Spitfire22V's LD Mark VI build - Now Completed

Thanks for the comments guys! Glad you are enjoying the updates as much as I enjoy posting them!

Speaking of which, I've got another for you.

I finished the boots except for padding, strapping, and connecting the toe and heel parts.

Sprayed the final olive drab coat, then masked off and painted the black toe part and the side buckles. Also painted the very tip of toes (the wood "steps" I made earlier) silver.


Again, I nervously hacked into a finished piece and cut out the middle section.


Next, I black washed the pieces, and also used a dark tan (Earth tone) paint to wash the bottom of the boots to dirty them up some more. They ARE boots for a soldier's battle suit after all!


Finally, did the dry-brush scratches and clear coated them. Again, I think either I did a little too much dry-brushing, or my technique sucks because I'm not 100% satisfied with the look. It doesn't look enough like natural scratches on a metal surface; if you look closely it's rather painfully obvious that it's painted on. Oh well.


Here are the finished boots. (The connector tubing is not attached in these photos).




Now for attaching the tubing to connect the boots....
From Hickeydog's build thread, I used his idea of flexible drainage pipe for the boot connector tubing and picked up the same exact thing he bought. For about $6-$7, you get ~22 inches of piping, which is more than enough. It is a 4 inch diameter tube, which is a little small. A 5 inch tube would probably be perfect.


I cut out a section, and then split into two and trimmed it to the size I needed.


THIS THE PART WHERE I NEED HELP OR SUGGESTIONS.

I tried gluing the tubing to the boots using epoxy, the strongest glue I know of that could work in this situation. However, even with properly scratching up the gluing surfaces to promote adhesion, the epoxy does not stick to the plastic tubing. The tubing just keeps popping off. Any attachment ideas are greatly appreciated. At the moment, I'm considering using hot glue, screws, or even better: a combination of the two. I really want this connection to be strong to not have to boots come undone if I'm out and about.

DOES NOT WORK!


Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, and thanks for stopping by!

I recently finished a noble six helmet and I roughed up the edges with a rough grit sandpaper. I found it looks more natural to do multiple passes over one area and going a different direction each time. Just my .02. As for the tubing problem you might try plumbers putty, jb weld or try a screw on attachment to the tubing.

I used hot glue. However, I was using the more traditional plunger material, although it appears to be very similar. I also used EVA foam to make most of the boots vice the traditional pep/fibreglass/body filler. Even at that, the hot glue needs to be 'renewed' in some areas after every trooping.

Great work by the way, can't wait to see it all together!

What kind of tool did you use to cut those boots apart?

Great job on the boots, you made LD boots look really good, the weathering look pretty good also, chances are they will get all beat up so they will probably get scratched anyways, but sometimes I think we are our own worst critics, so I know what you mean, my weathering jobs to me look awful, but everybody else thinks it looks great, as for the tubing maybe you could srew it into the soles of your shoes and slip the armor pieces over it and attach everything to the shoes, Im going to be doing the boots next on my build so I will have the same issue, I'll keep an eye out and see how you do this. keep up the great work

EMAW09: Thanks for the tip regarding the weathering. Do you scratch through the outer coat to reveal the layer underneath? Because then I assume your base coat is metal/gray color? I tried this with my helmet, but maybe I didn't work it enough. Perhaps I'll switch from black primer to the "regular" light gray so I can try again.

Roadkiller: Yes, this tubing is very similar to the plunger material. I will try out the hot glue, and even if it holds well enough, I'll probably add some screws to keep the pieces from pulling apart when under a tensile stress. Thanks for the suggestion!

Sandy: I use a Dremel 400 XPR with a variety of attachments. I have Carbide cutting wheels, but my favorite is the Diamond coated wheel. I've been using these for years to cut a huge variety of material, including fiberglass and carbon fiber, and they still cut through easily.


Hyperballistik: Yes, I am worried about putting a lot of work and time into the boots only to have them damaged or destroyed on my first outing! :eek I will definitely post my final attachment method and results so that others may reference it if desired.

Thanks for the help and comments guys! :cool

My painted steps for the noble six helmet

1. Two coats of grey automotive grade primer. I used the finest grit bondo sandpaper after each coat.

2. Two coats of water based metallic silver paint airbrushed.

3. Four coats of purple airbrushed followed by two coats of grey for accent pieces.

4. After I applied the last coat I took a heat gun to the helmet to make sure everything was dry. I then used the heaviest grit bondo sandpaper and roughed up all of the "hard" lines on the helmet. More than anything this helped to add depth to the helmet. I did make a couple passes like I said alternating my directions. I also did this before adding my clearcoat so it will look rough but will feel smooth.

I tried to scratch just deep enough to reveal the silver underneath and simulate a metal look. I did go a little deep in some spots and you can tell up close that it's primer you are looking at. I will try and get some weathering pictures up onto my thread this evening.

Looks awesome thus far my friend!

Well guys, crisis averted, disaster avoided, etc etc...

HOT GLUE TO THE RESCUE!

Thanks to Roadkiller for confirming that hot glue is the ticket for attaching your boot connectors!

First, I tacked in the tubing to both the front and back pieces of the boot. Then, I went over the entire joint with LIBERAL amounts of hot glue.


At this point, it actually seemed like this may be enough. I was surprised at how strong it is. Leave it to this project to remind me how great hot glue is.

