Giant Mechs

[Anonymous No.9366266]

We all love giant robots. Anyone working on a mech suit?
Any tips on how to do the extended arm or the LED around the body? Or what materials to use on the inside or outside, I'm really new on the armor suit territory

[Anonymous No.9366277]

>>9366266
As you can see on the guy on the left, the wearer's real arms usually exit somewhere from the body and then enter the costume's arm from the side. Not sure if that explanation made sense, but I'm sure you'll understand by looking at some pictures.

But even doing this, your own hand probably won't reach down to the costume's hand. So attached pic is one solution.

An easier alternative to the whole arm/hand fiasco is to just place your arm down the length of the mech's arm, like you would with any normal costume. Your arm will probably end around where the biceps on the mech ends. Run a PVC pipe trough the forearm, and grab onto it with your hand. You can now move the pipe with your hand, creating a fake elbow joint. Of course, the costume's hands/fingers won't be mobile if you do this.

[Anonymous No.9366377]

>>9366277
I'm planing on making a Gorilla like Mech, with arms as long as my body, do you think this will help?

[Anonymous No.9366399]

>>9366377
Just do whatever you think will be most feasible for you and suit the costume best. I gave two ways to extend arms, but I'm sure there are other techniques.
Do some googling/research and really make sure you know what you're going to do before you start buying materials or anything. Good luck :)

[TemjinTBW No.9367326]

>>9366266
>>9366377
Mech costumer here, Ive made 7 suits working on #8 atm. If you look at the Pacific Rim mechs in the picture you posted youll see the biceps are false. The persons arm can be seen going through the bottom portion, like the previous anon said. basically the side of the bicep facing toward you body is cut away and the bicep hangs from the shoulder armor or is Velcro'd to the wearers forearm with padding at the top to keep it angled properly. A black zentai suit will help hide tricks like this.

Not sure what extactly your trying to build but most humanoid mecha can get by without having arm extensions. If yours is gorillia like you may waht to have whatever mechanism you come up with strap to your forearm in some way to assist with balance. I made a very tall gundam suit that used two rifles strapped to my forearms to assist with balance and help with walking in tight spots.

[TemjinTBW No.9367332]

>>9367326
Heres a shot that hopefully better shows what the bicep design I tend to use looks like. Ive used this setup for a number of suits and it provides a good balance of mobility while still helping the illusion of huge wide shoulders. I can still reach my face with my hands while wearing this.

Someone else I did in the past with a previous suit that required me to bring both hands together for a pose was to have the shoulders freely hanging from my shoulder armor.

[TemjinTBW No.9367337]

>>9367332
In this photo you can see what I mean by having the biceps freely hanging from the shoulder armor. When I needed better arm mobility for the pose I could just shrug my arms out of the bicep 'shells' and then bring my hands together for the mechs signature pose. I haven't used this setup in awhile but it may be something for you to look into depending on what your trying to make.

[Anonymous No.9367383]

>>9367337
Any tips on giant shoulder cosplay making? Recent costume I'm working on has shoulders damn near the GaoGaiGar one, been thinking of getting an old football shoulderpad set for base support

[TemjinTBW No.9367587]

>>9367383
The torso is what supports the shoulders on my costumes, there is no rigging on anything that it sits on. I tend to make the front panels hinge so that I can get better mobility. Here is a youtube link to show what I mean. https://youtu.be/vUaitzCYKgY

Honestly I can give better, more specific advice if you show me a picture or something of what it is your trying to make. This stuff isn't always universal to every design.

[Anonymous No.9368069]

>>9367332
Ha, I was about to ask if you were Temijin until I saw your username. I was lucky enough to see one of your mechs at FSC 2016, it was great. Will you be going to Supercon again this year?

As someone who's also going to be in a relatively large costume (not a mech tho), the venue concerns me a little bit. The GFL convention center has more low-clearance and narrow areas than the MBCC did.

[Anonymous No.9368084]

>>9367326
I made a zaku ii this year 100 percent EVA. first cosplay too. After seeing this I feel embarrassed about my suit. On phone or I'd provide pics too.

What's your secret or techniques you use.

