Alien's ODST Build [Pic Heavy]

[Alienated Phreak]

Hello, this is my first attempt at a whole ODST armor build. I have had experience with pepakura and the rest, but I have never done a whole suit before. So, here we go!

What exactly am I building?

I am building the full ODST armor, including a weapon and a vacuum-formed visor (thanks to a friend). I will use fiberglass and resin for strengthening, not clay, casting, etc. etc.

Why am I doing this?

I almost always have some project to work on, whether it be video game development, other 3D modeling, and so on. Recently I've thought up and started a few small projects, but they never really worked out. Just recently, I remembered the Halo armor project I tried a while back and decided to go back into it.

What time do I have available?

I will get work done every day on this! Marching Band has just finished, so the only thing that is in my schedule until school starts is a Martial Arts class I teach/learn twice a week. Unfortunately there's been an ordeal, so I will be teaching more, and will have to spend a bit more time out of class helping out. But, other than that, I'm good. (School starts here on the 22nd btw)

Any goals on this?

I hope to have a majority of this done by Halloween, I would actually love to have this done by Halloween due to temperature drop, since resin works at +60F. However I WILL NOT rush this, so we will have to see. Another goal is to also build a fully-functional weapon (only a BB gun), just to go with the suit. I'm not sure which weapon I will build, so recommend one for me!

Pepakura Files

405th All-in-one Pep Pack - http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/26285-All-in-One-Halo-Pepakura-Pack

Kirrou's Game Accurate Pep Files - http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/22471-New-Hd-Odst-Game-Accurate-Pep-Files

Reference Pics

For detail - http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/8/8d/Odst2.jpg

For placement - http://www.elangworthy.com/odst_full_armor02_labelled.jpg
http://www.elangworthy.com/odst_final01_labelled.jpg

With HUGE help from - http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/8319-Odst-Weta-Landfall-Ver.-Pep-Armor-By-Skg-amp-Crew
http://www.instructables.com/id/ODST-Halo-Armor-Build-Part-6-Table-Of-Contents-/

Moving Forth

Current Work:

Day 1

Got the helmet tester started and completed, what better way to start off then with head? This gave me a good idea of scale.

The blonde isn't me btw, he is a friend who wanted to try it out.

Got most of it completed, enough for it to hold itself together well and to give a good idea of size.

Complted and wearing! Again, this wasn't meant to be built well, I focused more on speed rather than accuracy since this was just the tester, my better work is to come.

And yes, I'm 14, I know, but please treat me like I'm an adult.

Day 2

HUGE progress. The helmet showed me that it actually fits great at default scale! Its a bit big, but it needs to fit for a while

The first part of the day didn't go very well actually, I began the forearm, and I couldn't tell if it was too small or too big, or just right.

It seemed too big and would wobble near the middle, but I could barely fit my hand through, and the reference picture I've been using looks like it should fit WAAY to tight. So I kinda freaked, and left it alone.

Moving on to the productive part, I got both the knee pads done! They're a bit big it seems, but they look great!

I know its only the knee pads but I'm very happy with the progress, especially for my first real day.

More progress coming soon, so stick around guys.

 

[ZMX]

And yes, I'm 14, I know, but please treat me like I'm an adult.

Awww, I can't call you kiddo?

Joking aside, welcome on the 405th, where magic happens and armor is built! You look off to a good start, and your pep looks very good thus far.

I would, however, advise you to find a table or other such surface to work on; first, not to ruin your bed accidentally, and second, because you're gonna kill your back by leaning like that :eek

Keep us posted (ODST rulez!!!1!!ONE)

 

[Alienated Phreak]

Thank you patience patience patience on the peps.

But yeah, I'm looking for (rather hunting for) a folding table in the garage, my dad is a HUGE pack rat, so there's probably something I can use. Lol, if you think my workspace now is bad wait until you see my setup in the garage for resining/fiberglassing.

Anyway, back to cutting, so much cutting...

