Mass Effect – N7 Armor
Last month I got a handful of commissions for some Mass Effect N7 armor, so I did all of them at the same time (this is crazy talk). Two of these were for the San Diego Comic Con and even caught the eye of one Seth Green! How awesome is that!?
These are the default N7 armor sets from Mass Effect 2. I used the templates made by Narayas, which can be downloaded here. I got measurements from all 3 of my clients, adjusted all of the template pieces and had them printed out nice and big at Kinkos.
Every piece of these armor sets is made from EVA foam floor mats. These floor mats can be acquired for super cheap at most hardware stores. I got mine at Harbor Freight for $10/pack of 4.
With the template pieces scaled, I cut them out and then spent a solid few days just tracing and cutting out the foam parts.
NOTE: When cutting out EVA foam, use a sharp craft knife or drywall knife. Replace the blades frequently as the foam dulls it extremely fast.
ALSO NOTE: Some parts don’t have the texture. That’s just the back side of the floor mats.
The armor pieces were detailed with a grinding wheel on my Dremel. To shape them I used my heat gun and brute strength. Every single piece is held together with super glue (cyanoacrylate). I ended up going with a huge jug of the stuff from Hobbytown USA. I even made a video about the glue.
Essentially the build process was a lot of cutting out foam, carving lines, shaping and gluing. I didn’t take too many photos of the process, just end of the day update shots. So here are some of those.
The black foam is just 2mm and 6mm craft (“fun foam”) that you can get from any craft store. It is also EVA foam and loves superglue.
The goofy hip pucks were a little bit of a challenge. I ended up turning a buck on my lathe and making a silicone mold of it since I needed to make 6 of these.
Paint for these was pretty minimal. I ended up liking the gray/black motif going on already. The signature N7 red/white stripe is just enamel paint that was painted straight onto the foam.
That just about does it!
P.S. I also made a visor.
Hi there are you still making mass effect props ie:pistol and armour.thanks
Yes, please send commission requests to punishedprops@gmail.com Thanks!
I have a question about Narayas’ templates and haven’t been able to get a answer too. I have downloaded and sized them per the directions. But when I go to move the pieces to the platform file, many of the pieces are too big for 8.5×11. How do I get these larger pieces to print over multiple pages that I can put together.
Great builds! And I will be ordering a M6 kit from you in the future.
I put them into a 36″ wide file and had them printed up full scale at Kinkos.