So! Hi everyone. I'm building an Autarch suit for Sydney's Supanova(Yes, I cringe when typing that), which is now in 3 weeks. I've been on this for about a serious month now, several hours in the evenings and whenever on saturdays. Much of that time is waiting for things to dry..
I've been conceptualizing this idea since last year, bought some foam, and then it all seemed too hard. I originally had a plan for a fully enclosed suit, connected with buckles - it was a bad plan, way to overcomplicated - but thinking it all through and having some new ideas is why I'm here now. I decided against the whole pepakura thing because Eldar armour has a whole bunch of curves, which I reckon calls for more malleable materials. This is mostly a foam build with some cloth work.
Q. Why Eldar?
A. Dunno. They were my favourite race back in the Rogue Trader days, I still have an army of models from later incarnations of WH40K but can count the number of serious games EVER PLAYED on one hand (Four!). As far as cosplay goes, they just seem terribly underrepresented - I also don't recall seeing a proper armour suit, most cosplay is of Warlocks and Farseers. Everyone else wants to be a friggin Space Marine, bunch of ungraceful jerks - with some outstanding examples of Chaos, Sisters of Battle and Inquisition aside, there are precious few Eldar works (Endangered even? Falling slowly into oblivion anyone?). With the new lacing design, this could just as easily be a Dark Eldar suit with a few added spikes... Nah.. Heroic Space Elves are awesome.
The main tools I've used are :
- Good quality hardware knife, none of these shoddy little crafting knives.
- Hot glue gun - 12mm (11? The standard seems variable)
- Heat gun. Brilliant on EVA foam, not so good for quick drying in my opinion.
- Power drill - just for the eyelet holes. Don't drill untreated foam, just sayin' cause I did - see glue, below.
So far, the materials I've used have been (minus exact measurements) :
- 9mm EVA foam camping mat. These are not good for straight lines, but they're great for curves, thick, cheap and shape easily under heat.
- 5mm EVA foam. Turns out I should have started with this, most of the current suit is 5mm.
- Bog standard kids craft glue, seriously - but in large amounts - I've used about a litre so far. This gets painted on the foam before any actual paint, provides a smooth canvas and works with spray paint much better than just foam. Prominent pieces should get a couple of coats before paint. I first saw the idea here, forgot from whom - Sorry, someone! Freaking brilliant idea, works a charm.
- Cheap spray paint - Black. I got some red but haven't used it yet. This is just the undercoat, on top of the glue-painted foam.
- Cheap acrylic paint - Red and Black. This is the paint that you're seeing.
- Cheap gloss enamel spray paint. Not yet dissatisfied.
- Cheap metal eyelets from Ebay. Shorter than I expected, but whatever. I'll show you in a later post how they work out. They'd better work out.
I'M DONE READING. SHOW ME THE PHOTOS!
Apologies for the lack of earlier pics of this process, but here are the armour pieces for the torso and upper arms. All 5mm foam ($25 for a 1mx2m roll - KangaRubber: Brookvale, NSW). The arms were roughly measured, the rest were just realistic imagination and good measurement before cutting. 2 layers of glue, undercoat of black spray paint, then dabbing red and black acrylic all over. So.Much.Dabbing. Good practice for the wrist and shin pieces to come.
This is the garnishing on the armour, known to fans as Spirit Stones. I used a cheap paint well (on the right) to make the smaller ones, a purpose bought serving spoon for the larger ones (total, $4). After smearing the inside with butter to avoid sticking (unnecessary as they just snap out with some leverage), I crammed those wells full of hot glue, then put them in the freezer. On the spoon, after a couple of tries, I got the smoothest results from putting down the glue in parallel lines, working up the sides. In each of those spoons is a full stick of glue, the shell design is plenty sturdy and filling the whole thing is stupid. Note that craft glue does not stick to hot glue, at all. I'll test these more in a later post.
