First time posting a build thread on the RPF =D
Spent about a week (Nov 23-29) drawing blueprints based off the turnarounds provided by Turtle Rock Studios. I use Adobe Illustrator for most of my blueprinting. I'd love to learn a proper CAD program or something that better captures 3d shapes, but that's for another time. For now, it's just using layers and trying to keep track of everything in my mind.
First draft of blueprints with original scale printout.
You can find turnarounds for all the weapons here:
https://talk.turtlerockstudios.com/t/character-turnarounds/24365
First day of work! Well, technically second. Initially I tried just drawing the measurements on the MDF, but even simple squares were kicking my butt so the next day I decided to use spray adhesive and put down templates. It adds an extra step of removing the templates later with mineral spirits, but I got a lot more consistent results.
The canisters were first. I figured everything else would be built around them and the PVC pipe barrel. I spent a total of 3 days with the scroll saw, dremel, and hand files getting everything together, filing in all the gaps from my sloppy measuring/cutting, sealing with super glue, filler primer, and smoothing it out. I plan to mold these and cast them later rather than remake them three times. Once I had it all finished, I retook my measurements and modified the blueprints to account for the corrected sizes.
December 4th, 4th day of actual construction. An example of how I approached everything. Build logs from folks such as ZProps, Blind Squirrel, and Volpin were invaluable. I had initially thought to cut the center piece out of 2 1/2" pieces of MDF, but it wasn't working out, so I split it into three, which also made getting details easier as well. Later on, ZProps gave me some pointers on my saw blade setup which made cutting much easier.
Work at the end of the day!
Also apparently my MDF is horrible. All my 1/2" pieces are actually 5/8" or so. More blueprint adjustments at every step...
December 5th. Worked on the top rails. Really long cuts, but fairly simple. Just set the bevel angle and go. I ended up wasting time since the front part holding the barrel ended up not lining up with the top. Should have expected that...what I get for not double checking actual size vs blueprint size.
December 6th. Looks almost exactly the same since half of what i did was a repeat of yesterday's work. Redid the part holding the front of the barrel and cut out the parts holding the back end.
Didn't work on the 7th, and only did a little work on the 8th but decided to stop halfway as I wasn't feeling quite in the mood and my cuts were getting sloppier than they already were. Today was more productive. The stock and trigger guard are blocked off. I fixed some of my mediocre work from the day before, and now I'm startint to assemble some more of the smaller details.
Anyways, thanks for reading =D I'm hoping to get this, and maybe a whole costume finished before the game launch. It's the first project I've felt super excited about in a long while, so I'm really excited to share it. ^_^ Big thanks to Zander from ZProps, who's probably my biggest inspiration for tackling this. He does such great work with just a scroll saw, so I figured I could try and that too, go back more to my proverbial prop making 'roots' in a way. Also thanks to Beer Money Props for bugging me to get into Evolve. =)
And here's my facebook page for those interested!
https://www.facebook.com/UnitDagger6
Critique and feedback is welcome and appreciated. =) Also, if you do have any recommendations for design programs to look into, that'd be great as well.
Oh yeah, before I forget, the plan is to have orange and green lights, and rig to be able to switch between them by rotating the fire select like in the game. I'm going to leave the rear cylinder for last to put most of the wiring in, along with the PVC barrel.
Spent about a week (Nov 23-29) drawing blueprints based off the turnarounds provided by Turtle Rock Studios. I use Adobe Illustrator for most of my blueprinting. I'd love to learn a proper CAD program or something that better captures 3d shapes, but that's for another time. For now, it's just using layers and trying to keep track of everything in my mind.
First draft of blueprints with original scale printout.
You can find turnarounds for all the weapons here:
https://talk.turtlerockstudios.com/t/character-turnarounds/24365
First day of work! Well, technically second. Initially I tried just drawing the measurements on the MDF, but even simple squares were kicking my butt so the next day I decided to use spray adhesive and put down templates. It adds an extra step of removing the templates later with mineral spirits, but I got a lot more consistent results.
The canisters were first. I figured everything else would be built around them and the PVC pipe barrel. I spent a total of 3 days with the scroll saw, dremel, and hand files getting everything together, filing in all the gaps from my sloppy measuring/cutting, sealing with super glue, filler primer, and smoothing it out. I plan to mold these and cast them later rather than remake them three times. Once I had it all finished, I retook my measurements and modified the blueprints to account for the corrected sizes.
December 4th, 4th day of actual construction. An example of how I approached everything. Build logs from folks such as ZProps, Blind Squirrel, and Volpin were invaluable. I had initially thought to cut the center piece out of 2 1/2" pieces of MDF, but it wasn't working out, so I split it into three, which also made getting details easier as well. Later on, ZProps gave me some pointers on my saw blade setup which made cutting much easier.
Work at the end of the day!
Also apparently my MDF is horrible. All my 1/2" pieces are actually 5/8" or so. More blueprint adjustments at every step...
December 5th. Worked on the top rails. Really long cuts, but fairly simple. Just set the bevel angle and go. I ended up wasting time since the front part holding the barrel ended up not lining up with the top. Should have expected that...what I get for not double checking actual size vs blueprint size.
December 6th. Looks almost exactly the same since half of what i did was a repeat of yesterday's work. Redid the part holding the front of the barrel and cut out the parts holding the back end.
Didn't work on the 7th, and only did a little work on the 8th but decided to stop halfway as I wasn't feeling quite in the mood and my cuts were getting sloppier than they already were. Today was more productive. The stock and trigger guard are blocked off. I fixed some of my mediocre work from the day before, and now I'm startint to assemble some more of the smaller details.
Anyways, thanks for reading =D I'm hoping to get this, and maybe a whole costume finished before the game launch. It's the first project I've felt super excited about in a long while, so I'm really excited to share it. ^_^ Big thanks to Zander from ZProps, who's probably my biggest inspiration for tackling this. He does such great work with just a scroll saw, so I figured I could try and that too, go back more to my proverbial prop making 'roots' in a way. Also thanks to Beer Money Props for bugging me to get into Evolve. =)
And here's my facebook page for those interested!
https://www.facebook.com/UnitDagger6
Critique and feedback is welcome and appreciated. =) Also, if you do have any recommendations for design programs to look into, that'd be great as well.
Oh yeah, before I forget, the plan is to have orange and green lights, and rig to be able to switch between them by rotating the fire select like in the game. I'm going to leave the rear cylinder for last to put most of the wiring in, along with the PVC barrel.