 

[PigBenis]

So far so good. first of all welcome to 405th !!! i hope you enjoy your time here and if u have anything to ask feel free to do it . ill help you as far as i can !


Your build is looking good so far . keep up the good pepping mate !

 

[Alienated Phreak]

Day 3

Good and bad, first off, I got the knees resin-ed on the outside:

My workspace, kinda pathetic, I know, but its all I need (for now...)

Kinda hard to get pics of this, since the knee pads were suspended from the dowel.

But there is bad news also ;( One of the knee pads' supports fell off, causing the pad to fall. Now it was already finished being resin-ed, but the thing is is that the pads were a bit wider than what I wanted and the supports made them thinner, now one pad is wide and the other one isn't, there's a 1/2 inch difference just about.

Idk, its just a knee pad, and I'll see if I can't re-adjust, its just the first coat of resin.

Anyway, with that aside, I began the first shin:

Anyway, its 1 in the morning and that last picture isn't too old, so I'm getting my rest tomorrow. Its supposed to storm, so the humidity will probably be too high tomorrow to resin/fiberglass, but I can still get work done on the shin.

 

[ODST479]

Nice work man! You're pepping looks clean so this have a nice end result

 

[Alienated Phreak]

Good news! I've decided on a weapon! Sort of...I've decided that I'm going to build either the Reach Sniper Rifle or the Reach Assault Rifle.

Guys which one to build?! Oh and does anyone know if I should paint the tip orange? Does it matter? It won't be functioning...at least not at first.

 

[Predhead]

Looks pretty good so far buddy. I'm 14 as well and i cant wait to get my first project started!

 

[ODST479]

Don't get too ahead of yourself there. one step at a time.

Go with the sniper

 

[Alienated Phreak]

Good news, in my Day 3 post i mentioned that the support on one of the knee pads slipped off while resin-ing, and that one may be wider than the other. One is 1/8" wider than the other and they're both pretty flexible, so I just over-reacted.

And thanks ODST479, yeah, one step at a time, the only reason I'm not gluing everything, THEN resin everything, and so on, is just because fall is coming up and idk how many days will be warm enough to resin/fiberglass. Garage is the only place I can do it and it is usually 5 degrees cooler in the garage than outside.

Oh I love your WIP ODST479

 

[CoolC]

I see that you are progressing nicely. Here are a few tricks that may help the process go faster:

1. Don't use xacto knife. Use a sharp rubber handle scissors instead. You do not need to be too exact when cutting. The bondo process will remove any imperfection.
2. Don't use hot glue. Use regular Elmer's white glue. It is cheaper and much easier to work with. The resin stage will fuse all pieces together. Check out my quick tutorial: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php...or-Papercraft-or-Pepakura?p=508629#post508629
3. Don't cut out all the pieces at once. Cut only the pieces you need, one-at-a-time. Or you will be on a treasure hunt. Open Pepakura Designer and locate the pieces you need.
4. Don't cut the tabs exactly. Roughly cut around the tab. This enable you to cut the pieces more quickly and allow larger space for the pieces to stick to.
5. Don't fold every lines. Use Pepakura Designer to determine which lines need to fold. This will reduce the amount of bondo at the later stage. See my ODST build here. http://www.405th.com/showthread.php...ted-(more-photos-Page-13)?p=483940#post483940

If you follow these tricks, you can speed up the pep stage by half. When I first build the Master Chief MK VI helmet, it took me almost 30 hours. It took me about 10 hours to complete the Halo 4 helmet.

Good luck with your build.

 

[Alienated Phreak]

@ CoolC

Bless you tiny tim! I've always thought about stuff like this, as the process does get very tedious at times, its something I will experiment with as I progress

 

[Carpathia]

I agree with everything CoolC said, with the exception of point 1 and some of point 4. I understand that cutting with scissors is quicker, and I've done it myself, but for the really small detail parts, they're just not the best tool. You can't go wrong with the trusty X-acto knife. With point 4, not cutting the tabs exactly, you can get away with this for about 85% of a good build, but again, for the small detail parts, you have to be precise, otherwise you're creating a mess you'll have to clean up later in the bondo process. The point is, you don't have to do a project fast for it to be good. 10 hours for the H4 helmet is very impressive, but work at your own pace to do the best you can, it's not a race.