[TemjinTBW No.9368143]

>>9368069
Thanks for the compliment! I will likely be at super this year with my ground Gundam, not 100% certain though since I have to do alot of traveling for other shows around that time of year. I haven't had a suit at the new venue @ GFL yet, but I was there casual for Paradise City. There aren't alot of halls so getting around wont be an issue, the problem is the venue is 3 levels. You'll want to make sure your outfit can fit in an elevator if your planning on doing much else except for stand in the main hall entry way or dealers room. The area with the main stage was in the same area as the dealers room so you could go to those events without much trouble. The best place to park is the attached garage but it doesn't provide an easy way to suit up outside of the con center. Dropping your parts off at the from entrance with a friend, parking then coming back and suiting up may be the best option.

>>9368084
You wouldn't happen to have taken your Zaku to DragonCon would you? If your cool to post it here when you get a chance Id love to see it. Dont worry my first mech costume was pretty rough as well.

Honestly my big thing I stress of cleanliness of my builds. I try not to have any uneven or rough parts even in areas that are hard to see. Its a big part of the reason why it takes so long for me to build suits compared to some others I have seen. I also use a variety of materials. I only tend to use EVA for certain high wear parts since EVA has a tendency to look kind of cheap and rough in my experience. The majority of what I make uses Sintra, its lightweight and not super durable but its easy to work with and makes for very clean smooth parts.

[Anonymous No.9368469]

>>9367587
Its not a mech but the shoulders might as well be. It wouldn't be near as intricate as a full suit but any help I would greatly appreciate

[Anonymous No.9368470]

>>9368143
Yea the convention center is maneuverable, but there's basically no way to be in a big costume on floors 2 or 3. Some of the walkways are kinda small and doors to get into the rooms are super narrow. But I mean, I guess that's to be expected when wearing large stuff. Just gonna have to lug the pieces around up there. And the door connecting the entrance area to the dealer's room is short, so there's no chance of making it through that without unsuiting unfortunately.

Also, do you know where the elevators are? I was there for Animate and never saw any... I'm sure they have at least one but I never came across it.

[Anonymous No.9368513]

Why do people seem to only wear black longsleeves etc under bulky stuff like this instead of gaskets? It just looks so bad with the former

[Anonymous No.9368519]

>>9368513
To avoid drawing attention to an area that you don't want attention to be drawn to.

Think about it like a puppeteer. Rather than wearing clothes that will allow him to blend in with his puppet, he will wear black because he wants absolutely no attention drawn to him. Black is the universally accepted color for "ignore this," since it absorbs the most light and is therefore least visible.

Trying to incorporate your exposed arms into a mech costume is just gonna make the mech look like it has 4 arms or something. So you just cover them in black instead.

[Anonymous No.9368529]

>>9368519
How is that the case when you have a particularly thin person that makes the fact that it's a person inside even more evident?

[Anonymous No.9368530]

>>9368529
>>9368519
I'm not saying to have bare arms exposed, just making it look like the gundam/etc's bare exoskeleton at the joints would make a HUGE difference.

[TemjinTBW No.9368636]

>>9368470
I think your over-blowing the difficulty. I can get into elevators with my 8 ft tall wing zero and my 4.5 ft wide Alt-Eisen, I think you'll be able to manage fine. Elevators were on both sides of the hall they are just tucked behind.

>>9368469
You should look into headless horsemen costumes. The kind they sell during Halloween that have a fake neck stump that goes above your head supported on your shoulders. That kind of setup seems like what would work best for this.

>>9368513
Like the anon >>9368519 said. There is a reason you dont see people do it with these. I tried using joint covers on my first costume and the problems outweighed any benefit. Even with a soft material like EVA they limited my mobility and they had a tendency to scrunch up and look bad in certain poses. Ive seen some people using morphsuits with mechanical detail printed onto it and it was even worse imo. Any attention at all drawn to the wearer under the armor is a bad idea for costumes like this imo.

If your using the blackout suit and your aware of your pose and where your arms are its easy to hide them.

