FemShep N7 Armor, Valkyrie Rifle, + Omniblade (Mass Effect 3)

Freya Willia

Freya Willia

Well-Known Member
Gonna add to this as I go. This N7 armor is mainly vac-formed styrene and carbon fiber vinyl. For those who are doing similar close-fitting body-armor builds, check out the following pages.

My N7 rifle is from a kit by Volpin Props - I am only installing LEDs, assembling the parts, and painting it!

Build Index:
General Sculpting...................p. 1-3
Painting techniques................p. 5-6
Carbon fiber vinyl...................p. 7 (w/ video)
Omniblade heat forming........p. 15

Update: the rifle is now off my workbench. 12/28/13
11604795675_8f9fbf6679_c.jpg


Here is my costume next to my main reference. Original default-female Shepard concept art by Bioware.

11761714216_ab99877d26_c.jpg

________________________________________________________

My build will be an assortment of different things. I've looked at a lot of n7 armor work with foam and the results are awesome and clean, but my issue was durability and thickness of the foam. DudeSheps don't mind looking bulkier, but at 5'3", I do - and I am also using the leaner appearance of the concept art as my target aesthetic.



All of this would be hard without a 3D reference, so that is here for people who haven't found it already:
Mass Effect 3, Female Shepard N7 Armour Reference




This was my old wig. I'm wearing Ada wig - short wispy wig with side parted bangs from Amphigory, grungified with hairspray.


I designed a repeatable graphic of the suit pattern in photoshop and had it custom printed by Dpi - Welcome to DPI on very breathable nylon spandex. I highly recommend them - they communicate, which is a big effing deal, if you bother to spend the time and money on custom stuff.



I drew the templates freehand on my mannequin, occasionally holding them up to myself, as her torso is much longer than mine. Leg sections will probably be 9-13oz leather. I want to be able to sit, and I want those parts to be tough. Rest of the body, not sure yet.





The shoulder pieces molded like this, but as it turns out - this failed.
 
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Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

It looks like you're wearing your heart on your sleeve (in the last picture).

Looking forward to updates, neat costume.
 
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Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

Looks really good and we never see that many femsheps.
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

love it. would you mind sharing your repeatable pattern?
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

Just take lots of photos and then document it when you have the time or if someone has a specific question.
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

Deelite said:
love it. would you mind sharing your repeatable pattern?
Click to expand...

View attachment 111530

Here it is - keep in mind this was designed to be printed on dark gray spandex. Some darkening/contrast adjustment will probably be needed if the fabric printing service only uses white spandex. Also, beware, it can come out very blue-tinted on white, depending on your printing service:

View attachment 111531

Creds are appreciated, feel free to use it.

NormanF said:
Just take lots of photos and then document it when you have the time or if someone has a specific question.
Click to expand...

That's what I hope to do, and I want to clarify for everyone - I'm certainly *willing* to explain, especially to anyone else making a Femshep costume.

For now I am not as busy, the semester is still kinda starting.

Also going to recap some things I already did in August:




I followed an online body suit tutorial for this, it was my first time sewing spandex. Most of my costumes have been woven fabric until Shep.



Most of my small details will be vac-formed, using apoxie sculpt there.




There you can see some of the small finger pieces I started cutting out of the vac-formed styrene. Also made templates for the omniblade (clear because the bright orange acrylic I will use for the final version is expensive, and I've never tried heat-forming by hand, so that will be a learning experience). The pixel texture is an experiment at this point, may or may not get used in the final version. If it does, it will be less noticeable from a distance.
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

Looking good :) I love the undersuit, and the armour is off to a great start. I look forward to seeing how you do the boob armour - I've made a set of male shep armour for someone but the chest puts me off making femshep armour =\
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

Those boots look great and you really rock that red wig.

I hate to admit that I had to look up N7.... So your puns are nowhere equal to my ignorance. ;)
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

Fly4v said:
Those boots look great and you really rock that red wig.

