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 Post subject: Armour upgrade
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2018 8:30 am 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
As I have mentioned elsewhere I'm currently going through the process of upgrading my colonial marine armour. The main part of this process is repainting it and I'd like to present what I have so far.
The attached photo shows the chest, shoulder and back plates with the base colours painted on. I'd like to know what people think of the pattern, including the size of the colour patches before I move on to dulling this down with grate polish and weathering it.

armourpatterntest.jpg
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PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2018 11:50 am 
Marine Raider
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Location: Bosnia
Service Number: A05/TQ2.0.92155E1
Country: United States
I dig the color pattern!


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PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2018 5:34 pm 
GarageGeek
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who made the armor? looks like Chef. I like the color, shapes look a little bit rounded and "friendly" I could imagine more of the white highlights branching off and pointy to look more aggressive. it looks great the way it is though, just my two cents.


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PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2018 10:41 pm 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
seven wrote:
who made the armor? looks like Chef. I like the color, shapes look a little bit rounded and "friendly" I could imagine more of the white highlights branching off and pointy to look more aggressive. it looks great the way it is though, just my two cents.


Yes, it is a set of Chef's armour. I'm trying to get hold of the lamp pack I need to complete it.


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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 5:44 pm 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
I've darkened the pattern down now and added some weathering.
I'm thinking about adding some curtain hooks to the inside of the leg plates so they'll catch on boot laces and keep the plates from dropping too far down.

USCMgreaves.jpg
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USCMarmourrear.jpg
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USCMarmourfront.jpg
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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 6:07 pm 
Harvester of Sorrow
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Location: Lancashire (Wirral born)
Service Number: A04/TQ1.0.32156E1
Country: United Kingdom
Veeeerryy nice work mate!
I'd be tempted to do another round of darkening personally but its the age old choice of on-screen look or actual prop look.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:02 am 
GarageGeek
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Been waiting for an update on this. I like the hook idea on the shin guards. maybe a loop with a snap would do it. I'm not much of a painter but I would darken it quite a bit. maybe use multiple earth tones coats in an airbrush.just rehashing what reaper said. I really like how geometric and bold the camo looks. I'm thinking if you put it on a manequin with BDUs youd get a good sense of how weathered or darkened it should be. Wanna see what youre gonna do with the helmet


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 7:48 am 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
seven wrote:
Been waiting for an update on this. I like the hook idea on the shin guards. maybe a loop with a snap would do it. I'm not much of a painter but I would darken it quite a bit. maybe use multiple earth tones coats in an airbrush.just rehashing what reaper said. I really like how geometric and bold the camo looks. I'm thinking if you put it on a manequin with BDUs youd get a good sense of how weathered or darkened it should be. Wanna see what youre gonna do with the helmet


This is the helmet I have. It's just a hobby project I put together a couple of years back and repainted as part of the upgrade. It will need replacing for an accurate earpiece. Note that since these photos were taken I have painted over my name on the back and reapplied it much smaller.

USCMhelmetfront.jpg
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USCMhelmetback.jpg
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USCMhelmetleft.jpg
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USCMhelmetright.jpg
USCMhelmetright.jpg [ 130.16 KiB | Viewed 5576 times ]

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:37 pm 
GarageGeek
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that looks great! how was the camera made? and how did you do the beading on the lobster plates?


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 11:14 pm 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
seven wrote:
that looks great! how was the camera made? and how did you do the beading on the lobster plates?


The camera is resin cast one that I bought, though in the photo it has a genuine Pentax lens in place of the resin one. Now that I know I need to change the helmet entirely I've swapped the resin camera front back and am keeping the genuine lens for the replacement.
The beading on the lobster plates is simply milliput, a two part epoxy putty formed into shape on the plasticard plates.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:10 pm 
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Location: Plymouth
Service Number: A04/TQ1.0.92122G1
Country: United Kingdom
Kudos that looks really cool. I have just ordered a self build from Chef's and your paint job is a fabulous guide for me. Thanks so much for sharing.
Could I ask what process you used to darken them down and age?


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:21 pm 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
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Cliff wrote:
Kudos that looks really cool. I have just ordered a self build from Chef's and your paint job is a fabulous guide for me. Thanks so much for sharing.
Could I ask what process you used to darken them down and age?


To start with the base colours are the following Tamiya paints:
XF-58 Olive green.
XF-59Desert yellow.
XF-64 Red brown.
XF-71 Cockpit green.
and XF-14 J.A.Grey for the edging.

To darken this I got a tin of black grate polish and rubbed this all over the armour. Then after a few minutes I wiped it down to remove the excess polish before it could rub off on everything it touched. Initially I tried a black ink wash on one of the lobster plates but was not happy with the result.

Finally to make the armour look older and slightly damaged I take a suitable metallic paint (in my case Citadel Leadbelcher but any dark silvery metallic should do) and dab it along some of the edges. I heard that the knees should look especially worn so I put more on them.

I put a video of my initial build of my armour kit on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpKsUSbqgoA&t=1s
You should note that when I did this I did not realise that I needed to trim the leg armour to fit me and I was using my original colour scheme using Citadel paints. It still gives a bit of a guide to the assembly though so it may be of some use to you.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 10:30 pm 
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Location: Plymouth
Service Number: A04/TQ1.0.92122G1
Country: United Kingdom
Thanks again for sharing. Much Appreciated


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 10:59 pm 
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Location: Plymouth
Service Number: A04/TQ1.0.92122G1
Country: United Kingdom
The back and breast plate look really small I have a 52 inch chest I am not sure they will fit. I wonder if I could use some sort of heater to expand the width as the plastic looks like it would be ok to heat with something like a paint striper


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:25 pm 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
Cliff wrote:
The back and breast plate look really small I have a 52 inch chest I am not sure they will fit


Increasing the amount of webbing used for the two smaller shoulder pieces will give you more room in the shoulders and be covered by the pauldrons when the armour is fully assembled. On me the front and back plates overlap at the sides so you may end up with a gap between them under your arms if they are too small to fit you. If the curve is too great for them to fit comfortably then I suggest you ask Chef about the implications of using a hair dryer or hot air gun to bend the sides of the armour out slightly. Perhaps someone else here will have had similar issues and can offer better advice than I can.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2018 10:02 am 
Harvester of Sorrow
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Location: Lancashire (Wirral born)
Service Number: A04/TQ1.0.32156E1
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Ask BigStew, the dude is a giant

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 2:59 pm 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
The state of the costume so far:

uscmarmour.jpg
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 4:32 pm 
Harvester of Sorrow
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Location: Lancashire (Wirral born)
Service Number: A04/TQ1.0.32156E1
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Nice :)
Homemade PR shrouds?

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 7:04 pm 
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Location: Cheshire UK
Service Number: A09/TQ1.0.32134E1
Country: United Kingdom
The pulse rifle is scratchbuilt mainly from plasticard, though it does use the front end of an airsoft SPAS12.

Scratchbuilt Aliens M41A pulse Rifle.jpg
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 8:39 pm 
Harvester of Sorrow
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Location: Lancashire (Wirral born)
Service Number: A04/TQ1.0.32156E1
Country: United Kingdom
Damn fine work there mate :)

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