Gears of War outfit - First pep attempt (pic heavy)

[Axemanmitchell]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here and want to say that I think this is a great site with what appears to be a very friendly and helpful community.

I've been amazed by the skill and creativity that clearly shows in member's projects.

A little background on my first project; my wife has MS and from day 1 of diagnosis she has fought the illness by throwing herself into fundraising. A few years ago she made friends with some star wars cosplayers also affected by MS and they attend public events and places in costume to pose for photos and raise donations to research into MS.



I've caught the bug myself now but wanted to do something different to Star Wars. I'm a big guy and keen xbox gamer so thought a Gears of War outfit would be a fun thing to attempt. I'd never heard of pepakura before my research led to it and because finances are limited it seemed to be a good way to do the project spreading out the cost as I went along.

I'm doing Marcus Fenix' armour from Gears 1/2 with Clayton Carmine's helmet from Gears 3. Here's the pepped helmet. Big credit goes to the orginal creator/unfold of the pep files, they were great to use. (Sorry I forgot who, will post this later).
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And here it is with the pepped chest and shoulders. (Please excuse the mess, we were going through a big sort out).



I took a pic for fun of my wife wearing the helmet with my recently acquired Lancer. It is the Gold NECA version that I'll be repainting to be closer to the game original.


I'll post more updates soon but in the meantime has anyone else tried a gears of war outfit using this method?

 

[amedcalf]

Looking good, and looking forward to updates

 

[Axemanmitchell]

As I'm a full time carer I don't have a massive amount of free time to work on the project but I started a few months ago with the intention of finishing it for May this year. I've encountered a few challenges so far but I have to say I found this blog I found invaluable as a first time pep guide.

http://snypa.co.uk/basics-prop-making-i-pepakura/

I've been able to resin and fibreglass the chest piece, shoulders and 90% of the helmet but now the weather's too cold for the epoxy resin I'm using so I'm a little stalled right now but I've been able to apply and sand the filler on the shoulders.

Here I am wearing the fibreglassed chest piece, as you can see it is too big but this had to happen for me to be able fit into it. Without increasing the scale of the model the collar would be too small for my big neck and the waist too narrow for my width. As it stands my shoulders are flush with the armor which is a problem. My solution will be to bulk up my arms/shoulders and upper torso with upholstery foam to be worn underneath a boiler suit. This might actually work out well due to the unrealistic tree trunk arms that the characters in the game have.

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Here's the helmet resined, mostly fibreglassed and with the eyes cut out. they're a bit rough at the moment but I haven't decided yet on what I'll be using for lenses so I'm not too bothered right now.
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Shoulders resined and fibreglassed, also before and after trimming excess fibreglass.
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And here is a shoulder with the filler applied, waiting for sanding.
View attachment 584939

I'll post some more of these old progress pics over the next few days.

 

[collinE83]

Welcome to the RPF. Pictures aren't working in the latest post, but very excited to see this. We don't get a lot of Gears of War builds anymore, so this will be pretty cool. Good luck!

 

[Axemanmitchell]

Sorry about pics not working, don't know what happened there, I'll try again.

Here I am wearing the fibreglassed chest piece, as you can see it is too big but this had to happen for me to be able fit into it. Without increasing the scale of the model the collar would be too small for my big neck and the waist too narrow for my width. As it stands my shoulders are flush with the armor which is a problem. My solution will be to bulk up my arms/shoulders and upper torso with upholstery foam to be worn underneath a boiler suit. This might actually work out well due to the unrealistic tree trunk arms that the characters in the game have.



Here's the helmet resined, mostly fibreglassed and with the eyes cut out. they're a bit rough at the moment but I haven't decided yet on what I'll be using for lenses so I'm not too bothered right now.




Shoulders resined and fibreglassed, also before and after trimming excess fibreglass.







And here is a shoulder with the filler applied, waiting for sanding.



I'll post some more of these old progress pics over the next few days.

