Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - FINISHED!

Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Originally the carbon fibre for Rein was just a paint job, silver sprayed with black through a mat to make the pattern look like carbon fibre. I was happy with it at the time but vinyl wrap is fairly cheap per roll and the look of it was far superior so it was an upgrade I was willing to give a go.
If anyone has had any experience working with vinyl wrap it can be a tricky beast to work with, I won't mention which ones but quite a few of my favourite cosplay content makers have used it in their videos and then torn it off afterwoods in disgust :). In the meantime you can find 1000s of videos of people wrapping car parts or even entire cars perfectly and making it look incredibly easy.
If you haven't tried it yet then from my meagre experience I have discovered a few things that might help.
If the part is not smooth then the final finish won't be either. It's very thin and won't disguise any surface imperfections.
It's not like the contact paper that you cover books with. To get the correct finish and for it to adhere properly then it must be heated and stretched over the surface.
Think in advance which parts you're going to wrap... maybe some parts should be wrapped prior to joining. Some parts become too complex to wrap properly after they're built...unless you're a car wrap professional who wraps complex things like entire car hubs 5 days a week. You'll make a mess.
If you get bubbles you can heat, relift and stretch it into place almost infinite times (probably not infinite but alot) so if you think you've made a mess and start to cry..don't, just heat it lift it and try again.
Use a tongue depresser or a non sharp flat device to smooth it out when heated rather than your fingers it seems to adhere more smoothly.
Now, all that being said... I am no expert, not by far. It is still one of the most frustrating materials i've worked with, it feels like you need 4 hands to control it..so maybe grab a friend.
So, all my parts are already built and are complex shapes that were always going to be difficult to wrap, so my results got better as I went along ..some parts of the torso are perfect and some parts are ugly as hell... i've just made sure the ugly parts are in areas that will be covered up anyway or unseen in general.
So here is a quick picture of my upper arm parts, they need bolts, greeblies, hoses, and a paint touch up but they turned out passable.
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The most important thing about working with vinyl wrap is to take your photos from a distance... this way no one can see all the imperfections :)

Seriously though for carbon fibre and for some chrome finishes it might be worth trying at least once.
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Some tips on vinyl application (worked at a sign shop in college). If you need the ability to make fine adjustments after laying the vinyl down, you can spray down Windex or other ammonia based glass cleaner to keep the glue from immediately bonding with the substrate. once in place you will need to squeegee the vinyl down. For air bubbles, the other trick if you didn't use something like the glass cleaner trick, just a small poke with a needle then smoothing it down works perfect.
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Some tips on vinyl application (worked at a sign shop in college). If you need the ability to make fine adjustments after laying the vinyl down, you can spray down Windex or other ammonia based glass cleaner to keep the glue from immediately bonding with the substrate. once in place you will need to squeegee the vinyl down. For air bubbles, the other trick if you didn't use something like the glass cleaner trick, just a small poke with a needle then smoothing it down works perfect.
Thanks very much i'll give that a go. On Rein i've only got the back of his calves to do for the vinyl but my next project i'm fully wrapping in chrome vinyl. I'll definately give this a shot.
I added some more lights to the thruster..and i'm not sure if i like it.

I've been working on the hands today...i need to get them done and move on.
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So this is both hands in action.
I can pick the hammer up with my right hand quite well, the left is still a little clunky but using both picking it up is quite ok.
So as it stands when i hold it i'm also carrying the weight of each hand but when it's connected to the suit the weight gets transferred across my shoulders instead so i should have more control and will only have to focus on the hand and arm movements themselves.

Anyway, I think i'll tweak them tomorrow and then re-attach them to the suit and seal them up.
As always, thanks for looking. Hammer down!
 
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Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

It's time for the hands to finish being all naked..so i spent the morning sanding the finger cases, I printed them awhile ago but I put off the sanding because sanding PLA is not my fav thing to do. Anyway, sand and sprayed ... all 52 of the little suckers.
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I sized a few on with the original armour parts that I made for my bungie hands..they fit well enough so i'm going to use them, they never made the costume before though, they were painted and weathered but i ran out of time to put them on on the day so they've been sitting on the shelf.
20180301_073658.jpg20180301_073717.jpgupdside down..? i don't know :/
Then I assembled them for the first time :)
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Then I put on all the EVA foam armour parts.
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I then suited up to get the arm length right and re-attached the forearm to the elbow.
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and finally today I did another thing i'd been putting off... I knew i was going to have to slice open the forearm armour parts to get them back on. I think i'll use buckles and magnets to re-secure them it will let my son help me get my hands into the gloves and then put the armour over them.
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All in all i got alot done today ..i'm not happy with the angle the hands sit so i'm trying to figure out how to turn them 45 degrees without making major changes.
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

