FemShep N7 Armor, Valkyrie Rifle, + Omniblade (Mass Effect 3)

[Freya Willia]

When your workshop looks like a bomb went off..........you are doing it right. (Joke, your build is beautiful.)..........but your workshop is way too clean hahah.

It doesn't always look like that. But I live with roomates, not people who love me enough to put up with a mess.

do you have a facebook page for your cosplay?

https://www.facebook.com/Freyawillia

Just made it a few months ago. So far I have enjoyed posting dumb studio pictures, and not a lot of fascinating content or updates...

Getting very close to finishing this rifle. Not done soldering the electronics, but nearing completion of that, and the resin on the other side did get fixed. Painted some weathering details that may get rubbed off/painted over once I put the decals on, if it looks like too much. Using a matte clear coat, and the main body pieces got an outdoor Krylon spraypaint texture that was buffed a bit with 2000 grit paper. Can't remember if I have posted this info already or not because this is taking my entire life to finish.

I am happy that it looks different from my body armor, in terms of the texture. Volpin coated his rifle kits with a nice matte black, which look great in photos, but since I went the black-smooth route with my armor I wanted something a little different.

 

[Nessy]

Glad to hear that the Valkyrie is cooperating a bit more now, I love the weathering you have put into it.

 

[ScorpyX]

Rifle looks nice :3
i like small bolt details - it add some "realistic"
also serial number on side can add more same "realistic" feel
sometimes "company logo" looks nice too (in this case it is N7 model)
(just details from real life rifles)

Glad to see new photo : ]

 

[Freya Willia]

Making dirt

^There's a video of me painting the rifle.

I've since moved on to less pleasant things. My circuit for the rifle now works. My plans for the weapon mount LEDs are mostly still copper wire scraps. I've been working on this every spare hour I've had this month and I pretty much have nothing to show. Couldn't even really say that I'm "learning" anything, either, especially with the helmet. It took forever to dry and looks offensive. No, don't try to tell me it's in progress. It's got serious flaws before it can be promoted from s*** bucket to "redeemable."

I probably could have started with Model Magic and this would have turned out better.

 

[Nessy]

Are you planning to put separate battery packs on each part that gets light up, or one central battery pack with wires running around? Also, thanks for the weathering video, I always like seeing how different people approach that step in different ways.

 

[panterateama]

This build keeps getting better! Too bad about the omniblade... could it still look right on a smaller persons build? Maybe put it in the junkyard for a kids or teens costume build?

Have fun and don't worry about the helmet, it will come to you!

sent from my Galaxy S3

 

[Freya Willia]

Are you planning to put separate battery packs on each part that gets light up, or one central battery pack with wires running around? Also, thanks for the weathering video, I always like seeing how different people approach that step in different ways.

I realized that I can hook up 8 LEDs to a 9v battery (the two lung-shaped parts) and then I will have another battery pack for the central lights. Two 9v packs can fit in the middle one.



This is 4 LEDs and the light pipe, with some red electrical tape holding everything in place for the moment. Right now it is hooked up to a 6V battery pack. The soldering around the LEDs and resistors is kind of awkward and fragile, because things don't want to bend, and i crammed the wires in there... when I do the second one I'm going to try to position the wire as much as possible before attempting to solder it.



My former roomate let me try on his new racing helmet with my armor. With my hair it was comfortably snug, but how I wish I could afford olympic carbon-fiber headgear as a base. It was exactly the right scale (I could tilt my head back and not strike the neckguard).

If I were going to cast this finished helmet sculpt in silicone and resin, I'd be quickly approaching 300$ anyway. But I wont be making a mold, for that exact reason. Unless an army of female n7 cosplayers requested a petite helmet cast, it's not worthwhile.

 

[Perotis]

I thought I read somewhere in this thread that you wished the pattern on your spandex suit was a little more subtle. have you thought about trying do dye it with some diluted black dye? I'm sure you could get it right experimenting with leftover scraps.

