Project : Aegis

[DarkAngel]

Project : Aegis

Description :
After deliberating with a collegue/friend of mine, weve decided to start working on a multi-composite carapace armour that closely resembles, if not mimics the Warhammer40k Cadian Body Armour. The Aim of the project is to keep it as cheap as possible (Since i have no intention on buying huge machines to do it) and still be able to produce duplicates relatively quickly. MetalManic and I are still working out the details, and time constraints (Midterms at college) may make this a 2-3 month project. Were gonna take pictures along the way, maybe a video in the end of the armour in action.
The idea is to make sure the armour is VERY snug and moves with my body, if it is not perfectly snug, the armour will be bulky, and utterly useless, so accuracy and snugness is a must.

http://uk.games-workshop.com/downloa...es/ig1-800.jpg

Proposed Steps :
1) Get A Casting of my upper body, one full cast that splits at the sides.

2) create a mold using the plaster casting for another plaster casting to make a plaster upper torso.

3) Make a Vacuform table using those BIG rubbermaid storage bins, and pegboard (which we drill more holes in liberally ;p), seal it with caulking and make airtight, drill a hole on the bottom and attach a shopvac to the hole, and make that airtight too.

4) Using either a Heatgun, or a baking heater (which i managed to scrounge from a newspaper press) i slowly lower a lexan sheet over the font of my plaster upper torso, heating it as i go slowly. Flip over and do the backside

5) After the lexan is hardened, i remove the plaster torso, and cut off the excess with a vertical bandsaw

6) I make sure the carapace fits snugly together over my body with a little bit of space between for padding/gel padding etc etc. I hinge the top shoulder sections of the armour, so it opens kinda like a ladder and attach latches on the base of the armour.

7) I make plaster molds of my shoulder, and create a sutibly sized Shoulder Pauldrons (which ill design a little differently than the cadian one) which will attach and rotate with the armour (attaching it to cloth will make it feel like a bunch of stuff strapped together hanging loosely, so it has to attach to the carapace itself, how i havent figured out yet lol). Basically go through the same process with vacuforming.

8) I put a layer of fiberglass over the whole thing, inside and out (which is why the armour has to be made a little bigger than my body) This allows for me to make last minute changes to the shape or make more snug fits. Also allows for easy painting and repair if the armour ever gets damaged.

9) Line the inside of the armour with tightly packed foam, or gel padding, making sure its big enough to snugly fit me in my BDU but be tight enough that i dont feel bulky when moving, jumping or rolling, also thinking of adding some sort of cooling system to my prototype (otherwise ull make a sweatbox), dunno about MetalManic lol.

10) Paint, add emblems, cosmetics etc etc, make attachments for gear etc etc

Then all i need is an autogun mold and im good lol.

Members Involved
DarkAngel
MetalManic

Nothing is set in stone yet, the hope is that once we have a prototype, we should be able to use the mold to reproduce them easier. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas to improve the process, please post it. Were new at this and we wanna get it right. Hopefully, we can experiment and use this process to make different styles of armours and conversion kits (Im EXTREMELY Dissapointed that Posiden no longer makes the ESWAT Gun or Raisen conversion kits from Appleseed and GadgetTrial)

[LUTNIT]

I really don't recommend lexan, it doesn't thermoform worth crap. I've done thermo forming with strip heaters, ovens, and real vacuum forming machines at school and polycarbonate (lexan) wont even bend when heated. Eventually it gets hot enough and bubbles start to form in it and it still doesn't bend too well but at that point its turning into an almost liquid. Apparently there is a special way to heat it to form it but conventional methods don't work. You could try Nylon, acrylic (plexiglass) or any of the forms of styrene (ABS is one of em and does thermoform) as they do become pliable when heated but polycarbonate goes from its rigid form to a really nasty liquid form without that nice intermediate state that allows vacuum forming to take place. Since your coating it with fiber glass you could use a softer and MUCH easier vacuum formed plastic like polystyrene (plasticard to the warhammer community) as the base since the fiberglass will add the strength.

