The foam suit build

I built the suit out of 10mm thick Plastazote LD45 foam. This is a high density foam which weighs 45KG per cubic metre. All the parts were cut with a knife and stuck together with hot glue. Plastazote can be shaped and stretched with heat, which helped a lot with the faceplate for instance.

The Pepakura templates for this came from here: The RPF

There are two YouTube videos about this, or scroll down for pictures and words:

Here are some in progress pictures of the foam pieces, click for bigger versions:

When the pieces were all made I sealed them PVA which I got from a local DIY store. This is 'white glue' / wood glue, it dries clear, so it makes the pieces look all shiny and nice, and also makes them a lot more rigid feeling:

I then continued, and made the whole suit:

I made the detail parts for the ear and shoulder pivot by making sculpts from clay and bottle tops, then moulding and casting them in resin:

I then painted the suit, and through trial and error I found the best process was:

1. PVA as described above.

2. Spray with Plastidip.

3. Grey Plastic Primer, I used some from Halfords.

4. Your choice of car paint. I used Ford Solar Gold and Ford Regency Red, and Moondust Silver I think.

Important - I have now developed a plastic coating process for foam which is far superior, check it out here.

See the next article on how I made moulds from the suit.