Im going to show folks how to make armor cheaply.

[shaowebb]

And wood pattern made and wood is cut out.

What I'll do is mound up some liquid nail or joint compound around the bolts, squish my wood panels against it, let it dry, and then trim the wood with the clay to make it look seamless. Probably gonna use liquid nail since its more impact resistance and wouldn't fracture unlike the joint compound. I'll likely cut another sliver of wood out for the front of the helmet fin after it dries and I can trace an accurate pattern for such a piece onto some paper. It'd be silly to do it now before I get to mounting it because I might make it wider or thinner than my two panels end up being from one another. If i just dont feel like cutting it out for some reason I could still just use joint compound and sand that since its not really that big of a crack that I'm filling in. After all thats what joint compound is for.

Moving along...

 

[shaowebb]

Just about done now. Needs some more finish sanding and I'm still (as you can see) adding the strap and ear pieces to the sides of the jaw piece. Think I'll rework the chin guard because my adhesive caused it to distort pretty badly too.

Anyhow, its nearly done so I thought Id give a preview.

 

[shaowebb]

So the helmet is done. Everything has its lenses, ears and what all done and really the only thing left is to finish a few bits on the coat which Im uncertain of since I never really settled on just how I was going to try and design it so that its a nice blend of the old Ray of the 90's and the newer Ray Terrill of the early 2000 era. I do know that I'm tossing the white pants same way that DC tossed them. White didn't fit with a character whose mainly viewed in yellow and black silhouettes. Im also just gonna toss the banded metal choker. It works, but dear god the sweat...the SWEAT. Craft foam is the only way that really kept any sort of gold material from wrinkling and its a horrible heat insulator and the best way to solve this would be for me to really just use some thermo plastic and contour a band for the back and sides of my neck and make it a front piece. It'd still be hot but not as bad as the craft foam lined thing.

Bah...I'll just get rid of it since my coat's collar covers it almost completely anyhow.

Anywho here's the helmet. I think I'll add some more stuff to the chin and sides of the jaw to make them pop more and so they appear less flat.

 

[shaowebb]

Done. I added the rest of the helmet details I promised and this is the direction I went with the costume so that it had the look of his older Freedom Fighters black and gold scheme but so that it stayed true to his more iconic leather coat and gloves days of the 90's.