Photo by Nate Zimmer
N7 Armor
(Mass Effect 3)
I think every cosplayer from 'my generation' built a suit of N7 armor at one point. This was made in 2012 for ECCC.
More than anything this costume taught me about armor strapping. I would modify the armor a bit as I wore it, fixing issues, replacing bad straps and adding more for comfort. It's a complex build, but the flexiblity and mobility afforded was worth it.
The costume was worn several times, before being sold to a friend.
Materials Used: Vinyl Straps, clips, EVA Foam, Urethane resin cast pieces, stryene. Primed with Plasti Dip and painted with spraypaint.
The forearm armor is simple, just a few layers of eva foam.
The straps on the inside and a bit of friction keep it in place. I the way the wrists clasp isn't ideal, but it worked.
The upper arms are just a bit of foam and a tiny bit of elastic to hold it on.
I never quite got the gloves right, but they are just black work gloves with these back plates made of styrene.
I think it's important to show dead-ends. I had originally started working on a hard plastic version of the costume, before swapping to foam.
The chest piece is seperate from the rest of the armor. It's a few resin cast parts with some layered eva foam. These are some of the very first things I ever resin cast.
The back strapping was very important. There are two side straps where it connects to the harness, and two stop straps that connect to the shoulder section.
This is what I came up with for the neck. It didn't quite work well ever. Was always a bit of a problem.
The abdomen and groin areas are all connected by elastic and sorta 'float', this makes them flexible to aid in mobility.
The back of the armor. Some light strips were used, but you could barely see them in convention lighting.
This costume is a mess of straps
The waist/upper leg parts were my favorite to make and I like how they turned out
The legs were connected to the belt, but 'floated' to allow movement.
The pieces looped with simple elastic straps.
The lower leg armor worked decently. In the future I will try to hid the straps better.
