Army Of Two EU Mercs WIP

[cheifprofanity]

Hey!

Long time builder first time poster here. Though I would start putting elements of mine and my wife's latest project up here so we can bounce ideas off of you talented people.

We are creating our own Army of Two team based on the EA video game. We aren't going for screen accuracy with this as we know we look nothing like either of the characters in the game but we want to look instantly recognizable as if we had stepped out of that universe.

The most pressing element of this costume is of course the Ballistic masks. This is going to be our first full face covering costume so is a little different than what we are used to! I sourced a pair of air-soft masks from the wonders of the "Electronic Bay" (sorry, unsure if we can mention that place here...) and went about removing the eye grills and rebuilding the eye sockets. My wife's mask (on the right in the double photo and green in the colored photo) has slightly more rounded off eye sockets as her mask design has encoperated a pair of mirrored lens. The mask have been sent to an artist friend to be painted, we are going for a classic monster look, I will be in the style of Frankenstine's Monster and my wife will be The Creature From The Black Lagoon, hence the mirrored 'eyes'.



Now apart from the soft clothing layers which shouldn't be too hard to assemble (although finding the right pair of jeans is tricky) the only major part of this costume is the tactical vests and Armour. Using the image below I picked a pair of vests online and have started moving the pouches around to see how they fit. Just out of question is there a correct way to fit a vest? or is it a case of throwing it on until it fits?



We are styling the whole costumes as a mix between the first two games, so we look a little rough and ready but with some Armour to make us stand out. Im starting to look at shoulder Armour for us both, my wife is going for a 'quicker' looking rig so I'm planning on using mountain bike knee/shin pads as shoulder and upper arm cover where as for myself I'm going to build some up armored plates out of foam mats.

Of course an Army of Two costume would not be complete with out some Pimp weaponry. So far Ive only started work on my own as ive gone for the simpler route, no fancy designs here, just pimping style....



In a perfect world I will end up throwing a shield on the front of this, for extra bad-assery....

Any way thanks for having a look, I will start updating this with progress. Next will be the shoulder Armour and patches!

See you on the ready line!

Chris

 

[Hoplitespear]

Hey!



Now apart from the soft clothing layers which shouldn't be too hard to assemble (although finding the right pair of jeans is tricky) the only major part of this costume is the tactical vests and Armour. Using the image below I picked a pair of vests online and have started moving the pouches around to see how they fit. Just out of question is there a correct way to fit a vest? or is it a case of throwing it on until it fits?

Chris

Hey man, love army of two played it allot with my best friend when i was younger. Had allot of laughs to. Especially when you had to give your partner a boost and then you die up there leaving him stuck below. XD

Anyway, I played airsoft for years, maybe i can answer this question. I don't understand it fully though. Do you want to know the correct way to adjust the pouches on the webbing.
Or how to put the vest on your body?

For the first, you should weave the strings of the pouches over and under the webbing to get a good secure fit. Where they are is personal preference.
If you meen putting it on you body. You should be able to adjust the shoulders and the sides. A good way to know if it fits well is when you run it doesn't wiggle and stay secure. I can't tell you how annoying it is to run with full gear and have everything bouncing around like crazy. So really really snug!
It should also be quite high up. More on the chest. So ducking and bowing is still fully possible (see picture below). So the namepouch just under your neck. And the pouches on the bottom of the rib cage.

Like this:



Hope this helps. Keep up the good work

-hopli-

 

[cheifprofanity]

Hey! Thanks for the info, it was more the fit of the vest I was looking for but thanks for the mollie information! Personally I'm wearing my mag pouches dropped a little so they hang below the vest. I'm a larger guy and this stops the vest looking too small and pronounced on me.

The positioning of the top of the vest is really helpful! Next steps is to start getting patches.

Can any one recommend some were to get small batches of custom patches made?

 

[Hoplitespear]

Hey! Thanks for the info, it was more the fit of the vest I was looking for but thanks for the mollie information! Personally I'm wearing my mag pouches dropped a little so they hang below the vest. I'm a larger guy and this stops the vest looking too small and pronounced on me.

The positioning of the top of the vest is really helpful! Next steps is to start getting patches.

Can any one recommend some were to get small batches of custom patches made?

hey nps man. Did you check airsoft store's? There are 100 kinds of pouches and colors for molle-vests.

 

[cheifprofanity]

Oh I've been trawling them for a while! The vests we have come with a triple mag pouch and a utility pouch, all I really want to ad is a radio pouche and dummy radios! Patches first though

 

[Hoplitespear]

Oh damn. i have read your post wrong. You typed custom patches and i read pouches -.-. Can't help u there i'm afraid

 

[cheifprofanity]

Just one to post. I've been working on some dummy magazines to put in the tac vests. All I've done is outlines the real Mag on a yoga mat, cut it out four times and then hot glued them together. This may be a bit simple but I couldn't think of another way to do it!

 

[cheifprofanity]

Whoops....

 

[cheifprofanity]

Another quick update!

After a few quick design alterations we have got our Patch artwork off to the printers!



Based off of the screen capped designed they will be 5x3 inch patches. The slogan at the bottom is a quote from Terry Pratchett's "Guards Guards" and reads "Fabricati Diem Pvnc" in the book is above the door of the Watch House and is supposed to read "To Protect and Serve". In Fact it (loosly) says "Make My Day Punk" which is think is kinda fitting for a pair of Bad Ass Mercs.

 

[cheifprofanity]

So this has been going on a while now.....

Recently I've been able to do alot of work on my vest! It's starting to look very 'tactical' which is perfect.

The groin armor is scratch built from an old tac vest itself!

Next stage will be the shoulder guards. Any on got any experience in building these?

Thanks for looking!!

 

[cheifprofanity]

Well it's been over 10 months since I've started this and we have just had our first test outing in our Merc Kits!

All c&cs are welcome!





I think I still need to work on my make up....