First pass complete! Every segment of the costume is now built.

However, several tasks remain.

Firstly, whilst everything “fits”, there are a few bits here and there which need a bit more work (it’s quite uncomfortable right now, with some parts moving around too much when I move in the suit). It’s also tricky to pose. The collar piece actually moves around a lot; I need to find a way to fasten it in place.

Secondly, there’s the battle damage and painting to do, to bring it to the next level of quality.

That’ll all happen over the next few weeks.

Still, I’m really happy with how it’s going up until now.

Here’s the suit so far. It looks a bit bare in parts, so there’s a lot of detailing work to do, and I need to fine-tune how everything fits onto my body.

Just the back and collar to construct (in addition to the gun rework) before I get to do the detailing properly. When it’s finished, the whole suit should look like the right forearm.

And this is the result!

And also - you will not BELIEVE how hard it was to take a selfy in this bloody costume!

Couple of problems remain. The way in which the plate joins up to the crotch makes it very uncomfortable to crouch or sit down - I’ll have to work on that.

Parts are now curved, the grey panels are glued and I’ve attached some thick wires to add a bit of extra detail. It fits pretty well!

This is the next stage. To give a run-down of what I did…

• First, I gave them a blast of heat and curved them slightly.
• Then, I laid them in the correct arrangement and stuck a tiny bit of glue right along the centreline of each, then glued them. This glue wouldn’t hold, but it was just to keep the pieces in place.
• Then, I glued several straps to reinforce the glue spots from above, so I had a flat version of the armour.
• Then, I took the glued pieces and gave them another blast of heat, and started curving them.
• Once I’d got a satisfactory curve, I took two belts and wound them around the armour, pulling them reasonably tight to hold the curve in place (so I didn’t have to sit there for an hour holding the pieces).

It’s coming together pretty well. Once it’s totally cooled, I need to heat the top piece again and curve it the other way (towards my neck) so that it’s more form fitting. I also need to sort out fitting the codpiece.

my-randomworld replied to your photo: Looking pretty good so far; I’ve done most of the…

What dremel bit did you use to get such great lines?

Hey :) It’s a three-step process.

First, score all the lines with a craft blade.

Second, trace over the lines with a heated blade using a pointed nib (I have one that’s almost like a ballpoint pen).

Third, where you need wider/deeper grooves, use a grinding disc and trace along the lines. You don’t always need to do this part; only for the wider lines. Also, my armour is black, and the heated blade burns/melts the foam, so on coloured foam it might darken and this bit might be necessary everywhere.

Looking pretty good so far; I’ve done most of the Dremel work and I’ve used some cabling for some extra detail. The craft foam bits aren’t stuck down yet as I want to bend the panels into shape before I do that.

Started work on the front section of the armour.

The plan is to cut out the shapes, and trace the panel lines at first with a craft knife, which was done just before this picture was taken.

The next part is to trace out the panel lines with a heated blade, before using my dremel to hollow out some of the panels to be replaced by craft foam.

Anyway, should have the next progress pic up soon.

So, decided that whilst my old gun was pretty good, ultimately it was too small and didn’t quite suit the Mass Effect appearance. So, I’ve recently obtained a NERF Rayven and I’m going to try and respray it in a similar manner to be a more suitable gun. I’ll post a step-by-step for those who might want to do the same.

Before I do that though, I’m going to be getting on with the chest piece of my armor, hopefully this weekend.

Just an idea of what the outfit looks like when worn. Still need to keep going with the weight loss :( The undersuit isn’t exactly flattering. However, overall the outfit is looking good.