Verdan's Mk VI build

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Verdan

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Hey guys/gals, my name is Sam and I'm from the UK. I like many of you have always had a fondness for Halo and recently decided I wanted to try my hand at making a suit of my own. I had originally planned on buy the Rosie's set, but the quality/accuracy did not appear brilliant, so i thought a custom suit would both feel and fit better, and my look better depending upon how good I manage to do. I have to say there have been a lot of builds on 405th that have inspired me, but Cereal's videos and advice has been my main inspiration, so thank you.

I can't upload any photos just yet since my phone died and I'm waiting for the new Nexus, but I thought I'd get this build blog underway and share my experience so far.

1. NEVER fibreglass the outside. It becomes rock solid, it very hard to shape and trying to cut it with a Dremel just produces a lot of noise and dust without much result. Note to self, read ALL instructions on 405th before "just doing it". :p

2. A sharp knife is your friend. When cutting the Pep designs, a blunt knife on fiddly bits is just an invite for crumpled card and rips on smaller parts.

3. Gluing in small parts is more accurate, but hard to join them together. I started by joining any two parts together that i could find, a bit like playing "snap" with the numbers. By the end I have two large pieces that may not be that easy to join with a quick setting glue.

I'm going to spend the next few days/weeks cutting and gluing the Pep, and until I get my new phone there wont be any photos, but I'll be putting a list of parts/prices together so that the guys in the UK can get an idea of things before they start. I've already invested about £150 as I didn't have any tools/materials required.

I also plan to attend a workshop on fiber-glassing next month (£10, cant say no to that) so hopefully I'll have a much better idea of what I'm doing and how much material I'll need to finish the suit.

Boy do I like to write. :)
 
Welcome Sam!

I agree with the sharp knife; dull knives are sloppy and dangerous.

And yes, I've also found that attaching small parts together and then trying to fit whole sub-assembies together can be very difficult.

As far as tools, we all actually already have the one that is indispensable: Patience! The words we see in all the posts with really great builds are 'small areas', 'multiple light coats', 'let it set/cure/dry'.

Can't wait to see your pics, it sounds like you're in this for the long haul and I'll bet your work will show it. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the comments, i've now finished cutting all the pep parts out, filed them in their own wallets, ready for gluing. I know this isn't the way others would do things, but i ran out of glue and couldn't stop cutting.

I managed to get a camera (poor quality) and thought i'd take a photo of the left overs, not sure why, but thought it would be interesting.
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Question, the shin part looks really big. I measured ankle to top of knee, but think i should have allowed some space for the top of the boot. I'll glue together a boot and see how it looks but wondered anyone's opinion.

Note to the guys in the UK. I just bought 48 1" brushes on ebay for £10 delivered, so a good deal if you need any.
 

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Link your picture to your post using this format:


It will make it easier for us to quickly view your pictures; no one really likes to flip back and forth between pages while following a thread.

Regarding your question, yeah, you measured a bit big. For a Mk VI, measure an inch or two above your ankle (to account for the boot) to the top of you knee cap. I also recommend building low definition size testers before moving on to final high def files, since there are an abundance of low def files for the Mk VI suit.
 
Good luck buddy :] I no longer live in the UK but I remember how expensive everything is there!! Hope you can keep things in budget!
Let me know how the Nexus is as well when you get it, been eyeing one of those up myself :D



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My bad, selected the wrong link, corrected now and will pay more attention when posting in the future.

I'm going to start gluing parts tonight so i can test fit before resin at the weekend. I might have to reprint the shins as they do seem too big.

Question - is it just me or are some of the folds in Pep occasionally the wrong direction? Is this a problem with the program or designer error? I've found myself having to rely on the computer a lot to figure out which way a piece should fit, only to find i need to unglue two others as the fold was the wrong way.

Yes, prices in the UK are stupidly high, so the more I can save the better, but I easily expect the materials to be more than £100 ($160).

As for the Nexus, I'll gladly review it. Google are due to do a press release tomorrow night so I'll be awaiting that, but will definately be buying one.....unless they try to charge Apple prices.
 
I didn't really want to post before I finished the gluing since i've only the helmet left to do, but I couldn't resist sharing the photo quality of the Nexus5 :) Yes i got it, it arrive at 9am while i was in work (glad i got it delivered there) so have been eager to play with it all day.

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I was trying to get a height comparison of the Shin (scale 400mm height) and I still think i'll have to redo it slightly smaller. I have to say the chest piece was the hardest and in true DIY fashion, i had bits left over and ended up using lots of glue to fill in the holes. It might not be "correct" but it'll make it mine unique :)

As for the Nexus, it's surprisingly light, though large. Amazingly fast response/connection and I love the fact Android remembers all my settings, apps, contacts etc, and just gets on with it and sets up my phone with the majority of my settings intact from my old phone. The camera quality speaks for itself, and the screen is super sharp. I'm going to test a lot of the function in the next few days, but if you are considering it, just plunge right in and get it.
 

