Halo 4 117 - First WIP

Hey everyone, my name is rab, and this is my first attempt. at armor making, not life. well life too i guess.

I don't think of it as a "noob" build, as i have done work of a similar nature for years now, instead I would like consider myself to be "experience deficient" ©

haha.

so i started building this around a week ago, and i would have started my thread at the beggining. but instead, as it happens, you are about to get a healthy dose in one go.

first off, i wanted this whole build to be completely fiberglass free.
Nothing wrong with it, but my workspace and equipment mean that fiber-glassing would have been one big nightmare.

Instead i opted for alternative materials to provide the strength.

With the help of everyone's information i set sail:


i want to hopefully come out with something resembling this at the end:




the first piece i pepped was the helmet by harnor. now, at the time, i was only planning on pepping the helmet. and nothing more. which is why the helmet was made using some crappy 80gsm paper and a pritt stick. NIGHTMARE.



needless to say. warping occurred. however at this point, when I imagined that my brain would call it a day, and declare this as "something i would not pursue" the exact opposite happened. i felt compelled to carry on, and decided i was going in. deep.

i purchased myself some card, resin & halfords body filler (as I am in the uk, and could not find any trace of the recommended "bondo").

and as quick as it had started, it was back on.

i had decided that considering i had just done a particularly complicated pep, i would try and get the big bits out of the way first and chose the torso as the next item to pep.

naturally i measured myself up, scaled the piece up and hit print. of course forgetting to put the edge id's on and to turn the model off.

Grey armor and a waste of ink it is. Thank god for laserjets.

Now, I would like to make a recommendation for all the other experience deficient © users reading this. Switch your edge id's off, then, get a black & red pen and a ruler and look at the model. you can learn the folds, and direction of the pieces from the layout pages. the pens will scour the card as you draw. simples.

my torso came out way crisper than my helmet:





I purposely scaled this to be slim fitting, as i feel the chief in halo 4 seems alot less bulky than previous halos. as it was, the torso did fit me, but only just. to allow for more wiggle room, I made a cut to the underarm areas and extended them. now it fits way better, but retains its low-profile features.

after this i decided i wanted to resin the helmet and see if i could make things a bit better. the resin and resin/t-shirt material method went down a treat. still some warping, however the strength was now there, and i was ready to put my sculpting skills to use.

Next, bondo (just guna call it that for the sake of being lazy) went on fine, and with alot of elbow grease & a dremel (no power sander) i started to make a dent.

that was two days ago, and with lots more bondo and sanding work, it's now starting to look alot better:



* please note, at this point i am just making the design of the helmet up, the pep work on the helmet ended up being so bad it could only be used as a base shape and very few details were left.

I filled the helmet full of expanding foam, let it dry and the cut it out:



This gave me a nice shape for when i come to attach padding to the inside.


This brings us to now.

I have just pepped the ab plate:



and i am currently pepping the bicep/tricep's. and adding a little balsa wood to make up some of the details i feel were missed with the pepping stage. the balsa wood is very light and will soak up resin very nicely, leaving some smooth strong pieces for bondo'ing:



Now i would like to thank everyone in advance for reading what is definitely the longest post i've ever written, and welcome all comments and recommendations. as well as well wishings and free stuff.

I look forward to the journey.

peace.x

p.s. sorry for the crappy photo's. :S

Fiberglassing would be a nightmare but you're still resining? What's the problem behind the fiberglass that makes it a nightmare for you?

:cool this is looking great

need to try foam after my build

i can do the resin work on a table outside (when im lucky enough to have a nice day), but i have no proper respirator atm, and with the rain forcing me indoors, the confined space of the garage is not the best. other people have to use it, so i can't be leaving fiberglass everywhere. hope this clears things up a bit for you.

edit: thanks for the quick responses. this community is hella friendly.

Resin and fiberglass require the same ventilation, the only difference between resin and fiberglass, is you don't use fiberglass material with your resin in the "resin" stage.

yes i understand, however, I have found in the past, that fiberglass dust is particularly uncomfortable to be around (at least for me, i come out in a rash whenever i have done loft insulation). And when shaping the warped-to-hell helmet, I knew that I may be sanding through the strengthened portions of my helmet.

This simply inspired me to have a go at doing something without fiberglass mat. is it a problem? the helmet is very strong as it is.

do you think it is worth scrapping the helmet in favor of a new one, with what should be a much cleaner pep, and using fiberglass mat to harden?

thanks for the advice.

Where did you the ab plate file, bro? I totally need it!

ACDCrockr209 said:

Where did you the ab plate file, bro? I totally need it!

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Page 14 post #137 of Halo 4 Pepakura (files within).

I think that your armor is turning out great. I especially like the torso. Looks awesome!

From one noob to an experience deficient friend, I don't know if I would give up the ghost on the helmet yet. I would go to the point I couldn't take it anymore, then scrap it if I had to. With the time and effort you have already put in to fix it, that would be my two cents worth.

Good luck! Keep it going!

good morning everyone.

so ive been up for a couple of hours doing some more sanding and shaping of the helmet. starting to look a bit more like how i'd imagined:



started putting some detail marks in. just making sure that everything is nice and symmetrical before i do a final coat of bondo and then its on to getting it ready for painting.

i should be working on it & some pepping throughout the day, so i will keep this thread nice and updated.


@squirrel24950: thanks for the kind words, i shall persevere with the helmet as i am not a big fan of waste. hopefully with what i have learned, the next helm should be much simpler!

if anyone knows of an unfolded halo 4 pelvis, could you please point me in its direction. i have looked thoroughly through the halo 4 pep thread to no avail.

till later.

peace.x

Looking really sharp.

That chest piece looks solid. Keep it up!

@Fxd2fght: cheers dude!

so my plans for the day went out the window. as plans always do.

only 2 hrs of sanding and then general house chores all day (fixing the pool heater & flushing the filter being the better ones) i cleared a section of the yard to set up a workspace in which dust and other nasties can be kept away from my family.

i should have that sorted out tomorrow as i need to get hold of some big dust sheets.

so no progress yet, but i still have all evening to get some pep done, so ill keep you all updated.

peace.x

good day 405th.

so i got some minor pepping done last night, just more of the bicep/tricep. i did manage to get my new makeshift workspace up today, which should address any problems with dust/fumes:





quick smoke and then its time for some hardcore pepping. till next time.

x

I like the make-ship workshop. Wish I had the space for something like so.

Please don't die in there. It looks like you have no ventilation, which is a requirement when working with noxious chemicals (ie resin and bondo).

thanks for the concern TheRabbit. When i am working in there i will be pulling one of the "walls" back so i am not sealed in. this is simply to help contain the mess. my respirator should arrive in a few days so i won't be doing anymore hazardous parts untill then.

Sounds good Stay safe!

Hey all.

So wed night i managed to get the left arm pep done, and then nothing yesterday because of an impromptu visit from a mate.

left arm pep:





if anyone can offer me some advice on how to flip the arm in pepakura designer so that i can make the right arm the correct way, that would be awsome.

till later.
x

Really, really nice work. I like the expanding foam idea, as obviously it's a lot safer to use than resin. Did you have much trouble cutting it out/shaping it to the helmet? I might give it a go myself seeing as I've got a few Mark V helmet peps knocking around that are either too big or too small.

thanks TwiggyShip. As long as you have a sharp knife/stanley knife then it cuts like butter, but still retains its strength. it can also be sanded, which is helping a lot for getting a really snug fit (which is what i'm after)

Edit: @KingRahl - Dude i just realised that you built the pep im using. stellar job. thanks