Wearable Crysis Armor

[Ambroise 27]

Hello everyone,

I am a French student, I'm 18 yo and I really want to make the armor from Crysis because it is absolutely amazing, astonishing looking.
I will post on a daily basis updates of the work on my armor.

Also I have an Instagram where you can follow step by step the process :
Insta : ambroise_david

Thanks for checking in...

 

[Ambroise 27]

I have been building things since I'm 16 yo, I've been working in the past with Blender which is a free software allowing you to 3D model basically everything. Really great.
But I wanted something bigger. So I've decided to build the armor.

First, I wasn't able to find any STL. files that could allow me to print the armor. I've decided that I would basically 3D model the entire armor doing what is called a "retopology".

It actually took me quite a while, yet it is not finished completely...

 

[Ambroise 27]

Right after that, I was quite tired 3D modeling for months all day long so I took a little break and starting printing pieces by pieces the helmet ( which was too big for the 3D printer ).

Before printing anything, I had to plan everything. Making things without having a plan isn't a great idea, I mean that's what I thought. So I came up with an idea. First, the helmet I'll be building won't be the one I'll be using for the cosplay. It will be the mold. So I can fill it up with some stuff, it won't be that much of a deal. I just want the outer layer to be smooth. So then I could pour the inside of the mold with some resin and make tons of helmets lol.

It took +80 hours printing all the pieces.
First thing first I had to sand all the pieces by hand which also took me quite a bit of time, then had to fill all the printing lines with a filler. Had to smooth everything down once again all the pieces.

Then I wanted to attach these pieces together, as the helmet was just the mold I put plaster ( plâtre in French ) inside of it to make sure everything will be sturdy and won't move. Looked great.

Once I had sanded the entire helmet I put some filler once again ( the greyish greenish paint ). It helped me a lot finding all the imperfections on the surface of the mold and smoothing it out. Sanded, sanded, sanded, filled, filled, filled for days making sure the inside of the mold will be smooth.

That's pretty much it. Also I had to change the mouth because it was pretty horrible. So I removed it, printed another mouth and put it in. Filled the contours and voilà.

 

[Ambroise 27]

Then, I tried with a file to create a deep cut all around all the pieces I wanted to remove, around the visor and mouth. Fixed some issue with the chin.
I guess it was time to cast it with silicone, but I wanted to try the silicone first. I had never used silicone before, was kinda new so I try moulding a little half sphere with has some imperfections on it to make sure that the silicone catches those details too. It was a success.

Thus, I started making clay to make the cast of my helmet. As you can see on these pictures, I put clay all around the helmet, higher on the plank so I could capture also the details underneath.
At that moment I made a huge mistake when I started applying the silicone. Do not use a brush just like me. It ruined all my sanding. The surface inside the mold inn't smooth because of the brush.
Anyway, I started applying 3 layers. I put keys on top of everything to make sure that the upper layer of plaster will be fixed with the silicone mold and everything will stick together. Then, once the two half were done I separated the two half of the outer layer. Removed the helmet which was still inside the silicone mould. Cleaned the mould, put it back in the plaster shell. And I poured polyurethane resin inside which hardens quite fast. Was a success yet for V2 I will change this process a bit. I put the helmet on my head, was so great after months and months of work. Cut the visor. Painted with chrome the helmet because it looked cool. Put I back on my head.

That's how far I went for the moment. I will post regularly on the feed though.

 

[Ambroise 27]

I have seen many people trying making the armor. Some of them are really great, but none of them are game like. Feels like cosplay, does not feel like an actual armor you can fight with. I tried to came up with an idea that would allow me to get a realistic result yet some flexibility in my movements.
Indeed some makers have decided to ruin some of the asthetics for flexibility and connfort which is totally ok.
Yet i don't understand why people are printing the muscles ( which is at least 70% of the amor, all the armor is just muscles ).
Why wouldn't it be possible to just make the skeleton of the armor and buy carbon muscles and just plug them in the skeleton of the armor????
I mean, that's the solution I chose.
It will allow me to get a decent result but also some plexibility as everything will the carbon tissu.