These are preliminary stages of the pistols. The Nerf Vortex guns ($8 each) inspired the design, being roughly the right shape and shooting the right non-lethal ammo. The foam on top is just a rectangle with two cuts for the separate looking nose piece. The foam was mashed on with hot glue along the spine, with the corners over the trigger folded up under. Wrapping the foam under the bottom was a two person job - Cheers, Marty - that side was too awkward to photograph after the glue coat seen here, semi dried. The curves of the nose were heat shaped, but I haven't hot glued them yet, which will hopefully provide a better shape. There will probably be additional foam on the final piece, but that's not yet designed.
These are the shoulder and outside thigh pieces. These are both 9mm foam ($30 for a 1mx2m camping mat). After discovering the power of heat shaping, the shoulders were easy. The thigh is just a straight up oval with estimated measurements, the shoulders are rectangles with corners cut into the points you see. The glue is still fresh on these.
Maybe a little hard to see but these are the earlier torso pieces, gloss enameled and heat curved. I gave them a bit of over-curve so that when attached to the planned clothing, they'll sit firm. Or be easily reshaped.
Here we have the wrist and shin pieces, close to finishing. 5mm foam. These will be laced on, hopefully you can see the eyelet holes there, unfortunately pre-drilled. Learning from this, before drilling holes in foam, seal it up with a bit of glue - hell, it seems like the full paint and gloss finish might be the way to go, keeping it firmer. The wider edges are going to be covered by an additional piece, in 9mm foam - forming the upper wrist/shin bits. When the outer pieces are finalized, some of those wider edges will come off. They don't look like much, but initial tests show that they fit. Dabbing all of that red on, twice now.. That's a whole lot of fraking dabbing.
--------------
Still to be carved out are the mask and backpack units. There will not be a full helmet because even every Eldar fan knows they look stupid. There will be a front and back cloth sash, which has a design finalized but nothing to photograph, likewise with the backpack. The mask is almost completely unknown, but I now have quite a good amount of leftover foam with which to experiment. All up this has cost somewhere under $200(AUD) including tools, with the future need of only glue, paint and gloss.
As this is progressing quickly, I'll be updating sometime in the near future - hopefully with more detailed building steps for the remaining pieces, depending on time. Lotsa fun.
See you later Space Cowboy!
I've been conceptualizing this idea since last year, bought some foam, and then it all seemed too hard. I originally had a plan for a fully enclosed suit, connected with buckles - it was a bad plan, way to overcomplicated - but thinking it all through and having some new ideas is why I'm here now. I decided against the whole pepakura thing because Eldar armour has a whole bunch of curves, which I reckon calls for more malleable materials. This is mostly a foam build with some cloth work.
Q. Why Eldar?
A. Dunno. They were my favourite race back in the Rogue Trader days, I still have an army of models from later incarnations of WH40K but can count the number of serious games EVER PLAYED on one hand (Four!). As far as cosplay goes, they just seem terribly underrepresented - I also don't recall seeing a proper armour suit, most cosplay is of Warlocks and Farseers. Everyone else wants to be a friggin Space Marine, bunch of ungraceful jerks - with some outstanding examples of Chaos, Sisters of Battle and Inquisition aside, there are precious few Eldar works (Endangered even? Falling slowly into oblivion anyone?). With the new lacing design, this could just as easily be a Dark Eldar suit with a few added spikes... Nah.. Heroic Space Elves are awesome.
The main tools I've used are :
- Good quality hardware knife, none of these shoddy little crafting knives.
- Hot glue gun - 12mm (11? The standard seems variable)
- Heat gun. Brilliant on EVA foam, not so good for quick drying in my opinion.
- Power drill - just for the eyelet holes. Don't drill untreated foam, just sayin' cause I did - see glue, below.
So far, the materials I've used have been (minus exact measurements) :
- 9mm EVA foam camping mat. These are not good for straight lines, but they're great for curves, thick, cheap and shape easily under heat.
- 5mm EVA foam. Turns out I should have started with this, most of the current suit is 5mm.
