AfterField

For those of you who don't know or aren't big fans of the Fallout franchise, the NCR - New California Republic - is a faction withing the game "New Vegas." Within this faction, there is an iconic figure that is known by almost anyone who has seen the cover of the game - The NCR Veteran Ranger! More commonly known as the "cool looking guy on the cover."

In the game, "New Vegas" you can't actually join the NCR as I would have hoped. although, you can come fairly close. Unfortunately, that isn't close enough in my books. I wanted to walk around like a bad ass toting the label of an NCR ranger just so I could watch the other Mojave wasteland survivors throw bottle caps at my feet. Yes, I suppose I could have installed on of the various mods that let you legitimately join the NCR ranks, but I'm too lazy. And I might have felt a little cheated about it. Bending the game to let me do something.

I'm not going to let a simple role playing game ruin my dreams of becoming a ranger. Instead, I'm going to take it one step farther than joining the NCR in the game, I'm going to become a fully fledged ranger outside of the game. I mean, it's probably no closed than modding the game, but at least it has a bit more realism to it than an in-game character.

I have began forging my own NCR ranger armour so that I can wander the great Australian wasteland  and have Powder Ganger flee at the sight of me! That or get quite a few odd looks.

To complete my goal; I need to make the helmet, create the chest armour & find a duster to wear over the top. And when I have all that down, then I can focus on the smaller details - such as the belts, armoured gloves and etc.

So far, I have finished pepakuring the helmet and I'm about to resin it piece by piece (Pepakura is a paper craft program that lets you print of 3D models in pieces you can glue together. It's a really neat program. I have included a link to the pepakura website in the delicious stack linked below).

When that's dry(tomorrow hopefully), I'll start covering the inside with  fiberglass cloth which will increase the strength 10 fold. When that's all finished, it will be quite a tough helmet. 210msg paper soaked through with resin and covered in fiberglass? That's gotta be a tough combination.

While the helmet dries and in between coats of resin, I will be stenciling and cutting out the pieces for the chest. I still need to get a black shirt to glue it onto, but at least for now I can just work on getting their pieces to fit properly. I'm using a rubber mat that you can shape using a heat gun. It sounds pretty low tech but there is quite a lot of incredible stuff made using this technique. And I mean Incredible!

And the duster is a pretty simple. Just need to find on that isn't upwards of $60. Perhaps an op shop? I'll find something eventually so I'm not too worried about this.

Hopefully when everything is pieced together, painted up and detailed, it will look pretty great! I can't wait to see it all finished. Well, mostly the helmet. My hand is killing me after cutting out 32 pages of pepakura pieces and gluing it all together.  But, I suppose the more effort you put into something, the more you get out of the finished product.


Thanks for reading. I'll try and upload bits and pieces of the costume as I go. Maybe I'll have it completed in time for next years Halloween? Ha, it shouldn't take that long.

--Luke / Afterfield

bit.ly/NCR_Ranger_Stack - Delicious Stack "NCR Ranger Armour."
bit.ly/EnlistInTheNCR_WordPres… - The same post on my Word Press Blog.

Hey!

It's been a while since I've written a journal. I even had everything planned out and organized so I could just sit down and get it over and done with when the time came. But, as with a lot of things, the moment something came up my ability to write the journals were diminished. Since my holidays and exams are over, I'm hoping that I will be able to follow along with a new regime.

This time around, there will be two journal entries per week. One at the start, and another at the beginning. The first post will be about general things such as whats going on with me and gaming etc. Nothing personal, just general info that I think might be interesting to read about. The later post will be purely about literature and related subjects. It will contain things about world building, my own writing and anything I might have read etc. So, I will be covering the same stuff as I did before, but In a much more laid back sense and less often.

I'll also post more polls, that is if you like them? Do you all enjoy answering polls? I think they can be fun.

This was just a quick update. Hopefully I will follow through with it.
Thanks for reading,

Luke

Although I had come to believe my spare time was once again returning to me, I was wrong. Very wrong indeed.  It turns out that it was only the schools dastardly plan. Their plan to give us our happiness back only so that they could watch our smiles suddenly vanish when they tore it away again. Either way I have to try and make the best out of a fairly shitty situation.

Exams are only a week away and this is the last weekend I will have before my train reaches study station. So I've gt to start buckling down and learning things again. Although, I am sure I will do just fine!  

The main point behind this is to say that for the next two weeks, my DeviantART will probably drop to an all time low. I shall try my best to read through any messages and general updates I receive but I wont be writing any blogs or many large parts in the administration of Build Me A universe.  This is making me very, very sad.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Just letting you know I will not be around much, ciao,
-Afterfield/ Luke

Just kidding, I still haven't quite finished doing that 100 truths blog I'm supposed to be doing yet. Honestly, I haven't  had a lot of time to myself in the past few weeks. I've recently gotten a job at a local Kmart and I've been working non stop every weekend. Also Thursday + Friday afternoons. Though, despite all these hours I have had taken from me, there is a good return for it all. The moola!

What was originally half birthday present has just today become a new toy i can pick up tomorrow. I was almost certain that I wasn't going to be able to touch my new guitar until i had the money (which i was fairly certain wouldn't be for at least another month). Turns out that after two weeks of work,  I have managed to rack up enough cash to pay it off! so tomorrow after school I'm getting picked up and I'm going straight to get my brand new toy! I just can't wait.

School has been pretty good. I'm keeping a positive attitude towards my exams in a few weeks and I'm certain I will do a good job!  I had been 'struggling' with indices's in mathematics lately and wasn't looking forward to my test the slightest little bit. when we got the results back, despite not having studied at all, I managed to get 90% and top marks of the level. Explain that one to me... Despite the hocking result, It gave me definite boost i needed to keep my chin up!

Also, For the past few weeks, when I have had the chance to think. I've been pondering about starting a little novel and possible get it published? Anyone that knows me would have realized i love to write but find it hard to get into situations were i actually do it. I have a general storyline in my head, but I'm just not sure how to execute it all. Usually  I would have  a huge plan set out but I'm just not that organized. The main goal is to finish writing a story and novel length, the getting it published is much more a goal afterwards. Like having a goal to get into the world champion ship in a sport, and when you do, changing that goal to  winning the championship.  Maybe you could help me out with getting my mind straight?

Thanks for reading, it was a fairly lengthy blog today. Compared to my other blogs that is. I hope you check out my World Building Wednesday post If i get the time to post it. I might  have some issues with that as I must work that night.

Have a great day/ night,
Afterfield

If you've been following my blogs for the past few weeks, you may have noticed I've been fairly good with the timing of them all. And that hasn't changed, what has changed is the time I've been given to do these blogs.  Since Thursday, I have had less than 2 hours a day to do my own thing and for the majority of this week, it will be the same.

I'm writing this announcement to let you know what I will continue my blogs this up-coming Friday and hopefully It should be all good from then on. Maybe a similar thing when my examinations are taking place. Studying is much more important.

I will be posting a poll and a forum hopefully tomorrow so I wont be completely gone.

Thanks for sparing the time to read this announcement,
-Luke/Afterfield