Also plaster isn't a very good vacuum forming mold material. The air doesn't pass through it so the vacuum can't suck through it so it won't take the forum of the mold very well. I don't know how this will effect it since you'll be going slowly but I figured I'd throw it in there. If you run into problems with the mold you may have to drill some small (1/16") holes in the deep parts where air gets trapped to allow the vacuum to suck through. Because plaster is so brittle this might not be possible.

[Pip]

Originally Posted by DarkAngel

Flip over and do the backside

Thats what she said!

.....sorry had to lol...if this works out then that would be sweet, i love seeing project pieces, something about them is just cool. Especially when they work out Good luck!

[DarkAngel]

what do u recommend i use for material instead of plaster? i figured plaster would be easiest because i could just cover my upper body in plaster to get a mold, then sand it off to my liking and use that as a mold to make the negative and then vacuform it, thats why i was thinking of doing it that way.

[Skruface]

Originally Posted by DarkAngel

what do u recommend i use for material instead of plaster? i figured plaster would be easiest because i could just cover my upper body in plaster to get a mold, then sand it off to my liking and use that as a mold to make the negative and then vacuform it, thats why i was thinking of doing it that way.

You can get a special kind of dental plaster for mouth molds - I can't recall the trade name off the top of my head (dentex?) but it's commonly called dental alginate. It hardens FAST, and with incredible detail. The only drawback is you have to make it with very cold water, which can be uncomfortable.

[MadMax]

I think plaster is a pretty good choice. It's cheap and you do need a fair volume of material to make a decently stiff form for vacuforming. You need to wear something which approximates the clothing that you'd be wearing under your armor to offset the shape properly. Casting your vaseline coated hairy bod would give you armor for you to wear nothing under.

For materials, check out:

http://www.sculpturesupply.com/

To facilitate vacum moulding, you will need air passages to remove air from all areas. A series of grooves gridded over surface of the torso form will preventing air from pocketing during the pulldown.

[DarkAngel]

how expensive is this "Dentex" and is it obtainable? the benefits of plaster is that its cheap and u can get it at home depot.

[DarkAngel]

what if i drilled holes through the plaster?
could i use a roller, like the kind they use for fiberglass to roll out the plastic, im guessing not becuase the hot plastic will tear most likely

[Skruface]

Originally Posted by DarkAngel

how expensive is this "Dentex" and is it obtainable? the benefits of plaster is that its cheap and u can get it at home depot.

Plaster gets bubbles easily, is somewhat fragile (and HEAVY!) in large peices. Dental Alginate is available from dental supply outlets in bags and pails. It's stronger, lighter, and is so fine that you can get very minute details in your moulds/castings.

The reason I tell you this is that I've worked with it extensively doing movie special effects - latex prosthetics, to be precise. We only ever use plaster when we can't get DA....which has never happened while I've been in the business.

10 pounds goes for about $100 on Ebay, or you can check out local dealers:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=...a=&safe=active

Also, you could sweet-talk your dentist if you have a good relationship - he probably buys it wholesale and can get you a better deal (piggybacking on his order) if you don't have a business license. Or, talk to someone you know who is taking dentistry at university.

[DarkAngel]

Originally Posted by MadMax

Casting your vaseline coated hairy bod would give you armor for you to wear nothing under.

maybe, but the ladies would enjoy it ;p
besides, i planned to sand it down so its more armourlike instead of being a mold of me lol

[Metalmanic]

You need to remember we are proto typing! The main reason I want the body cast is so we can have a relative out side fit. The inside can be tested DA's way first and if its not working we can just take the inner shell in the front piece out and replace the interior of it with good quality expansive padding so it will mold to the surface and will keep a constant pressure while also allowing for some play. Its going to be a lot of trial and error with most likely multiple prototypes before the final result and then who knows!? We may eventually include temperature control. Something if this project flies I might want to incorporate into some of my projects. But yea we will take lots of pictures and keep you posted we should start this thing off early march being my reading week.

[DarkAngel]

i have a feeling that using a heat gun wont work too well, i remember in the past that heat guns tend to make the plastic bubble, am i right? is it the air that makes it bubble? or the excess heat?

[LUTNIT]

Its the overheating. You want a mild heat application, heatguns tend to be more of a violent heat application.

[DarkAngel]

so the ink baker from a newspaper press should do the trick right?

[[Lithium]]

heat causes bubbling as well