 

[joberg]

Sérieux taf mon cher(Serious work my friend!!) I can understand the need to make the major skeleton into a solid frame and then add the muscles to that said frame...I don't think carbon fiber will work. I think that EVA foam could be used for the flexibility of movements.
You could paint that foam to imitate the carbon fiber. Less expensive and more practical in the end. Eager to see your next update!

 

[Ambroise 27]

Sérieux taf mon cher(Serious work my friend!!) I can understand the need to make the major skeleton into a solid frame and then add the muscles to that said frame...I don't think carbon fiber will work. I think that EVA foam could be used for the flexibility of movements.
You could paint that foam to imitate the carbon fiber. Less expensive and more practical in the end. Eager to see your next update!

Hi Joberg, I will think about this option. EVA foam is a great tool when making cosplay indeed.

But would EVA foam look like real muscles in my case ? I mean I don't want the muscles to look "flat" but kinda like "inflated" muscles.

One thing great with braided carbon fiber sleeving is that it is a tube, which is able to compress but also expand at some point. Thus, really great for plexibility.
Also as it is empty inside ( Kinda like a toilet paper roll as an image ), I can put something inside of it to make it look like inflated. For example a kind of rubber, foams, air chamber...
Thus all the muscles should be replaceable in case a chamber pops.

In my opinion, if it is well executed, which I hope it will... It will look much better than EVA foam. Yet I won't have those famous hexagonal patterns. Also the price is much higher. But there is a French idiom which says " le jeu en vaut la chandelle "!

What do you think about this ?

Cheers Mon Cher

 

[joberg]

^^
Indeed; "Le jeu en vaut la chandelle" and it's all about experimenting with different mediums and hoping that your strategy will work
Eager to see your next update

 

[George]

Hi Ambroise 27 and welcome to the forum.This suit with all its detail is absolutely one of my favorite designs ever.
Awesome work so far and can't wait to see the rest !
monstermask is working on this design as well and airbrushes the hexagon pattern on the 3D printed suit.
Thingiverse and Deviantart have 3D files of Nanosuit, so perhaps you can find some to your liking that you can use for your project.Good luck

 

[Ambroise 27]

Hi Ambroise 27 and welcome to the forum.This suit with all its detail is absolutely one of my favorite designs ever.
Awesome work so far and can't wait to see the rest !
monstermask is working on this design as well and airbrushes the hexagon pattern on the 3D printed suit.
Thingiverse and Deviantart have 3D files of Nanosuit, so perhaps you can find some to your liking that you can use for your project.Good luck

Hi George !

Thank you for you comment, I really appreciate it.. :3
I'll check monstermask's work thanks!
Also, I think I'll finish the 3D model myself. However I much appreciate the info, I'll definitely check the 3D models available.

Cheers

 

[Ambroise 27]

Hi everyone little update,

The helmet is pretty much finished, I mean I still have a lot to do. For example I need to buy a varnish because the chrome paint is easy to damage.
What I will need to do about V2 helmet : I will need to make it thinner so that the visor is further away from my eyes ( currently a bit to close ). Also more flexible, currently the helmet isn't that soft, pretty much hard, difficult to remove and hurts a bit.
Anyway I wanted to take a little break about the helmet so I decided to start the spine.

