I just recently joined this forum as I'm looking at starting a colonial marine costume in the next few months.
I need to finish my other project first which is my second ghostbusters proton pack.

I have looked at various threads about armour and have seen spat cave that sells the armour.

Has anyone got any usefull links DIY guides etc on how to build buy my armour and pulse rifle.

Any info would be great so that I can start to get the info on parts etc ready to start

You'll find a lot of the starting info you seek already in the Archive section

Indeed the Archive section is a gold mine of information for armor and weapons.
You can also check www.colonialmarines.net for sources for pieces as well.

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Since I did kinda of direct him here from the rpf, im feeling ambitious enough to do some leg work...
So you decided to jump in eh? Welcome. If you cant build armor from what I'm posting below, they your probably should just buy it.

There is no universally accepted "This is the way to do it, step by step" for this stuff. A lot of individual preference calls are going to come into play.

The real armor was hand made from aluminum by Terry English. Great photos here of a "modern" reproduction by the man himself.
http://colonialmarines.co.uk/anatomy-of ... scm-armour
Regardless of what material you use, match up the shapes and connections, and youll be fine.

Some recent threads that include "how I did it" instructions are
-Retrograde's excellent build
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11894&hilit=homemade
-"Hudson"s homemade build
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12006&hilit=armour
-And my own
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11787


Some of the more informative threads that I personally found VERY useful for my own build were these below:
-One of the better "pepakura" threads
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9980&hilit=pepakura+armour
-A great "assembly" thread (once parts are decided/made/acquired).
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9621&start=25
-This thread is where a guy did a damn fine job of salvaging a half-assed 'kit' and turned it into a really nice build. Near 'scratch' build territory with the work put in.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11191&hilit=salvaged+armour


-The real Pulse was made from a Thompson (WW2 era), SPAS12 shotgun cage and a custom "shroud"/cover that many people sell replica's of. For building your own this site was very informative for me in my build.
http://www.tk560.com/m41a.html
There are lots on here though.
(Here is mine)
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11603



I don't mean to slight any members here by forgetting your threads, these were the ones fresh in my memory. The fact is there are DOZENS of excellent threads and a ridiculous amount of information. You just need to use the search function. Good luck and look forward to progress pics.

(One bit of advice is avoid ebay. My own experience says rarely anything of even 'passable' quality there)

Great overview Bigbisont! I used a lot of the same threads as inspiration for my build.

I second the eBay warning: nearly everything you need can either be made by hand or bought from folks like Spat, Matsuo, Armourer, Noble, etc. These guys all have solid reputations and are part of the community, not just looking to make a buck off it.

Research is your friend! Before you sink money into anything, try using the search function (with different combinations of terms to try to capture more results). Pretty much everything out there has been "tested" by someone on the AL, so you can learn who to steer clear of (*cough cough* Goldon Armory *cough cough*).

Good luck!

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My entry-level prop and costume tutorials: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12751

Woot! Thread bookmarked!

Carry on... haha

Good luck sbonse!

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Lt. Melissa L. Klassen, ALG
AL Colonial Admin. - Executive Officer (XO) -- 2021-2022
RCCM | Royal Canadian Colonial Marines - Commanding Officer (CO) -- 2021-2022

Read the AL Charter Rules & Regulations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i3gd9QUyIqI_6rfk8kpxspbKU-JT4MBAjLPxfCkvGJ8