[Anonymous No.9368723]

>>9368143
i was at katsucon just recently

ill find the pics somewhere around here
i spent the 3 weeks and all friday evening leading up to katsu to make it

[Anonymous No.9368920]

>>9367326
I'm doing the Gantz Advanced Suit, I've seen some of those, the fingers look funny and the arms are so heavy that they arc when lifted

[Anonymous No.9369085]

https://youtu.be/LElGS6M6UjQ
I don't like those fingers, I wish they were more closed, I don't know how to

[Anonymous No.9369090]

>>9367326
I don't frequent these threads often but I'm always blown away when I see your work. You've improved so much over the years, it's really impressive.

[Anonymous No.9369218]

>>9369090
ikr? This guy is the best

[Anonymous No.9369397]

>>9367587
How is the mask attached there? I'm guessing magnets, but the way you wiggle it back into place it almost looks like you've got elastic or something on there too to help.

[TemjinTBW No.9369420]

>>9369397
Its purely magnetic, its just a tight fit in that video since this was still pretty early in the build so I had to wiggle it a bit. Some parts have since been adjusted so its smoother now. It is able to fully detach and be stowed via magnets onto the shield if I need an extended break.
>>9369090
>>9369218
Thanks guys... Im glad I have improved. Its been a long and interesting road so far.
>>9368920
>>9369085
Is that you and the current state of your costume in that video? Or is this someone else your just using as an example?

[Anonymous No.9369439]

>>9369420
I'm working on a transformer costume and the proportions are kinda crazy, any tips for adapting them to a person? Like what things do you allow yourself to cheat on because you know its not possible to do 100% accurately?
I'm struggling in particular with how big transformers feet are compared to the rest of their body, it's insane.

[TemjinTBW No.9369448]

>>9369439
Best thing you can do is to add some hieght to make the legs longer. Heres what Ive come up with. These are 6 inch plastic bed risers. An extra two inches is added with wooden blocks and a plank. Large bolts with locking nuts attach the shoes to these. They are rock solid and can easily hold your full weight and much more.

[TemjinTBW No.9369453]

>>9369448
The mostly finished feet. Each weights less than 5lbs, so its not a huge hindrance to walk in.

[Anonymous No.9369457]

>>9369448
>>9369453
That's so amazingly simple yet brilliant, thanks for the pics man. So far I keep coming across people recommending just stacking pieces of wood on top of one another and duct-taping the shoes to them but it just didn't look good for maneuverability; this looks infinitely better from the weight standpoint.
Do you have any trouble with tripping in them or anything I should be careful of?

[TemjinTBW No.9369460]

>>9369439
For large feet goal should be to keep them light and malleable since they WILL get stepped on by con-goers. Its happened to me ALOT.

Either go full eva foam or do something like what I did. Mine are made from Sintra with EVA ankle covers. The toe section is filled with expanding foam so if someone steps on it it doesn't get crunched flat.

Depending on the design you may want to go even taller. For zero I build a pair of 15 inch drywall stilts into the feet. If your going to consider this route gets lots of practice in them.... Its dangerous.

[TemjinTBW No.9369471]

>>9369457
I have only ever tripped and ate shit in costume once, and it was in a suit that used large wooden risers I made because I was still new and didn't know better. They were very heavy.

Best defense is a spotter/helper and to scout the area you intend to walk around a day in advance. Have the bottom of your feet covered in textured EVA to give you some grip on surfaces. Smooth plastic will slide around, which is not good.

Tripping in costumes like this is always a risk. Just be sure of your steps and take your time.

[TemjinTBW No.9369475]

>>9369439
Other things you can do to assist with scaling problems, false shoulders/biceps like what is mentioned/demonstrated in the posts above. These guys have huge shoulders and getting the size and the biceps in the right place helps alot with the look.

Make the helmet as small as you can. With my GGG costume the helmet is more of half helm or mask than a true helmet. Mechs have very small heads compared to the body size. An oversized head hurts the look alot so be aware of this. Pictured is my first costume. You can see how the oversized head hurts the look alot.

