Foam help! Colonial Marines

spades81

New Member
I'm working on a set of Colonial Marines from Aliens for on upcoming Con in October, & I've hit a snag on the foam. If this is in the wrong place, I'm sorry. I searched the thread for answers and drowned in posts without finding my answers.

Full disclosure: this is my first build of this scale and first one using foam. I'm doing a kid-scaled set first for my daughter before I start on the adult sets. I've got the shin guards cut and glued, and they look pretty good. I wasn't sure where to go from there, so I went searching the Internets and found this video (among others):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDwQg6CX25A&t=150s&index=7&list=PLjBu2clUoGqEtr5VP46FGHRii95rv6ubY

I followed his method and instructions to the letter. Didn't get the same results. The 65d is a splotchy mess, and I've wasted half of my 2lb resin set on a single set of shin guards. The parts that did finally cure are nowhere near as solid as the piece he finishes in the video, they still feel like foam. Even mixing just 1 oz of both A & B components cures in the cup and on the brush before I can coat 2 whole pieces. How am I blowing this? I need the shin sets to be fairly sturdy. The vests I'm making out of resined pep, and they're going ok so far (despite the tedium of putting it all together), but I've used paper-and-fiberglass resin before.

Any help you guys are willing to toss my way would be greatly appreciated.
 
Update: I've got the basics on my kid-scaled costume well on the way. Here's my vest

20170810_233223.jpg

Here's the shin guards: The white ones are the ones referred to above that I used the 65d on. Moderate disaster with a ton of waste. PLasti-dip it is.

20170810_233201.jpg

20170810_233117.jpg

The kneepads are outside getting Plasti-dipped.

Helmets: (I used some cheap Wal-Mart costume helmets for the kids)

20170810_233122.jpg

And helmet cams: The cams I got from a 3d print model. We scaled it up from a 7" action figure helmet and they came out amazing. Note: they're about 3" long for the kids gear.


20170810_233145.jpg

Here's a snag I've hit I'm hoping someone can point me towards the answer. Since I'm on a schedule, and I may be low on time for my own costume, I wanted to to the smart gunner so I don't have to make the vest. I've got the gun and handi-cam figured, but I'm stuck on the eyepiece. I can 3d print what I have to, but I can't find a model, and I'm not sure how to swivel-mount the eyepiece once I do. It doesn't have to be movie-perfect, but I don't know where to start. Any clues or hints? I'm down to about 2 months.
 
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would the swivel on a car Ariel do the job ?
I'm not sure about a car, but following your suggestion I found some wifi router antennae mounts that might work, I'm just not sure how I'll attach them to the larger model.

Here's the headset I mean

AliensSmartgunner Headset.jpgVasquez_and_Drake_with_sights.jpg

The camera is covered. The headsets we're using are old Xbox headsets. I'm cannibalizing some old ones for the helmet mikes, and I can just mount the camera and eyepiece to the same headset. The movie-accurate headset is a tall order, they were outdated 30+ years ago when they filmed the movie. I'm not sure what box to put under the camera (shouldn't be too hard), but the eyepiece swivels from upright to over the eye. I can print whatever I have to but the moving joint perplexes me, and I don't have the 3d model for anything past the camera.

I've found several posts here and on the AliensLegacy forum that discuss building or buying the same headset, but they're several years old and I haven't gotten any responses from the messages I've sent (on AliensLegacy I'm still awaiting admin approval to start posting and sending messages).

Thanks for the help!
 
in case like that i would attach with a resin like apoxie sculpt or milliput that way you could mould the shape as you have a good working time with it. as for the eye piece it looks just like the bath you get with optrex eye wash


Optrex-Eye-Wash-.jpg

if you type "eye bath" into eBay your find them sold without the solution.

also saw a cheap "selfie" stick that had a swivel mount attached.
 
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A while back I found a cheaper and cleaner alternative to SmoothOn 65D,thanks to @Cyehra:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=StDwK-tKUuo

I'm in the US and I'm having trouble finding that exact product here. There's a few similar ones on Amazon and such, but I'm not sure which one is exact. What did you use?

Project Update: I've had to throw out a few of the 65d failures, there was no fixing them with another product. Fortunately they were only the small neck plates on the back of the helmet, and I can easily re-cut them and reassemble it all in a couple hours, so no big loss. Also, I wasn't happy with their size relative to the helmet, so I can fix that in the process. Small victories.
The resined pep models seen above have been slushed (huge mess but only a single evening's work) and the front and back vest plates are in the bondo process. I've also begun gluing the pep models for the adult sized vest I have to do next. I've been doing this around work for the last 7 days, but I have a long weekend coming up so I'm hoping to make some leaps forward. I'll try to post some more pics when I can.

