Paintjob

200 posts! Time to launch the Robocop Project!

If someone had told me I’d write 200 blog posts about building a few years back, I would never have guessed it, but here we are. This is published post #200!

To celebrate the meaning of this, I am introducing my second build for the year that will run in parallell with Dark Helmet. It is the one and only, the iconic hero from Chicago and Delta City… Robocop!

(render with stock armour on my 3d scanned bust done in Maxwell Render)

After looking around, it was difficult to find some good resources for Robocop. I also tried sculpting the helmet myself in Rhino, but my skills are noat at speed with making more organic shapes, so I gave up on making it myself.

However, I did manage to find a decent looking Robocop costume for 3d printing by do3d.

Sure, the costume will need a lot of work, and has several details missing, but it is a very good base to start building a Robocop costume from.

My goal is, as usual, to make it as screen accurate as I can, and this mean, in addition to the normal sanding bondo sanding putty sanding cycle, I also need to add quite a bit of building to the project.

I might scratch build some things, other things I might be able to fix in 3d.

The biggest issue is that to change an .stl file, consisting of tens of thousands small triangles is extremely resource heavy and is almost crashing my computer when trying, so if I need to remake some parts (and I already have) I can really only use the existing files as a base and take measurements from in order to make a more screen accurate model.

First off, I simply HAD to print the helmet!

This was the first print I did on my new CR-10, and also the first print done in PETG. I split the helmet in half and the seam line is visible right above the text on the helmet. Did it fit? On with a balaclava and see what it would look like, just to get an idea…

To be honest, it looked a bit dodgy. This helmet really needs the jaw! Once the jaw was printed, more test fit, and it looked better already!

From looking at the movie, I would guess that the jaw is made from silicone or other soft rubber. I have some ideas to cover the 3d printed model with the same fabric used for my Dark Helmet cape and shorts. It is shiny and has a plastic coating. Another idea is to make the jaw piece out of EVA foam to make it more flexible.

The helmet needed a bit of TLC, and after glueing it together, and welding as much as I could with my 3d pen (Seems PETG can’t be welded with PLA, and my 3d pen is not hot enough to melt PETG properly) and a long loop of sanding to get the rough edges off, a layer of spray filler that also serves as a primer, sand most of that off, some Tamaiya putty to fix up some problem areas, more sanding, followed by “why don’t I cover the entire helmet in bondo”, sanded almost all of that off, another layer of spray filler, sanded that off…

During this process i used a needle file to clean up the lettering inbetween every spray filler/bondo/sanding round.

I finished off the base by painting the helmet black.

and then another turn of sanding before painting it in a metallic grey. This colour turned out to be a little too dark for the look, but it was a paint test after all. Once painted and clear coated it looked pretty sweet, but wrong.

So, I have a helmet that is working. Next up was the neck piece. The neck piece modelled by do3d is ok, but lacks some details and have some things that are wrong. Since this was a rather small piece, I tried my hand at 3d modelling this from scratch, and came up with a version I am much more happy with that has more details and even functional neck vents. In the process of doing this, I also remodelled the ears of the helmet for more screen accurate versions.

My first attempt at printing the chest piece did not work out too well. I printed it to about 75% before I realised that I had scaled it slightly wrong. It would have been too large and made it impossible to move my arms. My bad. I had scaled it up 5% since I thought it was too small and made an error in measuring the piece.

A lot of prints have gone into the scrap pile so far.

But I’ve managed to get a chest piece done. I also removed the existing vent and scratch built a more accurate one from some scrap styrene I had laying around.

It was glued together with superglue to hold it in place, and welded with my 3d print pen.

It is holding together really well using this technique. A little bit of bondo and the chest is done.

The feet are also printed, but needs modifications. The screen used feet have a half circle cut out in the top of both parts laying on top of the foot, making it a lot easier and comfier to wear. So far, I have not cut that out.

The legs is another chapter. Not only are some details wrong, some details missing, but they will also need major modifications to be able to wear them!

For starters, my legs, my calves have muscles. I can not wear them around my ankles as they are without expanding them. In addition, there is detail that needs to be added, and I fear the legs will be a lot of work to make wearable.

  

For starters, the knee plate should be a lot larger and stick out outside the knee. I made a mockup in Rhino where I modelled a new, larger knee plate that matches up the screen shots better and just placed it outside the original to get a feel for it. Looks pretty good, I think.

Next thing to print and scale was the gloves. Turns out the gloves were about 60% of the scale they should be. After printing out the first forearm and seeing how tiny it was, it was time to scale up the prints.

I still think the glove is a bit too large, and I may need to print it in flexible filaments, but that is something I will experiment with.

This pretty much brings the build up to speed. I have printed a few more pieces, but not to the point of having anything to show. Next thing will be to digitally fix the upper arms, if I can. It will certainly be a challenge…

“Thank you for your cooperation. Good night.”

By |2018-02-24T08:08:14+01:00February 24th, 2018|Costuming, Robocop|Comments Off on 200 posts! Time to launch the Robocop Project!

