I Just Lost 10lbs Sweating In My Armor

I almost have it done. Almost...Almost...I put it on and sweat so bad within the first 5 min that I thought I was going to pass out This is going to be fun!

Finally Trying It On

OK So here is me finally trying this sucker on...

 

Creating The Armor Pt. 3

So I spent the 4th of July weekend working on my armor with a friend. We got quite a bit done and managed NOT to set anything on fire this time. However I have learned that working with PVC and trying to get it attached to a shirt is one of the most impossible tasks in the universe. *insert epic amounts of cursing and throwing things* We did manage to get the back, the rest of the arms, the hands and a cheat piece for the shoulders done. I ended up painting the right side and after much fracking around got the chest piece to stick to the front of the shirt.

This is the painted arm set for the right side. The middle piece is the new addition that we worked on. It will cover from the shoulder down to the wrist.

This is the back piece. The holsters for the rifles still needs to be made and attached to the back. Ideally there will be a circular light in between the two rifles. Hmmm, Now it’s getting even more complicated. Damn you Bioware armor designers!

These are the two shoulder cheat pieces. We found that the PVC sheets were not big enough to be able to cut out the full design of the back plate to wrap up over the shoulders to the chest so we had to improvise. They will sit over the meeting point of the front and back plates to create the illusion of continuity. Close enough for me.

Finally got the hands all done. When I first did it they looked like “scrabble tiles” so I had to remove them from the gloves and shave down the edges. Then i had to reattach them. First of all attaching them the first time around was annoying enough but twice? I had to use two different types of glue and epoxy to get it all to stay. Then I managed to burn the hell out of my fingers in the process when the hot glue became stuck in the gun. After getting hot enough it decided to “unstick” all over my fingers. *sigh* This, as a general note, is never a good thing to have happen. But at least now it’s done.

The worst part of this whole process was, and is, trying to figure out how to attach the armor to the clothes. Because everything is so fitted I have to be able to take the pieces on and off to get in and out of it. Hey, I know, lets try sticky Velcro. I should have just poured more hot glue on my fingers and called it a day. It sticks to the plastic but not to the shirt. So how do you know where to place it on the shirt to be able to sew it on if it doesn’t stay on the shirt blah blah blah. Well kind of figured out how to do that with paint marking on certain parts to mark the shirt when placing it. But then the sewing comes in. Oh for fracks sake. Trying to sew through the sticky Velcro is a nightmare. I suppose I could take the next 15 years and try to hand sew it or just use a machine. Not as easy as you would think. Needle gets stuck, screws up stitch. Again with the blah blah blah. All I have to say is I wish that I wasn’t so concerned about the cosmetics of straps and buckles to attach t his thing to me. So I’m going to continue to make it difficult on myself and try to get through this whole sewing thing. I don’t have much time so back to work!

I almost forgot…I was able to put the two silver pices along the neck line of the chest plate using car trimmer and a snap button.

Heat Gun Saved My Amor

I was having big problems with the wrinkles that I got in the Chest Plate. Working with PVC is not an easy task at all and I was getting depressed and frustrated from the lack of workability of the plastic. Then I went on a costume forum and one very nice gal suggested

(two giant wrinkles)

I just go out and get a $20 heat gun from Home Depot and spot heat the areas that I need to manipulate. *Smacks forehead* Of course! and guess what. That was the most important thing that I have bought so far to work with this stuff. I was able to completely take out the wrinkles and smooth everything down so that it looks halfway decent. I was able to do this on all the pieces I have worked with so far. But these were by far the most dramatic in change.

Now grant you I am giong for the thrashed war look. (I always like to be a little dirty) So there should be some pings and scorch marks here and there. I mean come on, some of those guys have flamethrowers and when your shields go down…well you can guess. I’m not going to look like just walked out of a Citadel armor shop with my shiny shinnies. Mind you I’m not bagging on those that have made the looking good N7 armor. As a matter of fact I am quite in awe of their talent, patience and ability.

Sooooo that is a good excuse right? It’s not me being jealous, not at all… So if you want to work with PVC get a eat gun or our gong to get frustrated and wonder why it’s not working right. It was a sanity saver.

Creating The Armor Pt. 2

There are still a couple of stripes to paint and such but they are 99.9% finished. Here’s a tip, don’t use a dremmel to sand things without goggles and a face mask. Learning is fun!! At least I didn’t burn myself this time. Here you go…email me any questions or put them up on my facebook page.

The chest piece all scuffed up and thrashed from too many firefights with the geth…and maybe a Krogan or two.

More dents dings and laser blasts. Enough to last a lifetime.

The bracers for the left side.

Bracers for the right side. These still need the white stripes down the middle.

The top shoulder covers. The right still needs the stripes and the left needs the indented circles put into it. Ideas on how to do that anyone?

The ab plate. this will be cheated together with the cod piece so i can remove it to do…Commander business…

So there it is. The first round of torture done. Now onto round two…I’ll video tape it this time so that way when we set ourselves on fire you will have something to watch!

Creating The Armor Pt. 1

So I started the process of cutting and molding the PVC this weekend. This was at times hilarious and fracking frustrating. (there may have been times where we set a couple things on fire as well) However the end product came out surprisingly wonderful and we had a good start at it.