[Anonymous No.9369490]

>>9369475
>>9369460
>>9369471
Thank you so much, I've been using a standard gundam tutorial as a guide but most don't go into such details and tips (like the thing about the expanding foam in the toes especially). I think I'll be doing the feet on mine like your first images as I don't think I'm experienced or crazy enough to give the stilts a go just yet.
The tips on how to cheat the arms above I did read through already and they were great too, thanks to you and all the anons who discussed that.
And yeah this is all very helpful and much appreciated.

[Anonymous No.9369691]

>>9369420
It's someone else's, I don't like his hand, looks funny

[TemjinTBW No.9369778]

>>9369691
Well mechanically the guy has the right idea as far as making puppetry controlled fingers and arm extensions go, the finish is just very rough.

The design in >>9368920 is very organic so hard edges would look bad. Perhaps a skin made of Lycra to go over everything when its done? Basically a really large glove of the same material used in zentais. The would help hide all the hinges and things in the hand.

[Anonymous No.9369945]

>>9369778
The thumb looks to separated from the hand, I wish I could do a fist with it, is it possible?

[TemjinTBW No.9369985]

>>9369945
A fully clenched fist inst easy to create with puppetry. The rest of the fingers have to curl around the thumb and have a minimum of gaps. Its far from impossible but I would expect it to be challenging.

If this is your first time doing something like this you may want to make the build smaller. I'm not sure if your familiar but there is a LoL character wtih a steampunk look with large gauntlets. Ive seen alot of cosplayers make those that use pulleys to make them puppetry controlled. If you scale the arms down to a scale similar to that it would likely be alot easier to get everything looking the way you'd like.

Honestly I'm not the best person to ask about puppetry. The costume I am working on now will be my first time trying arm extensions myself.

[Anonymous No.9370742]

>>9369985
I think I'll need further help, what should I use to look taller? And what type of material looks metallic? for the circles around his body

[TemjinTBW No.9370784]

>>9370742
That design is all shoulders and arms, your height inst an issue. For the round parts? Honestly I would just scavenge something that looks similar. You could get a bunch of cups at the 99 cent store, cut the bottoms off and spray paint them silver and that would be it for those.

For big props and armor EVA foam is the go to material. If properly sealed and painted with say a shiny black coat of plastidip I think you could get a nice metal or slick rubber look out of it fairly easily.

[Anonymous No.9370789]

>>9370784
Thanks, I'm really nervous, I've done weapons before, and this year I'm entering full mech terrain
After this I'll be making a D.va Mech, and I have absolutely no clue on how to do that one, I'm happy tho

[TemjinTBW No.9370800]

>>9370789
My best advice is to not get intimated and just build, learn and get your hands on and play with alot of materials and tools. First projects aren't going to be perfect and all the tutorials and tips in the world don't replace practical experience. As long as you keep this in mind and try to improve with each project you'll be golden.

Good luck man, post pics in the progress threads when you have something to show, even if you dont think its up to snuff. I cruise those threads all the time and cgl needs more mecha stuff.

[Anonymous No.9370805]

>>9370800
Thanks, Temjin, I study Design, I just finished my first year, so I feel the pressure that I should be good at this things since one day I'll be making all sort of projects, but I like the way you think, It gives me strength

[Anonymous No.9371000]

>>9368084
Something like this?

[Anonymous No.9371001]

>>9371000

[TemjinTBW No.9371484]

>>9371000
>>9371001
Not bad at all for a first suit. Would benefit from some proper patterns and some time spent hiding all those rough foam edges.

[Anonymous No.9371806]

Here's a better pic of the Advanced Suit

[Anonymous No.9371892]

>>9368920
PICS WHEN YOU DO, THATS GONNA LOOK AWESOME

[Anonymous No.9371893]

>>9371892
Or lame, I hope it looks awesome tho

[Anonymous No.9373820]

>>9367326

From a comfort standpoint, how hot does it get in your robot costumes?

I have an armor costume that I usually use, but it turns into an oven anything north of 65 degrees. So I'm looking into having a second 'summer' costume, but as much as I want to do a giant robot cosplay I suspect its an oven too.

Am I wrong? Or does it get as hot in there as I imagine?

