A while back I was commissioned by Hi-Rez studios to build a costume to help promote TRIBES: Ascend, the latest installment in the Tribes series of first person shooters. The project began with me tweaking the in-game 3D models in order to make them better suited to fit an actual human being. Since my 3D modelling skills are somewhat lacking, I had to make all of my changes in Google Sketchup:
While I initially built a "rough draft" version of the helmet in Pepakura, I decided to scrap it in favor of having Lopez (my CNC machine) carve the whole thing out of Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF):
After gluing the slices together and smoothing over the seams, here's what it looked like in primer:
After a lot more smoothing and detailing, the whole thing got a couple coats of my standard glossy, light red prototype color:
The rest of the pieces were made in much the same manner. Here's a shot of the shoulder in progress next to one of the reference images the studio supplied me with:
Once all of the MDF prototypes were finished, I went ahead and made molds:
Here I am laying up the second half of the fiberglass mothermold for the helmet:
Over the course of three days I made at least 20 molds. During this time I went through more than fifteen gallons of silicone rubber. Once the molds were ready to go, I started rotocasting parts in black urethane resin. Here's the first helmet and the first pair of gauntlets:
Here's the first set of chest and shoulder armor:
After priming, the paintjob started with a basecoat of Rustoleum Satin "Paprika" spraypaint. Initially it looked like it might be a bit too orange. Then I started to add the nicks and scratches with a gloss "aluminum" colored paint using drybrushing, flecking, and daubing with a china brush:
Once the metallic paint had dried, the next step was to give the whole thing a blackwash to bring out the details and darken the red base color. The project got a lot more exciting once I started installing lights:
While the hard parts were being polished up in the workshop, I had a friend of mine cranking out the soft parts:
The pants were basically a modified pair of BDUs. The shirt and gloves were made from scratch to match the in-game garments.
The strap harness was made from 2" nylon webbing, parachute buckles, M-4 double magazine MOLLE pouches, and some ballistic nylon fabric. Here's a shot of it at the halfway point:
The suit saw its debut at PAX Prime during Labor Day weekend in Seattle. Here's a shot of the whole thing put together before the gates opened on the first day:
I have also written up this project in my blog. For details on the Spinfusor build, there's another article here: When My Brain Leaks, the Drops Drip Here.: Building the Spinfusor Prop for Tribes: Ascend
The good part is that now that the pathfinder is done, I'm thinking of cranking out a couple more sets so I can make the sentinel and infiltrator variants. The hard parts are essentially the same with some minor modifications and changes to the soft parts. I also need to make the correct weapons to go with them. More on that as I make progress.
While I initially built a "rough draft" version of the helmet in Pepakura, I decided to scrap it in favor of having Lopez (my CNC machine) carve the whole thing out of Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF):
After gluing the slices together and smoothing over the seams, here's what it looked like in primer:
After a lot more smoothing and detailing, the whole thing got a couple coats of my standard glossy, light red prototype color:
The rest of the pieces were made in much the same manner. Here's a shot of the shoulder in progress next to one of the reference images the studio supplied me with:
Once all of the MDF prototypes were finished, I went ahead and made molds:
Here I am laying up the second half of the fiberglass mothermold for the helmet:
Over the course of three days I made at least 20 molds. During this time I went through more than fifteen gallons of silicone rubber. Once the molds were ready to go, I started rotocasting parts in black urethane resin. Here's the first helmet and the first pair of gauntlets:
Here's the first set of chest and shoulder armor:
After priming, the paintjob started with a basecoat of Rustoleum Satin "Paprika" spraypaint. Initially it looked like it might be a bit too orange. Then I started to add the nicks and scratches with a gloss "aluminum" colored paint using drybrushing, flecking, and daubing with a china brush:
Once the metallic paint had dried, the next step was to give the whole thing a blackwash to bring out the details and darken the red base color. The project got a lot more exciting once I started installing lights:
While the hard parts were being polished up in the workshop, I had a friend of mine cranking out the soft parts:
The pants were basically a modified pair of BDUs. The shirt and gloves were made from scratch to match the in-game garments.
The strap harness was made from 2" nylon webbing, parachute buckles, M-4 double magazine MOLLE pouches, and some ballistic nylon fabric. Here's a shot of it at the halfway point:
The suit saw its debut at PAX Prime during Labor Day weekend in Seattle. Here's a shot of the whole thing put together before the gates opened on the first day:
I have also written up this project in my blog. For details on the Spinfusor build, there's another article here: When My Brain Leaks, the Drops Drip Here.: Building the Spinfusor Prop for Tribes: Ascend
The good part is that now that the pathfinder is done, I'm thinking of cranking out a couple more sets so I can make the sentinel and infiltrator variants. The hard parts are essentially the same with some minor modifications and changes to the soft parts. I also need to make the correct weapons to go with them. More on that as I make progress.
