Halo 4 BR85HB SR (Pic heavy!) - First Major Project

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Ok, that teeny tiny little pivot thingy over the barrel nut is the most horrible thing ever. Looks simple, is in fact the devil. :devil

That aside, huge pic dump time, 'cause the foregrip and barrel are done! :)eek:D:cry:cool:love:wacko:sleep)

Three posts again, it looks like. Hope it doesn't delete half of them like last time:

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Just 'cause you don't see it... Doesn't mean it's not there! (Details, that is. Check your textures!)
 
II

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(measured from the wrong place... Better move it)

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The eccentricity caused by the (happy-accidentally) off-center hole allowed me some adjustability prior to gluing in place...

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Is that not gorgeous? I can't get over it, myself.

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Handy tape dispenser for when you're using a lot!
 
III

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Err'body Bondo-squish now!

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"A-squisha-squisha." ~ Trogdor

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(Sealing the screw hole)

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Not many pics of this because it was probably the worst 90 minutes of the project so far:

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Not exactly accurate, but close enough and I was done caring by the end, hahaha.

HQ update next!
 

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I'm pretty over the moon about this section. I was fairly certain I wasn't going to be able to get the combination of curves and angles on the foregrip to my satisfaction. But I'm surprised myself. Hope you guys enjoy!

Obviously there's a little cleaning up and smoothing and a little more Bondo squishing to do, but I'll finish those off while I'm waiting on other stuff, rather than delaying this update until it's absolutely positively ready to pour silicone on, which would probably be tedious image sequences anyway.
 
Wooow cant believe the amount of detail youve put into this project. This is surely one of THE best BR85's out there! I'm not sure if I caught this earlier but are you going to mold the whole figure? If not wouldnt you consider it, because I would love having one of these things myself!
 
So you said you're in VA, right? If the time comes for casting this beauty, is there a chance of me saving on shipping by collecting one myself? Or... your master copy somehow sneakily disappearing into the night? :p

Either way; this is some handsome work and I'm impressed with your skill and attention to detail.
 
Wooow cant believe the amount of detail youve put into this project. This is surely one of THE best BR85's out there! I'm not sure if I caught this earlier but are you going to mold the whole figure? If not wouldnt you consider it, because I would love having one of these things myself!

Thanks! I am planning on moulding, yeah. the grip and grip area will be solid, everything else should be hollow for electronics. I'm aiming at about $230 for the raw casts, which is pretty low for something like this from what I've seen, but I'm also a relative unknown.

So you said you're in VA, right? If the time comes for casting this beauty, is there a chance of me saving on shipping by collecting one myself? Or... your master copy somehow sneakily disappearing into the night? :p

Either way; this is some handsome work and I'm impressed with your skill and attention to detail.

Yeah, Roanoke. That works if you're in SWVA, but I dunno how much you'd save coming the 5-6 hours from the coast (I had to go to Norfolk for my immigration interview)! Then again, I don't know what shipping's like on a piece like this. It's big, but it'll be in smallish pieces and mostly hollow, so hopefully not too bad. I kinda want to package it in some kind of "UNSC ammo crate", I think that would be cool. As long as I have stickers on there clarifying it's prop work, anyway! That itself would bump up the shipping a bit, but no more than a regular wooden crate and it'd be a "value add," as they say.

Thank you guys, you just totally made my morning. :D

Edit: Here's a quick/hard-to-see breakdown of how the parts look thus far:

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Wow, everything I wanted to say has already been said haha. Keep up the great work! I want to see this thing finished up!
 
Yeah, Roanoke. That works if you're in SWVA, but I dunno how much you'd save coming the 5-6 hours from the coast (I had to go to Norfolk for my immigration interview)! Then again, I don't know what shipping's like on a piece like this. It's big, but it'll be in smallish pieces and mostly hollow, so hopefully not too bad. I kinda want to package it in some kind of "UNSC ammo crate", I think that would be cool. As long as I have stickers on there clarifying it's prop work, anyway! That itself would bump up the shipping a bit, but no more than a regular wooden crate and it'd be a "value add," as they say.

I'm moving from the UK to VA myself, but Will and I are going to be settling down in the Woodbridge/Richmond area - so, Norfolk is probably going to be where I go for my interview, too. Glad to know at least I'm on the right track with that.

Your idea for the case sounds intriguing; if you can get some laser-cut foam to set the weapon down in, it could enhance the authenticity of the product somewhat. I'd been planning to do something similar for my own work once my immigration is finalised. As far as pickup is concerned, we'll have to see what happens closer to the time I'm able to fling money at your face :p

EDIT: holy poop, its a fair wee hike from Woodbridge to Roanoke. That's not like hopping on a train and popping down to London for the day, that's for sure!
 
@Masterchief0624 @MikyVengeance Thanks guys! These comments make it easier to go back and plough into the next section!

I'm moving from the UK to VA myself, but Will and I are going to be settling down in the Woodbridge/Richmond area - so, Norfolk is probably going to be where I go for my interview, too. Glad to know at least I'm on the right track with that.

Your idea for the case sounds intriguing; if you can get some laser-cut foam to set the weapon down in, it could enhance the authenticity of the product somewhat. I'd been planning to do something similar for my own work once my immigration is finalised. As far as pickup is concerned, we'll have to see what happens closer to the time I'm able to fling money at your face :p

EDIT: holy poop, its a fair wee hike from Woodbridge to Roanoke. That's not like hopping on a train and popping down to London for the day, that's for sure!

Yeah, that's a fair way from here. Hopefully you can go to a DC office or something for your biometric, I had to go all the way to Charleston WV for mine. I'm sure we could figure something out for a pickup though.

