My first master chief (Halo 3) foam build. tips and advice wanted!

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WhenInMaine

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Hey guys! The Platapus here!
This is my first Halo foam build, and I'm loving it! I have been snooping around this site for a while, and loving the tips, advice, and just the basic inspiration found here! So i would like to thank a lot of builders who have done this before, for showing of the processes and techniques.
Right.
Anyway, so far, I have done most of the building work on the suit, with the thighs to finish, and the boots to start. On the whole I am reasonably happy with how they turned out. I ended up redoing my first piece, the chest, as it was heaps to large, as I got the scale wrong, and it didn't look right. the helmet has had the chin redone once, but I will do it again as i'm still not happy with it. Various other pieces will be modified as time goes on and I get round to making them look more accurate.

Here are some pics of what I have done so far.
(Sorry for the garish green color...)
halo suit side.JPG
As you can see the thighs and boots are not done.

chest pieces.JPG
Here is the comparison of the two chest pieces.

halo helm.JPG
As you can see the helm does not have a visor, and needs to be modified.

I will see if I can get some "foamies" to put some more detail in. One of the main things I am wondering about, is what is the best way of sealing and painting the Armour? Also,
what is the best way of forming and inserting a visor. Bear in mind that this is my first build, other than wooden weapons, so I am an utter noob here...

Any tips and advice you have to offer is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to getting some more work done to show you!

yours truly, Platy.
 

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Its my first time building armor as well so like you, I am learning as I go. A lot of people seem to use drywall spackle for filling in the gaps/cracks. I tried that and didnt like the outcome (probably just need to find the right drywall spackle). Right now I am using Dap to fill in my cracks. You just have to wipe of the excess with a damp paper towel while it is still wet because it does NOT sand. Drywall spackle sands which would be nice.

For sealing the foam some people run a heat gun over it to seal the pores in the foam. Others just coat it in 2 layers of plasti-dip. For painting, go on youtube and look up "painting halo armor" or " painting foam armor".There are lots of awesome tutorials!

Your armor looks great!
 
Its my first time building armor as well so like you, I am learning as I go. A lot of people seem to use drywall spackle for filling in the gaps/cracks. I tried that and didnt like the outcome (probably just need to find the right drywall spackle). Right now I am using Dap to fill in my cracks. You just have to wipe of the excess with a damp paper towel while it is still wet because it does NOT sand. Drywall spackle sands which would be nice.

For sealing the foam some people run a heat gun over it to seal the pores in the foam. Others just coat it in 2 layers of plasti-dip. For painting, go on youtube and look up "painting halo armor" or " painting foam armor".There are lots of awesome tutorials!

Your armor looks great!

Thanks for the advice Black Rabbit! i will investigate those materials.

A heat gun Is one thing I would love to get hold of, and Im searching around now.
This is the first time i have heard of either Drywall Spackel or Dap, and i will look ino those.
Thanks again for the advise, and good luck with your build! :D
 
Hey all,
Today i finished the thigh pieces! yay! That means all I have to do is the boots.
Anyway here are the pics.

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I'm pretty pleased with them, all in all.

I mentioned to my mother that a hot knife would be helpful. She replied that she had one upstairs... so i have been experimenting with that as well.

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During the course of experementing, i got a nasty burn on my thumb, and tried diffent methosd of sealing the foam with different attachmets. It did seal the foam, but it got too hot too quickly, and melted the foam very fast. So Iwill still need to find a heat gun for that job I think.

Also, for any of you interested, i have been working on some wooden weapons, from H4. acctualy i started with the magnum, and then decided i wanted a suit as well.
they are not proffesional by any means, but they look pretty good, and they are fun to make. i am hoping to put a glowing display on the BR. any tips on how to improve these would be welcome as well!
GEDC2717.JPG GEDC2718.JPG

OK. One last thing. I picked up a sheet of mirror tint foil, the type used to tint car morrors, from a glass shop. (For free i might add :D my kinda price).
anyway, if anyone has any ideas how to install this onto a visor, or how to make a visor in the first place, please give me some pointers, /or ideas to get me going.
GEDC2721.JPG

The only peices left to do now are the boots, but i may postpone that a little. My friends birthday is coming up and im thinking of doing somthing for him. (It wont be Halo related, but it will be cool.
Hopefully).

