Starship Troopers Mi: Busting Bugs On A Budget

[Lflank]

My low-budget version of the Starship Troopers Mobile Infantry costume:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1YH8cGxxt8&feature=youtu.be

Not all that happy with the helmet, but it's the best I could do on a low budget.

The Morita rifle is an actual stunt prop from the movie.  I'll get around eventually to making a low-budget version of that.

EDIT: Decided to replace the improvised helmet with a version made from foamies using a pepakura template. Build vid here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry96vxp-CO4

 

[Estelle]

Very informative video. You have an eye for materials to use in your films, I’d walk through Walmart all day and never see the costuming  potential in what’s on the racks and shelves. Good job.

 

[Lflank]

Very informative video. You have an eye for materials to use in your films, I’d walk through Walmart all day and never see the costuming  potential in what’s on the racks and shelves. Good job.

After a while ya begin to develop an eye for it.  Where other people see soap-powder bottles and car floor mats, I see macrobinoculars and Pred armor.  Tee hee.

The ironic part is that when I first started making props and costumes years ago, i scrounged up all the parts because I was poor and that's all I could afford to do.  Now I'm not poor and could buy whatever costume I wanted, but I still prefer to scratch-build everything from found parts, just for the challenge of it.

 

[sulaco1967]

The armour looks very professional.; I would not have known the buckles at front were false, few dollars saved their.

Like yourself I keep seeing things I can use for building in everyday objects and have boxes of shapes and junk to use for future builds. I have a couple of old tv's and a pc which I am going to dismantle soon for greeblies. I will be happy as a pig in the proverbial doing this...takes me back to happy childhood days taking things to bits..lol

cheers

Sean

 

[Lflank]

The armour looks very professional.; I would not have known the buckles at front were false, few dollars saved their.

Like yourself I keep seeing things I can use for building in everyday objects and have boxes of shapes and junk to use for future builds. I have a couple of old tv's and a pc which I am going to dismantle soon for greeblies. I will be happy as a pig in the proverbial doing this...takes me back to happy childhood days taking things to bits..lol

Glad you like the armor. The fake buckles were more a matter of not having any more buckles handy and not wanting to stop to run out and get more.  

I too have a greeblie drawer, with everything in it from bottle caps to plastiic cookie trays.  Ya just never know what odd little bit is just PERFECT for what you need.  

 

[Lflank]

By the way, it was an awful lot of fun being in costume and delivering all my favorite lines from the movie.  Do you GET me?

 

[sulaco1967]

I make short films myself..however nothing on your scale...I don't think it's appreciated how much work is involved in making a short film on the level you do. I spent the guts of two weeks refining a video...and now looking back it's s##t. love your vids though..blows me away that your a one man band( if that makes sense)..

Aaaaaayeee..as we say in Scotland...'Quality'..

cheers

Sean

 

[Lflank]

I make short films myself..however nothing on your scale...I don't think it's appreciated how much work is involved in making a short film on the level you do. I spent the guts of two weeks refining a video...and now looking back it's s##t. love your vids though..blows me away that your a one man band( if that makes sense)..

Aaaaaayeee..as we say in Scotland...'Quality'..

(blush)   Thanks.  I'm glad you like the movies. I have an awful lot of fun making them.  

EDIT--because this one wasn't a "real" movie, I wasn't as careful as I usually am, so you can see some occasional places where I messed up the keying, and got either a transparent hole or some leftover greenscreen (which the spill suppressor turns blue).

 

[sulaco1967]

You deserve a lot more Kudos for your vids....

Sean

 

[Lflank]

Working up a foamie version of the helmet, based on a pepakura file, that will look better than this one.  Build vid coming soon.

 

[Estelle]

Working up a foamie version of the helmet, based on a pepakura file, that will look better than this one.  Build vid coming soon.

I've been busy for the past two days-pen and paper at my side, looking for an approach to some armor, as buying armor doesn't seem to be working out for me. But I was thinking about something along theses same  lines. Using a pep file pattern ( or draw out my own) for foam (Eva foam) armor, then harden/strengthen with PVA and Smooth-Cast 65D.

 

[Lflank]

I've been busy for the past two days-pen and paper at my side, looking for an approach to some armor, as buying armor doesn't seem to be working out for me. But I was thinking about something along theses same  lines. Using a pep file pattern ( or draw out my own) for foam (Eva foam) armor, then harden/strengthen with PVA and Smooth-Cast 65D.

Yes, that's the method I used for my Colonial Marine armor. I downloaded the pepakura file and taped all the major sub-assemblies together, then used those as paper templates to cut out pieces from a sheet of foamie, sealed them with watered-down PVA, then stiffened them on the inside. I stiffened mine by using PVA to glue in sheets of plain cotton muslin cloth, but some people do the fiberglass cloth/resin instead, and some people do casting resin. They all work--I just use the PVA/cloth method because it's cheap, fast, and I have the materials already lying around.

 

[Lflank]

Decided to replace the improvised helmet with a better version made from foamies using a pepakura template. Build vid is in the initial post.