Recon Halo Reach Build (with Foam?)

Hello to the 405th! I am a newbie here, from way up north in Canada. After a few hours research and reading through threads, I would just like to say that this group is amazing. Tons of helpful information, just took a lot of digging. Had to hold myself back to not ask a million and one questions, and usually I got an answer 10 minutes later. Anyways, enough babbling.

I am currently in school, finishing my college program (Three more weeks YAY!) and so as a result may not post as frequently as others during this time. But once school is done, I have two weeks of time with nothing planned, except to work on this build. I am hoping to get enough done to have something decent to sport to the up coming Con in Montreal (held Sept 13-15th) which will also be my first ever. I will definitely continue to work on it though. So, what I have got planned is to build a Reach based set, with the Recon helmet model. The rest of the details are still being pondered. Hoping to get an under suit done eventually too, as well as all the other shiny bits.

As such, any and all feedback is appreciated, as well as feedback regarding my time constraints (is it even possible to hammer out a suit in 2-3 solid weeks of working solely on it). Alright, enough talk, progress report time:

Only managed to get one hand guard done, and can I say it was both joyful and painful. Had to use a hot glue gun, which I feel affected the final product. (Though its probably my newbie-ness) As a result I now have hot glue strings EVERYWHERE!

I apologize for the wall of text, here are some pics, though I must warn my pep skills may be painful to some viewers.







Here is a picture for scale, not sure if it too big or to small. Feedback please

[/URL]



Will be updating this as often as possible for you guys, so stay tuned, haha.

Your pep work looks great, nice clean folds, it looks the right size too. I just couldn't help but notice that your tabs don't have numbers. You seem to be doing fine without them but in the future they might help in aligning the tabs correctly. Anyways, I can't wait to see where this build goes!

kill it man! i would recommend doing all the smaller pieces in cardstock and fiberglass and then do the huge pieces like the chest, legs, and crotch in foam to cut down on work time and to reduce the overall weight!

TheGoblin said:

Your pep work looks great, nice clean folds, it looks the right size too. I just couldn't help but notice that your tabs don't have numbers. You seem to be doing fine without them but in the future they might help in aligning the tabs correctly. Anyways, I can't wait to see where this build goes!

Click to expand...

Thanks, good to know I'm doing something right. Oh and the file I had didn't have numbers. All the others do though.

shotgun rumble said:

kill it man! i would recommend doing all the smaller pieces in cardstock and fiberglass and then do the huge pieces like the chest, legs, and crotch in foam to cut down on work time and to reduce the overall weight!

Click to expand...

I would have thought foam would take longer? I actually really wanted to try foam after seeing LilTyrant's build TBH. Know of any stores in Canada that carry the right foam? I've read a bit on threads, but my brain is full with schoolwork at the moment haha.

Alrighty, time for an update!

So after some research, and watching Drack and DBmike's foam vids, I attempted to build an arm guard out of foam. Went to Wal-mart, and got me some 1/2 inch and 2mm foam. The result was quite a bit more enjoyable then pep work, and I lik that the process is faster, and uses less harmful chemicals (YAY). Though I have to say, the only thing that bothers me ( and this is probably lack of proper tools and skill) is that it was very difficult to create nice seams like the ones in the videos. Which is why for the moment I will be covering everything with the 2mm foam. Anywho, here are some pics, any tips would be welcomed.

(Oh and I plan on buying some of those #11 blades and a knife that can hold them, mine is an old Xacto that blunted half way through.)


An image for scale :





Here are some closer shots, I had started to patch it up with the 2mm foam, but its late, and I have class tomorrow.