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Haha nice, I just bought a Galaxy so I'm kinda still getting used to the droid operating system ;)
you have a lot more self control than I, as I don't know if I could do everything in the steps you are lol. Perhaps it should be a lesson to me. Cut everything first, then glue everything. I tend to cut and glue as I go. Looking great though :) Subbed, looking forward to updates!
 
Thanks JayOneSeven, I've just about gotten used to the Nexus. Google do still need to fix a few things, ie the "Ok Google" feature that only works with the US language, and the home screen that doesn't rotate, the first thing my boss tested when he picked it up :(

As for the armour, it's all done!! It's taken 3 weeks of evenings and weekends, 36 sticks of cold-glue and 10 knife blades.
I'm going to a workshop about fibre-glassing tomorrow so i should have a much better idea of what i'm doing before i mess up and have to re-pep everything.
I plan to have the whole thing fibre-glassed and hopefully bondo'd before the Christmas break and will then spend some time over the new year painting.

So, what have I learnt:

Start small. Find the most complex parts, and build around them. I thought building the big bits first would give a stronger shape to get the small parts to fit, but was wrong. The small bits just wouldn't fit and get crumpled. Equally, bits like the one bottom left, which are "self folding" are easy to glue without having to worry about two bits of card, so can easily get the correct shape
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Layering is difficult. After gluing this together, I tried to get some shape to it by rolling it along the edge of the table, this worked, but instead of gluing other "layered" parts, i'm going to eye them in once the helmet is bondo'd.
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Finally, despite your thoughts JayOneSeven about cutting everything first, it turns out i lost not one, but two adjacent parts on the helmet, and some how had duplicates of 3 others. As such, I had to fudge/craft this replacement. It fits, but causes an indent. I had wanted a "perfect" armour, but given this and the rough shape some of the other parts have turned out, i'm incline to use it to my advantage and have some battle damage in the area.
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Ohh yeah, and this:
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Sorry for not updating, but I ran out of resin and had to wait for the new stuff to be delivered. Heads up to anyone in the UK who is just beginning, 500ml will not get you a full suit. I've ordered 20L (best deal available) so now have far to much, so anyone in the UK wanting to pick up whatever i have left over is welcome to it.

Now back onto the build. I'm lucky enough to live alone and have a spare bedroom, so have turned it into my workshop, the ensuite serves as a very good clean-down room.
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You should be able to see the string I've hung up so that I can hang some of the parts up to dry, rather than leave them on paper/card that i've then just got to cut off. I found the resin tends to drip down and just pool into a lump at the bottom, thus requiring me to dremel it off later.

Also, this saved my fingers when cutting and folding all that card. The xatco really liked to cause a blister on my fingers.
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Unfortunately my mates organised a meet up (to play halo) this weekend so i'll not be able to get doing the resin, but i'll update again as soon as I can. By the way, the workshop course by EastCoast Fibreglass was great, i strongly recommend it to anyone. It was mainly focused on "simple" shapes and working from a mould, but the principles are the same and the instructor was willing to offer advice.
 

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Hi guys, sorry for not updating in a while but I've had a busy few weeks, though have managed to start the fibre glass process. I've actually bought a load of FB Cloth, and FB Choppings as i figured these would be the best solution, but i've found both difficult to use, so i'm probably doing it wrong.

Firstly, the cloth. I had used pieces approx 8"x8", but i find these not so great on parts that fold in on themselves, or tight detail. Bubbles are also a common problem. Should I start using smaller parts? If so, is there any problem with laying multiple sheets across the surface? Without the first having "set", trying to brush in the next sheet seems to be a bad idea as the first will move.

Secondly the choppings. These things are great :) I really like working with them, but the resin seems to be very fluid, until it suddenly goes off. Literally i was brushing some resin onto the part, put my brush back into the pot only to find it the consistency of gummy bears (hmmm, melted gummy bears :)). It there a trick with the resin? More/less hardener? The stuff i have is the "unmarked super cheap" product from a brilliant shop, but they don't provide any support for it as it's "re-blended" and varies batch to batch.

Any advice would be great. I've just spent the weekend reading Longshot's build and it's encouraged me to carry on and build the suit so i want to try and get the B stage complete over the Christmas break.
 
Hey Verdan! i really enjoy looking through your build so far. the one thing i dont recommend(might get some hate for this XDD) is cutting out all the pieces before gluing them together, like you said, you'll be losing some pieces here and there. One trick I've learned is that before you're putting fibreglass, i use spray-on adhesive before layering the fibreglass cloth, mat etc. This will drastically reduce the fibreglass pieces to be moving around while applying your resin. I really hope you understand my explanation as i'm not from a country with English as first language. Hope this helps!
 
