HALO ODST EVA foam Cosplay

I’m writing this in hindsight, and freshman me did not take very many documenting photos of the build process. This mainly is just a showcase of some of my favorite parts of building this costume. This project has meant a lot to me, as it was the first time I built anything of larger complexity, and it was what led me to spend more and more of my time making things in my spare time.

The first thing I built was the codpiece. I was mainly following a tutorial by Andy DFT, but decided to stray when building this piece of armor. It was pretty hard, finding the correct pepakura files, So I did quite a bit of freehand when designing the torso. My cutting was definitely not the straightest :p. Still, it looked pretty cool after it was finished

I built the iconic ODST shoulder pads afterwards. This was definitely my favorite part of the costume to build, thought it was a little challenging, as I had to mix foams of different thicknesses to achieve the desired look

Next, I built the utility belt and waist armor. It was pretty easy, as most of them were flat pieces. I used nylon straps and velcro to help secure them to my waist. I think me at the time was trying to look casual and cool in the photo above…

After building the leg armor, as well as the wrist gauntlets, which took around 2 weeks of work, I was able to do my first suit up, as seen in this picture. The colors here looked pretty goofy, though I knew that a paint job would help patch it up a bit.

Next, I began the most difficult part of the process, building the helmet, which was a lot more detailed than the rest of the armor pieces. To do so, I used 6mm EVA foam, following a template I found online. I used a heat gun to round pieces, which explains why some of the pieces look wavy or uneven, as I didn’t have the most experience using foam at the time. Still, I think that It looked pretty awesome, and I’m impressed that the younger me built it first try.

Before I knew it, I’d finished all of the armor pieces. This is the first time I wore them all at once before painting. As for the visor, I used two clear sheets of plastic binder divider, and cut them to have the desired shape so that they could be folded up to create the correct 3D form.

Next, I began painting the armor. I bought black, white, blue, and silver paint, and just mixed shades to make the greys needed for metallic pieces. After painting the initial colors, I used a still paintbrush, dipping it in gray paint to achieve a weathered effect of battle damage from scrapes and bumps. I found that this definitely helped make the armor stand out from far away a lot better.

To add finishing touches, I printed out some designs on paper, such as my name or the ODST emblem, and glued them onto the armor. It was definitely cool to add this little bit of personalization. I also bought myself a pair of boots from the thrift store, and added some armor to help them fit the sci-fi aesthetic.

The final touch was making this backpack, which I’m super proud of. I designed all of the templates myself, and cut them out of foam. Even better, it was hollow, and it could actually hold a bottle of water and some snacks. The biggest trouble however, was attaching it to the chest armor. I went through around 5 different strapping designs, which all broke initially, before finally finding a solution that was strong enough.

That’s it! Hopefully that was a cool little tour of my first maker project, building this costume. Even though it’s pretty amateurish, it’ll still always have a place in my heart as the project which helped me find the joys of building things.