XCOM Operative: Carapace Armour and Laser Rifle

[KnoxyMcKnox]

Hello commander....

So me and a friend decided to go ahead and do some XCOM cosplays due to being infused with all the XCOM 2 hype, and we decided on making two sets of Carapace Armour and Laser Rifles

It began life as a pepakura model which was then backe din duct tape and panels and details marked on to be sliced up into templates

And was then transferred onto 10mm Plastazote LD45 foam

The rest of the armour pieces had no pepakura involvement, instead just with measurements guesstimated from various reference images
A weekend was spent sewing up a pair of jumpsuits

The only armour missing from this photo is the thigh plates, elbow pads knee pads and boot covers

Next up were the laser rifles, again a lot of guesstimations with the measurements but I think we did a good job getting them pretty accurate!

Since then everything has been gap filled, sanded and coated in PVA and is just waiting on a coat or two of plasti dip before painting and then its LED's and strapping it all together!

So what do you guys think so far?
Hopefully the Council is pleased with our efforts!

 

[Wes R]

That is a very large gun lol. Actually I like it more than the ones in game, it has more of the vintage 90s X-com laser rifle feel to it for some reason. What did you make the rifles out of?

 

[KnoxyMcKnox]

Thank you, glad you like it! Cartoonishly oversized is what I was going for
They are made from the same foam as the armour, just in white, much easier to see the sharpie cut lines that way, haha, also a little bit of wood, particularly in the grip sandwiched between foam to keep it sturdy

 

[KnoxyMcKnox]

So after little over a weekend me and my friend got all the armour pieces, plasti dipped and primed and ready for us to go through masking tape hell in order to spray up the armour an aluminium colour, and then hitting the recesses with a dark grey spray paint before weathering everything a little once it was dry


And then once painting was done we turned our attentions to installing LED's in the armour and a tube filled with EL wire into the rifle! (as modelled by my friend here)

 

[KnoxyMcKnox]

And finally once that was done and we had strapped everything together with clips, webbing and elastic we painted on all the little details such as union flags and the Vigilo Confido's and there we have it, two sets of finished XCOM carapace armour which we took to a convention on the 13th of February



Overall | think we did a fairly good job, a little rushed towards the end but I'm happy with it! What do you guys think?

 

[TheZamboni]

That's some good work for sure. Excellent!

 

[ivanj05]

Very impressive.

 

[CLOTHAR]

Nice work! I love seeing some love for X-COM.

Any plans to expand your squad or upgrade your soldiers?

 

[KnoxyMcKnox]

Nice work! I love seeing some love for X-COM.

Any plans to expand your squad or upgrade your soldiers?

I'd love to expand the squad, just need to find some more rookies willing and able If that fails I suppose I could build a SHIV... Which would be pretty cool... Might do that...

When it comes to upgrades I'm thinking of building a bunch of accessories like a laser pistol and a medkit or arc thrower, maybe grenades and pouches. Things like that.

 

[kamenkewl]

daaaannng that is awesome! it seriously looks like you just walked out of the game, the oversized gun really helps there!

 

[KnoxyMcKnox]

daaaannng that is awesome! it seriously looks like you just walked out of the game, the oversized gun really helps there!

Thank you! Glad you think so, I was kinda going for that, referring to screenshots and reference images as much as possible, although had to take some liberties with the scale of some parts considering i'm nowhere near as muscular as those XCOM soldiers are

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Very cool! I really like that you got the flag on there. I've seen a few XCOM costumes where they either forgot or skipped that.

 

[KnoxyMcKnox]

Very cool! I really like that you got the flag on there. I've seen a few XCOM costumes where they either forgot or skipped that.

Thanks! Yeah, can't miss out on an opportunity to show my colours hehe Glad you like it!

 

[HammyDribbler]

Nice work. Might tap you up for some supplier information at some point as a fellow Brit. I ditched Plasti-dip in favour of liquid latex (although I did have to invest in a compressor set-up) due to cost. Just finished my first set of 2016 costumes (debuted at LSCC) and LEDs etc. are definitely next also "Big Cartoon Oversized Guns!!!!"

Damn, now I have a desire to make a Muton or a Sectoid.... so many good characters in XCOM 2

Right you have proper led me astray now I just saw my first picture of the Andromedan! What an amazing costume that would make. So tempted....

 

[KnoxyMcKnox]

Nice work. Might tap you up for some supplier information at some point as a fellow Brit. I ditched Plasti-dip in favour of liquid latex (although I did have to invest in a compressor set-up) due to cost. Just finished my first set of 2016 costumes (debuted at LSCC) and LEDs etc. are definitely next also "Big Cartoon Oversized Guns!!!!"

Damn, now I have a desire to make a Muton or a Sectoid.... so many good characters in XCOM 2

Right you have proper led me astray now I just saw my first picture of the Andromedan! What an amazing costume that would make. So tempted....

You are welcome to tap me up whenever you want, although I get pretty much everything from ebay, apart from my foam which is Plastazote LD45 which comes from Thames Valley Supplies

Yeah there is a lot of cool stuff in XCOM 2, the Andromedon would be a cool thing to try cosplay as you said I was thinking I could cosplay a Specialist and make a GREMLIN either by modding a quadcopter or just having it attached to me by some kind of transparent plastic tube or something, the latter probably being much easier to accomplish