I got temporarliy distracted by some side projects but it's time for a quick update.
Today I got quite a few greeblies done and installed, the shoulder tabs, and shoulder discs and light covers.
The upper chest vents plus light covers, the lower chest pipe inlets and a few hoses in.
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Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Hey, man,

been a while since I checked RPF, had to do some home inmprovements. Glad to see you are still on this one. No plans yet for a new costume? The new hands look really good!
I'm shifting more to prop / model making now. I think S76 was my last costume.

Nice job so far! Might have to get me a 3D printer some day XD.

-Hopli-
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Heya, yep still going, he's almost done..i've made a few props on the side as my interest in the big guy comes and goes. He's really come togethor the last few days and for the first time in ages i'm very happy with how he's turning out. The hands are good but i have 2 more improvements..1 i'll try next week and one that is a future project that may or may not be on this rig.
The main reason i'm pushing to get Rein done is to do my next one... i've learnt so much on Rein and Boba that, hopefully, the plans will go fine and there'll be less re-doing of things but the next one will have no deadlines, if it takes years then it takes years. I'll be doing Joe Pineapples for myself and Deadlock for my son (ABC Warriors from 2000AD, so far i've got voice changers for both helmets and have been teaching myself ZBrush. The plan is to 3D sculpt him then use a felxible filament..anyway that conversation is a way off yet. :)vv

Hey, man,

been a while since I checked RPF, had to do some home inmprovements. Glad to see you are still on this one. No plans yet for a new costume? The new hands look really good!
I'm shifting more to prop / model making now. I think S76 was my last costume.

Nice job so far! Might have to get me a 3D printer some day XD.

-Hopli-
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Today I am putting on the final panels on the torso. The torso itself still needs a go over to clean up any stray glue and to make the weathering uniform but essentially it's done, no more large parts or small parts or lights to do.
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So, these parts are the little light covers that go on the 3 sets of lights down either side of the back of his spine plates. They are made from Palight (Sintra) and real hex nuts and metal fittings.
20180427_111208.jpg and they cover the lights here 20180427_110314.jpgthe ones hanging off the wires..3 each side.
The 'V' shaped panels at the base of the spine are the only EVA parts left on the torso that are visible, I hate them, but they will have to do as I'm out of Palight in pieces big enough to chaneg them out so i've moved them into the non neccesary category so I can move on.
This panel is from the front groin section.
20180427_111241.jpgIt goes here 20180427_110304.jpg like this 20180427_120002.jpg
These panels have red LEDs behind them that are connected to the same circuit as the blue LEDs but don't run the pattern.
20180427_120020.jpgThe lights are controlled by 2 Neopixels Pro Trinkets, one controls the thruster rocket LED ring and the other controls the rest of the suit LEDs. They are all powered off of the same 5V usb battery pack and my test yesterday had it run for 6 hours before the battery died which will be good enough because the suit is pretty heavy now so I can't see myself wearing it that long. The other battery pack is 12V and controls the fans, only one fan is installed at the moment and that's in the thruster the fan for the AC system died so i'm ordering a few more but am not going to weight the suit down with the AC i'll just use extra fans and rest in the shade.
Anyway, this was just before the panels were put on.
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As the back is almost done i'll post proper detailed pics later or maybe a video would be easier.
As always, thanks for looking. Any comments or criticism is welcomed. Ta
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Back plates done now. I spent most of the day trying to solder ONE lose wire.. heh, days like that ..anyway. Panels in and so the torso is effectively done except for clean up.
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CHARRRRGGE...into a wall generally lol
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

