Design Ideas

Photography

 

Conduit F3 Documentation

The equipment I used for this project was the following: Scalpel, Scisors, Pencil, glue gun, spray cans.

This pisol is once of the concepts from the upcoming Destiny game in development by Bungie. I'm excited about this game and love the weapon designs of this set in future franchise. I think what I like most about them is how different they are from the every day weaponry you see in modern gaming.
I analysed the most efficient way to create a replica. I looked at the design and the easiest method was to create a skeleton of the weapon first and then work around it. I took a pencil and a piece of thin card. I placed my hand on it and marked how wide my hand was. This was a way I measured proportions and in this case the handle. Once I roughly knew what size the handle would be, I started working on other sections such as the barrel. I kept looking back at theoriginal concept to make sure I get the sizes roughly correct so when I join them, they'll fit together like a puzzle.

The inner section of the gun was easier to make as it was only a skeleton for what will come on top of it. I used the scalpel for the detailed work and scisors when it came to cutting straight edges. I didn't want to glue the outer parts to the skeleton yet becuase then painting it would become difficult.

There were also smaller sections to the gun such as the tip of the barrel which were a bit more detailed and had a rounded shape. I took a plastic bottle and exrtacted the plastic in the middle of it. I then cut a strip and fold it up around a pencil which gave me a small tube like item. I was then able to cover it with black duct tape and added some silver paint on the edges for the final touch.

During the making I thought about adding some lights to the weapon. I had a set of christmas tree lights left from last year and used those on the gun.

I wanted to make sure that the batteries could be easily replaced so I left the back stock area of the weapon open so I could remove the battery pack the moment it died.

For the back section of the gun where the stock would go, I wanted to make something that would cover the battery slot as well as keep it in place. It also had to be easily removed so I took a strip of plastic and placed it inside the stock. I was able to create a slot on the batteries where this piece of plastic could be inserted to keep the stock together with the rest of the weapon.

Once I finished the stock area, I was then free to paint the rest of the weapon using red and black spray cans.

Recent Work

Remember how I liked the idea of having a gun transform into something else? Well I thought to myself at that point. Let me make a whole suit of armor that can transform. Now THAT is a challenge. In the film Iron Man 2 a man named Tony Stark created a suit of armor he liked to call the Mark V which was contained within a suitcase. I knew this was all fiction, but I couldn't stop thinking about making a suit like that. It seemed impossible to make something as large as a piece of armor being able to shrink to a size of a suitcase, but I wanted to give it a go regardless whether it was possible or not.

I went ahead and started with the easy part which was the chest. The structure of the armor made it easier to find ways to make the armor fold as it was layered on top of another. 

I've never had as much fun as I did when making this costume as it pushed my ability to think and I was able to overcome several problems at once. E.g. While making the spine, I had to find a way to make it fold 3 times without it snapping so what I used was a door hinge and screwed it into the spine to make sure it holds all the pieces together. 

In the end, I couldn't find a way to make the helmet fold and without finding a way to make it fold completely. I wasn't able to put it with the rest of the armor, but the finished product looked phenomenal and I was very proud of myself as I had many doubts when creating this suit and I was able to turn fiction into reality.  

There is a new game coming out made by the same developers who made Halo called Destiny. Set in future and on our planet. I'm looking forward to it more than anything. I started working on yet another suit of armor. With years of experience I developed many new techniques and overcome several obstacles and wanted to put all those skills into another test. 

I looked into several concepts of the game and found a robot-like armor which I instantly fell in love with and said to myself "I'm making this right now" and so I started this 100+ hours project and put myself to a test of how detailed and accurate this suit can get to the originals. I started using proper buckles to clip the pieces of armor to myself as well as flexible materials underneath to allow more movement around the joints. I also went ahead and added extra details to each of the pieces. I used some silver paint and a brush and applied it on the edges making a scrapped metal effect that can usually be seen on worn out metal items. 

I can easily say that all the hard work was worth the sweat as I created my favorite suit of armor thus far. I also made another costume from the same franchise as well as several props to go with the suits.

One of my most successful props is the pistol below. It's hard to believe that this was a couple of pieces of card before I started making it.   

I documented the progress of how I made this from scratch and how I installed the lights inside the weapon. 

The documentation can be seen here - Conduit F3

Yet another resent prop I made is this red revolver below. I used an empty capsule container to create the cylinder. Using a scalpel, I carefully cut out the stencils which I drew out by eye. I rarely use rulers while drawing out the blue prints as I'm now confident in my ability to draw and measure by eye. For this weapon, I used a strip of cloth and wrapped it around the handle to give this weapon a more realistic look. Before I put each piece together, I decided on which parts will be red and which will remain black and sprayed them separately so when I assembled the weapon, I no longer had to worry about any more coloring. Once again, I used some silver paint and gently applied it on the sides of the revolver making it look worn out as if was already in use.

For another one of my costumes, I created a weapon to go with it. I decided with a sniper rifle due to the costume being more of a recon class which means it's purpose is to be stealthy.

Since this costume was more of a scouting suit there is no protection on the legs to allow free movement. I also went ahead and made a cape and it's the first time I ever made one and somehow had no trouble creating it with the hood.

Works in 2010

Whilst creating all the weapon props, I started to think outside the box. I liked the idea of having a weapon that can transform into something else or extend itself to become a larger weapon. I had several ideas, but many were just too impracticable for me at the time. I started with something simple. I took one of my unfinished pistols and thought of what I could do to it so once transformed, it doesn't look like a pistol anymore. The following words were what went though my head at that very moment "What if I can make this transform into a rifle of sorts" and as bizarre as it may sound, I made it.

I used tubes to create extensions that would be pulled out of the central section of the gun. I did this for both barrel and the stock where as the ammo clip would sit in the handle before it gets pulled out and inserted into the ammo slot.

I had several other designs which involved a weapon transformation. For example this tiny sniper rifle that could extend the barrel to twice the weapons length. The silencer was placed in the stock area.

Along the guns, I also wanted to do something more medieval-like. I love the LOTR franchise and I was always fascinated with bows, crossbows and swords and in one of the designs I decided to mix up a piece of forearm protection with a crossbow. I really loved the Orc bows which were sometimes made from bones and I tried to create limbs of the crossbow to resemble those.

I never tried to make this fire any arrows, but I did create bows in the past out of bamboo sticks and wire to create a strong bamboo bow and used firework sticks to create arrows. I usually took pens apart and used the metal part at the tip and attached it to the arrow to give it a better look and for it to work. 

I also loved future warfare and I was fascinated by futuristic gaming and concepts of weapons that came with them. I was especially interested in the Halo franchise which had a huge arsenal of Alien weaponry as well as futuristic man made weapons. 

I loved the Halo franchise enough to decide on creating several suits of armor. This was certainly a new challenge as at this point it was about 2 years since the last time I made a suit so I approached this carefully and experimented more than ever before. 

In the long run, I created 2 entire suits of armor as well as 3 helmets to go with them. I was extremely proud of these costumes as not only were they from my favorite franchise, but they were hand made.

Around that time, I was attending conventions and decided on going to one with my armor. I would dress up in my house and walk all the way to the train station with my costume on as I didn't want to carry it in a bag and before I realized, a joint that held my utility up broke off and I had no way of repairing it and that was a very big shock for me as I put tons of staples into that just to prevent that from happening, but it seemed that wasn't the most efficient way of getting around the problem. I got myself a glue gun. I had them in school and I always said to myself that I can borrow one, but I preferred to own the equipment. Having a glue gun at disposal, I opened myself new ways to create more amazing props and costumes.