Anyway, if you have any general advice for a newbie, then here is a good place to throw it...
Thanks for reading,
Platy
 

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Looks great I'm doin a halo 3 armor build now also. All I've got left is my hands,cod, thighs, and working on the boots now. If ur looking for a cheap heat gun try harbor freight or lowes. And foam helmets r great but I would check out some of the resin helmets as it will be sturdier and give u a better look and feel.
 
Looks great I'm doin a halo 3 armor build now also. All I've got left is my hands,cod, thighs, and working on the boots now. If ur looking for a cheap heat gun try harbor freight or lowes. And foam helmets r great but I would check out some of the resin helmets as it will be sturdier and give u a better look and feel.

Thanks zander! Its nice to know that people acctualy look at this feed! Unfortunatly, as I live in New Zealand I am not able to get tools from those places. Thanks anyway. :) Maybe one day i will have a shot at doing a resin helmet, but at the moment that looks time consuming and expensive...

Any ways, Thanks again, and good luck on your build!

Cheers,Platy
 
If uve gotta Facebook check out the halo props page and the 405 build page both r great resources. Also check around I'm sure u can find a decent heat gun around u for cheap. And a resin helmet u can buy a raw cast for about 150 not including shipping places like impact props heat shot props and Justin branfuhr have great cast helmets that come with visors that take little work
 
Awesome! Thanks again! ill check those facebook pages, and i will have a look at raw casts.
Impact props are my insparation!
Thanks :)
 
Hello everyone!
Sorry about not posting in ages, but i have ben working on my friends birthday pressent, an Ultron helmet, from the new movie, Age Of Ultron. (Go and watch it btw, it is so good.)

So i started by going online, and finding some reference pics. this is the one i used the most.
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For my first attempt, I created a frame out of card board, and paper mache-ed it.
This worked well, but I wasn’t happy with the shape, or size. So i went online again and found a template for a pepicura spider man mask. I made this out of card, and had a nice rounded base to work with. I then put shape and details in with card, and covered it in paper mache again.
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(Pumpkins to hold the shape, and oven to dry it...)
After putting about 3 coats on, i decided it was to small, and did this,

IMG_1854.JPG
I covered the gap over with card, and put another two or three layers of paper mache i was happy with the thickness of it.
Then i sanded it, with a mouse sander, and sandpaper, to get it smoother.

Along the way, i decided that i wanted to try to install glowing eyes in the thing. So i went down to Jaycar, and bought 4 red LEDs, and two resistors. these cost me $1.70.
I found some spare wires in a box, and scavenged a switch, and a battery box from an old broken RC car. Then i went online, and researched some simple electronic systems. (so i am an expert now.)
Here is what i came up with.
View attachment 11499
This pic is from before i installed the switch. you could still see out of the eyes just fine, even when the LEDs were on.
Then I soldered it all together. it wasn’t very professional, but it was a lot of fun. (First time haha).
View attachment 11500


That was the electronic side of it all worked out, now i just needed to Finnish the helmet, and install the wires and stuff.
After all the layers of paper mache, I put a layer of wood glue, all over it, to seal it, and to get a smoother finish.
IMG_1857.JPG

Then i put a layer of primer over that.

