For the past few years, I've had this on my bucket list for Warhammer cosplay projects. With all of the updates regarding the impending release of new plastic Adepta Sororitas models, I've finally gotten to the point where it's made it to the top of the to-do list. The goal: a full squad. The method: brute force.
I started working on these gals a couple of months ago when I'd just returned from my last-ever overseas trip with the Navy Reserve. I needed something to show off at the Bay Area Maker Faire, so I decided this was the just right thing. The main problem wit this plan was that I would only have six weeks to go from zero to wearable costume(s) and I also had to prep the rest of my usual display items for the Faire.
Challenge accepted.
In order to meet the timeline, I needed a faster, less expensive option than the fiberglass and resin cast parts I've been using for my last few big projects. I opted instead to make the armor largely vacformed with a few resin cast detail bits. Vacforming is good because it allows me to make many pieces rather rapidly without breaking the bank on materials. In this case, I'm using styrene because it's readily available at a local supplier.
Since I was going to be short on time, I decided that I'd use all of my skills and all of my robots to make the various vacforming bucks and prototype parts simultaneously. Some parts were 3D printed while other pieces were being CNC carved from wood, and other pieces were sculpted by hand or modified from parts of other costume projects.
For no particular reason, I began with the shoulder/collar assembly. I started by having my friends at Do3D.com model the parts I needed. They did pretty good:
The digital models were sliced up and fed to my CNC machines. The machines whittled the slices out of MDF and I then glued them up in the real world like so:
After a bit of sanding and filling, they looked pretty good:
The next step was to lay out the collar/shoulder parts and the lower sholder plates on the forming table:
The first pull came out pretty good:
Though I'll freely admit, it looks better on my friend Madison:
The ankle pieces were also carved out on the CNC machines:
But we'll get back to that later.
The thighs started out as a particularly heavy fiberglass pair from my Captain Phasma project (Link https://protagonist4hire.blogspot.com/2019/02/building-captain-phasma-part-2-armor.html) that were trimmed a bit before I added the ridge details with Bondo:
After the Bondo work was completed, I split them into front and back halves, mounted them onto some plywood, and sealed up the open ends to make them into vacforming bucks:
The lower legs were Phasma parts, mounted and closed on the ends with some 3D printed trim added to the ankles:
Fiberglass vacforming bucks are the best thing when it comes to enduring the heat and pressure of vacforming, but they did okay:
The next step was to make some weapons. I started by having the CNC machine cut out some profiles:
Then I layered on some details and sculpted out a pistol grip:
The grip was designed so I could mold it and cast it separately and use it for all of the different weapons I had in mind:
Once the shells were vacformed, it was just a matter of gluing in the resin cast parts:
The muzzles were resin cast details, but the magazines were separate vacformed parts.
I started working on these gals a couple of months ago when I'd just returned from my last-ever overseas trip with the Navy Reserve. I needed something to show off at the Bay Area Maker Faire, so I decided this was the just right thing. The main problem wit this plan was that I would only have six weeks to go from zero to wearable costume(s) and I also had to prep the rest of my usual display items for the Faire.
Challenge accepted.
In order to meet the timeline, I needed a faster, less expensive option than the fiberglass and resin cast parts I've been using for my last few big projects. I opted instead to make the armor largely vacformed with a few resin cast detail bits. Vacforming is good because it allows me to make many pieces rather rapidly without breaking the bank on materials. In this case, I'm using styrene because it's readily available at a local supplier.
Since I was going to be short on time, I decided that I'd use all of my skills and all of my robots to make the various vacforming bucks and prototype parts simultaneously. Some parts were 3D printed while other pieces were being CNC carved from wood, and other pieces were sculpted by hand or modified from parts of other costume projects.
For no particular reason, I began with the shoulder/collar assembly. I started by having my friends at Do3D.com model the parts I needed. They did pretty good:
The digital models were sliced up and fed to my CNC machines. The machines whittled the slices out of MDF and I then glued them up in the real world like so:
After a bit of sanding and filling, they looked pretty good:
The next step was to lay out the collar/shoulder parts and the lower sholder plates on the forming table:
The first pull came out pretty good:
Though I'll freely admit, it looks better on my friend Madison:
The ankle pieces were also carved out on the CNC machines:
But we'll get back to that later.
The thighs started out as a particularly heavy fiberglass pair from my Captain Phasma project (Link https://protagonist4hire.blogspot.com/2019/02/building-captain-phasma-part-2-armor.html) that were trimmed a bit before I added the ridge details with Bondo:
After the Bondo work was completed, I split them into front and back halves, mounted them onto some plywood, and sealed up the open ends to make them into vacforming bucks:
The lower legs were Phasma parts, mounted and closed on the ends with some 3D printed trim added to the ankles:
Fiberglass vacforming bucks are the best thing when it comes to enduring the heat and pressure of vacforming, but they did okay:
The next step was to make some weapons. I started by having the CNC machine cut out some profiles:
Then I layered on some details and sculpted out a pistol grip:
The grip was designed so I could mold it and cast it separately and use it for all of the different weapons I had in mind:
Once the shells were vacformed, it was just a matter of gluing in the resin cast parts:
The muzzles were resin cast details, but the magazines were separate vacformed parts.
.....