 

[Freya Willia]

I thought I read somewhere in this thread that you wished the pattern on your spandex suit was a little more subtle. have you thought about trying do dye it with some diluted black dye? I'm sure you could get it right experimenting with leftover scraps.

I'd like to, and I may try experimenting with different dyes on the scraps. The only thing I am unsure of is if the dye will bleed or shift colors when I wear the suit. I sweat wherever there is plastic. It is nylon spandex which does take dye, but the kind that might be sensitive to acidic moisture like sweat (because you'd use acid to bond dye to protein based fibers). Neutral black is really hard to achieve by hand anyway. It has a tendency to look green or brown or blue. In theory I'd like do do it but its very risky and I don't know what the long-term result would be.

 

[ScorpyX]

omg - it will be awesome

 

[Lodril]

Nylon-spandex fades naturally though. If you've got easy access to a swimming pool, you could always dip it in the pool, rinse it out and wash it a few time and it'll softly fade each time... at least, nylon swimsuits always seem to dull in color like that.

 

[Freya Willia]

Still alive, still working on this very slowly.



I will have a couple days off for Thanksgiving break, and if I can get some good work hours in, the suit will be finished with lighting. Right now these are just sitting on top of the LEDs.

 

[Nessy]

Looking good! Enjoy Thanksgiving!

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

That looks pretty cool. Now I'm thinking about Pumpkin pie though...

 

[ScorpyX]

.

 

[Freya Willia]

Here we are the day after Thanksgiving. I tried playing around with the lights in the upper barrel of the rifle and broke two of my LEDs at the fragile joints. Had to scrap that entire circuit because I had no more identical LEDs for replacements.

So spent most of the evening building another circuit with my sturdier LEDs that I used for the weapon mounts.

Now I'm finally back where I was, testing out different light diffusing materials to use as the "core" that will go in the upper barrel because I have no freaking idea how the originals were done with acrylic panel inserts. I need to file the holes a bit better if I'm going to go this route. But I like the brick-textured styrene the best so far.

The styrene is thin enough to be very bright, and if I shade the middle with paint (right now it just has tape in the center), it has a nice radiating effect from the edges.

 

[alessandra]

Hi! I just wanted to say that this build is jaw-droppingly awesome. I love it! I hope to build some Shep armor of my own someday (though it won't be anywhere near as awesome as this), and this thread will be a fantastic guide - amazing work!

The styrene looks good though, from the photo! I know when building lighted lightsabers, that the inside of the polycarb blades are lined with a sort of semi-transparent refractive film: Blade film

Dunno if that could be potentially useful, wish I had more advice to offer - keep up the great work!

 

[Freya Willia]

Dunno if that could be potentially useful, wish I had more advice to offer - keep up the great work!

That is pretty cool. I didn't know an online resource devoted to such things existed. Thanks for sharing.



Wellllll, nobody really likes to hear (or read) complaining. So you could probably skip this post and not miss anything.

I have come so close to putting this gun together and finishing it this month, except for broken/misbegotten circuits and repeated damage taking me in reverse.

Here is my work experience/resume.

• Self-motivated. Track-record of success wasting solder.
• HIGHLY Proficient at breaking LED leads off under the bulbs, or soldering in reverse.
• 2 months experience installing inaccurate power supply and resistors.
• Exceeded productivity goals for given schedule. 300% increase in labor per 2 hour shift.
• Willing to work holidays and weekends.
• Seeks obstacles and frustration.
  

So I got all the way here, and felt pretty amazing:

And then after work one day, when I was ready to glue the barrels permanently in place, I saw this.

I dunno, something just got hungry in that dark hole and ate the wire. I'm not asking questions.

 

[Nwerke]

Freya, if you ever get tired of what you're doing, a career in comedy beckons. :lol

Keep it up. Your amazing content plus entertaining writeups are something I really look forward to.

 

[Perotis]

I saw this and thought of the trouble you were having putting carbon fiber vinyl on your rounded parts.

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