Custom Gen-2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

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Corweena

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Whats' up guys! So I'm finally back after a 3-year absence. I had previously started on a Halo 3 Mk.VI Chief suit made out of pep, fiberglass, bondo, etc....I had finished most of the legs, before putting it aside due to school. After 2 years in the closet, it ended up getting too damaged to continue, so I trashed it last year. Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago, with the Halo 5 release coming up, I did some thinking, and decided it was time to start another suit. Being that I have about 10 months until I go back to school, I figured now was the time to get a suit done. Due to my acquired dislike of all things bondo and fiberglass from previous car projects, (another hobby of mine), I decided to build this suit out of foam.

I'm still not 100% certain on the end goal/design of this suit, but here is what I have in mind now. The suit is for Corwin-106 (Spartan number I just applied for). He uses a modified version of Chief's Gen-2 suit from Halo 4/5. His armor spec is given the name "NIGHTMARE" (a play on the name "Demon" bestowed on Masterchief by the Covenant). He also specializes in night ops. As far as the build goes, the armor pieces will follow Chief's armor's general shape and structure, but will include custom additions, and other unique design details. Build wise, I am using foam pep files, but will be modifying them with free built parts as I see fit, to help the overall look, construction, and fitment of the armor. If there is anything my first try at armor building taught me, its that I do not have Spartan proportions, and thus, don't fit quite well in standard armor, even if scaled properly. I'm 6'4", which is tall yes, but I have relatively short legs for my height, and they are pretty well built from years of basketball and volleyball. So when I scale my armor to the right height, I have to add about 2" in circumference to the armor to fit it over my legs. So there is going to be a good amount of trial and error, but should result in a better fitting set of armor. That being said, here goes the actual build....

I started off with boots. I did them completely freehand, and they were the first thing I ever did in foam. I wasn't thinking, and built them around a set of combat boots, which lead to some issues. One, they were WAY too bulky, and ended up looking like clown shoes. Two, combat boots sit too high and don't allow the shin armor to sit properly. They were immediately trashed. I have since decided to put the boots on hold, until I can find a suitable shoe to build the boots around.

I then moved up the the shin armor. Prior experience told me they would fit quite right when scaled to correct height. So I basically assembled each shin piece into 4 sections.....front, rear, and both sides. I then mocked up the pieces, and figured I would need to add some width to the front section, in order for me to be able to get my leg (and foot) through the armor. I also decided to make the front portion out of one piece, to improve strength. I will build up the details later with thinner craft foam. They aren't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with how they came out considering. I still need to invest in a hot knife to make cleaner cuts.

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Again, these are just the base, and will be given a good amount of craft foam detail later on.


I also just picked up one of the "Disguise" brand Master Chief helmets from my local Hot Topic. For $35 it was hard to resist. While the color and shape aren't quite accurate, the visior is pretty darn nice. I was also surprised my fat (7 5/8 hat size) head fits in it. I'll most likely be using that helmet as a practice canvas for my color scheme, along with practicing my painting techniques. At this moment, I do want to get a quality raw cast of MC's helmet, though I may change my mind and go a different route.

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That's all for now. I will be moving on to the thighs next, followed by the hand, forearm, bicep, and shoulder pieces. The chest will be saved for last. As far as the undersuit goes, I'll be making a separate post about it in the future.

Stay tuned for more updates, and tips and criticism are always welcome.
 

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Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Had some free time and decided to mess around with the Disguise Master Chief helmet. Its a nice base helmet, especially for the price. Just the paint and coloring was lacking. So I decided to give it a more accurate respray. This is my first time doing anything like this, so I figured this helmet would b a great base to work with and get experience painting and weathering the helmet. That way, when I get a quality cast, I know exactly what I'm doing.

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Masked off the visor and scuffed for paint.
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Silver base coat
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Olive drab green coat
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Why the silver base? For paint chips of course! I used the toothpaste method, and must say it worked out quite well.
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This is where I am at so far. Hopefully tomorrow, I can finish masking off the helmet again, spray the secondary charcoal gray sections, then blackwash and drybrush some more silver scratches and battle damage. Then all it needs is a matte clearcoat to seal everything off.

Let me know what you think!
 

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Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

It's looking good so far!

As for the cleaner cuts you mentioned earlier; a hot knife may give a clean cut but it also depends on the knife. I've used a hot knife before and wasn't really impressed. I eventually went back to my good ole' x-acto knife. This time though I got a sharpening stone. My cuts are pretty sharp when I sharpen my knife every so often. A sharp blade is the key to cleaner cuts.

Good luck with your build!
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

It's looking good so far!

As for the cleaner cuts you mentioned earlier; a hot knife may give a clean cut but it also depends on the knife. I've used a hot knife before and wasn't really impressed. I eventually went back to my good ole' x-acto knife. This time though I got a sharpening stone. My cuts are pretty sharp when I sharpen my knife every so often. A sharp blade is the key to cleaner cuts.

Good luck with your build!

