Mass Effect N7 Armour Build

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AgentWills
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Hello loyal stalkers!

Recently I undertook a lengthy project.
With the pressure of an upcoming event I was working at fast approaching, I thought that a productive use of my time was to build something.
So I thought "I want my own set of Mass Effect armour".

I'd been wanting to create this for a while now, I've loved the games so much and couldn't wait to give it a shot.
To start with, I looked at templates online, and I came across a few forums for inspiration:

These kinda brought it into my mind that it was possible. Especially after I found the patterns from Julian Beek. www.julianbeek.nl/blog/
That made things a hell of a lot easier. Major kudos!

After a while of just working the patterns out, getting measured and making sure everything lined up. I started to look at the step by step as to how to do it.
Which is where I found Volpin Props.

The challenge was set.
I had time, a plan and no idea what I was doing.

First thing was of course follow the n7 patterns, simple enough, and print. Stick together what you need to, I decided to "test" out the front of the armour to see how well I could do this, if it didn't work out, not harm done, and I'd not have lost much.
I used EVA foam from a local rubber chain "Clark Rubber" on the more expensive side of the rubbers to use, but it was fantastic quality.

N7 - 1 by AgentWills



After that was done, I cut in to the rubber to lift out sections for my flat panels. These panels were made from 2mm thick craft foam. And everything was either stuck down with superglue or a hot glue gun.

And I have to admit, things were looking promising. So I started to make some colour choices. After researching what colour lights I wanted (Aqua/Green) I decided against having a red stripe. So I opted for blue. And decided to put out a teaser image to show you all what I was working on.
N7 Logo by AgentWills

It's the little things really.



With progress truly underway, I decided to say that it did work, and that I was going to commit.
So I bought my second piece of foam. Essentially following the same idea as the previous part, except of course with a different pattern.
The foam was heat treated to make it mould-able, I picked up a heat gun from Bunnings for $20. Worth every cent.

All of the craft foam was cut out using an exactoknife. I used two blades for this job, a No.2 for the heavy work, and a No.11 for the fiddly stuff. Both worked a treat, but they dulled after a while, and even dull blades will not work with this foam. Blunt blades are even worse.

I got a rhythm up pretty quickly of cutting, shaping, and piecing this costume together. The hardest part was taking the large plates out for the "detail" sections.
Pretty soon I had a back section, and was waiting for my EL wire to arrive.
I bought EL wire from a place called "Elec2Go" in Sydney. But you can find it almost anywhere online. If you're not good with a solder, I HIGHLY suggest you get yours premade to length, it saves you so much time and effort, even if it costs a little extra.
I started to rig the armour together, now that I had the major two sections complete.
Looking good so far!
The arms were fun, though fairly straightforward. Lots of heating and bending, then heating and bending. This process took a while, but in the end was something that looked good.

For the rigging, I used non-roll elastic between pieces as joints. It not only looked good, but afforded a high degree of flex in the armour.

After that, I used the left over white craft foam for the spine pieces. I bought some acrylic paint to make it a 50% grey, to reduce the harshness of the contrast between the black and white foam.
Something that was more a happy coincidence. With the white craft foam and the grey paint. When the looking at it, it gave a fake specular highlight. This made it look like it was metallic.

Now, onto the legs.  By now, loyal stalkers, you may know that I own a cat, a big beautiful Siberian Forest Cat called "Spike".
I found out he loves foam, and paper!
If you also own a cat, here's a pro tip: Put a box lid down. He'll sit in it, especially if he's got a bit of foam to chew on. The amount of times I had to shoo him off my work... I've got scratch marks in the leg piece because he decided to sharpen his claws on the foam tile I was using.
N7 - 12 by AgentWills

I had to change this boxlid to a normal cardboard boxlid that comes with my veggies. Which he promptly ate.
The lid, not the veggies.
Spike the Destroyer of Lids by AgentWills

Moving on.

Now that I'd done a lot of the work, I decided that my fingers were getting pretty tired of the constant cutting of foam.
There were other things to do, so I started to work on the colour.

As I said before, I chose blue because of the aqua lights. There were 3 coats of paint on each piece. The blue needed a grey base coat, which was the leftover colour from the back pieces. Because it went a purple/black on the raw foam.
In hindsight, I'd have put the white coat down first as a main then painted the blue over the top, would have saved time. But we can't have everything right. A huge thanks to my brother for helping out with working out the white part.


I went back to the legs, the final stage of the costume.  
N7 - 18 by AgentWills
I wish I had have taken more photos of the final stages. But alas with the rush of getting it done it was sorely neglected.
However, I can tell you that the same techniques were used. Just taking out the panels and replacing those with foam.

N7 - Front by AgentWillsN7 - Back by AgentWillsN7 - Biotic Adept by AgentWills

I'm damned happy with the way it came out. And I think it was well worth the effort.

I hope you all enjoyed sharing this journey.
To those of you who made it this far, I hope you've learned something, and don't hesitate to ask questions.
I learnt so much with this, as it was my first ever proper cosplay.

as always
your fellow stalker
--Wills


© 2013 - 2024 AgentWills
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agus7171's avatar
agus7171
Hello good, a friend and I are going to start making that costume has in a week, I wonder how long did it take to do it? , That if, depending on the hour that you could do. And you could spend details or any template to perfect it. And one last question, under the costume you wore? Thank you very much for everything. My email is agus_elche18@hotmail.com