I hate to admit that I had to look up N7.... So your puns are nowhere equal to my ignorance. ;)
Click to expand...
Haha, thanks! It's ok I had to look up various versions of the Captain :)

Blobfish said:
Looking good :) I love the undersuit, and the armour is off to a great start. I look forward to seeing how you do the boob armour - I've made a set of male shep armour for someone but the chest puts me off making femshep armour =\
Click to expand...

EvilFX's route is probably much faster than mine, and easier. I think he essentially heat formed foam over some half circle shapes.

View attachment 111687

That is the reference I am using specifically for the chest area, because it has "smooth" pieces with the carbon-fiber texture in the center. (Some people interpret all of the armor to have the texture, which is also accurate, depending on what you are using as source material). I like how Shep's armor looks natural, so I just molded my own chest with plaster.




To answer someone else, yes those were casts of my hands. A few parts of this costume started with plaster-gauze things pulled off my body to help me with proportion.

I applied lightweight plaster spackling to the gauze with a palette knife (you can see the knife in the bottom picture) and brush, to get rid of the bra seams and texture. Then it was lots of sanding.




I filled in some of the cleavage to make it more abstract and armor-looking. I kinda felt topless when I put it on and looked in a mirror haha.

This will be vac-formed ultimately, so that piece also has a few layers of fiberglass underneath to keep it solid. If I didn't have access to one, I'd consider using the cast itself and coat the top with resin, and just use a single layer of fiberglass on the inside.
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

so maybe I missed it, but what are you actually going to be making the main armor out of? Sintra? Fiberglass? Good luck! it looks awesome so far!
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

This is looking awesome! I wish I was good at understanding how to do armor builds but whenever I see them being done (even step by step) I'm still completely flabbergasted lol!
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

You are off to such a great start, and mixing together different media and techniques like a pro! Good luck with the build and I look forward to seeing it finished !
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

wow youre looking to have one of the best fem sheps ive seen :p
im currently working on full shepard armor with helmet but i didnt want to spend that much cash on custom printed lycra with the armor pattern, i was actually thinking of just buying a normal black undersuit then making a stamp to stamp on the pattern with fabric paint
 
Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

Thanks so much everyone!

treymcd said:
so maybe I missed it, but what are you actually going to be making the main armor out of? Sintra? Fiberglass? Good luck! it looks awesome so far!
Click to expand...

No you didn't miss it :) I'm not exactly sure yet what a lot of the things will be made out of. Probably a lot of styrene, leather, and acrylic.

It often depends on how well my attempts various materials go, for instance:






That mold sucked, for reasons I don't understand. The acrylic primer stuck to the silicone. I've never had that happen before, but there has been a 500% humidity average here. There is also some deformity and cracking in the cast I made, which I think is from the clay getting smushed under the weight of the silicone/plaster. Originally I wanted to slush-cast both shoulder pieces in urethane resin and be done with them, but I think I'm going to clean up this one piece and try vac-forming it. The clay original was destroyed, so I'd have to make a completely new mold; really hoping I won't have to do that.


Eveningarwen said:
This is looking awesome! I wish I was good at understanding how to do armor builds but whenever I see them being done (even step by step) I'm still completely flabbergasted lol!
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a race to get the main parts of this armor built before I totally lose track of my schemes. I feel like I've done so much work but I can't even "wear" any of these parts yet to see how they are supposed to fit and come together. When I finally get to that point, I'll put everything on either myself or my mannequin and take a picture, and it should make more sense.

Tarchinoko said:
wow youre looking to have one of the best fem sheps ive seen :p
im currently working on full shepard armor with helmet but i didnt want to spend that much cash on custom printed lycra with the armor pattern, i was actually thinking of just buying a normal black undersuit then making a stamp to stamp on the pattern with fabric paint
Click to expand...

There's probably a way you could have a stamp laser-cut in a broad square to relieve some of that tedium. But there really aren't that many places where the pattern shows up with the full armor on so doing it by hand is still reasonable.
 
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Re: FemShep n7 Armor: SYNTHESIS (ME3)

For the suits I made with my Girlfriend, we made a stencil of the weave pattern (ME2) then painted the lycra through that.
 
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