Thanks man! And yeah, I did research, and decided it wasn't worth it. I just bought a 100 pack of blades online, so that should keep me sharp for a while lol.
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Finished the Disguise helmet......night and day difference from the stock paint job to the end product. Pretty happy for my first time at something like this. Oh....and never use old blue painters tape, it gets really sticky and lifts the paint with it lol.

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Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Just a little update.....since I finished the helmet above, I went back to working on the armor. Picked up some shoes and began building the boots freehand. I also grabbed a 100 pack of scalpel blades, and wow, do sharp blades make a difference. My cuts are so much cleaner. I'll get some pics of the boots when I have them in one piece. I may go back and redo my shins too and slightly resize, but that will wait for now.

Most importantly, I've done some brainstorming and thinking of how to make this suit unique. Adding tweaks to the armor is pretty easy, and something I will do as I build each piece. The most iconic and recognizable piece of armor is the helmet. While I love the MC helm and do still plan on building one, I also have begun drawing up some designs for a custom helm. And while it is based on Chief's, it will should be a pretty unique piece when done. I did a ton of research over the past few days looking at custom and prototype helmet designs. One that really caught my eye was called the "Sabre Helm" I really have no idea who designed it, because once I saved the pic, I went pack and could not find it again lol.

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While I really like the design, it looks more like a helmet out of Halo Reach, than Halo 4 or 5. The part I really liked though was the top portion....gone was the"visor" to extend out front. Its more like and ODST or Mk. V (B) top. Then I had an idea.....what if I combined the bottom of Master Chief's helmet, with a Saber-style top? So I whipped up a quick sketch. So far, I like what I see. Its a bit more of a conservative style helmet. And I obviously have a ton of details I still need to include, but since this will be an evolving concept, I'm not going to get too carried away yet.

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Another idea I'm working on for the helmet, but have yet to sketch out....since the whole theme of this build is "NIGHTMARE" and night ops, I want something on the helmet to distinguish it. Since I first played Halo Reach I always thought the Up-armor attachment for the Mk. (B) helmet kind of looked like it could slide down over the visor and act as a protective shield or something. So going off that, I'm going to sketch up a visor of some sort that will sit how the UA attachment sits on the top of the Mk. V (B) helmet, but can slide down in front of the regular visor. Its function would be like that of night vision goggles....when extended, they would be "on", and would have 2 green glowing "eyes". Or something to that effect. Its still a long ways away, but conceptual stuff like this I really like doing. I'll try and get some more sketches up shortly so you can actually see what I'm talking about.
 

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Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

im probaby gonna do the same for my halo disguise helmet i already cracked the visor
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Spent pretty much all of yesterday free-handing some boot designs. Took longer than expected, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so that's ok. I make cardstock templates for everything, so even though its freehand, I want the pieces to be as symmetrical as possible. Plus, I want to be able to replace parts again if needed.

This is the base design I ended up with. I still need to add all the details and decide what kind of design I want, but the over shape is done. I stand at 6'4" tall, which is tall, but not quite Spartan tall. So I made the boots have a bit of a heel (which is easy to do on the Gen2 suits). When I put the shoes on, then step into the boots, I stand right about 6'7". I figure, when I halve a helmet on, I'll be close to 6'9" which is a much more reasonable height.

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I still have to work on a strap or something to hold the rear of the boots on. The front fits great though, and the shape of the boot holds the shoe in tightly.

I also need to take a dremel to the bottom sides of the boot, to give the sole a nice angled look.
 

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Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Looking great so far! I'll be following this build closely, for sure!
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Looking great so far! I'll be following this build closely, for sure!

Thanks man!








Update!


Spent a good 6 hours or so on the boots today. It seems like a lot for such small pieces, but seeing the end result is worth it. I would say the boots are now 95% complete, and the hard part is done. I'm just missing a few small details. As I was watching some Halo cutscenes yesterday, and came upon a realization.....for MC's new armor, particularly the boots, the front toe portion is hinged, to allow movement when your toes are bent, such as while crouching. Only problem was, that none of the pep files had such a design....so it was time to create my own. In prep, I went to the local fabric store, and grabbed some parachute buckles, polypro webbing, and thick elastic.

I also grabbed a grinding bit for my Dremel to sand and smooth out the curves on the bottom of the boot. Needs just a bit more touch up work, but that will come later, because most of the imperfections will be getting a layer of craft foam over them.
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Now, to the boots. Here is the base I had from last time.
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And here are a bunch of pictures to show how I went about creating the flexible boot, since its easier than trying to type it all out.
Side shot of the boot to after partial construction.
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Polypro strips for flexibility (no stretch needed here)
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Straps on the top armor piece. Front hinge strap is Polypro, while the sides are elastic to allow movement.
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For the top "strap" armor piece, one side is just hinged with Polypro, while the other has a parachute buckle and elastic. This allows for stretching with movement, as well as being able to unclip and remove the shoe if needed.
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The rear of the boot has this elastic band to hold the heel of the shoe in place. This isn't the final design, but is a decent temporary solution.
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And the whole assembled boot.
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With the shoe.
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And a short video showing the hinging movement in action. Sorry for the squeaking lol. But as you can see I have full range of toe motion.
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Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I just need to add a few details and other small pieces, and I'll be ready to move on to the next pieces. Let me know what you think!
 

