My First Suit Build

[paitan]

Hi fellas. It's been a while since my last post. I've been roaming here forever and up until now I never had the confidence to build a suit. But thanks to NeXXt, I got the urge to do one based on his kick-ass Wolf Predator pep file. Started off with the helmet, and although I could never match his perfection, I managed to come up with a decent base.

Started laying the fibreglass and resin, and when that cured, bondo..

And patching up epoxy clay to touch up the edges

When everything was done, I added the hammered iron effect using dremmel. This is the messiest part of the process...

 

[paitan]

At this stage, I felt that the helmet was a bit too big for me..Should've gone with my gut feeling and printed the smaller version instead. So I decided to build the muscle suit to compare the size ratio for the helmet. Started off with a cheap ass body hugging t-shirt and a duct tape dummy..​

 ​

And worked my way up with the pectorals using a half an inch thick foam that they use in cheap mattresses..​

 ​

Looked so sh*tty I almost gave up on the whole build..sigh....Took me 4 days to gather up my confidence back and continue..​

 ​

And I'm glad I did, as it turned out better...although I have to tell you, it's a b*tch to carve those foam sheets.​

 ​

After a decent tone of muscles, I overlaid them with 1mm thk. EVA foam and shaped it using a heat gun..​

 ​

 ​

 ​

There are still the wrinkle issues but at this point, I was happy with the result..Not too bad for a first timer, eh?​

And yes, the helm DOES seem a bit too big..​

 ​

..compared to the this helmet:​

 ​

And that's it for now...At first I wanted to do a Wolf suit, but at this point, I feel that I want to explore on my design capabilities and do a custom predator instead..I dunno, only time will tell....I still need to save up fo Monsterroom's gloves and probably half or full mask....​

 

[KmikzeKen]

Your skins are coming along nicely!  Once you get yourself a mask then you'll be able to tell which bio is right for it.  The one you pepped up looks fantastic, so I wouldn't rule it out yet!  Don't lose motivation for working on that skin, it's really shaping up nicely and if you're throwing latex on it it should look pretty wicked!

 

[cripledpredator]

Dude your doing a really good job. Better than my build

 

[paitan]

Thanks for the kind words fellas! It's kinda a hectic week at the office, so I can only make time to continue this weekend..My hands are really itchy to finish up the skin! By the way, anybody ever painted a Monsterroom full mask before? I wanted to get one..

 

[evilpred]

Of to a great start keep it up !!!!

 

[Gardol2]

looks great!

 

[paitan]

No updates for the moment, but I've bought a full mask and hands from Monsterroom. Can't wait for it to arrive!! Yeehaa!!

 

[Justin sic]

Will the bio fit on the full mask? Doesn't the monsterroom full mask have open mandibles?

 

[paitan]

Yeah he does. I wanted to get that at first, but he told me that the mandibles are flexible enough to fit inside a bio. Furthermore, I'm sure I'm gonna end up customizing my wolf bio and changing it to something else, what I have in mind right now is doing a seasoned ronin-style armor with katanas and all the samurai stuff that goes with it. And looking at Hot Toys samurai predator, the bio incorporates the open mandibles to make the bio looked even more badass.  

 

[paitan]

Ahhhh..managed to do some work on the suit..Added scales using soldering iron to the EVA skin. And then coat it with PVA glue.

When the PVA glue dried up, I painted the first coat of sand-yellow to the skin. I used a normal spray can paint, hoping that it won't crack in due course of time. Having said this, the coats are added a thin layer at a time.

Due to lack of sleep, lights and my impatience, I overdid the shadow hues and accents. But I guess for the time being, this will have to make do..for now. I NEED to try it on!!

....and it fits!!! Yaaaay!! but putting it on and taking it off is a bitch, I need to install zippers at the back.

 

[HAL1138]

Looks amazing!! You really got a great effect from the method you used.  Congratulations!

 

[paitan]

Thanks! To tell you the truth, your suit for Kayla was the "push button" for me to start this project. If everything goes well, I'm planning to do one for my daughter as well!

 

[paitan]

I wanna change the skin color and thinking of going into the more "elder" tone. Did a small photoshop of the scheme before I proceed. What do you fellas think? Any comments are very much welcomed..

 

[Toska]

I've never seen that method for making skins before, it looks fantastic.

I think your elder tone mock up looks a touch to pink for me. I personally like the original paint up

 

[paitan]

Thanks...Yeah you're right, it does look pinkish. It looked ok at the office. Probably because of the color calibration of the monitor. Anyway, I wanted to use the skin color of Joe Dunaway's paintwork of Narin's Spirit Blade. Well, I kinda liked the whole armor idea as well..I might design my armor based on this kit/build-up, most probably. It's not movie based, but then again, I wasn't going for movie accuracy to begin with...
 

 *image taken from Joe's website, modelzone.com

 

[davidkraww]

sick costume so far dude!  I want more! haha.

 

[Maniak]

Thanks for the kind words fellas! It's kinda a hectic week at the office, so I can only make time to continue this weekend..My hands are really itchy to finish up the skin! By the way, anybody ever painted a Monsterroom full mask before? I wanted to get one..

I have a monsteroom full face all I can say is AWESOME!!! LOL check out my gallery for pics I'm thinking of repainting it but check it out lmk what u think so far

 

[paitan]

Whoa dude!! Your mask is AWESOME!!!!! It's perfect! Now I really can't wait for the mask to arrive! By the way, what kind of paint did you use on the latex? I'm planning to use airbrush too. 

 

[Imaika Tachiri]

Really cool so far . I love the paint up and the torso looks absolutely awesome. Using the foam for the muscles was a good idea. looking forward to the next update