Initially there were patterns that had to be cut from art paper and shaped to my body. We then took those patterns and laid themover the top of the PVC sheet and traced it with permanent ma rker. This gave us the outline to be able to cut it. We tried a dremel at first but the heads kept on shattering and melting the plastic. So instead we used a jigsaw with a scroll blade. Success! It was easy from there to cut out the patterns. Now here’s a lesson…I measured the patterns to be exact with no room for what happened to the PVC when heated. That would be shrinkage. No one told me that the plastic shrinks slightly when heated, or if heated too much shrinks like a shrinky dink (for those of you old enough to remember these). Now the PVC can be reheated over and over to try and mold it to what you like. We just had to make sure it wasn’t too much and that we didn’t ruin the parts that came out correctly. The oven was at 375 for a long time before we realized that was just too hot. 325 seemed to be the ideal temperature. We needed to use Ovegloves to be able to handle the hot pieces. They are HOT!

We started with the chest plate. At first this was a disaster and after and hour and a half I thought that it was just not going to work at all. It didn’t stretch like we thought and wrinkled and bubbled at the round points. Cue horror music. After re-cutting a larger piece and trying again nothing seemed to be working. The two of us then employed the help of two other friends to apply pressure to the plate while it was on me and I was pinned up against a wall, so that the whole thing would get shaped at once instead of in stages. Bingo! That was the problem. We just needed two more sets of hands to make it work. So a set of hands on each side and one wrapped around my neck to make the collar. Talk about claustrophobic. After almost passing out from lack of oxygen the piece got done and looked incredible. It now needs to be cut around the edges and sanded down to the appropriate shape. The pic is not the final product, I knew you were worried. This was by far the most complicated and hardest piece to make so with that out of the way the rest seemed to fly by.

We managed to get all three of the forearm pieces (three on each side) done as well as the shoulders. there is still one more piece for the upper arms to get done and well as the back plate. Here’s another note. Just wearing a shirt does not protect you from the heat of the plastic no matter what people say about the thermodynamics of how it distributes the heat. It will burn you. As it did me. On the bottom pieces of the forearm, when applied with pressure to the arm, it felt like it was burning it’s way through to the other side. Now cue bright red arm and lots of cursing. But it got done and looked fantastic at the end.

On a side note, when we tried to spot heat the pieces over a gas flame on the stove we managed to set the piece on fire, which by the way looks really cool, and what was produced was a very toxic fume that is not fun to smell at all. So be careful!

I then worked on the ab plate and the cod piece. The ab plate is made out of rubber, so that I am able to bend at the waist, as well as the cod piece. The top and bottom will be cheated together via a strap that goes around the waist to the back and can be detached. This is for the ability to be able to remove it quickly for those most important bathroom breaks. The white plastic piece in the middle is used to join the two pieces together via a poxy and will be painted later. The cod piece still needs to be cut and shaped so it will run from the groin through the legs and up to the low back.

Now all of this will be attached to a suit via Velcro strips for easy removal and the ability to move it around if needed and once placed will stay where it needs to be. Have to sand and paint and color and…There is still so much to do and so very little time to do it in. Next will be the back plate, the top of the upper arm pieces and the holsters for the rifles that attach to the back. GAH! better get to work

Creating the Mold

So now to go through the process of the creation of the bust to be able to shape the PVC sheets around. I didn’t want to go burning off my chest. I decid ed this was a better option than a dummy because it would be the actual shape of my chest and be more form fitting.


I used Rigid Wrap plaster cloth to make the mold. Now, when I did this I learned that you have to coat th e area in Vaseline to make sure that the pieces do not stick to your skin. Let me tell you, that if you miss a spot this canbe a very painful lesson when trying to take it off. So make sure that the entire area is covered. I let it dry for about 20 min and then pulled it off. I let the mold dry for a few days and then reinforced the middle of the chest and shored up the sides to be able to hold the plaster.

After a week of drying it was time to prep for the plaster pouring. I coated the inside of the mold with Vaseline to make sure that the cast did not stick.

Then one whole box of plaster of paris went into a bucket andstirred away. I tried it with a stick but found that a gloved hand worked better when dealing with that much plaster. Here’s the fun thing. Make sure that you do not inhale the dust, or swallow it, or get it on your skin. All of these things will eventually lead to a fun trip to the emergency room so make sure that you are covered while doing this in a well ventilated area. Then I had to work fast and pour it in. I then added another box to make sure the mold was full. I let it sit for an hour and then broke the mold to get the cast out. Thankfully it came out nicely due to the previously applied Vaseline.

And here is the end result.

Now all I have to do is sand it down and smooth it out and I will be able to mold the PVC sheets to it to create a form fitting armor piece for the chest. Whew, that’s a lot of work.

Feels Like I Just got Mauled By Jesus

Sweet Zombie Jesus! I’ve had so many new visitors!


So here’s the deal – I’m a geek girl gamer, an actress, and I *love* the Mass Effect Games. Legendary Pictures is turning Mass Effect into a movie, and I’m dying to get a part in it. How cool would that be?! Two of the things I love all wrapped up in one thing?! This site is dedicated to that effort, and all the other geeky things I dig.

So what this site, facebook, and twitter are aiming to do is garner the attention of the right people (who work for the right company) to take notice and give me a shot at being in the movie. All it takes is just one person in the right position to get intrigued and off it can go! I hope that with your help (and your friends) we can together have them take notice and know that putting a fan (who can also act) into the movie is a great idea.

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