[TemjinTBW No.9374563]

>>9373820
If you go full EVA foam id imagine it can get pretty hot, mine don't use that much so I haven't had a serious issue with it. Im in south Florida as well and I have done shows in june/july.

Not to say you wont sweat at all of course. I also have some large fans in most of my costumes hooked up to cell phone batteries which helps make things more comfortable.

[Anonymous No.9374566]

>>9366266
I got five 3d printers running churning out chunks at a time. Me and 3 of my friends are going as the jaegers from pacific rim. No work in progress pics as their still just chunks and not assembled. 3d printing is slow as fuck but the detail you can get is amazing.

[Anonymous No.9374683]

>>9374566
see you at san japan if you guys get finished in time

[Anonymous No.9375348]

So, I suck with lot's of LED, I did a rainbow pattern cannon with 72 LEDs, they worked for 5 minutes until something I still don't know went wrong inside.
This suit has tons of blue lights around, It's going to move a lot and I don't really know anything about parallel circuits. Do you guys have something? Like a graphic explanation or a link to a post?

[Anonymous No.9375598]

>>9375348
Wiring LEDs in parallel doesn't require any specialist knowledge, in the simplest case wire each LED+resistor strand separately and hook them all up to the same battery terminals. Just remember that if you have 20 LEDs and each pull 15mA, the whole thing will pull 20x15=300mA, so consider that when figuring out what batteries to use.

Regarding reliability, did you properlysolder everything together? If you have room, consider cutting up some stripboard and soldering everything onto that, I find it's stronger than wire-to-wire soldering.

[Anonymous No.9379671]

>>9375598
I always solder the best I can
I have a block in my head and I can't understand parallel circuits

[Anonymous No.9379720]

>>9368143

>alteisen

I love you whoever you are. Wish to make the tequila gundam one of these years but i always get scared to attempt and build.

[Anonymous No.9380514]

>>9374683
How did you know? lol
Gonna try and have em all done by may for comicpalooza.

[Anonymous No.9381097]

>>9380514
jeager cosplays are extremely rare and you've mentioned a few times previously you were hoping to have them ready for the san japan cosplay show, I'm super excited to see them in person btw, sorry if the other message came off cryptic

[Enshiro No.9382313]

>>9369439
>>9369448
I'm kinda late to the party and Temjin already said a lot but thought I'd offer my two cents.

As far as proportions go, I always start with a model or figurine and meticulously measure the dimensions with calipers and blow them up to human scale. I usually aim for 7ft tall. When you're scaling upon the drawing board, that's when you wanna do the math and figure out what body part goes where and how it will fit.

For feet, basically what Temjin said. Make platform boots.Depending on how tall the boots are, your feet might be pretty high in the leg cavity, as was with my Mobile Ginn (14inch boots).

I made these out of wood and cardboard. I went a little overboard with wood and the final result was each boot weighed 10 lb. But I made damn sure they were sturdy and would support my weight and 70 plus pounds of costume.The gap on the sole was an especially dangerous stress point so the soles use plywood and 2x2inch blocks.

[Enshiro No.9382330]

>>9369439
For heads,
>>9369475
This.

Depending on scale, you might not even be able to or want to stick your whole head in the head/helmet. My head was partly inside my Ginn torso, meaning the helmet went just barely to my eyes. But the final product meant that my visibility was poor. I saw the world through the Ginn neck area, and could only see what's directly in front of me. So consider where your eyes will be in or out of the helmet.

>>9369457
>>9369471
Oh lord, I once tripped over a wire in my Geara Zulu at Fanime. Not fun. The moment you fall, you're super angry all your work was destroyed and start analyzing what's damaged. Luckily, the cardboard I made it out of was sturdier than expected and there was no visible damage.
Walking wasn't really a problem. It's perfectly fine when you get used to the boots. Tripping over foreign objects is the real issues. Handlers should alleviate that.

[TemjinTBW No.9383469]

>>9382330
I love the shapes on this costumes, the torso espically. You really knocked it out of the park. Sucks about the field of view. I guess with the head being so squat it was a must.

Tbh I wont ever go over 10 inches in platforms again if I can avoid it. I played with the idea of using 11-12 inch platforms for my Zero but the stability was just way to sketchy for me to be comfortable walking around.