Did a little drawing for you guys to understand what is going on with it. The spine is composed of several pieces which are individually pretty big. I need a way to attach them. I've thought that attaching all the pieces with a 2 littles ropes on each sides ( at the back of the spine, the side which is hidden ) would be a great idea. So at the back of each spine piece there will be 2 rings for the rope. I will put the rope inside and make 2 knots to stuck the piece on the rope so it won't move up or down.
Also when I bend forward, I need to fill in the gape between all the spine pieces, so there needs to be some kind of plastic pieces hidden when I'm a standing up ( not bending forward ) that are showing and filling the gaps when I bend myself.
Then, I've asked myself how would I attach the muscles to the body. As I said earlier I want to make the muscles out of braided carbon fiber sleeving ( kind of like a toilet paper roll as an image ) and plug them in the frame of the armor. It is risky but would allow me to get a really realistic result in the end. Anyway, I want to muscles to be inflated somehow, to get that muscular result. Thus, I will need to be able at the end of one of the side of each muscle to be able to detach it from the armor to be able to change the materiel inside the muscle if it has been damaged ( for example an air chamber ).
That's why on the bottom right corner I've drawn a little system which would allow me to "clamp" the muscle to the frame with screws and 2 metals sheets. The muscle would be inside of the metal sandwich and the screws will tie the muscles between.
I bought a muscle recently to try out the flexibility of one muscle. ( It's capacity to expand or compress ). If it reacts as I would like it to react I could have a decent amount of Flexibility coming with a good asthetics.
Also I have wondered if I should woven the muscles to each other so that there won't be any gaps between all the muscles. I'll think about it...

Next update will be about the prototype of a muscle mechanism.

Bye bye

 

[Ambroise 27]

Hi guys,

I've received a sample of a muscle ( braided carbon ). When compressed it's length is around 60 cm, and when extended around 1 meter, which is pretty great, I expected less tbh. Also I will have to be careful because the perimeter of the tube is not the same when compressed or extended which may have some importance later on.

Also I have been working on the spine, printed some pieces, sanded and painted them with a filler. They look great, however I hope I did not mess up because It actually took me quite a while to sand these boys. ( Especially I hope I did not mess up around the system of attach of each muscle ). Anyway, we'll see.

As I said, behind each vertebrae, there is at the top and at the bottom a little plastic box with a 4mm wide tube hole allowing to thread all the spine together with a single rope going through them all. ( I will have to knit every vertebrae to the rope ).

I recently bought some varnish to put on the chrome paint because it is actually quite easy to scratch or damage. I am even thinking if this car paint is a good solution... I have studied some others solutions but are less convenient tbh.
If you guys have any idea how I could end up with a chrome finish ( like a metal ) let me know.

Once the spine will be finished I guess I will try to make the harness. The harness will allow me to wear all of the big pieces of the armor on my body such as the torso, the shoulders, the spine and even the top of the legs around the waist. ( I took the idea from someone who built an iron Man armor and wearing it that way ).

Next update will be about the finished spine and maybe some drawings for the harness prototype.

Bye bye

 

[joberg]

C' est du bon taf jusqu`à présent(It's good work up until now) If I remember correctly and if my memory serves me well; each muscle is attached to the "armor" and clipped to those pieces. So you have a sort of a "pinched" look for each muscle (at the attachment point), then from there, the belly of the muscle enlarges until its other end is "pinched" back into another piece of armor...right?
Eager to see your next update!

 

[Ambroise 27]

C' est du bon taf jusqu`à présent(It's good work up until now) If I remember correctly and if my memory serves me well; each muscle is attached to the "armor" and clipped to those pieces. So you have a sort of a "pinched" look for each muscle (at the attachment point), then from there, the belly of the muscle enlarges until its other end is "pinched" back into another piece of armor...right?
Eager to see your next update!

Hi Joberg,

Thanks for your comment!

Indeed each muscle is attached to the frame of the armor. There will be indeed a sort of pinched look at the end of each muscle but I will try to make it as invisible as possible. Trying to smooth the way the muscle is attached so that there isn't an inflated muscle which suddenly becomes flat near the Armor which would be kinda weird tbh. I don't know if you get what I mean...
Also only one side of each muscle will be pinched, because I want to be able to remove the material inside the muscle in case it is broken. I don't need to pinched both sides. One side will be glued, the other side pinched.

 

[Ambroise 27]

Hi everyone,

Little update about what has been going on. Didn't give much news sorry.

The project has been on a stand-by for 2 months, meaning I haven't worked on it at all because I went through all of my final exams and I had to study harder than I would usually do

Also I finished two other projects which were gifts for friends.

