Ultramarine power armour - 1:1 scale

[ShVagYeR]

Greetings Brothers and Sisters!

 

Recently my Thousand Sons and Ultramarines WIP threads have been very quiet. The lack of updates was caused by devoting my hobby time to a slightly different project: building a Space Marine power armour that I could wear. I'd been considering this for years but in December I finally decided to begin.

 

Both inspiration and reference material come from Henrik Pilerud, the builder of (in my opinion) the best Space Marine armour around these days. He was kind enough to share all his Pepakura templates, build pictures, tips, and tricks in a huge archive that can be downloaded fro his thread over at Obscurus Crusade. If you are considering building Space Marine armour, I strongly encourage you to download. It's been of great help so far.

 

I've taken some liberty with the build process and materials, and the general idea is:

- print Pepakura templates on cheap paper, cut out

- apply to EVA foam (5mm or 10mm thick), cut out

- assemble

- apply a large number (15-20) of thin layers of PVA glue to both strengthen the shape and have a protective layer that is much better to paint on than EVA foam

 

So far this method has worked out pretty nicely. As this is my first serious cosplay project (up till now the only costume I had was a Rebel Fleet Trooper from Star Wars), there's bound to be some mistakes and imperfections if you look very closely, but I don't worry about that. Allow me to present what I've accomplished so far.

 

 

1. Helmet

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AhEaaB7S2m4/Vqyv4rhnlsI/AAAAAAAAK28/qfmtYew8FJw/s1600/001.jpg

 

 

Unfortunately I didn't document the early stages with pictures. I used mostly 5mm PVC foam for flat parts and 5mm EVA foam for the rounded ones. Here's what it looked like when primed black:

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D1RiHKsVzy8/Vqyv4uxTfHI/AAAAAAAAK3A/YvzUqRRBcJE/s1600/002.jpg

 

I painted it afterwards with a RAL 5010 spray paint.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1tYgFMToc4s/Vqyv4kT8FVI/AAAAAAAAK3E/aevCOeiR9A0/s1600/003.jpg

 

The finishing touches were shading some recesses with a black spray and some silver drybrush for weathering. I also made a mesh to cover the mouthpiece from the inside. The only thing missing now are the eye lenses (and some LEDs). Other than that the helmet is complete.

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qp95Cqr7CGc/Vqyv5WNDWTI/AAAAAAAAK3U/HPo-5n6KPo4/s1600/004.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d68-vJNrniM/Vqyv5epGESI/AAAAAAAAK3Q/NSNwMs_IE-c/s1600/005.jpg

 

 

2. Upper torso

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LrtCxLDTnOk/Vqyv5dQkYuI/AAAAAAAAK3M/pXfEkTFDy-0/s1600/006.jpg

 

Although the shape was much simpler than the helmet, it took roughly as much time due to its size.

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D8bn03IlxjQ/Vqyv5-DcB_I/AAAAAAAAK3Y/V_8J0h2nujA/s1600/007.jpg

 

At that point I decided to do the aquila.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pTFT4Dh-fKw/Vqyv52vHbeI/AAAAAAAAK3c/aRJNETwYEZg/s1600/008.jpg

 

What followed was many layers of PVA glue which is both cheap and abundant in my country (sold as Vicol).

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nGZZHIkU2jQ/Vqyv56CqJfI/AAAAAAAAK3g/-_EJjBS3kag/s1600/009.jpg

 

Black undercoat:

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t07b2LjNaU8/Vqyv6DN14qI/AAAAAAAAK3k/g_zkiiR7LuI/s1600/010.jpg

 

And a few layers of base blue:

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--hc1tCQrmKU/Vqyv6A1v3cI/AAAAAAAAK3o/FVuxqdxuSp0/s1600/011.jpg

 

 

That's it for now. Living in a rented room allows me to do the assembling and PVA coating, but not so much painting. Fortunately a friend lets me use his garage from time to time. Next time I go there I will finish the upper torso. In the meantime I have templates of the lower torso printed and ready to be cut out.

