Cod & Butt Done

I got the cod piece done last night, came out really well I think... however I am DEFINITELY going to have to get back on my diet and workout program because its gonna be a tight fit. Not to mention the fact that I have put on 35lbs since this time last year when I dropped out of CrossFit... but that's another story. Here are the shots of the whole waist band:

Back Side

Front Side


I am starting to get pretty pumped about this project again as i near completion of the cutting, scoring and gluing phase. I cannot wait to move on to the next steps (I am pretty nervous about it though...) stay tuned!!!

next up................. the arms.

FINALLY DONE.... Putting the Chest Together...

That's right, last night I FINALLY finished gluing together the final pieces of the chest armor for the suit. I have been working on this piece for a while and had some issues along the way, but a lot of things resolved themselves once I got the support struts in. All in all I think it came out pretty well, but I can tell there are a few areas I am going to have to do some work on. Word of warning to anyone who may attempt this piece, it is not at all easy. there are a LOT of little pieces and it will take some time. Also, I would HIGHLY recommend keeping your computer close by with your pep viewer open because it will save you a lot of time figuring out which piece connects to what.

Here are some shots of the finished product:

The back is definitely the most difficult piece to work with, the center of the top and bottom have a ton of little pieces that have to squeeze in together just right which is just absolutely irritating if you don't have everything lined up just right... It helped the time go by watching some football in the background too...

Here is a shot of my table in the garage with all the pieces on it that i have done so far.

So far I have been able to make the Helmet, Chest, L&R Thigh, L&R Shin, my EOD Shoulder, and the Hand piece. (the stuff on the right is mostly waste)

I also started work on the cod piece, I got about 60% of it cut out last night and may try to work on it some more tonight after everyone goes to bed!

Fun Fun Fun!!!

Cutting and Scoring...

and folding... and gluing... and binding... and cutting... and holy crap there is a lot of detail in this chest piece!!! Getting close though, pics soon to come!

Getting Back To It

Okay, I took a few days off just because working on this stuff every waking second when I'm not at work or with my wife and two kids just isn't realistic =P. But I did work a little more on it last night and started on my chest piece. I got a good bit done on it, but it still has a loooong way to go. Here is my progress so far:

I made the mistake of cutting out most the pieces first, but quit when i realized I was gonna have to dig through all the loose pieces when i started building. Hopefully I can get the front finished tonight and see how the front will look. Also, I left the top open behind the neck so I could try it on once I get the front done.

On another note, I quit drinking soda yesterday. I know, its only been one day, but that was the first day in about 4 months I have gone without one... just a random thought for the day...

Pep Sizing Update

Okay, so I thought I would post my sizing info I have so far because most of the trouble I have had this far in making my suit has been wasted time on making pieces that were the wrong size. for the most part the theory of dividing your size by Master Chief works, but some of the pieces (at least the models I downloaded) have been a little off... anyway, I am 5'11 so my calculation was

71 / 86=.8255814

I am 71 inches tall, Master Chief is 86 inches tall, therefor I had to multiply the scale factor on everything by 0.82558 to get my proper fitting, so far everything fits after a little working around this number.

So here is what I have on the pieces I have made so far:

Mark VI Helmet (I have a big head so I had to make the helm slightly bigger than the average person might, but not too much bigger.)

Height	315
Width	275
Depth	409

Thighs - Left and Right

Height	432
Width	254
Depth	270

Shins - Left and Right

Height	426
Width	253
Depth	185

Hands (I made this just slightly too big, probably should have gone down to a 28 height, but they'll work.)

Height	30
Width	116
Depth	135

EOD Shoulder

Height	193
Width	268
Depth	194

More and More

Last night was a good night for working on my suit. I was able to get quite a bit of work done thanks to James coming over and helping my for a couple hours! I had all the pieces to the right thigh already cut out, but none of them were scored yet so he worked on that while I started cutting out pieces to the right shin.

James was able to get all the pieces scored for me and once I finished cutting out the shin, I put those pieces in a box and started assembling the right thigh. It took me a while to get it finished because I somehow managed to screw up some of the pieces I glued together so they got misaligned and I had to take them apart and redo them. Eventually, I got it finished and wound up with both thigh pieces!

I took a pic of them on, but I don't know that its "not offensive" considering all I had on was my under armor... ;) So for now we will just say, they fit.

Back From the Weekend

Well, had a long Labor Day weekend and now its back to work. I didn't get as much done on the suit over the weekend as I thought I would, but that's alright because I got to spend some time with my boys and my wife instead. I was planning on starting some fiberglass work last night to check it our and see how it went, but James never showed (yeah I'm calling you out buddy! =P). I did still get some work done on my right thigh piece and should have it assembled in the next day or two. I made a new resized hand piece over the weekend as well and was about half way through cutting out the second one when I realized if I am making molds why waste my time making a second identical piece...? So I quit making it. I also made my newly resized torso tester and it almost fit, but was just a tad short, so now i am trying to decide if i want to make a new tester or just upsize the final one and go for it (probably a bad idea...). Anyway, that was about all my progress thus far...

Bit by Bit

Last night one of my wife's friends came over, so I got quite a bit of work done on stuff. I assembled the EOD shoulder I am wanting to add to the suit and had to figure out how i was going to attache the backing but still be able to insert fiberglass and other reinforcing agents. I ended up taking three of the back pieces and cutting them up so they held things together but still left openings.

(sorry for the poor quality, I take all the pics with my phone and this was in the garage so it wasn't very lit...)

Here is the finished outside look

It actually is pretty sturdy, but I want to be sure it has plenty of reinforcement if I decide to try and make a mold out of it.
After I finished that I got to work on my new thigh piece. It isn't much shorter than my last one, but that's what I needed (kinda pisses me off how little I was off on the size... but oh well). I also cut out some pieces to remake my hand pieces, and resized my forearm pieces so that they should fit once I get them built.

Last Night for August

Well, last night I tried working some more on my left thigh piece in hopes of finishing it up... however I got side tracked after I cut out all the pieces and I ended up working on my EOD shoulder piece as well. I got all the pieces cut out for both things and i started gluing together the shoulder and ignoring the thigh for tonight. I was up working on it till about 3am when I realized it was freaking late and I had to get to work in the morning so it isn't quite finished, but I would say I am about 60% done with assembly so it shouldn't take more than an hour to finish it out.
I am thinking I actually might only make the outer shell because the pep file designed it to be one solid piece, but obviously 1, it will be hard to seal it up completely and 2, I have no idea how in the world I would fiberglass it if I were to leave the middle hollow... plus i am trying to think about wearability (yeah, I am making up words now) and i might attach something like a knee pad to the inside of it anyway so it has some padding to it. But we will see when we come to that point.
In other news, I found out yesterday that I am going to be able to take off this Monday for Labor Day! So I may have to do some laboring and get some hard core work done on this suit over the weekend...