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Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Put the finishing touches on the boots today, and heat sealed them. They are ready for paint. I'll probably plasti-dip them, and begin painting in the next week or 2. I figure they will be my test pieces for my paint scheme.

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And over the past couple days, I've been doing a ton of research on undersuits. From the get-go, I didn't want to do just an Under Armour shirt and pants. And I really don't have time, skills, or desire to sew a custom undersuit. I also wanted to bulk up my upper body slightly (I have built legs from years of basketball and volleyball, but my upper body isn't quite Spartan-like). I was looking at pressure suits, but realized they can inhibit movement and can be hot. I also thought about the the Crisis Nano Morphsuit which is on sale, but they don't have XXL, which I need for my 6'4" self. Snakepit Studios makes their awesome Spartan undersuit, but its a bit pricey for me. Last night, I finally came upon what might be a perfect solution. A company called Troy Lee Designs makes a padded undershirt.....and what's more, its very flexible, and is made for hot weather, which is perfect, because I live in SoCal, where it really never gets cold. Also, the padding design and coloring is pretty darn good...and has build in elbow guards like the Spartan suits do. Here's what it looks like.

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For the pants, I wanted something similar in design to the shirt if possible.....it took a bit of searching but I found these Demon Flex force pants, which have a pretty close pad design to the shirt. The hip and butt padding are pretty well placed, so with the armor on, the empty spaces won't just be filled blank fabric, but will actually have padding there.
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That's pretty much it for now.....I'll be ordering the pants shortly, since I want them to size the thighs properly. And for the thigh armor, I sized and printed the foam pep files. After assembling the a rough thigh out of cardstock however, I wasn't too happy how everything went together....not taking from the designers, but there were some pretty significant gaps between some pieces (which I knew was probable from Rainbowdash's thread). So I'll be using that design as a base, and be modifying the pieces to be be slightly simpler, and at the same time more game accurate pattern (going off a bunch of H4 Masterchief photos I have). Hopefully it turns out how I'm envisioning it.

Will update when I've made progress....and give me your opinion on my undersuit choice, or if you have any better suggestions. Thanks for looking!
 

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Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Love the choice in undersuit parts, those look like the closest off the shelf suit I've seen...nice find
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Love the choice in undersuit parts, those look like the closest off the shelf suit I've seen...nice find

Thanks man. Yeah, I think i did a solid 2 hours of scouring a ton of sites before I finally found those two.
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Just so you know, Chief's armor isn't the GenII Mk VI, but a combination of the MkVII prototype designs, the gen I Mk VI, and the GEN II software. We Just call it the MkVII for short.
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Just so you know, Chief's armor isn't the GenII Mk VI, but a combination of the MkVII prototype designs, the gen I Mk VI, and the GEN II software. We Just call it the MkVII for short.

I have since realized that....just didn't figure out how to edit the thread title until right now lol.
 
Re: Custom Mk.VI Gen2 Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Yeah thats not editable because when the site was founded be edited thread names to avoid getting in trouble. If you really want to change it, just ask an admin.
 
Re: Custom Mk.VII Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

So I guess more of this build will be freehand than I thought. I printed and cut out the foam templates, but wasn't happy with the overall fitment and the large gaps between parts. So it was back to the drawing board to make my own templates like I did with the boots. I used the old ones as guides to keep the overall scale the same, but changed around a good amount of the angles to be more game accurate after studying reference pictures. I just started assembling the thigh out of foam....and figured I would start with what will be the hardest piece....the front of the thigh. Took a couple iterations of templates to get the fitment how I want it, but I'm happy with the overall result, and the fact that it is layered and 3-dimensional just like in the game.

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Stay tuned, I'm going to try and knock out the rest of the thigh in the next 2 days.
 

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Re: Custom Mk.VII Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Nice! Keep going, hope you go through with the custom helmet :D
 
Re: Custom Mk.VII Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Great work so far especially on the boots! I think the undersuit you picked out was pretty good. The torso can provide a good base for one of those undersuit kits, if you ever decide to go that route. It would look pretty rad on that torso :).
 
Re: Custom Mk.VII Master Chief "NIGHTMARE" foam build

Nice! Keep going, hope you go through with the custom helmet :D

Thanks! Yeah, the helmet is going to be interesting.....will probablybe the last thing completed. I plan on buying a MC helmet in the meantime too that I can wear until I get the custom one figured out.

Great work so far especially on the boots! I think the undersuit you picked out was pretty good. The torso can provide a good base for one of those undersuit kits, if you ever decide to go that route. It would look pretty rad on that torso :).

Thanks! And that was one of the factors into selecting that suit....it pretty easy to modify and add attachments too if need be.
 
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