Ratchet "Hyperfulx Armor" Costume Part 2: Body Armor

Behold...part two of the Ratchet "Hyperflux Armor" adventure.  In this installment I continue my quest to buy my childs love with shiny objects.  You can see part one here:https://www.instructables.com/id/Ratchet-Hyperflux-Armor-Costume-Part-1-Helmet/

Body Armor Materials:

Moto Cross chest protector

Bike LED

Foil Tape

Castin Craft resin/catalyst/green dye/mold release

Sheet Plastic

Black Silicone

Body Armor Tools:

Mixing/Measuring cups

Mixing sticks

Dremel

...There was a shortcut.  I gave serious consideration to creating the armor plating from scratch with some polystyrene sheets and forming them myself, however a perfectly suitable alternative was a premade motocross child's chest protector.  I found one on Amazon for less then $20.  I would have paid way more then that for the plastic, foam and strapping required to make this from the ground up.

You'll notice that Ratchet's armor has several embellishments including straps, illuminated lines, and one big glowing omni wrench symbol slightly off center on his chest.  My goal is to recreate the omni wrench symbol without making it look like some sort of half-assed Ironman knockoff.

I began modifying the body armor I purchased by removing all of the decals and pulling a bit of foam from the inside of the front chest area.  Next I decided what size I wanted the symbol to be and scribed a circle on the armor to be cut out.  Then I used my Dremel to cut out the circle.

I have this weird thing where I like symmetry...and right angles. Right angles give me happy feelings. I could not bring myself to offset this symbol even though this was going to be a glowing circle in the middle of my son's chest that inevitably some little brat was going to confuse for an Arc reactor.

The Omni wrench symbol in the game looks to me like its made out of glass or clear plastic.  I decided to make this out of polyester resin from Castin Craft.  The symbol needed to have a domed shape so I used a mixing cup as the form.  The resin is pretty simple to use.  There are clear instructions when casting a thin piece like this regarding the amount of catalyst used to make the resin solidify.  I added a couple drops of green dye becasue youl'll remember if you read PART 1, my son wanted the costume to have a green theme.

After the resin had solidified, I drilled a 3/16" hole in the center of the back to put an led that would illuminate the symbol.  A quick and easy LED assembly that I've used before in another costume came from a bicycle safety light. https://www.instructables.com/id/SIMS-plumbob/.  You can remove the rubberized covering from this light and you are left with just the led mounted on a circuit board and simple battery holder.

I inserted the led and took it for a spin.  What I found was that too much of the light was being lost through the back of the resin.  I solved this by adding reflective foil tape to the back of the resin.

Next it was time to add the wrench symbol.  (Side note:  It is really hard for me to keep track of what tense I am supposed to be writing this 'ible in.)  I had originally planned to layer the resin casting and embed a wrench symbol inside, I used some cheap vinyl however and the heat from the resin's chemical reaction caused the symbol to curl.  So this was a fail, and I decided to recast the whole thing and just paint the wrench symbol on top.

My omni wrench painting skills aren't as refined as my bowstaff skills, but I think it came out decent.

Next I cut a sort of retaining ring out of some sheet plastic and glued it to some of the foam I pulled off of the chest plate earlier.  The retaining ring will help hold the symbol in place since I didn't have the foresight to cast some sort of ridge on the symbol edge to do this.

I continued the green circuit board type design for the paint scheme of the armor.  Next I glued the retaining ring to the symbol and then attached the symbol to the armor.  Finally I added some black silicone around the symbol to give it a more finished look.

Its all coming together....Please check back soon for the final installment Ratchet "Hyperflux Armor" Costume Part 3: Wrench and Accessories.