Build the H.U.L.C Suit From the Movie Elysium

After seeing the movie Elysium, with Matt Damon, I knew I had to do the costume for Halloween! This was a challenging build and my first time working with foam. This build took a month and over 100 hours.

I'm a huge fan of Neill Blomkamp, I also did a District 9 costume some years back.

https://www.instructables.com/id/District-9-themed-...

The cost was surprisingly low though. PIC HEAVY instructable! Enjoy guys! PLEASE be sure and VOTE!

After scouring the internet for every screenshot and piece of concept art I could find, this is what I came up with. I did not do any mock ups or drawings of my own. I measured on my body relative to the pictures and drew on the foam.

Tools:
Hack saw, scissors, pipe cutter, sander, band saw, pliers, hot knife, soldering iron, xacto knife, drill press, hot glue gun, high heat


Materials:
4pack garage floor foam mat, various thickness craft foam, metal wire coat hangers, high heat hot glue, various nuts, bolts and washers, 1/2" PVC, wood dowel, elastic string, nylon straps, velcro, needle, thread, eye screws, paint..... Lots of paint.... Spray on plastidip, old phone (for blue back lit LCD), 9 volt battery, led light, spare wiring.

I started by tracing out my chest piece on the thick foam mat and cutting it out with an exacto knife. I reinforced it with metal coat hanger wire from behind. Cutting a slot and use high strength hot glue to secure. I then added detail with a hot knife and layered thinner pieces of foam. I "weathered" it to make it look beaten and scratched, by melting the foam with the hot knife.

I used the same method as be for, cutting and strengthening with wire, to form the arms. I made loops with the wire to reinforce the holes where the points would be located. securing the joints with washers as well. I also used thick aluminum bar for the very top joint, as seen in the picture. I also glued on nuts to give it that industrial look. I cut out and attached the fore arm guards to corrugated plastic, attacking with aluminum plating. For the final touches, I coated with the spray plastadip, black paint and silver on the edges to make the metal look worn.

After cutting out the parts, I added a joint in the back to give better mobility. I used one long, thick piece and attached all of the back segments to the strip. accenting with thin foam and large washers, detailing with a hot knife. Almost all gluing was done with high strength hot glue. In hind sight, the joints and thinner areas could have done with a stronger adhesive. I used the same paint method as before, plastadip and painting

The legs proved to be a greater challenge, needing a high range of motion and still looking the part. The same construction and paint process as detailed in the previous pages. I used a ton of straps and Velcro here!

The biggest issue I ran into was the fact I used hot glue to build the pistons, attaching the washers to the PVC. Had I used epoxy instead this would have held up better. but I was in a time crunch and rushed it! I used PVC and wood dowel to form the piston body, capping it with a washer and using eyelet screws to attach. the pistons were held in place with a piece of string elastic. They worked really well and looked amazing!

This was tricky, I took apart an old land line phone and used the LCD for the back panel. wiring it together with a blinking green LED to a 9V battery. Same construction process as detailed before. I attached it to my head with hair clips. this proved difficult to say the least!

I attached everything with nylon straps an Velcro, most of which I hid under my blood stained shirt. I cut holes for the straps to go through. Most of the joints were attached with plain nuts and bolts, with lock-tite. It's easy to see in the pictures how this thing went together, then trying to explain in text!

I was really pleased with the outcome of this costume, people were blown away! mobility was great and everything actuated as it should have. As I said before, the biggest mistake I made was using high strength hot glue as my only adhesive. This was the first time I have ever worked with foam, so please be kind! I also made a pistol form the movie to go with the costume, but that's another episode ;-)