Ghostbusters Project: Final installation

Due to us having to go to Mexico for 6 months on very short notice in order to treat our daughters brain tumour, building was at a standstill for many months!

Finally, we came back and in January, I started building again.

One of the first things done was to install the electronics in my proton pack and mark this pack finished!

I managed to cram all the electronics down into the lovely metal thrower, but it was a tight squeeze.

I managed to fix the acrylic tube of my thrower partly myself, and partly with the help of a friend with a lathe. I got the edges done on the lathe, and fixed the frosty parts of the acrylic tube by masking the clear tube and running sand paper around the tube until it became properly frosty.

 

 

Once the thrower was done, it was time to turn my attention to the pack itself.

I started by marking the areas on the back plate where I could route cables and mount electronics to not interfere with the shell itself. Then I routed the cables for my two Pyle speakers that provides the sound in my pack.

Next up, I 3d printed housings for my LED reflectors and glued them in place on the shell with e6000 glue.

Some cable ties for cable management…

In a perfect world I would build a rig where the reflectors are mounted on the back plate, but as I was in a bit of a hurry at the moment, I decided to glue them in place for now.

More cable ties are placed for the electronics and cables on the motherboard itself. I also routed cables from the battery to the external board on the back that I will use for recharging my battery and turn on and off the main power of the pack. On the blue battery pack is an extra 120W amp that I am considering using. My electronics kit has a built in 40W amplifier, and it might work, but as I haven’t tried out the pack yet in a convention, it is something the future will have to decide.

The blue battery pack is little on the small scale, but it will work for now.

Once everything was routed, it was just a matter of assembling everything, do a bit of weathering with a chrome pen and some sand paper, and all done!

By |2018-02-18T21:38:59+01:00February 18th, 2018|Building, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters Proton Pack|Comments Off on Ghostbusters Project: Final installation

Ghostbusters Project: Finalising the pack

Over the weekend, I’ve managed to get quite a lot done.
Building is an outlet for me. It is a perfect way to relieve stress and think of other things, so particularly after an intense week with lots of ups and downs, like this one has been, really diving head first in to building is the best way to clear my head!

One of the things I don’t like as much, is painting. I don’t have a proper place to paint, and I’m not very good at spray cans, but still, I make do with what I have.

First off, it was time to spray the motherboard to get rid of that raw metal feel.

As always, a few thin layers is key here…

.. to build up more thin fast drying layers, until it is all covered and the clear coat goes on.

I’ve painted both the inside and outside of my motherboard, I figured it would be the neatest way, really.

Next up, I spent more time attaching things to the shell itself, like this painted v-hook to hang the thrower on. I cut off the bolts with a hand saw and sanded them flush by hand.

Some of the things that are screwed on from the outside, I’ve made it easier to remove, if needed. For the shock mount, I used wing nuts. It is also a good way to stop this from being overly tight and damaging the resin.

In the picture you also clearly see the mouse-hole cut out for the loom holder I made a while back. This holder will be superglued to the motherboard for now. It seems to be holding up very well so far.

I also adjusted the length of the cable, and finally took the decision to cut it off with my hand saw. I screwed in a bolt from the inside to press against the cable tiles and make it even sturdier, but this baby is not going anywhere.

I used the same idea on my copper foot wires on my R2-D2, where I used a rubber hose inside it, and had a screw inside a plug that forced it shut.

Since I started running out of things to do on the basic pack for now, I started dressing the pack. A few cables here…

… and a few cables there…

… and some more over here…

… and don’t forget around the Ion arm …

… and things are starting to look good.

As the more observant of you may have realized, I’ve flipped my ribbon cable. Some screen shot references from Ghostbuster (the Original movie from 1984) revealed that some of these ribbon cables were mounted just like mine was first, but on some packs, it was not orientated in the same way. That’s the beauty of prop building. Finding these little irregularities.

As I’ve modeled mine after the “Spengler” pack, ie the pack that was used by the late Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler in the movie, I twisted mine another half lap to get the rainbow coloured cables facing the outside of the pack. One of these details only a true nerd would ever see.

Here’s finally the pack in all its glory.

.. and here it is with some labels I had laying about attached at random places.

Of course there are still things to do on the pack itself. Normally there is an ugly weld between the Ion arm and the Booster tube, and the Booster tube should be welded on to the pack. Mine is just pressed against it for now. I may or may not fix this, depending on what look I want to go for. It is not a difficult thing to add, it all just depends on if I want to replace the resin parts with metal parts in the future or not.

Another thing that is still on the “to do” list is weathering. Once the entire pack (with thrower) is complete, I will sit down in some sessions and do some proper weathering. It looks too brand new at this point.

Last but not least, electronics. I have still not done anything when it comes to electronics. There is also the nice power panel I made a while back that needs to be mounted, but the base pack is mostly done at this point, and that feels just great!

Next week, I’ll start working on electronics and/or the thrower. Since the thrower has all the controls for the sounds and lights inside, it sort of can’t be done one without the other.

By |2017-06-11T22:35:16+02:00June 11th, 2017|Building, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters Proton Pack|Comments Off on Ghostbusters Project: Finalising the pack
Go to Top