Hi guys, sorry for not updating in a while but I've had a busy few weeks, though have managed to start the fibre glass process. I've actually bought a load of FB Cloth, and FB Choppings as i figured these would be the best solution, but i've found both difficult to use, so i'm probably doing it wrong.

Firstly, the cloth. I had used pieces approx 8"x8", but i find these not so great on parts that fold in on themselves, or tight detail. Bubbles are also a common problem. Should I start using smaller parts? If so, is there any problem with laying multiple sheets across the surface? Without the first having "set", trying to brush in the next sheet seems to be a bad idea as the first will move.

Secondly the choppings. These things are great :) I really like working with them, but the resin seems to be very fluid, until it suddenly goes off. Literally i was brushing some resin onto the part, put my brush back into the pot only to find it the consistency of gummy bears (hmmm, melted gummy bears :)). It there a trick with the resin? More/less hardener? The stuff i have is the "unmarked super cheap" product from a brilliant shop, but they don't provide any support for it as it's "re-blended" and varies batch to batch.

Any advice would be great. I've just spent the weekend reading Longshot's build and it's encouraged me to carry on and build the suit so i want to try and get the B stage complete over the Christmas break.

The reason the resin has that "gummy bear" texture is that it is curing to quickly. Using less hardener will prolong this. It's going to happen eventually, but using less will grant you a little more time to get the resin on the armor before it starts to kick. One the flip side, using too little will cause it take a long time to cure. There is a happy medium, you just have to experiment a bit. Hope this helps and best of luck with it. :D
 
8"x8" is very large for your cloth pieces. Cut that way down (2" or less) and overlap them. After it's cured, do at least one more layer and overlap subsequent layers (including the second layer) so they cover the seams between pieces from the previous layer. Also change the orientation of the pieces on the additional layers so the fibers are in a different direction than the pieces it's going on top of. This will result in very strong yet lightweight armor. Katsu would probably have more to say on this as he seems very knowledgable about the hardening methods discussed in the Resin and Fiberglass help thread.
 
Thanks guys, I'm going to spend the next couple of days finishing off a few of the parts. I have two weeks off of work for the Christmas break so should be able to get all the parts ready for painting.

Smaller bits of fiberglass, less hardener, more care and attention...check.
 
Just though i'd share the weekend effort with you guys. Thanks again for the tips, smaller sections of Fiberglass definitely is the way forward, I put a small amount of resin on the Pep just to give it something to hold onto, then resin'd over the Fiberglass to finish it off. I found that when using the cloth in intricate areas only leads to it not sitting correctly, so using smaller pieces allows it to sit better.

I also experimented with Rondo, using it to fill in the shoulders before using the Fiberglass, thus filling in some of the detailed areas that i'm likely going to have to work on later, and don't want to have to cut through fiberglass in order to tidy them up.

Anyway, on to the pictures.
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You can see the choppings in the roof of the helmet, the resin pooled at this location so is probably a couple of millimeters thick. A couple of sheets of FG cloth should stop it from cracking on impact, but i don't plan on wearing it much so not too fussed on damage prevention.
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Close-up of the shoulder piece. I've left some of the cloth un-resined so it's easier to remove/fold over now one side is held in place.
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Here's the elbow. I just used one sheet of FGcloth to try and cover the whole section, the rests were obvious and not brilliant, so i might cut away at it and try again, or just try to make the best of a bad situation.
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Inside view of the chest. I used a lot more choppings and waited for the resin to set a little more than with the helmet, allowing me to move it around a bit more to get even coverage.
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Finally, the combat knife. Resin'd outside of the Pep, rondo the inside. I know others will have their own tricks, but for me, i made the blade and handle separately. The first version i made was very flimsy at this point, so by making it in two halves, i was able to rondo each and allow to dry. then i place a ludicrous amount of rondo in the blade and shoved a 6mm dia 300mm long acrylic rod in the center of it. Once set, i rondo'd the handle and shoved the blade into it, using the rod as a guide to get vertical alignment. I'll try to get a photo of that when i return from holiday, but it now just need a but of sanding/rondo on the outside and will be ready for painting.

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Happy holidays!
 

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Build is looking great man. The resin looks nicely coated. Keep it up!
 
Hey verdan nice to see another Yorkshire spartan, I've read your whole thread and great work so far on your suit.
 
No real update since i'm still fibre-glassing it, thinking that i'll get it complete before the weekend and then start the bondo. I'm a little fearful that the FGcloth isn't going to be strong enough for parts like the crotch as they are flexing loads, but will add a couple of more layers (already 2) and see if that helps. The bono should also, but don't want to be back-tracking if i can help it.

Thanks for the comments all. I'm planning to go to North America on holiday in March so might be able to get to MegaCon Orlando if the flights work out nicely. Otherwise, @Angel62 I have seen your post about London in the summer, If my suit is ready by then i'd be up for it, but wont commit until i'm finished...i hate deadlines
 
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