Enclave Adv. Mark II armor - Fallout 3 - Image heavy

[Darius]

This is the most ambitious project I've ever attempted and is a work in progress. I am planning on doing the whole suit but right now I'm focusing on the helmet. This is also my first post here.

I always thought the Enclave armor in Fallout 3 was some of the wickedest gear ever and after being inspired by all the cool sci fi armor I saw at the last Wondercon I decided to try to make it.

Part 1 Basic Helmet Construction

I started with Pepakura, I found a "Tesla helmet" PDO which was essentially the Adv MkII helmet and started there. This was my first Pepakura project and I probably should have started with something simpler. Overall it went OK but I would have been happier had I started with thicker card stock and pre scored all the folds to make them more precise. As a result there was some warping which I had to fix later with Bondo and in a few cases by cutting and reshaping parts of the helmet. I would say the Pepakura portion took about 20 hours. I used a low temp hot glue gun.



At this stage the helmet was in two sections, the front or mask and the bowl shaped rear section. After the Pepakura was done I painted it with a layer of "fiberglass resin", which is really polyester resin. One smart thing I did was buy a stack of cheap plastic cups for mixing resin and later rondo in. The other thing that I discovered later was buying packs of pop sickle sticks. These make great disposable stirrers.

The two pieces coated with resin and the interior coated with rondo to give them some structure. I won't go into too much detail as this isn't a tutorial, but rondo is Bondo thinned with resin. I painted this on the interior with a disposable brush. This required a few applications to get it thick enough. I also reinforced the interior with fiberglass mat.

Part 2 will be bondo, details and paint.

 

[Darius]

Part 2 Bondo, Details and Paint

I next covered the mask and cowl parts with a layer of bondo and hand sanded it. This was way too much work, then I read all the recommendations for palm sanders and bought one, world of difference.

After first layer of bondo and then after four or so.


Next I did a couple layers of primer. followed by spot putty and sanding and finally wet sanding, the surface is starting to get smooth.


I then connected the two sections with wood screws through bondo and added some details. The rivet heads are acrylic discs, the tubes in the cheek recesses are aluminum rod that was shaped with a hammer and vise. The breather in the front was a piece of PVC with part of a sprinkler head and other odd bits. This was then paitned with black rpimer and sanded.


After this a few layers of chrome paint.



A layer of dark metal paint over the chrome. This was then sanded to reveal bits of the shiny metal, but looked a little dull so I then applied several washes of thinned black acrylic paint and went over the exposed metal areas with silver Rub-n-Buff. Now it's starting to look like what I wanted.


I also cut out the back of the recessed areas in the muzzle to allow a little more airflow.

 

[Thodin]

Looks great so far!

 

[Darius]

Hoses, Lenses and Lamp.

I added the hose between the breather and the holes in the front mandibles(?), it's a reinforced plumbing hose that I thought had an interesting texture and washed it with black enamel paint. The lamp is an aluminum LED flashlight that I took apart, I covered the lens with reflective film and added a dark wash to that too. The lenses I took out of a pair of sports sunglasses. I had vacuformed some lenses out of acrylic but when my plan to give them a reflective coating failed I switched to these. I think it was a good decision.



Next is padding fans, wiring, etc.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

That looks great! I haven't seen anyone do this helmet or armor yet.

 

[Darius]

Thank you! I found a couple examples of the helmet and one of the full suit, but it is pretty rare. I scoured the net looking for examples to see how they solved different issues, but had to figure most of it out. I think for the rest of the armor I will go with EVA foam.

 

[Darius]

Pic of the helmet and armor from Wondercon. Still a work in progress.

 

[Daniel Nelms]

Fantastic work!

 

[GhostMinion]

Sweet. :thumbsup

 

[Darius]

Thanks. Some more Wondercon pics from different angles. I rushed the paint job, didn't seal it and also have a lot of work left so I'm sanding it down to the primer now.

 

[Darius]

Stripped down armor and am repainting it, adding more details. Torso is pretty much done.

 

[Loco Max]

I love Fallout props!.

 

[Darius]

Suit finished, hoses not attached.


Plasma Rifle

 

[Darius]

 

[Darius]

Pic from Nerd-Con in Escondido CA