Building a ultramarine suit

[thenippynid]

Greetings,fellow nom nommers! I am in need of your assistance if any of you are DIY people's.
I am currently making a space marine suit ( chapter not decided yet) and have gotten myself Into a bit of a pickle.i am using some sort of blue building foam.(sorry no idea what the name of it is)when I first initially tried to paint a simple colour to see what it would look like,I got the rough and bumpy texture of the foam underneath.now I have tried painting it on thicker but that results in massive lumps sticking to the foam having to be ripped out(not a very good way to go,trust me) but if anyone has any ideas on how I could get it nice and smooth, please,do tell.i am also planning for the suit to be finished before games day 2014 so I have a good amount of time to get it done this is going to be my first and hopefully full scale model suit and if things go well I will consider making more to either sell or for show. Thanks for reading and of you have any ideas of what I should do, please reply.(hoorah first thread finished!!!)

[infornography]

I would glue paper, cardstock, or cardboard to the outside of the foam, then paint that.

[Kwodd]

Have you ever worked with paper clay? Can be applied very smooth and is sand able when it cures. Could do your main structure with the foam and apply a smooth coat of paper clay to work out the texture.

[thenippynid]

Nov 15, 2013 2:01:31 GMT infornography said:

I would glue paper, cardstock, or cardboard to the outside of the foam, then paint that.

Thanks for the idea, i will keep it in mind for when i make the power armour.
Also what weapons do you think should be made alongside with it?
A boltgun?
A chainsword?
Both working?
I will need to think of something either way because last time i went  to games day some fool que-jumped me.
Now i can tell you that no ones gonna do that next year,i assure you.

[infornography]

Either a boltgun or chainsword would work. Both would be awesome but not necessary. I would go chainsword and make it working because that would just be awesome. It wouldn't have to go very fast to look cool.

[thenippynid]

Nov 20, 2013 4:34:19 GMT Kwodd said:

Have you ever worked with paper clay? Can be applied very smooth and is sand able when it cures. Could do your main structure with the foam and apply a smooth coat of paper clay to work out the texture.

sounds like a good idea, although i would need alot of it to make the power armour with. do you recommend any stores/websites that supply these materials?
because for the helmet the only thing i can do to it is add the voice changer(may sound a bit too cheesy) and the ultra-bright LED lights for the eyes. plus the would the clay be able to be painted on and scratched to make it look battle-torn? as i have decided that i am going for a rugged tactical marine(at least i think it is, too many of these space marines to keep up with )
will post a pic as soon as possible when i can find out how to (because nids dont know how to, do they?)

[thenippynid]

Nov 26, 2013 18:14:17 GMT infornography said:

Either a boltgun or chainsword would work. Both would be awesome but not necessary. I would go chainsword and make it working because that would just be awesome. It wouldn't have to go very fast to look cool.

not disagreeing or anything, but i think i might make a simple bolt-gun first out of a modified Nerf gun in a foam casing and switch certain parts around.

if i try to make the chain-sword work how do you think i should make it? ive searched high and low for fake chainsaw blades and things that would work, but to no avail.
there's no way that i can fit a chain in(because that wouldn't look real) and i DEFINITELY cant fit a REAL chainsaw blade in it either.
so i think that the chainsword will come last once everything else is finished. i might even make a model servo skull.
quick question,because im kinda new to the hive, how do i rank up (as in go from a ripper to a termigaunt/hormagaunt etc.) sorry if the answer is really obvious and i haven't seen it yet.

[infornography]

You rank up with number of posts, but nobody makes a big deal out of it so don't sweat it.

As for a working chainsword. Probably just make the teeth out of cardstock and the "chain" can just be a string with knots in it to hold the "teeth" in place. That's what I would try at least. A small electronics motor could run it. There would be several mechanical hurdles to overcome to make it run smoothly though. You might want to make a bolt pistol out of a Nerf Maverick. A paint job and aircooled barrel would be all it would really need to make it look decent.
a.tgcdn.net/images/products/zoom/943c_nerf_maverick.jpg

[robomummy]

Easiest weapon to make would probably be a power fist, just make a large gauntlet about 4-5x the size of the other one and make it a bit bulkier with external supports to look like a weapon. I have templates that I downloaded from a site that shows how to make a blood raven's suit but the site seems to no longer exist. Total cost was about $3,000 USD to build the whole thing includes electronics and sound effects (with voice distortion). The material used was a kind of foam like substance that exercise mats are made of so it would be very light. Boots were made a little more sturdy so that wide stilts can support a person around 1 foot off the ground. I think it was like a solid block of wood with shoes bolted to the top and the boot was shaped around the wood using the foam so that when inside you would look about the right height for a space marine. The designs also incorporated a boltgun but no Close Combat weapon (which if you are going to be going to cosplay it is better to just have one weapon so that you have less to keep track of).

I have the templates in PDF format so if I ever find out how to send them I can give them to you (although they are quite large).

[Speknawz]

Need patterns for a functional Chainsword to come out on a 3D printer. I would die happy if this ever happens. If I had 100K to spend on said printer that is.

[Deleted]

This might help, thenippynid

Shadowwolf's Stuff (Page 29)

(Scroll down a bit to see his suit)

He starts building the suit on page 21, and shows the whole process, but this page shows the final.

Before this he builds a working Boltgun, and i think hes making a Powersword right now. (Both also documented in the thread)

I'm sure he's got tons of advice on how he made his if you pm him or post in the "Shadowwolf's Stuff" Thread i linked above

Good luck on your project!

[thenippynid]

Thanks, robomummy.maybe if you send it to me by gmail or google plus or whatever it is then I could tweak ideas from it Into mine.

(This is gunna be my fav part on the suit tho and I wasn't planning on tellin no one yet but I'm gunna put aluminium Plates on the bottom of the feet for realism and so it doesn't really wear it out. Will send pic of helm when I can figure out as well.)

[infornography]

You can get a good 3D printer for just a few thousand at this point. Cubex makes 3D printers with a 100 micron resolution and a nearly 10" cube maximum model size for under $3000. I've been keeping an eye on the technology and will probably bite when something with a 100 micron or better resolution hits $1500.

[rpricew]

There's a product called Styro spray that paints or sprays on and hardens to a sandable/paintable finish. It's fairly easy to use and affordable. 2 part formula that you mix

[thenippynid]

Dec 8, 2013 14:17:40 GMT rpricew said:

There's a product called Styro spray that paints or sprays on and hardens to a sandable/paintable finish. It's fairly easy to use and affordable. 2 part formula that you mix

Thanks, i will consider using it.