It's finally time to re-do the legs.. i've been dreading this part. The feet and shins were the first parts I made while still learning what was possible with EVA foam and they are not the greatest parts I made and the thighs were cut out but not built when my laptop was stolen so i had the parts but no clue how they went together anymore as it had been months since I unfolded them so having no reference to look at it was literally a 3D jigsaw with no picture, suffice to say the thighs I always felt were messy.
So, in this pic was how they were left after SupaNova
20180501_121554.jpgThey are hinged only by a strap of webbing at the back and an elastic strap at the front so they were fairly free moving and only really stood up if they had my legs in them. They had gardening cloth in between joints to cover up any of my legs that might show and these were tucked into each lower piece which is why they're so long.
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I removed all the strapping and garden cloth and cleaned up the innards and widened the holes in the PVC pipe that forms the ankle joint to upgrade from a chicago screw to a bolt.
20180501_124034.jpg20180501_124048.jpgThese will be cleaned up and vinyl wrap applied for the carbon effect.20180501_124623.jpg20180501_124630.jpgI removed what was the 'fake' knee joint which was really only cosmetic and made some cylinders to replace them.
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The cylinders will form the joint for the thigh and .. I haven't thought of how i'm doing the knee exactly yet but i've added 2 PVC struts to the main ankle joint that at present come to above knee height.
20180501_133424.jpg20180501_133912.jpgthen supports added 20180501_160853.jpg
So the cylinder is added and i'll cut holes for the support struts and for my leg to go through but here's where it's at today.
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As always, thank for looking, comments welcome. Almost to the good bit of actually making it look nice :)
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

I found some great hardware to upgrade my elbows
20180504_090831.jpgThese swivel bolt things are awesome, they were quite expensive for what they are $13 each and they weigh a ton but they fit the need and they are strong as .. i'll get to them in a moment.
First the knees.
20180504_111700.jpg20180504_110735.jpgI glued some PVC pipe into the hole and directly onto a PVC pipe strut that goes up each side of the inner thigh. Everything on the thigh is now nice and secure. The end cap will cover the hole and that jagged edge has been dremeled smooth. The cap will sit over it all and swivel with the calf movement...hopefully.
20180504_132512.jpg20180504_131425.jpgSo the flat struts connect at the ankle with a bolt to the ankle joint itself then slide up through incisions on each side of each cylinder at the knee joint. So when the knee turns the strut from the shin piece will have the end cap for the cylinder and will spin independent of the upper thigh.
20180504_135759.jpg20180505_122452.jpg20180505_122705.jpgSo at the moment i've just slide the feet over the top of the foot. I'll create the sole of the feet and remake the end points but these original feet seem to be salveageable. None of the old parts look great at the moment in comparison to the torso but it's only cosmetic, once they're physically sound i'll make it all match up.
Elbows:
On the left are the original elbows, 2 rivets and some bent PVC were all the connected it. The weight of the hands was light on the original, the new 3D printed hands are not light in the slightest..they weigh a ton. So the elbows needed beefing up.
20180505_161749.jpg20180505_164100.jpgSo to still get the movement I wanted, I slid one PVC pipe into a T section then riveted them togethor, this slides onto a bar that holds the entire lower arm. Meanwhile going up the T section is riveted to the swivel which is then in turn bolted to the upper arm which in turn connects to the shoulder. The range of movement is the same (or pretty close) to a human arm.
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I am finally starting to be happy about where the final iteration will end up. He's almost done now and I can almost start on the part I've been looking forward too which is the fine details, something i've never been able to do yet.
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Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