Hmm, was wondering how I'd do the foam, but now you say that I'm sure there must be people who laser cut packaging on demand. I like the idea of coir or something over the top of it with some kind of designed receipt/invoice on top too. Mainly I think that the crate would be reusable as a prop for someone, for a shoot or something, or just a costume room beer holder. :p

...Back to work on the carry rail for me or there'll be no money flinging to be done!

Edit: What is your work? I see you do a bunch of stuff with 3D assets, but I don't see any build threads in my cursory search.

PS. Thanks for being the first preorder! (Possibly in conjunction with FoxtrotX146) Your paying for the silicone has made it possible for me to now get a copy one of my own builds! Hahaha. Ahhh, operating costs. :(
 
If you're thinking about the case's outer design, you may want to look at either the crates from Halo Reach, or perhaps the SPNKr rocket launcher packs. I'll try and pull some models/images for you if you need them.
 
I've seen a handful of UNSC crate designs here and there, I can't necessarily place them though. Are the Reach ones wooden? All the ones I've seen have been stamped sheet metal. I may just have to make up a "vintage UNSC crate" if they only use the metal ones; sheet metal at that size is going to be too heavy and expensive for shipping materials, I think.
 
I've seen a handful of UNSC crate designs here and there, I can't necessarily place them though. Are the Reach ones wooden? All the ones I've seen have been stamped sheet metal. I may just have to make up a "vintage UNSC crate" if they only use the metal ones; sheet metal at that size is going to be too heavy and expensive for shipping materials, I think.

I do believe they're meant to be metal, but I don't see why you couldn't vacuum-form the panels or use a similar process and then use the relevant paints to colour it up. That said, you'd need a very large pull area to get a case of that size formed, so perhaps not, I'm simply spitballing. From what I've seen online there are Makerspaces and Hackerspaces around the VA area, there may be one close to you that has a pull capable of working with that sort of area.

Then again; there's no real precedent for a UNSC weapons case. The only ones I can specifically recall are the Rocket Launcher spare ammunition cases, the case used to transport the Target Designator in Halo: Landfall and the weapons case containing the Target Locator and Armour Ability sets in the Halo: Reach mission, Sword Base. You may wish to do some of your own research, but I'll pool some of my own research into it for you as and when I can.
 
Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about the laser designator case; they were running with that. Looking into it... Ok, here we go:

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And the sloppy ten-minute no-measurement vector version:

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It does look pretty cool, but might not be the easiest to replicate without, as you say, a good size vacuformer that can handle 4mm or so ABS. I've looked into hackerspaces before, but they're all concentrated along the coast. Not much going on all the way over here, though I've heard mumblings here and there for Roanoke.

I think I generally prefer the idea of a "classic" wooden coir-filled box of parts, but maybe some clever laser cutting and automotive enamel could make the wood into a believable contemporary UNSC-style case. A little "boxier" than the carry case, more like the supply crates you see on trucks.

Of course, I'm thinking "in pieces". It might be good to have something that can take the fully-assembled weapon too, I dunno.
 
Since I already hit 24 postable images earlier today, I may as well get Carry Rail, Part 1 up now:

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Pretty tight tolerances required on this section, though I imagine Bondo squishing will still happen later:

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Easily holds itself in place even before gluing; this will form the foundation for the entire ammo counter/rear rail area:

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Trigonometry to produce a simple angle jig:

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The angle looks pretty symmetrical, which is nice:

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(Straight bevels cut on bench sander, rounded off with files)

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Careful dado cutting allows friction fitting:

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Next bit cut, still friction fit:

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Under-rail needs bevelling and filling before they can be glued on:

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But there's no realistic way I can hold exactly 1mm of Bondo in this particular position over all that distance, but I don't need to...

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Ready to apply:

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And a new type of Bondo squish:

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(All glued up! Lookin' good.)

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Took me a full day to get these measurements all squared away...

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...but I wish I'd known here that the actual measurements from the digital asset are 5mm shorter than the physical model requires...

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Minimal fitting required:

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Front and sides all cut out...

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Looking good so far! I still didn't know then that those side fascias are 5mm short...

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Starting to move around to the top with some more trig-derived angle brackets...

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All for now, but I'm hoping to have this section complete by the end of the week.
 
Been laid up since Tuesday morning with the flu, so I'm not sure if I'll get this section done by tomorrow or not. I'm not gonna rush it though, it's coming along nicely.

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Turns out it's actually 7mm short. I'm pretty sure this is the part that needs stretching, but it might need splitting across two sections:

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That styrene bit at the front needs something to hold the side scale's bevel:

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This bit didn't sand well. I need one of those little 1" belt sanders for internal linear stuff like this:

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That's it so far. Next update coming sometime in the next four days, I'm currently assuming.

Edit: I may be optimistic there. I'm trying to wrap my head around the breakdown of the ammo counter geometry right now!
 
Not too optimistic, it turns out. Making progress on the ammo counter, but there's a ton of Bondo work to do pretty much everywhere before this section is done.

On the other hand, it turns out that there was a more obvious solution to my trigger switch needs. Power tool replacement parts!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n...switch&ie=UTF8&qid=1417203687&rnid=2941120011

Pretty cheap, and saves me from having to spend a couple hours in Lowe's Hardware department looking at bolts and springs to build my own from scratch.

On the other hand, the DIY route does allow for standardised, non-proprietary small parts that could be easily replaced in future. So I'm not sure. I'm revisiting the grip after I'm done with the rail section, so I'll have to figure it out before too much longer. Anyone have thoughts?
 
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