro on the inside of the suit. It works, but it is not idea.

The velcro is hot glued in place. I love hot glue as a removable glue. In case you didn't know, a few drops of Isopropanol is enough to remove the adhesin immediately, even on the inside of a raw 3dprint. As long as there is no isopropanol in sight, it holds up fantastically!

And, how well does it look from the outside? Have a look:

This is before everything has been sanded flush. When the final fit is made, the gap will be unnoticeable. It will also be right underneath my biceps, so I'm not worried about the gap at all.

Other things not pictured are some details. I've worked on the shin hydraulics, one of the thighs is almost finished for final painting using the same method as described here. Both shins are also hit with filler primer, although there is still a LOT of sanding to be done...

I will be picking up a UV light to see if I can speed up some of the process using a thin layer 3d UV resin as a smoothing agent. Might be faster than the thick layer of putty.

However, that will have to wait a few weeks as I'm going for hand surgery in a few hours...

 

[davewhite152]

Fantastic progress

 

[joberg]

Great update I had to close my eyes a few times looking at your video showing the abuses you've subjected that EVA foam covered Plasti-Dip mid-section You might take the same EVA foam road for your chin piece for a better fit around your lower jaw
Of course, the abuses are not going to be that extensive when wearing the costume. Keep up the great work

 

[askernas]

Great update I had to close my eyes a few times looking at your video showing the abuses you've subjected that EVA foam covered Plasti-Dip mid-section You might take the same EVA foam road for your chin piece for a better fit around your lower jaw
Of course, the abuses are not going to be that extensive when wearing the costume. Keep up the great work

Yeah, I wanted to do a ”worst case” on the test

I have already made a pattern for the chin/jaw piece for EVA foam. It would make it a lot more comfortable to talk in it.

That will come later At the moment, I’m just stuck in the groundhog day of sanding…

 

[pchrisbosh1]

Looking good so far. The EVA midsection is looking good so far. Sanding, sanding, and more sanding. I know your pain. The hard work will pay off don't lose hope.

 

[askernas]

I've used up all my sand paper!

Yes, it's true. I was all out of sand paper!
I've spent a lot of t ime sanding the chest piece, adding some spray filler and covering some areas with filler putty, then sanded again and primed it.

Since then, the chest has been given some extra care with Tamiya putty, wet sanded and primed, so ready for final paint.

The same has gone for not one, but both thighs and calves.

There is still some fine detail left to smooth out, but some details you can't really see until you have put some paint on it.

One thing that really has turned into a game changer for me moving forward is UV resin smoothing.

I'm sure you read about it or seen a youtube video about it, but for me, this has severly reduced the amount of time needed to make a piece look great.

Sure, I still need a bit of putty, but the results of this calf piece you see was after applying UV resing with a brush, and shining my 200W UV light on it for mere seconds. Not 10 seconds. We're talking a few seconds here.

A thin layer is all that needed, on with the UV light, and it is hardened enough to actually use.

I start up with a coarse sanding paper to knock off the biggest ridges in the print, then do the UV treatment. Once this is done, I am immediately ready for sanding.

Yesterday I almost finished my entire back piece (no pics, sorry) in one sitting, from raw print to UV coated to sanded fine enough for filler primer.

Normally I spent a lot of time with acrylic putty and then sanding it off, as per the chest piece above, but there are curing times and pre-sanding, post sanding, and doing this at least once, then following up with at least 2 sprayins of filler primer to smooth out the last bits, some Tamiya putty and then final sand before priming the part.

There is a lot of curing time here that is just gone with UV resin.

I went from a raw print to the result of the calves here in a few hours. Sure, there is still details that I need to smooth out with putty and sculpt to get a smooth line, but that is stuff I needed to do anyway, as it is due t o the 3d printing method and orientation, but the rest... This has saved me DAYS of work.

Rest assured that the pieces will be free from any artefacts when I'm done. I'm not omfortable with print lines showing, but To find this new method and trying it out and it WORKS ... just feels so great!

Long story short: I've got a bag with various sheets of sanding paper at home and will get back into the workshop tomorrow and pick up where my sanding paper ran out, and keep on working this suit.

Status so far:
Helmet - printed, primed and painted
Neck piece - printed, primed and painted
Jaw - printed primed and painted. Will rebukld in EVA for better fit
Chest - printed and primed
Back - printed, UV coated, in the process of beind sanded
Biceps - printed and first layers of bondo. Will be UV coated
Elbows - printed, sanded and painted with filler primer
Thighs - printed, sanded and painted with filler primer
Calves - printed, sanded and primed. Some sculpting needed on one
Feet - one painted. One bondoed
Greeblies - printed
Neck piece - done
Abs - done
Shorts - need to make. EVA foam
Lower back - need to make. EVA foam

If the Covid restrictions does not change things further, we have a ComicCon in Stockholm in November, and I plan to make this the premiere of the costume.