Space Suit Engineer Creates Incredible Warhammer Astartes Costume
By the Emperor, Jeremy Chang’s Ultramarine Primaris armor cosplay is a stunning work of Warhammer 40k art.
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By the Emperor, Jeremy Chang’s Ultramarine Primaris armor does Roboute Guilliman proud. In Warhammer 40,000 (W40K) lore, Ultramarine Primarch Guilliman drove the creation of the Mk. X Tacticus Pattern power armor, now the default armor seen on Space Marine wargame miniatures created by Games Workshop.
Chang began playing the tabletop wargame in 2007 and dove into assembling and painting the iconic ultramarine-blue Ultramarines. Outside his local GW store stood an imposing statue of the W40K “mascot” – an Ultramarine in Mk. VII Aquila Armour. It was love at first sight. Chang wanted to build one ever since. “[I] Guess that shows that I was more in it for the models of the cool guys on the table rather than the game itself,” Chang said in an exclusive interview with TheGamer.
When GW decided to evolve W40K to it’s 8th Edition, they decided to upgrade the Space Marine models as well. While the previous 25-year-old design served them very well – the Space Marine models were, by far, W40K’s best selling range – GW tooled new molds for larger “true scale” miniatures that would look more like the hulking 9-foot tall scions of holy wrath depicted in the game’s lore. They call these newer models “Primaris” marines. Surprisingly some die-hard gamers objected to the change. “I’m probably one of the few people who likes Primaris marines more, partly because the models are true-scale, but I just like the design overall more,” said Chang. When Primaris debuted, Chang went to work forging a suit of his own.
Chang interned with NASA while working on his Masters in Engineering. So he happened to work on spacesuit simulators, which included designing functional, albeit simplified, test suits astronauts might wear while on an extended mission on Mars (which just happens to be the place the Primaris and their armor were created in W40K lore…coincidence?) In the lab, “trying to find novel technologies like the bearing system” meant expanding knowledge of mankind’s ability to function and survive in extra-terrestrial environments – at home he used that knowledge “for the Emperor!”
Chang designed most of the suit out of foam, but needed a more precise material for things “like the bearings, hinges, magnetic interfaces, mounting surfaces, greebles, etc.” Using 3D modeling softwares Solidworks and Blender, Chang designed the pieces he needed and sent the files over to a 3D printer. He said it was lots of small parts, but still amounted to “a few days of continuous printing.” His efforts resulted in a Space Marine suit with a greater range of motion than others you commonly see at fan conventions and W40K tournaments.
Once complete, Chang donned his creation. With help, it took about 30 minutes just to put on. But, amazingly, you don’t have to be a gene-seed modified superman to wear it – the suit only weighs about 35 lbs. “It’s 95% foam by volume, so it’s pretty light.” However, the suit does have a priority engineering problem Chang still needs to conquer – walking around in it. His initial trial with PVC and wood stilts proved too heavy and unstable. He now experiments with drywall stilts, but says learning to walk with them is “a whole topic on its own.” The last “big” problem Chang wants to solve is hands and manipulation. Because he wants to keep the suit proportionally accurate, the Primaris suit arms also need to be longer-than-human. Leg extensions can be remedied by stilts, but there isn’t so easy an analogue for hand extensions. Not that such a thing will stop Chang. “I’m thinking of going with more of a prosthetic/puppeteered hand with magnetic interfaces for weapons.” One of those weapons will likely be a chainsword that can double as a walking stick so he doesn’t fall over.
As you might imagine, Chang’s cosplay gets a lot of admiration when he goes out in public. TheGamer learned about this amazing creation through a youTube video posted by content creator Nardio just a week ago. Nardio interviewed the armor-clad Chang during the 2019 Otakon convention in Washington D.C., and reportedly had to keep the questions brief due to all the fans who wanted pictures with Chang!
You can see Chang’s process at his Instagram account. Maybe his work will inspire you to swear your loyalty to the Emperor!
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/space-suit-engineer-warhammer-40k-astartes-costume-cosplay-interview-jeremy-chang/