 

[gothic]

looking good, all that fibreglass and filler will add weight so look at where it contacts your body i.e shoulders and pad them well

 

[Axemanmitchell]

looking good, all that fibreglass and filler will add weight so look at where it contacts your body i.e shoulders and pad them well

Thanks for the tip, it's easy to forget about the practical things while concentrating on the exterior appearance.

 

[DoubleA]

This is a tough one. Building a armor that isn't human scaled (like 99% of anything video game related lol) will always bring complications in scaling. I understand that the chest had to be upscaled for your measurements, but did you upscale everything else accordingly? You might end up with a small (normal) head size and extremities, but a large chest. By the looks of the helmet, seems your making Clayton Carmine? You can't cheat in the arms to make it all look symmetrical like his other 2 brothers, seeing as he is sleeveless and his brothers aren't. Interested as to see how it all fits in the end, you got this! :thumbsup

 

[Axemanmitchell]

This is a tough one. Building a armor that isn't human scaled (like 99% of anything video game related lol) will always bring complications in scaling. I understand that the chest had to be upscaled for your measurements, but did you upscale everything else accordingly? You might end up with a small (normal) head size and extremities, but a large chest. By the looks of the helmet, seems your making Clayton Carmine? You can't cheat in the arms to make it all look symmetrical like his other 2 brothers, seeing as he is sleeveless and his brothers aren't. Interested as to see how it all fits in the end, you got this! :thumbsup

Thanks for the comments, I had to upscale the helmet anyway as I'm blessed (or cursed) with a large head, it should be in proportion to the chest and once I'd seen the size of that I upscaled the shoulders too.

With regards to the Clayton Carmine character's bare arms I'm only using his helmet in conjunction with Marcus Fenix' armor. Rather than try to accurately recreate a specific character it will be more of a generic COG soldier. In the games all of the main characters wear different armor anyway so hopefully anyone familiar with the games will still recognize me as being from the series.

 

[Axemanmitchell]

A few more progress pics for you.

Shoulders sanded, the edges need a little more work but they're nearly there.



I've made some good progress on applying filler to the helmet, some has been sanded, (about 2 hrs of sanding so far). I've then applied more filler to fill the pits ans started applying filler to the face section of the helmet. Waiting for rain to stop before I get outside to start sanding the face. Not looking forward to sanding the nose area.







I'm at the mercy of the weather for now, need higher temps for resin/fibreglass and dry weather for everything.

 

[Axemanmitchell]

Sorry for lack of recent updates, things have been a little busy for me recently but I do have a few more progress pics.

This is an old pair of Police Riot boots that I'll be using as a base.


here they are with the coverings, the boots have been raised to give me a little more height.


I had to increase the scale of both the boots and the shins, fortunately they seem to look well matched




I've also began collecting some other stuff that I'll need later to finish off the outfit, these are my first ammo packs and the belt for them.


That's all for now, I'll post more when I've got it.

 

[Axemanmitchell]

Well I finally got the weather needed to make some progress. Don't have a lot to show just yet as I've been working on an imperial gunner helmet for my wife, I'll start a new thread for that one soon.

I've finished applying fibreglass to the massive chest piece and cut out holes for pipes on the back, photos below of them fitted, I really like the way they look on it. I've also cut the slots for the LEDs which was a bit of a pain due to the thinness of the model but I can clean them up later in the process.






I'm currently looking into methods of painting craft foam for the armour plating. Spray primer is out because the porous material is left with visible holes in the surface. I'm going to try brushing on wood primer next to see if that works. Does anyone have any tips for cheaply painting craft foam?

 

[Axemanmitchell]

Wow it's been ages since I updated my progress, sorry about that, progress has been steady but slow. Here's some pics of what I've done so far.


Test fit of Chest and shoulder armour with helmet and arm padding.


Helmet is finished except for LEDs and some weathering.


Boltok Pistol sidearm is finished.


Cod piece is finished bar weathering.


Thigh armour pretty much finished


Boot coverings finished.

That's about it for now, I'll update again when there's a good amount to show. Part of the reason for slow progress is the following helmet I made for my wife which then turned out to be too big and heavy for her, looks like I'm doing myself an Imperial gunner outfit too.