However, I wanted some more peace of mind, so I installed 6 mini screws on each boot, 3 on the toe, and 3 on the heel.


Next, since I didn't want to cut down the screws, and I didn't want them poking into my real boots, I cut and put in hard balsa blocks to cover the screw body. I wicked thin CA glue (Cyanoacrylate) into the blocks to make them harder, and then covered them with even more hot glue.


A quick spray of paint to finish it all off (unnecessary, but I wanted to).


The joint is very strong, and I really hope it holds up without needing too much maintenance (if at all). I'm confident it will, but I won't know for sure until I wear them around for real.

Here they are, all finished up! Hard to believe they're low-def boots!


Hope this helps anyone having issues with finishing up their boots! Have fun! :cool

Awesome! The boots look amazing. Can't wait to hear a "road trip" report

I agree, hot glue is one of the greatest tools a Halo costumer can have in his/her toolbox.

I'm liking the boots. they came out looking great. Of course I also say that as I'm looking around trying to figure out what I'm going to do with mine. Just might have to go with this idea or foam still undecided.

But like everything you do in you're build, they are great looking and practical at the same time. keep us posted.

Dude!!! Nice tut on the boots.
Very creative and simple to understand. Yes I LOVE the Hot Glue! It really does get its use through the whole project.
I like your idea of the screws. I have to agree it a good choice for "Peace of Mind" and its easy to say that the screws are part of the look.

It this kind of attention to detail that can bring out the "UBERNESS" of a low def piece.

Keep up the work!

OH... and...

HAPPY EASTER!

LongShot-X said:

Click to expand...

Truely AWESOME! I truly LOVE the weathering look you achieved.

Taking a look at your armor... I thnk I'm officially screwed whem my kids get old enough to start playing Halo and watching Rated-R sci-fi films... I have a feeling I'm going to have to create a ONE major costume per year limit!

Thanks for sharing!

Can't wait to see some more pic of the suit!

Those boots came out looking really good. I like the extra detail you added onto the low def files. I think the screws are a good idea. Can't be too careful.

Thanks for the comments guys! And I know I'm late, but Happy Easter! Longshot, I love "Easter Chief"; I showed your photos to the family and friends and they loved it also.

Yes, I'm very happy with the how the boots turned out, especially since I considered them to be one of the least detailed, least-accurate low-def file. The tubing connection really helps make them look a lot better!

Another juicy update (I think) for you today:

THIGHS ARE FINISHED!

I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

Early stages of finishing: one thigh in final paint, one final sanded and awaiting primer.


Other thigh in primer, other awaiting weathering. Note that I added 2 cardboard "buckles" to each thigh, similar to the ones on the boots.


Here are both thighs with painting completely finished, and clear-coated.


The next big task was to create the inner thigh pieces. On the high-def file, these are built in and made of cardboard. On the low-def piece, they are missing, which simplified adding them myself (no need to cut out anything).

I went to Jo-Ann fabrics and picked up some sheets of foam mat, and some black vinyl material. The vinyl comes on large rolls about 2 yards long, and they sell it by the yard. I asked for 1 yard, since that's all I needed, but you still end up getting quite a large piece! Plus, it was on sale for 50% off! (~$7 for 1 x 2 yards of material). I figure I will use the rest to create some undersuit detail pieces, such as in the waist area.

First step was using my reference pictures to create templates of each of the 3 different pieces. I traced it onto foam and cut it out.


Here are all 3 pieces cut out, in order, from top to bottom pieces.


I cut a rectangle of vinyl to size, and hot glued it onto the foam, trimming it as needed to follow curves and corners.


Here are all 6 pieces finished.


The 3 pieces are then overlapped by about 1 centimeter, and glued to each other.


They are rolled slightly, and inserted into the thigh piece.




Technically, it's not "finished" since I ran out of hot glue sticks (making the inner thigh pads took A LOT of hot glue, more than I expected). However, once glued they will look exactly as you see here.

Here are both thighs! (Apologies for the blurrier than usual photos)


With the helmet that I keep on my worktable, to keep me motivated!


Again, very happy with how these came out. The fact that the inner pads are foam makes them quite comfortable too, especially since they're close to a...*ahem* sensitive area!

That's all for now. I will not be able to work on it much later this week as a few of my friends and I are driving down to Cape Canaveral, Florida to see the Shuttle launch! We figure we better witness this amazing sight before they retire the fleet.

Not sure what pieces to work on next, maybe either the shins or the groin piece? We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!

Excellent work on the thighs! I had already started working on the inner portion of my thighs using a similar method, but I've ditched it and am using yours, nice work.

Incredible work, man! It's looking great so far!

Nice work on the inner thighs. I wish that I had done that, as you are correct. -->The fiberglass on mine has... oh how shall I say it... interfered with my comfort level while fully suited and driving my 4x4. Having a softer material in that area will definitly work in your favor.

Cheers!

The thighs turned out great, its almost hard to tell they started from a LD file, love the attention to detail, your suit is going to look great when its finished, plus it will be diffrent than everybody elses MKVI, also I think Im going to borrow some of your boot Ideas, I have to build mine over again, sized it to my foot and not the shoe, I don't want to build a HD part again for something that will probably take a beating, thanks for the Idea and keep up the great work, looks like your getting close to finishing this suit

Really nice work so far, I like the idea for the layering on the thighs. The paint job is great too, really nice colors and weathering. You are gonna have one heck of a suit!