Fallout 4 T60 Power Armor and Frame (Pic Heavy)

Faytleingod11

New Member
So this is my first official post here, and the second such post anywhere on my current project.
I'm currently building a full suit of power armor from fallout 4, starting with the power armor frame. I started trying to make everything from scratch, using only my skills as a maker and my will power.
I gave up after a week.
Not to say that I think it was terrible. It just was nowhere near as good as I wanted it to be. I want screen accurate. I want it to be real, not just something that was inspired by the game, like so many of the other suits I've seen.
This is what I had before I gave up.
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I was actually kind of proud of the attempt. But I couldn't live with 'close enough'. And that is where I was headed.

At that point I was seriously contemplating buying a 3D printer, upscaling an in game model and printing it out one little chunk at a time.
Then I learned about Pepakura. And it was exactly what I was looking for. It allowed me to be building this project, not just assembling. And it allowed me to be as accurate as I wanted to be. Since then, I've spent several hours most days (when I'm not spending time with my wife and kids, working, sleeping or actually playing fallout) cutting and gluing the small pieces of paper together. And despite the monotony of it and the ridiculous amount of super glue that get stuck to my fingers, I've been more than a little satisfied with the work so far. I've been working for a month, with barely any progress in the grand scheme of the project, but I'm very proud of what I've gotten done thus far.
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The resining and fiberglassing and bondoing of everything seem daunting, but I'm trying to just keep making progress at this point. I stopped working on the helmet because me and bondo weren't working well together. I moved from the leg to the hand before I even finished cutting out all the peices, because I've had an idea on how to articulate the fingers rattling around for like a week now. I've run a wire along the underside of the finger, and am attaching rubber bands to the back side as a kind of pull and return mechanism.

I'm hoping that posting here will keep my motivation up, as a kind of window to look back and see how far I've come, and hopefully get a few pointers from the more experienced prop makers around here.

Thank you everyone here for being awesome and creative and helping me do something that has entirely consumed my free time.
 
Nice start, love to see someone else buildung the actual frame. I have started with a frame build myself, going very slowly due to a lot of side projects and other stuff happening in my life lately. I am doing the foam route, having built the basic frame of one arm for now. Are you planning to make the opening mechanism? One of the next steps at my build will be putting an aluminium frame in the foam structure and add the opening mechnism, so far I have a rough idea how to make it open up, but I am lacking both ideas and knowhow for the closing mechanism.

Very exciting project, I am watching your approach closely! :)
 
I'm definitely planning on the opening mechanism. I'm probably gonna go with a spring loaded open, then maybe a pulley system that'll close everything as I get in. Still trying to visualize how that would work best.
I'm going to try and avoid having to add supports for the frame beyond the fiber glass and resin. My big puzzle at the moment is how to move without having to strap in.
 
I know what you mean about pepakura. I'm on my third attempt of a rocketeer helmet. Cutting and gluing it together was oddly satisfying

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 
I would love to see someone do just a bare power armor frame... but that's my opinion. I would suggest foam for a starting "working template" of sorts then then work out as many bugs as possible, then once your happy with the foam suit then transition to a metal frame with fiberglass parts. I know that is an over simplified view and I applaud you in starting this endevour.


"Live long and may the force be ever in your favour, Mister potter." ~Gandalf
 
Good work so far! It's good to see someone building a frame.
I've been looking at the models a bit myself. I noticed a couple of problems with them; one which I can already see with your pep'd leg. The bottom part of the calf is supposed to fit inside the top half, but the way that it's modeled makes it difficult without modification. The bottom half is wider than the inside of the top so it doesn't fit inside! I'm currently working on my own 3D model to try to fix issues like this. Who knows if I will ever finish it, but it's worth a try.

This is an ambitious project, but I really hope you stick with it! There aren't many people actually building a frame.
 
i noticed that too. and at first, it does seem like an oversight. But I've actually been able to fit them into play by just slight bending the paper. It actually causes the upper calf piece to fit better on the main leg housing.
 
Ive hit yet another road block. Well, not so much a road block as a detour. I pepped out the hand, and filled the index finger with two part casting resin. And it worked beautifully. The pieces fit well and the string/ elastic puppeteering sort of set up I had worked well. I had to change the string three separate times, finally ending on very thin paracord. I used a mini bungie as the return 'tendon' and all was good. Until I moved on to the other fingers. At that point I ran into two different problems. The first was that I was not as accurate with my paper cuts as I was with the first digit. so the pieces did not fit as well, meaning some of the joints were stiffer, or had less range of motion. Nothing some sanding and a dremmel couldn't fix. The second problem was much bigger. My mixture on either the fiberglass resin or on the casting resin must have been off, because after filling the 12 remaining finger pieces, they bubbled up and deformed. At this point the pieces no longer interlocked at all. It was disheartening. Just short of crushing really. So many edges. So many small vertices that needed aligned. All for basically nothing after that. I tried just cutting out the bubbles, but because of the card stock, it left large dents in the shape. I would have had to go back and fill those. So I trashed all the fingers. Even the good index finger. Turns out, I'm still garbage at solid pepakura pieces.
I had a brain blast while looking for a 3D printer though. I will now be making the fingers out of wood. If I use a single board for all the fingers, it guarantees uniform width, and much easier to sand and shape than paper, fiberglass resin, and casting resin (with bondo for the mess ups I was going to have to fix). I'm going to trace the pepped fingers onto the wood board, then cut those out, trace them again onto a thin piece of board (1/4") and then use that for the knuckle joint overlaps. I'm finding it hard to explain, but I'll post pictures once the process proves successful. if it doesn't, I'm buy a 3D printer and saving myself any more heartache from these little finicky detail pieces.

