General's Build Thread of an ODST Recon

[GeneralSpeer]

Intro
Greetings folks. My name is Christopher, aka, GeneralSpeer on many forums and YouTube, aka cspeerartist on Instagram. I have been into costuming for a long time, almost a decade now with medieval inspired looks, for the last 5 years in Star Wars, etc. And recently, I have embarked into the Halo franchise. This is one of two builds I plan to do for the 405th, focusing specifically for this thread on the ODST suit of armor, with Recon elements. And further more, I plan to have this suit ready for DragonCon and will be rolling with the Galactic Armory squad come time of the event.

I am pretty well versed when it comes to working with kits and different materials with my experience in the 501st, and so when I started to embark on the process of making an ODST kit, I was super happy with how conceptually simple it is in addition to the customizability being really awesome to work with. I don't mind building replicas, but it's nice to do your own thing. Below is a roster of the completed builds I've done, with more on the way, but I am excited to work on something different for a change.

The setup I have been working with has been using Branfur's ODST recon helmet and visor setup along with Sean Bradley's ODST Kit. I fell in love with a piece of concept fan art from Joshua Davies that features a standard ODST + some accessories, and will be using elements from the imagery as part of the finalized build.

OLD: NEW:

There are elements I aim to tweak, add, fine tune the colors and whatever else, but I am happy to share my progress in the next posts as I like to keep intros pretty simple and concise. This is going to be exciting.

 

[Kahn 319]

Happy to have you here, i really love the concept design, not enough people use hoods in my opinion.

 

[GeneralSpeer]

The Soft Parts:

Starting with the soft parts, I decided to go Rothco at the recommendation by many. Went with midnight blue fatigues, along with the fingerless gloves, and combat boots. I also have the classic red off duty beret and for when in armor, I have a black sniper veil that will go over the helmet and upper torso. (Don't mind me as I am still learning how to wear some of these elements )

The next additional elements I plan to add are things like a chest rig, and a series of pouches. I am no stranger when it comes to sewing pouches in this setup as I have been working on a chest rig design for the Rogue One Death Troopers. The quandary of course is getting them done in time for DragonCon, but they will none-the-less be a part of my finalized kit. For the upper rig, I am thinking a 4 pouch setup that can velcro look through the buckles at the top of the chest plate, and then add some velcro on the inside or secure some straps to back underside of the chest to hold it in place. I was also very inspired by Halo Infinite's designs for the pouches and not only plan to do a chest rig but a thigh pouch in a similar vein as well.

The Helmet:

So now we get into the armor, starting with the helmet. For this ODST, as mentioned in my intro post, my aim is to uses the Recon helmet and I chose to use Justin Branfuhr's casts. It is a beautiful cast, lightweight, and very little cleanup work that needs to be done before priming and painting. I also purchased along side the cast a gold visor and the first thing was to clean out the visor opening to the helmet. This was done with a larger drill bit and the cutting out the opening, using a dremel with a sanding drum to clean up the edges and a series of files to fine tune the shape. The thing to note about the Branfuhr casts if you haven't worked with them, it's important to get pretty close to the edges and to constantly fit the visor in place. Once that was done, I cleaned up the neck opening, then hit it with some primer, and then after Montana Gold color Basalt. This will serve as the base for all the armor parts.

After that, I masked off the areas I wanted to keep Basalt and sprayed on Cassis, one of my two accent colors. Once that was completed, then I sprayed on some black as the second accent. I then brushed on some chrome paint in a few areas for weathering and clear-coated it all before putting the visor in place. There is still the black wash to do, but I am super happy with how the helmet has turned out so far. There will be a few additional elements added featured in the next post, but I am very pleased.

Comments, critiques, suggestions and advice are always welcome on my posts. =)

 

[N8TEBB]

Branfuhr's kits are so clean! I wish I knew how he makes those visors. I don't think it's just dye and spray chrome, because the visibility is much better than mine...

Your helmet looks great dude! Hope you don't run out of time to make those pouches!

 

[vTRONCATv]

This is going to be a really unique build. I also love your clone commando

 

[Rock Lobbster]

More concept art ODSTs! Love to see the customization and giving the build your own custom touches!

 

[GeneralSpeer]

Another day, another post. (I technically began the armor first before the helmet, but semantics ).

The Armor : Part 1
As mentioned in my intro, I will be using Sean Bradley's kit for the entire process. And while I am much more familiar with working with ABS kits, this HIPS kit is actually really pleasant to work with. First part was trimming the parts and while I had lexan scissors at the ready, I just when it mostly with a box cutter and pliers to score and snap the excess material. It was super quick to get through everything and took about 2hrs to trim all the parts. I then went and started the assembly of the forearms. Being my character is going the recon route, I decided to tweak the assembly of these. I know they are usually intended to be massive (being an RC in the 501st, I know that concept well). But for this character, I slimmed down the profile of the forearm and added a few extra details to give it some character.

For all the parts that I knew were essentially ready to start with painting, I threw down a layer of primer and then Basalt afterwards and once those layers were cured, I went in and began masking off the areas for the Cassis and Black accents. (And yes, that's a Gondor Solider helmet off to the side, I have several different fandoms )

After the paint job, I began applying the weathering. I have the one example of one of the shoulders at the moment with a black wash but plan to add some chippage, as well as using some sandpaper (around 120-150) to add scuffs and scractches to simulate further damage. I also plan to do a few more washes, but I am very pleased with how it's coming along.

That's all I have for the current moment, but I am super pleased with the progress and will post more as it comes. As always, comments, critiques, suggestions and advice are welcome.

 

[Rock Lobbster]

I was admittedly somewhat dubious after seeing the shade of grey when initially applied but it works so well after the blackwash. Really helped to tone it down!

 

[GeneralSpeer]

Hello fellow soldiers in arms, it has been a super hot minute since my last post. Not only was I dealing with an across country move but also a transition to a new job. I did however finally finish my ODST and while there are still subtle improvements I need to make to the suit for both wearability and comfort, I can't fault the design and the execution of the concept to final look. I am super pleased with the result and may it inspire your builds =D

 

[N8TEBB]

Thought these were renders until I looked closer. You KILLED it dude!!! Fabulous work! I love it

 

[Lojak]

Well done!!!