Here's some mecha gore from my spill in Alt-Eisen. Its all repaired now with the exception of the motors for the gun arm, since it was retired at this point.

[Anonymous No.9383671]

>>9382313
>>9382330
>>9383469
Im not building a mecha but Ive been following along in the thread and Id just like to say its really impressive to see both you build such amazing costumes and still being so willing to tell others how its all done complete with helpful tips. I keep running across asshats elsewhere who won't tell you shit when you ask how something was made. All the pics have been great too.

[Enshiro No.9383706]

>>9383469
It funny and fortunate how the head turned out, actually. I initially planned to have my head fully inside the helmet. But I soon realized my head's too far in the torso for that. But after crunching the numbers and considering practical issues, I realized it's better that way. I accidentally made it better hehe.
Thus, I unintentionally did away with one issue I had with my Geara Zulu, the unsightly giraffe neck.
In this pic, I didn't wear the black mask for poops and chuckles.

[Enshiro No.9383708]

>>9383706
Forgot the pic.


>>9383671
Glad to be of help!

[Anonymous No.9383766]

>>9383671
same, i would never make 5 kilo stilts though. I once made digitigrade stilts from wood, never again. I had blue toes for months

[Anonymous No.9384682]

>>9381097
>sorry if the other message came off cryptic
Haha no worries. Its a legit thing to consider. 4 suits is a lot to make especially using 3d printers.
Oh I'll have em ready by San Japan. I just hope I can get each suits gimmick working.
>>9383706
Random question, because I was thinking about doing this for a future cosplay, have you thought about doing a live feed camera/display unit inside the suit?

[Enshiro No.9385895]

>>9384682
Actually, I've played around with the idea. Stick some sort of camera on the outside and an iPad or something inside for the screen.
I kinda wanted to do this M.K. design a few years back.

[Anonymous No.9386016]

>>9385895
Never built a mech, but consider buying one of those cheap parking cameras for that application. If you had the head space, you could even buy a second and mount it at chest height, pointing down, so you see where you're stepping.

[Anonymous No.9386045]

>>9384682
>>9385895
>>9386016
If you wanted to spend the money - and I think you can actually find budget-tier models pretty cheaply - the ideal way to do this would probably be first-person-view goggles of the sort used for RC planes. The cameras are very small and lightweight by necessity and therefore easy to mount pretty much wherever, and again I think they're pretty cheap for entry-level models. The picture quality will be bad, but you just need to see where you're going, right? They're intended to be used with a radio transmitter of course, but I don't see why you couldn't wire the camera directly to the goggles since the camera output and goggle input should be the same format.

The problem with using something like a parking camera is eyestrain. The FPV goggles are designed to be worn close to your face for extended periods and have two tiny screens for both eyes. I'd be worried about actually damaging your eyesight staring at a regular screen at close range all day.

[Anonymous No.9386588]

[Anonymous No.9388724]

Does anyone know who the guy in the RX-78 is? If someone could positively ID him, it would go a long way toward shutting /m/ up about whether it's Spicer in the suit.

[Anonymous No.9389375]

>>9386588
that looks so beast, totally putting 40k on my cosplay list to do atleast once in my lifetime

[TemjinTBW No.9389623]

>>9388724
No idea who he is, but he used the same files I did for my first suit for the helmet at least >>9368143

The files in question were made by a user named juice on the 405th forums.

>>9386588
This is a really nice Space Marine build. The guys small head in comparison to the rest of the suit really shows how much work he put into getting his scaling and sizing right.

[Anonymous No.9394759]

Time for tokushit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_j4sAxmo0s

[Anonymous No.9394761]

>>9394759
Satan Goth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEstDfPWuvw

[Anonymous No.9398585]

Bump

[Anonymous No.9398784]

>>9386588
I know he's meant to be wearing a helmet along with that, but man he looks goofy with that much neck poking out.
Or maybe it's because he's not a meathead.

[Anonymous No.9402753]

https://youtu.be/0Sc3tHyFKBc
That's the Advanced Suit I was talking about