TL;DR
I messed up my paper/resin fingers. Bad. I'm going to make them out of wood now, and I'll post pictures when I'm done. Otherwise, I'm saying screw it and buying a 3D printer to do it for me.
 
So after a long time of only making incremental progres, I've made a leap. I drank six nukas (coke in a nukacola mug) and finish the cutting and gluing on both legs. Now I have all the pieces and a good idea where everything goes and how its orientated. But I'm held back by some small details, like how to attach everything together to keep it functional. Over the next few days I'm going to be fiberglassing and resining the last of the pieces. What I'm hoping is during that time to find a 3d model of the power armor frame in the open and closed states to hammer out hinge locations and the bits not included in the pep files. It's hard to figure out the moving parts from in game and static images. So if anyone knows where any quality models are, or how I can get them, please let me know. If greatly appreciate it. And for anyone who still cares, I'll be uploading pics later today.
 
It's not a 3d model, but here's a reference sheet for the bare frame.
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That should at least help you plan some of the more basic hinge locations, like the back. It also looks like you can find where the other joints hinge open based on the seams. The problem with finding open and closed models of the bare frame is that it's a static model in game, and can't be equipped without armor applied over it. So there aren't any rigged 3d models you could reference animations from.

Your best bet would be to work from references of the T60 armor, and videos and gifs of it opening and closing. Dremel the parts into the sections they separate into, so you can hinge the interior and use whatever mechanism you plan. Definitely go for spring loaded hinges to open, and some sort of bowden tube or pulley system to pull it closed again and latch into place.
 
1483834513448672951930.jpg14838345652971597707900.jpgmy work bench is overflowing at the moment. The helmet has a last minute job for a costume contest at work. Still need loads of details and more bondo/sanding
 
It's not a 3d model, but here's a reference sheet for the bare frame.
View attachment 696398

That should at least help you plan some of the more basic hinge locations, like the back. It also looks like you can find where the other joints hinge open based on the seams. The problem with finding open and closed models of the bare frame is that it's a static model in game, and can't be equipped without armor applied over it. So there aren't any rigged 3d models you could reference animations from.

Your best bet would be to work from references of the T60 armor, and videos and gifs of it opening and closing. Dremel the parts into the sections they separate into, so you can hinge the interior and use whatever mechanism you plan. Definitely go for spring loaded hinges to open, and some sort of bowden tube or pulley system to pull it closed again and latch into place.

Thanks for the reference pic. I've seen it before, but since it doesn't offer and oblique type angles, and is greyscale, it just never worked just right. But it did give me a little inspiration. Using the homemaker mod, i was able to build a room using institute walls and floor, giving me a clean white background. Then it was just a matter of freezign the game and detaching the camera while the power armor was open and my character was using a stealth boy. BAM! perfect pictures.
 
So thanks to a few suggestions here and on reddit, I'm 90 percent sure how to assemble most of the lower portion of the suit.
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I was thinking of salvaging a couple of hinged knee braces and fiberglassing them into the calf and thigh pieces, but after a quick look on amazon, it'd be over 60 bucks for a set of braces. I'm not wanting to spend the money on the off chance that it ends up being a terrible idea. Can anyone suggest a cheaper route for the same premise? I don't even know what to search/ask for with the same kind of hinge.
 
My big puzzle at the moment is how to move without having to strap in.
You could try using velcro, that way it sticks where it needs to without the need to deal with a bunch of straps and such.
I'm really glad to see I'm not the only one trying to make this happen, you're off the a really great start.
I've been wanting to create a power armor frame myself since Fallout 4 first released, but like you I could never find good references for the frame in the open position. I finally found some rough pep files that look they were converted from an in game model, I'm currently running them through blender and sketchup to refine and improve them as they are very choppy. I'll be posting progress of the project once I actually make some. lol In the mean time I'm looking forward to seeing how yours turns out. :)
 
There are a lot of enclosed pieces in this pep file, especially on the legs. I'm having an small debate with myself on the best way to strengthen these pieces, since almost all of them are weight bearing in some way. I've thought of expanding foam, which I've done on the feet, mainly the ankle joint. I'm going to reinforce it with a steel plate which should give it enough support for my body weight, plus the weight of the competed suit.
The other point that is causing some bother is in the knee. I've discussed how I plan on possible articulating the joint, but since the piece is just hollow paper at this point, I'm unsure of how to fill it to mount the joint. I'm thinking either rondo (resin-bondo mix) or just a two part plastic resin. The second option I have some experience with (my first failure at filling the finger pieces) so I know that it expands and heats up and can distort the shape of the piece. I know very little about rondo though. It seems like it should work though... Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll continue my own research, but I'm gonna reach out here, just in case someone happens to have the answer I'm looking for.
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rondo gets warm but in my experience it doesn't expand (and if it does it wasn't enough for me to notice) Also putting a base coat of resin on the parts should keep warpage to a minimum, so you should be good.
 
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My Halloween costume for last year. I was hoping to have the frame done enough to wear at least part of it, but that didn't happen. So I ordered a suit from spirit of halloween. But they sent me an xxl so I ended up having to cut out most of material of and have my wife sew it back into a suit like shape. But with all the accessories, I think it came of pretty good. This is also acting as my body double for fit why prototyping the frame parts.
 

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