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Then, I looked again at my reference pics.
I decided I wasn’t happy with the design. This was on Tuesday. The party was in Friday...
So I put some more accurate details in, with card, then put a couple of layers of paper mache over that,then glue, then primer.
IMG_1859.JPG

On Tuesday evening, I was going to paint the detail lines one, and mask them.
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However, while drawing the lines with pencil on beforehand, i realized that doing to much detail, would accentuate any problems with scale, ect. (as much as I hate to say it, it wasn’t perfect... :p)
So in the end i just went and sprayed the whole thing silver.
IMG_1861.JPG

Wednesday was spent doing minor detail work, most of which I didn’t like and was removed. Removing glued on details caused quite a bit of damage tin.o the paint/primer/glue, so a few patches needed to have all these things applied again.
IMG_1872.JPG

The only really major difference, is the ridge down the forehead. It was a bit of a wast of a day, but I was almost done.

On Thursday, the day before my friends birthday party, i applied detail paint to the cheeks, forehead, and chin. I decided not to detail to much, and to leave it reasonably simple.
I also installed the eye electronics, with the LEDs behind a layer of red cellophane.Then i installed the horn things on its cheeks, and did some touch up work, and it was done!
IMG_1874.JPG

Well not quite done. Any of you who have see the movie, or the trailers, would have heard Ulron say "There are no strings on me"! well I decided to play a prank on my friend as well, and attached a string under one of the horn thingies. My friend, obsessed as he was with Age Of Ultron, would undoubtedly quote Ultron, and there would actually be a string on him...

My friend loved the helmet, (Whew...) and the prank worked out really well, everyone laughed. we went and saw Age Of Ultron in the theatre, but he wasn’t allowed the helmet in... I wonder how much that had to do with him trying to smuggle lollies in the forehead... but all in all it was a great day, everyone had fun, and he loved it. mission accomplished.

Any way, that is what i have been working one lately, and partly why I haven’t been doing much work on the suit. my family is moving soon, so there will probably not be any more work for another while.
Also, (hopefully) after the suit is finished, i will attempt to build a Queen Amidala dress for my sister to wear to the opening of Star Wars 7. But i will try to finnish the suit before that, or it will never be done...

Ok, thanks for reading,
The platapus.
 

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Nice Ultron Helmet. I have a brother who'd one of those. I can't wait to see more progress on this build, your foam work looks great and those wood props... Puts my magnum to shame
 
Ok, I have progress. I am sorry for not posting, but Most of my time has been spent working on the suit to get it ready for the Armageddon expo, three weeks from now.
The Armour is basically done, and I am working on a foam assault rifle. Wood takes a long time, and foam is light. I will post pics soon. I promise!

See you all soon, Platy
 
And yes! here it is! Finally! An update!

Anyway, the suit is almost done. I need to do some work on the under suit, make it toilet friendly and stuff, and some details on the visor. I am currently working on an assault rifle.

Anyway, here are some pics :D

IMG_2360.JPGIMG_2364.JPGIMG_2368.JPG

]
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(the chin of the helmet has been edited)

I bogged the gaps in the pieces, and started thinking about painting.

The helmet was the first thing i under coated. So nice to get rid of the garish green. After heat sealing it, I put on a layer of PVA, then a special smooth surface sealer primer. other than a bit of cracking,which was fixed by sanding, this worked well.

however, when i looked at the prices of the materials used, i decided to find another way. For the rest of the suit, i Painted on watered down wood bog, pictured below.

IMG_1939.JPGIMG_2094.JPG

Then I put on a coat of normal under coat, and that worked well. The bog bends quite well, and adheres well to the foam, as well as bending with it.

The paint i used isn't the right color, but meh, I think it looks ok. its not Master Chief, but that's ok haha.

As for damage, and weathering, i used some black model paint in the indented areas, and dry brushed chrome on with a blusher brush for battle damage. I am really pleased with the end result.

I wasn't going to do a weapon, but i got bored one Sunday, and had some foam spare. That just needs to be painted.


Anyway, sorry for not posting for so long, but I am finally almost ready for the Armageddon festival. Ill try to post pics from that too. :D
Thanks for reading,
Platy.
 
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