- Bog standard kids craft glue, seriously - but in large amounts - I've used about a litre so far. This gets painted on the foam before any actual paint, provides a smooth canvas and works with spray paint much better than just foam. Prominent pieces should get a couple of coats before paint. I first saw the idea here, forgot from whom - Sorry, someone! Freaking brilliant idea, works a charm.
- Cheap spray paint - Black. I got some red but haven't used it yet. This is just the undercoat, on top of the glue-painted foam.
- Cheap acrylic paint - Red and Black. This is the paint that you're seeing.
- Cheap gloss enamel spray paint. Not yet dissatisfied.
- Cheap metal eyelets from Ebay. Shorter than I expected, but whatever. I'll show you in a later post how they work out. They'd better work out.
I'M DONE READING. SHOW ME THE PHOTOS!
Apologies for the lack of earlier pics of this process, but here are the armour pieces for the torso and upper arms. All 5mm foam ($25 for a 1mx2m roll - KangaRubber: Brookvale, NSW). The arms were roughly measured, the rest were just realistic imagination and good measurement before cutting. 2 layers of glue, undercoat of black spray paint, then dabbing red and black acrylic all over. So.Much.Dabbing. Good practice for the wrist and shin pieces to come.
This is the garnishing on the armour, known to fans as Spirit Stones. I used a cheap paint well (on the right) to make the smaller ones, a purpose bought serving spoon for the larger ones (total, $4). After smearing the inside with butter to avoid sticking (unnecessary as they just snap out with some leverage), I crammed those wells full of hot glue, then put them in the freezer. On the spoon, after a couple of tries, I got the smoothest results from putting down the glue in parallel lines, working up the sides. In each of those spoons is a full stick of glue, the shell design is plenty sturdy and filling the whole thing is stupid. Note that craft glue does not stick to hot glue, at all. I'll test these more in a later post.
These are preliminary stages of the pistols. The Nerf Vortex guns ($8 each) inspired the design, being roughly the right shape and shooting the right non-lethal ammo. The foam on top is just a rectangle with two cuts for the separate looking nose piece. The foam was mashed on with hot glue along the spine, with the corners over the trigger folded up under. Wrapping the foam under the bottom was a two person job - Cheers, Marty - that side was too awkward to photograph after the glue coat seen here, semi dried. The curves of the nose were heat shaped, but I haven't hot glued them yet, which will hopefully provide a better shape. There will probably be additional foam on the final piece, but that's not yet designed.
These are the shoulder and outside thigh pieces. These are both 9mm foam ($30 for a 1mx2m camping mat). After discovering the power of heat shaping, the shoulders were easy. The thigh is just a straight up oval with estimated measurements, the shoulders are rectangles with corners cut into the points you see. The glue is still fresh on these.
Maybe a little hard to see but these are the earlier torso pieces, gloss enameled and heat curved. I gave them a bit of over-curve so that when attached to the planned clothing, they'll sit firm. Or be easily reshaped.
Here we have the wrist and shin pieces, close to finishing. 5mm foam. These will be laced on, hopefully you can see the eyelet holes there, unfortunately pre-drilled. Learning from this, before drilling holes in foam, seal it up with a bit of glue - hell, it seems like the full paint and gloss finish might be the way to go, keeping it firmer. The wider edges are going to be covered by an additional piece, in 9mm foam - forming the upper wrist/shin bits. When the outer pieces are finalized, some of those wider edges will come off. They don't look like much, but initial tests show that they fit. Dabbing all of that red on, twice now.. That's a whole lot of fraking dabbing.
--------------
Still to be carved out are the mask and backpack units. There will not be a full helmet because even every Eldar fan knows they look stupid. There will be a front and back cloth sash, which has a design finalized but nothing to photograph, likewise with the backpack. The mask is almost completely unknown, but I now have quite a good amount of leftover foam with which to experiment. All up this has cost somewhere under $200(AUD) including tools, with the future need of only glue, paint and gloss.
As this is progressing quickly, I'll be updating sometime in the near future - hopefully with more detailed building steps for the remaining pieces, depending on time. Lotsa fun.
See you later Space Cowboy!
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