Half-Life: Alyx Civil Protection Officer (Metro Cop)

[Dent Eastwood]

Hi there, I've wanted to do this build for sometime - thanks to Utri 's thread, I was inspired to finally attempt it once I saw he had templates for the vest which I downloaded, printed and have been working on for the past month. Comfortable now with starting a build thread to document it. Here you will see my progress from start to end.

With the templates from Utri and Hippiekid's templates, the instructions give you a solid idea on how it goes together. The process of wrapping the fabric around the eva foam shapes wasn't that bad ither, it just took sometime and patience to get done, which I mainly did on the weekends (took me around a month to get through all the pieces due to other interests and obligations.)

The fabric I chose was from HobbyLobby, and it was a LAPD looking navy blue that had a decent texture.

The jacket I'll be using is a Danish military surplus one I found that is very close to the look of the one in-game, and the pants are Spruce Green work pants by Red Kap workwear (thanks to HippieKid for the direction on the pants).

To be continued.

 

[greenmachines]

Giddy up. Nice start already!! Will be watching.

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Giddy up. Nice start already!! Will be watching.

I for sure feel that the vest is the most complex part of the build and I wanted to get it out of the way first.

For the helm, I snagged the model off etsy from CADGothenburg which will be the next big piece.

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Vest Assembled Showcase

 

[greenmachines]

Vest Assembled Showcase

xlnt

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Hey,

Secured some base soft parts plus the arm band, which I commissioned MildlyObessedStudios on etsy, who makes roller derby arm bands. She's able to do custom designs.

The coat is a black bdu button up from the brand Proper on Amazon, really like the fit and length. I'm 6'1 and got the medium Long. The coat appears to have a long fit on the in game models which is the look I was hoping to achieve.

The pants are from Red Kapp, Spruce Green.

The coat and pants will be getting the white stripe treatment in the near future. As for the helmet, that's in production at the time of this post.

 

[he4thbar]

Looking amazing so far dude

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Looking amazing so far dude

Thank you!

To give a small update, I sorta took a step back from this build -- the helmet I got printed out, I scaled it to large and wasted a pretty penny which caused me to consider just scrapping this whole project completely. However, I've been doing overtime at work a lot and decided to just chalk it up as a loss. A new helmet that will hopefully be properly scaled is in process and should arrive later this month. Meanwhile, I'm going to look into getting the white stripe on the pants, and the two belts that go around the abdomen.

 

[MonkeyInk]

I like this, keep posted id like to see the outcome, especially the mask mixed into the respirator

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Alas, 3rd time is the charm. I mentioned it above in post #8 but the first helmet was too big, which caused me to step back. Later on, I decided to switch to a more accurate Half Life 2 looking model for the helm. The first version of that was too small, and now it had to get re-done. So this is helm #3.

Will start sanding it to smooth it out soon -- all I've done thus far is join the front and back head portions together.

Helm from Darkwingdad on etsy.

 

[greenmachines]

Alas, 3rd time is the charm. I mentioned it above in post #8 but the first helmet was too big, which caused me to step back. Later on, I decided to switch to a more accurate Half Life 2 looking model for the helm. The first version of that was too small, and now it had to get re-done. So this is helm #3.

Will start sanding it to smooth it out soon -- all I've done thus far is join the front and back head portions together.

Helm from Darkwingdad on etsy.
View attachment 1839105

Now we have some serious inspiration. I love progress that begets progress.

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Starting some lite sanding and filled the seam with apoxie sculpt. I'll have to hit the face with some putty in some spots before filler primer.

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Primer filler than some bondo putty. Going to put fourth extra effort in this piece to get most of the print lines covered. The apoxie sculpt hid the main seam soo nicely too

 

[greenmachines]

Primer filler than some bondo putty. Going to put fourth extra effort in this piece to get most of the print lines covered. The apoxie sculpt hid the main seam soo nicely too

View attachment 1842030View attachment 1842031

Agreed. It is the focal point, definitely spend some time so you are happy with the outcome.

 

[Dent Eastwood]

Helmet is ready for paint -- got the white down earlier, letting it cure before I take photos

 

[greenmachines]

Helmet is ready for paint -- got the white down earlier, letting it cure before I take photos

Excellent!!

 

[greenmachines]

This is going to be another rpf classic build thread. The kind of costume that tries to enter comicon but can't get out of the parking lot for all the selfies and group shots requested. Keep on keeping on!!

 

[Dent Eastwood]

This is going to be another rpf classic build thread. The kind of costume that tries to enter comicon but can't get out of the parking lot for all the selfies and group shots requested. Keep on keeping on!!

Thank you for the compliments and motivation! I can't wait to get this to a con, there's just certian characters that are so fun to interact with people with and I have a strong feeling this will be one.

I hope you guys don't mind the YouTube short format for showing progress, I feel like I can show it off better. I'll take photos with my properly camera once I fully finish the helm.

Currently, it's painted and weathered -- debating I'd I should add more weathering or not. Since they're urban, I went subtle on the dirty look, and my phone camera doesn't pick it up well.

All I need to do for the helm is get lens in the eyes, and I can move on to the easy stuff. Next update will be a test fit with everything on

 

[greenmachines]

Thank you for the compliments and motivation! I can't wait to get this to a con, there's just certian characters that are so fun to interact with people with and I have a strong feeling this will be one.

I hope you guys don't mind the YouTube short format for showing progress, I feel like I can show it off better. I'll take photos with my properly camera once I fully finish the helm.

Currently, it's painted and weathered -- debating I'd I should add more weathering or not. Since they're urban, I went subtle on the dirty look, and my phone camera doesn't pick it up well.

All I need to do for the helm is get lens in the eyes, and I can move on to the easy stuff. Next update will be a test fit with everything on

Looking very good indeed, like a real part of the daily uniform.

I agree on more weathering but have one caution. Because the helmet is separated from the uniform gear, I would only go so far with weathering on the first round because you can always go back and weather it without also affecting the uniform. I hope I am explaining this right. It is hard to describe. I have found that single costume items can seem drastically off compared to screen pics of that one item BUT after having it placed next to the remaining portions of the costume it will change your perception greatly. Cameras and monitors do the very same thing (as the human eye and brain) in adjusting the colors of what you see compared to the rest and to the background.

I would say, weather it enough to look functionally used but then set it aside until the entire build can be seen together in good lighting and in multiple types of lighting including sun. Remember to not freak out when Sunlight vs Indoor convention lighting messes with your perception of the colors. It happens. The only "final" colors are elements of the suit compared to other elements of the suit. External lighting changes too often to worry about it. I think you will get very lucky with this phenomena because of the near black and white balance of most of these pieces.

When you can place the pieces, helmet, suit, weapons, in one space and take a picture or video of them......and then.....look at the pics and video to see how it all represents TOGETHER. Then you wiil be able to really gauge if more weathering and color are needed. I know, I am going on, but I have personally tripped over this on several builds. At no point did my Jack Sparrow come close to dirty enough because I didn't do this. Things will pop out as obvious when pictured all in one go because you can then put your pic next to the inspiration pic simultaneously.

 

[Utri]

Looking great, love to see it!!