Anyway, now that I am on vacation I am going to work back on the armor.
I thought that the idea of the thread going through all the pieces is a good idea but it should be something else than a thread, maybe a strap because it is more sturdy and moreover the overall structure will be less "woobly" if that makes any sense.
Also I thought that the spine needs to be attached to my back. Which previously wasn't the case. Let's imagine that someone's grabbing my back and is pulling me, I really want the spine to be attached to me and not free to go otherwise it is going to break.
So I thought that I could use the same attachment that is used with the go pro cams so that the spine would be attached to the suit I will be wearing under the armor.

See you guys soon,

Ambroise

 

[joberg]

Good to see you again & your project I think you're right about the spine, but also any kind of "muscle" attachments should be secured onto your inner suit. Eager to see your next update!

 

[Ambroise 27]

Hello guys!
Me again

I worked on the Armor a bit, here's what I did

I bought some fabric to make the inner suit ( because as I told carbon fibers are known as skin irritant ). Also I found a harnet ( harnais in French I don't know ), which is on the second picture. On this harnet I will attach the spine, as we see on the third picture.

Thus I thought that I had to fix every vertebrae onto a belt. Then attach the belt to the harnet. So I had to came up with an idea to attach the vertabrae to the belt. I said that I would maybe use the go pro attachment but I changed my idea and tried with buckle clips which are easier to use. I put the male clip onto the belt and the female flip inside the each vertabrae.

Also we don't see it, but I glued a hook inside each vertabrae and fixed a rubber band in front of each vertabrae ( with is glued to the belt ) so that everything is sturdy and won't move. I'm pleased with it.

Then I started putting carbon sleeving just to case how it goes. The result isn't as convincing as I thought it would but it is for several reasons. First the sleevings had a diameter which was too wide so I had to glue each carbon sleeving to thighten each carbon sleeving. Also, the fabric which is inside is very roigh and not smooth at all because I cut it with a pair of scissors ( so that there are sharp edges everywhere ).

Also I big modification, I said that I would not glue the muscle to the spine but in reality it is much harder to not do so, my first try was a mess, you shall not see the back of the spine...

Also I would like to clarify that I wanted my Armor to be as easy to deassemble as possible in case something's wrong, something breaks.

I will continue to add more carbone sleeves and try to fix it to the harnet to see how it goes.

More importantly I would like to say that this spine is a prototype, I removed the system for the thread ( It wasn't a good idea, I glued the clips, well everything is not PRO.. ). I will in the future reprint all the vertabraes and make a new spine with a new inner design.

PS : a reminder I'm a French student, English isn't my mother tongue, I apologize for any grammatical mistake, I try to not make any.

See you soon for some news!

Ambroise

 

[George]

The spine looks very cool, but personally I would use velcro or magnets to attach the pieces.
Keep up the good work ! Your hard work will pay off.
And don't worry about your grammar. Just hang out and talk/read a lot

 

[joberg]

Of course "Harnait" is "Harness" in English It's looking good for sure. You're very courageous to build it with carbon fiber (I would've gone the EVA foam route myself...) Not easy to shape and achieve a certain "look". Don't worry about your grammar; as a French speaking person also, I tend to make mistakes here and there. As long as we understand the gist of your message, everything will be fine

 

[Ambroise 27]

The spine looks very cool, but personally I would use velcro or magnets to attach the pieces.
Keep up the good work ! Your hard work will pay off.
And don't worry about your grammar. Just hang out and talk/read a lot

Hi George,

Glad to hear from you, thanks
I initially thought that magnets or velcro would be a great idea, and I still think that they might be useful, however I have to use it wisely. I don't want to Armor to fall apart if someone's holding me or pushing me because of weak magnets/velcro. But I will try to fix one of the carbon sleeving with magnets and/or and see the result. That's how prototyping goes actually...

Thanks, for the design I try to be as game like as possible. The paint has not been applied yet, I will maybe use a product called "Alumaluster", I just don't want a chrome finish which is too shiny.