So with less than 3 days to go to the con I was originally building this for... last year, I have decided to re-do at least one of the hands. In the last few months I seem to have aquired what I believe is arthritis, it's worse in my main, right hand, than my left but it means controlling the fingers on the left hand individually is too tough and while it hurts to use my right hand it's still strong enough to use. So a metal geared servo had arrived for a future project so I decided to undo one finger from the left hand just to test.
First I hit up Fusion, man, I love Fusion, I found it so easy to learn and it's very intuitive...anyway, I knocked out a basic servo mount.
Servo mount.png
So I did a quick test set up to see if the servo had the power to pull back the finger far enough, it did and it can.
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I then figured if it could pull back one then it might pull back all 4, i'm only using a servo tester and the plan will be to print a thumb bar to turn the nob to open and close the fist and have a power button to power to remove power once I have it open or closed and this will save the batteries when it's not in use.
I cut 2 bars of 1/4" threaded bar ( I was hoping i may get to do both hands and had ordered to more servos) and altered the servo mount, servo arm and puller arms to fit a bit better.
20180514_140254.jpgHere it is with 1 servo and the thread set up to pull 3 fingers, I dropped the hand from a fair height and the index finger snapped off but i'm printing a replacement joint at the moment.
As it turns out one servo doesn't appear to have the power or I can't seem to get it to pull evenly on the bar so I have printed 2 more mounts for the 2 new servos. The servo testers I have just happen to control 3 servos anyway so the servos should all work simultaneously... the force will be well enough to open and close the hand.
Naturally all of this would have been much easier if I had planned for this from the beginning.. live and learn, it's been fun either way.
New stronger servo mount SERVO MOUNT2.png 20180516_103926.jpgSo the mounts are printed I just need to put it all togethor but it will be the last things I do so i've set it aside for now.
I won't bore you with all the repeat of things I've already done..again, but I've been repairing and replacing and reinforcing every point of weakness that I can find, I want to comfortably last the con with no major fails.
On this I thought i'd throw in this pic.
20180514_140232.jpgThis buckle connects the upper arm to the shoulder, previously it had always been very strong and I had no doubt of it's hold power or the strap which is bolted in through the PVC pipe, furthermore the buckle is the annoying type that needs 2 hands to undo because of the button. Anyway, as you can see I've also added a thick cable tie to the arrangement .. just in case, the cable tie is not tightened, it's just there in case. I don't imagine it would last the entire con if the strap did snap but it may last long enough.
So, the feet and knees had some newer parts.
20180510_164614.jpg20180510_164625.jpgThis was my first foam build, this is the 3rd time i've made the kneecaps. I'm getting better at foam, not perfect but better.
I then began the good old weathering process.
Plastidip > Black undercoat > random rust with cheap acrylics > add hairspray and salt > spray silver > mask off areas you want silver > main colours.
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I'm up to the main colours now so not far to go... then he just needs to go back togethor. I also cleaned up the hammer a little, i'm still hoping to find time at the end to get my small brushes out and do some really fine detail overall but we'll see.
Here's the hammer
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and the rarely seen lion from the hammer cover 20180516_155924.jpg and togethor 20180516_155942.jpg
20180513_170140.jpgand here he is next to Boba, although he's in the foreground and his legs are crouched so he's not showing his full height.20180514_090318.jpg

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading :)
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

So today I was all ready to go with the next level of masking which normally involves Humbrol Maskol but then I remembered that i;d knocked my last bottle over and had none left.
There's no shops near me that stock it and there's no time left to order any. So I turned to Dr Google to look for an alternative and figured that normal masking fluid that is used for water colour painting would probably fill my need. So I ordered some from my local Officeworks and figured it'd be better to click and collect rather than have it sent.. so i went to collect and looked at my receipt and it showed the next days date :( ... they had no idea what the product was but it had to come from the warehouse so i'd have to wait.
So now I had to come up with a proper replacement, i've seen Cosplay Chris and Punished Props use mustard before but it doesn't dry so using it on large pieces would be a pain plus my parts would smell if it soaked into the EVA.
So having no time and no alternatives I decided to experiment ..but that's not the right word because that would suggest that i'd tested the process, I didn't have time so i just did it.
My solution, hopefully, is PVA glue with salt sprinkled in...
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If it works i'm a genius if it doesn't then i'm an idiot :)
It takes a while to dry but it was a hot Autumn day and it became tacky quickly so would definately keep paint out but would it also peel paint up when it's removed? We'll see I guess.
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So I glued than masked the lot.
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They're all nice and bright now, i'll hit them with the airbrush and get the tones done then tomorrow I'll remove both layers of masks and see what I have left ..
If all goes well the first layer will lift and show rust and the second layer will lift and show silver, If it's 50% successful i'll be happy.
Just gotta wait now.
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

Whoops double post...i'll use this tomorrow when i post the result of the PVA salt mix masking attempt
 
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done

It's done... at last.
Did it all work as intended? no
Did it last well for the con? yes
Did it weigh a ton? hell yes
Am I happy it's done? definately :)
Am i sad some things didn't make it in? I was stoked on the day..could more things have made it in? yes..but the weight was getting opressive.

So, in the end I put 3 servo's into the left hand to pull the 4 fingers as 1 servo wasn't enough.. well it would have been if it was all designed from the start for it to be that way but the hand was never built for all the to be inside so the servo's just never sat straight so all pulled slightly off and the finger were all different angles etc... so i left the servos in there so the fingers were poseable and moved on,

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IMG_3941.jpg32878076_1865890873474016_3795618803140788224_n.jpg33076848_1865891026807334_1112749099234361344_n.jpg32940891_1865890396807397_7776653655142301696_n.jpg33081623_1865890130140757_5481588084673871872_n.jpg

[video]https://i.imgur.com/a1atCts.gif[/video]
Short vid

Anyway, thank you to all the fine, talented people her on therpf who inspired me to build this in the first place and thanks for showing support along the way :)
a1atCts.gifv
 
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