 

Honestly this is one of the most ambitious project I've undertaken in my life. I'm really hoping I will finish this one day, perhaps in 2016, and will be able to wear it.

 

Thanks for reading and until the next update!

[deathspectersgt7]

COOL !!!!!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive.

[Ovidius Incertus]

Looking forward to when this is finished and we can all say "Aren't you a little short to be an Ultramarine".

[Arac]

Crazy stuff, I'm excited to see the results.

[Nym468]

Very cool

[ShVagYeR]

Hi everyone,

Just a small update today. I finished putting together the lower torso. Back to the PVA glue then...

3. Lower torso

 

It seemed easy, but fitting that belt on top of it all at the end proved to be quite challenging.




deathspectersgt7, Bjorn Firewalker, Arac, Nym468 - Thanks!

Ovidius Incertus - Haha I appreciate the Star Wars reference. :D I am indeed too short to be a Space Marine, but that's where the leg extensions come in.
 

[Ch@oZ]

So you rent a room, in Łódź, i presume from the watermark... shouldn't you be studying right about now?

Also- for your own sake- think of cooling down the interior, that foam will get hot really quickly. Or switch to dark angels with one of their tabards, because tabards are the kilts of the grim darkness when it comes to comfort

Otherwise- the armor seems surprisingly proportional, this is not a common feature of space marine cosplays. Nicely done in that regard.

[Brother Sgt. Steine]

This neat!

 

I'm watching!

 

Courage and Honor!

 

BSS

[Cpt. Lacerus]

I wish I had some armor so bad. I'd do everything in it.

[Redrandy93]

really nice Brother! I am impressed. Look forward to updates.

[Thousand Eyes]

Great idea but you chose Ultramarines over Thousand Sons? For shame :P

[ShVagYeR]

Right! It's been over two months since the last update, but finally I have some progress to show after last weekend's painting session in Zigmunth's garage.

 

 

2. Upper torso

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LrtCxLDTnOk/Vqyv5dQkYuI/AAAAAAAAK3M/pXfEkTFDy-0/s1600/006.jpg

 

Not much to say here. I painted the aquila, and then applied some black shades and silver drybrushes. Turned out pretty well.

 

 

 

What is left to do is fitting and lining on the inside. Right now it rests on my shoulders and is quite wobbly.

 

 

3. Lower torso

 

This one was pretty straightforward too.

 

 

 

Going to need some straps to suspend it on.

 

 

 

And now on to the fun part: test fitting or Mr. Potato Space Marine. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

And the replies:

 

Ch@oZ - You presume correctly, for the most part. :) I do live in Łódź, but I'm 30 and university years are way back in the past. ;) Yes I'm definitely going to install some fans to get air circulation. At least two in the helmet and as many as needed in other parts.

 

Brother Sgt. Steine, Redrandy93 - Thanks!

 

Cpt. Lacerus - That's my plan exactly! Can't wait to see the faces of my co-workers when one day I show up in full armor and start administering servers FOR THE EMPRAH! :D

 

Thousand Eyes - Thing is there are templates for generic loyalist armor that I'm using. Chaos armor, I'm not so sure. Maybe the next set I make will be dedicated to Tzeentch. :)

[Ovidius Incertus]

Awesome.  The scale discrepancy between you and the armor is hilarious.

[Macloren]

Holy crap, that is way bigger than I was excepting! :-) I take it you will have stilts & arm extensions to make the proportions work?

 

The one thing that makes the costume you're basing the off look odd is the comparative length of the bolt pistol arm. Look forward to seeing how this turns out.

[Ch@oZ]

I was wondering the same thing. It looks a bit like youll need to make it into real power armor to make it a fake power armor ;-)

[Redrandy93]

I love it!    I can just see you walking into work with this on and a flamer!   VBG