Project_mjolnir://mark_iv

Good to meet another person who has read the books, I have lots of friends that are Halo fans but none of them have read the books, thanks for pointing out the page number, I will check that as soon as I am done writing this, ohh and great job so far, loving that you are doing something different to everyone else!

EDIT: I am using a Kindle so I can't find the page gonna need to go through the entire thing again, YAY!! XD

King_of_Gondor12 said:

Good to meet another person who has read the books...

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The books are why I'm making this build. Almost 27 years of combat in Mark IV and everyone knows and makes Mark VI. I will break the mold!

Yep, I think it would be interesting to see how the armour looks like when we get to like Halo 10 or something, the books have stopped sadly.

At least there were a lot of them, and there are comic and live action series going. I'm just hoping we might see something with the real Mark IV in it again. Not what they had in Halo Legends: The Package or Forward unto Dawn.

I didn't mind the FuD armour, I did like the Mk IV though, I started in Halo at Combat Evolved so it is my starter armour, still, I can't complain with the newer versions, except for the mysterious battle damage in 4, not really sure where that came from.

Now I know it's been too long since I last updated when I come back to a shiny new logo, banner and owner on the site. Btw, I like the new logo; it does look like something that would work much better on Mjolnir or something UNSC related, but I shall miss the old. The gold wreath always reminded me of the scrambled eggs on an officer's cap.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but there are two reasons. One: lack of progress. This HD chest is a beast to put together. I mean, look at that!



That itty-bitty thing is 7 pieces. 7! And I thought the biceps were going to kill me. The file is maybe halfway cut out, and because of the complexity of the piece, I've had to step back and re-evaluate how I'm going to proceed. Usually, I cut out all pieces, score all pieces, and then start building. However, due to the sheer number of tiny parts and multiple build options, I decided to cut out and build as I go. I'm hoping it will make putting things together a little less confusing, and reduce the amount of wasted work by not cutting out the unneeded pieces. This does, unfortunately, make things go even slower, and because the build is so hard, I find I'm taking more breaks. On the plus side, I feel like if I can make it through this, everything else will be downhill from here (at least any pep related work).

And reason number two: gerbils. The two "boys" I adopted had 7 babies a couple of weeks ago. It's not stopping me so much as being really distracting. They're just so cute! <3 If anyone near Dallas wants one, send me a PM. They're up for adoption in another month.

Well, back to the grindstone. Wish me luck and sanity.

Good luck dude. I have to redo my mkVII chest but I can't even imagine doing the MKIV torso once. Good luck! Definatley following this!

First Mark IV build I've seen so far! Happy to hear that your armor survived the fall...look forward to its completion and debut at cons!

I just subscribed! Can't wait to see the final finished project. Keep up the good work!

AI Blue Fox said:

Good luck dude. I have to redo my mkVII chest but I can't even imagine doing the MKIV torso once. Good luck! Definatley following this!

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It's definitely not a beginner's piece. I'm just glad there was a tester available to size it first.

XenoPhanatiK said:

First Mark IV build I've seen so far! Happy to hear that your armor survived the fall...look forward to its completion and debut at cons!

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There are a few of us out there. We're just few and far between.

Eternalfire117 said:

I just subscribed! Can't wait to see the final finished project. Keep up the good work!

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I can't wait to see it done either.

Thank you all for your encouragement. I'm still slugging away at this project, and I refuse to let it die. Just be prepared for really slow progress.

Progress!

So it's been going slow, and I haven't worked on this as much as I should have, but there has been progress since my last post.



I've mostly been working on the small bits and indents, and put together the front of the chest (mostly to make room on my table). Today, I'll be trying to figure out the back detail panel. It's not something I want to end on, so why not get it out of the way now?

Now, in the picture above, you might have noticed some blue spots like this:



They're spots where I'm sort of... "cheating" to get my round indents done. I've no problem with geometric indents, but the little round ones have always driven me nuts. There's about a million little folds for something the size of a dime. So, instead of cutting out the pep pieces for the round indents or carving out later, I've been using the pieces as stencils and backing it with layers of craft foam. I've tested how resin reacts to it, and it doesn't eat it like rigid foam board. If this works, I'm also going to use it on shin pieces (since I have to redo those). This can be done with some patience in just a few simple steps.

Step 1: Cut out the holes on your pep piece and stencil them onto a sheet of craft foam.
Step 2: Mark out where you need to cut your piece. Make sure you cut it out at a size to leave room for tabs to fold and glue together.
Step 3: Glue your foam to the back of the pep piece. This is also a good time to run a pencil or pen around the edge of the circles to smooth and widen them.
Step 4: Glue a solid piece of foam on the back. Keep it about the same size as your cut piece.



And there you go! You now have round indents with only a fraction of the headache and cutting. I've been doing mine before I glue them into the piece so I can apply more even pressure to it, but you could try it while glued in if you want. I just think it would be a lot harder. I might also try this on some of the back detail depending on how it goes.

Tell you how it turns out when I get to the resin stage.

Looking good! Can't wait to see more progress! Any tips you have since we both working on the same armor? Like which parts can I avoid pepping and what not? Oh also, for the chest piece, did you use the formula Agbates provided for scaling? how'd it work out

Johnnybroskii said:

Any tips you have since we both working on the same armor? Like which parts can I avoid pepping and what not? Oh also, for the chest piece, did you use the formula Agbates provided for scaling? how'd it work out

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Well... I didn't know about Abgates' method for scaling and only knew about the one that (I didn't know) only applies to one particular Mark VI pep set, so I had to do a lot of trial and error with the LD tester. No matter what you do to size it, I do recommend building and trying on the tester first. I uploaded it to the 405th archive a few days ago.

As far as what to pep and what not to pep, it depends on how you want to build the chest. Abgates provides a lot of different ways to detail the chest including pepped in detail pieces, or floating faces for stencils to build or carve in the details later. Just pay attention to the few written instructions on the pages, and it can save you several pages of cutting. Good luck on your build!

Its not letting me download! D:

nvm i got it!

Sorry about the lack of updates (and lack of pics in this post), but progress has either been slow or non-existent at this point. Just went through a transition period in life that had me working 2 jobs for a few weeks. That bit is over now (thank the gods) and progress is picking up again.

Hey Tomboy;
I have the most legit MK IV pep files. Jason hooked my up with the thighs which were literally impossible to find on the internet...if you want accuracy I can give you the files Jason gave to me, but you will have to give props to him! also, check out other threads on the MK IV for other people's work. I know it has helped my progress immensely.
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/40396-FOAM-S420-s-Halo-Wars-Mk-IV-build for instance.
So far I've had to make three different helmet renditions as I too did not agree with the accuracy of the helmet compared to the actual game play. but I finally got a file that IS the game version. Woot! I really need to get around to making my own thread on my MK IV progress....soooo close! only a few pieces left to glass and then i'm onto the bondo stage.
GL!

Are you talking about the models by Jason-078 and rundown? Because those are all available in the 405th archive.

However, I am interested in the accurate helmet file you may have found. The only game accurate one I've been able to find is just the model, and I am having a hell of a time trying to unfold it.

Jason still needs to unfold the helmet file i've created, it's very acurate

I'm excited to see how this turns out! I liked the Halo wars version of the mk IV the best! Subscribed!