This is, of course, my opinion and is in no way meant to show any disrespect toward CoolC, for whom I have the utmost respect. Remember, which ever way you decide to build, do nothing but your best.

Edit: I did not metion this, but I FULLY agree with points 2,3 and 5 pointed out by CoolC. Elmer's is the BEST! Hunting through tons of cut out pieces SUCKS! And you can get very smooth surfaces if you do not score the unnecessary fold lines (ie if the fold will produce an angle of more than 170 degrees).

 

[ZMX]

I agree with CoolC and carpathia. Scissors are great, but an x-acto comes in handy once in a while for some tricky pieces, and while cutting everything first might be accepatble for some smaller pieces, try doing that with a helmet and you're mighty screwed (trust me...I tried ahah).

I always used hot glue though, but I'll give Elmer's a try next time I have to pep something...maybe that'll save me some trouble!

 

[CoolC]

@Carpathia

Thanks for pointing that out. I agree that scissors may not be able to cut small pieces, but for most parts scissors will do fine. Halo 4 helmet has tons of small pieces and if I were to use x-acto knife, I can tell you I would go nuts. As of date, I've made 4 suits, several helmets using my trusted pair of scissors.

The same arguments go with the tabs. I'd rather cut them generously and clean them up later than trying to be precise. The trick that I use a lot is to have the model opened up in Pepakura Designer and determine the best cut on the tabs.

Finally, I agree with working at your own pace. For me, I don't have that luxury. Besides working full-time and have 3 young kids seeking my attention every night, I can call myself lucky if I can spend 2 hours on making armor.

 

[Alienated Phreak]

Oh my god just realized the shin I spent 2 days on is WAAY too big, which means I will have to redo the knee pads as well to make them seem proportional.

Well its 3 in the morning, I'm getting some sleep...I wanna scream so badly...

UPDATE: Lol, okay, I'm going to try to scale it to 5'8", thats 5 inches taller than I am now, it'll b a bit big, but should last a while. I'm going to start the shoulder, I'm heading up to Michigan tomorrow so I figured if I can get the shoulder done and it fits and I can work on cutting stuff out on the trip there/back, long drives are like...the most productive opportunities ever, at least when you're not driving...

 

[ZMX]

Oh my god just realized the shin I spent 2 days on is WAAY too big, which means I will have to redo the knee pads as well to make them seem proportional.

Well its 3 in the morning, I'm getting some sleep...I wanna scream so badly...

I know that feeling, lad; don't give up and don'T lose hope! (And don't scream, people are sleepin'!)

 

[Alienated Phreak]

Day 5

Didn't include day 4 because the shin was a waste, and can just be summed up in one pic.

Sorry for the delay, I just got back from Michigan, visiting family.

This is progress from Friday, I got a shoulder cut and glued together.

Hinges to connect both pieces:

I meant to do a video of me cutting it up, folding, and gluing the piece together, but the camera died and we were out of batteries, then when I tried to switch to a webcam the recorder was too intensive for the computer. I'll do a video like this for the next shoulder blade.

During the 12 hours of driving during the weekend I got four pages of the sniper rifle cut out.
I meant to cut out the other shoulder, but with the video fail I wanted to wait, and I didn't have any other pieces scaled so I that's all I had to cut out. I'm going to wait until the rest of the suit is finished before I get back to the sniper rifle.

 

[ZMX]

You did some cutting...WHILE ON A CAR? That must've tested your patience ahah!

Keep it up!

 

[Alienated Phreak]

Lol, I used scissors, it wasn't that bad. Besides, we were in Motor City, when your going 90 on the highway bumps fly by like nothing.