Thanks for the eye cup ideas. I haven't had a ton of time to run them down though. Killer idea. I'll keep you posted.
 
Hi Spades,the acrylic texture gel used by @Cyehra in the video is 'Impasto Gel 1' by the brand of 'Lascaux',but I don't think you're restricted to this particular brand of acrylic texture gel.
Btw,the use of this coating applies to foam building.Not sure about paper/cardstock building.
 
I'm not finding 'Impasto Gel 1' where I can get it here, nor am I finding the brand. I've found more than a dozen variants of 'acrylic gel' however, and they all have different textures. I'm going down to my local artist supply store near campus to get their input tomorrow.

I'm only using the foam on a few of the peripheral pieces of the suits. The vest and shoulder guards have to be able to hold up under a slung weapon, and the vest will be in some contact with the cartridge belt and pouches. I'm afraid foam will tear too easily under this wear & tear. The foam just needs to not be so soft, not load-bearing.
 
Impasto Gel 1 was just an example she mentioned in the video; any Acrylic Texture Gel will do.
This coating will put a flexible plastic coating over your foam,so it will flex when it 'needs to' and be strong when static.
 
Update: It's been a hectic couple of weeks but I've made a bunch of headway. The product I ended up settling on for acylic Gel is Liquitex Matte Acrylic from Micheal's Art's & Crafts
20170903_011645.jpg

I've cut nearly every foam piece I'll be needing, and I've begun glue coating in the most recent pieces, but all the others you can see I've coated with both glue and acrylic. It's not quite as sturdy as the few pieces I managed to successfully coat in the 65d, but it'll do. I'm hoping they don't pinch when I strap them on b/c the coating tends to crack when it bends just a little too much. The green pieces you can see are the ones that have already gotten the base coat of hunter green for the camo. You can also see in the pics the 2 kids helmets (stacked) and the first adult helmet that have started the assembly process. I've painted the details on the kid-scaled helmet cameras (no pic yet) but I haven't gotten the adult ones printed yet.
20170903_011523.jpg20170903_011513.jpg

The kid scaled armored vest is well on it's way on the bondo process (the pieces here are just awaiting primer) and the adult set has only 2 pieces left to assemble the pep on. I can't slush or resin the adult set until my friend drags his butt across town so I can verify the fit before it's set and I can't alter it. There was some trouble getting the front and rear vest pieces for the kid set to line up, for some reason they didn't come out 1-1 on the pep models. I didn't catch it until it was too late, but it's workable, the shoulder guards will cover the difference and I can pad them underneath so they're not too uncomfortable b/c they don't line up properly. I'm going to triple-check the final fit on the bigger set.
20170903_011551.jpg20170903_011530.jpg

Any recommendations for attaching the shoulder guards to the vests? The movie prop had them fixed in place over the shoulder straps, but they were vacuum formed and jointed a little differently. Right now I'm planning on attaching them to the 2 straps that'll run over the shoulders but I'm not sure how nicely they'll line up with the rear vest plate if I do that. I'm open to suggestions.

35 days to con! Holy crap!
 
Industrial Velcro,or as a last resort I would use magnets
The coating provides both strength and flexibility as explained in her video,so it will have a hard surface until you put pressure on it; then it becomes flexible.
 
This is probably too late to help you, but I've had good luck coating rigid foam pieces with Smooth-Cast 57D. It has a slightly longer pot life, so you get more working time. Also, it doesn't snap cure as soon as the pot life expires. Instead it has an extended gel period during which it slowly gets thicker and thicker. That makes it easier to smooth out.

It's semi-rigid so it won't crack. Bend it too much and it might crease or eventually start to tear.

You can color it with So-Strong tints so you don't have to worry scratches showing white plastic through your paint job.
 
Ok, so I know it's been forever but I was on the forum for other stuff and realized I never posted my final stuff. I had to dump doing pep for the 2 adult vests because we ran out of time, so we bought a couple of cheap motocross armor sets from cycle gear (Bilt Rib Cage Roost Guard - Cycle Gear). Then we covered the vent holes in it by threading some MOLLE pouches into place. Heres the final after paint:
 

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I didn't know they had a presence on here specifically (seems obvious though). I have met several of them in my area at the booth at my local con though.


t3l3d4w
 
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