Warhammer 40K Space Marine Full Scale - New at this (WIP Breakdown)

Hasenbrau said:

UPDATED with LOTS of photos and build breakdown:

WIP stuff a few posts in http://www.therpf.com/f24/warhammer-40k-space-marine-full-scale-new-163509/#post2574105, you can skip this newbie first post stuff.

Hi all,

Long time lurker first time poster (If I recall correctly). First off, sorry for the forthcoming novel:

I had originally planned on posting up a build thread after this was complete, but I'm figuring now it's better to get the input from all you wonderful people who have been doing this stuff far longer than I.

At work every year we have a company Halloween party with costume contest, prizes and all that, and for a lot of us here at the studio it's a pretty big deal. I work with some very talented and creative people, so we get some great custom made stuff each year. Last year my wife and I went as Steam Punk Han Solo and Princess Leia (Picture below - I grew a beard two months prior just for the friendly mutten chops). It's my big excuse for getting away with some crazy costume project each year.

So I waited until the proverbial last minute, thought of something that would be fun and stupid hard to make in less than two months, did some poking around on the internet and bought some supplies...

Basically mid September, after stumbling across Xrobots foam suit vids I received a shipment of 2lb. closed cell Polyethylene foam which I intended to try to build an Ironman costume out of, as well as something for my wife. Then a buddy of mine started painting War-hammer miniatures again and I thought: "Hey why not build a Space Marine costume, and wear stilts, and make it BIG!" Turns out some very talented people have already done this. Soon after my crazy-person epiphany, I did an Internet search for Space Marine costume and of course found thorssoli's great, life-sized SM builds (a whole squad!), as well as Legacy Effect's build used for promoting THQ's Space Marine video game. The first inspired me to do something similar, though utilizing the foam I had already purchased, the later had me thinking I'd build a Captain Titus suit (main character from the game) , so I didn't have to wear a helmet, and my wife could go as Lt. Mira (female character in the game).

Using a computer (I don't recommend it as it limits vitamin D production) I made some templates and some proportioning models to suit my dimensions. I printed out my templates on letter paper, taped the templates together, traced them out on the foam, then I cut out a bunch of foam and glued it together. The gluing part took some experimentation, as I started with hot glue but eventually settled with 3M hi-strength 90, which I just happened to already have lying around for a home improvement project - That stuff is great!

I also rounded up drywall stilts, some miscellaneous junk for details and probably blew too much time thinking: "Ooh what else could I do. I could add cooling fans and lights and sounds and make giant weapons, and controllable hands etc, etc." Also, great time of year to round up all those little skulls dudes in the 41st millennium seem to like. I think I've spent more time shopping with this project than actually building.

After the first weekend of assembly I thought it would be great if i could do something like Xrobots Smooth-on coating to give the whole thing a hard shell, but thinking I didn't have time or funds for mixing small amounts of resin and doing layer after layer over such a large suit, I searched for alternatives of a similar nature and came across docholiday78's rondo Ironman. I hadn't heard of rondo before, but I was familiar with bondo, which I've used on automobiles a number of times, so I figured this was the way to go. Other than thinning out the bondo, I'm not quite sure the resin has any other value in this process, but please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

At this point I've got all the major armor bits assembled sans backpack, which will be built from different materials. Then two nights ago I put the first two layers of rondo on one of the shin bits and I'm wondering still if rondo is a good idea. I can tell you all I really want this suit to have a hard plastic outer feel to it. I would like for it to have a "knock." But putting bondo full of sticky resin over large areas of foam is not fun. This first pass didn't get enough resin hardener in the mix and is so still a little tacky but seems to be getting there.

After this first coat, I'm thinking I'd need quite a bit of bondo, inside and outside to give the foam enough rigidity not to flex, at which point I'm thinking this suit may be unwearable due to weight. I think I'd switch to 65D at this point but I wouldn't be able to get it in time. Basically I'm feeling like I have to have everything coated, prepped and painted by the end of this weekend, so I have a week to put the rest of my bits together and assemble the suit on it's harness and actually make it wearable. I am taking the later half of this week off to work on it.

So what do you all think? Any suggestions, am I doing anything wrong? Should I cut and run and just coat and paint the foam, forgetting about getting a knock? If I forget the rondo, should I just plastidip or vinyl spray? (I did a test on the foam with 4 coats of platidip and while it's a nice coating, it still looks like painted foam).

I've also tried sealing some large scrap bits in thinned-out Elmer's white glue last night to try different coating son tonight, but noticed the the Elmer's cracks very easily, is this normal?

Your comments and insight is greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the crummy phone pics:

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Hasenbrau said:

I'm actually considering finishing off this build with the backpack, bolter and a helmet or two.

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Hasenbrau said:

Hey HorsyARS. Thanks for the compliments. I sent you a PM with a link. Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm actually considering finishing off this build with the backpack, bolter and a helmet or two.

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