alright, it's that time of day again. picture time. at this point all major painting is done (meaning no more painting of the pieces themselves. They are all green, weathered, and clear coated. some minor painting will be done of the led holders I'll be machining and the "vacuum hose" parts on the side of the helmet as well as possibly a few other pieces here and there. I'm going to start attaching pieces as best as I can tonight and hopefully I'll have the whole suit on and fitted by tomorrow night. It's really no big deal if I fall short because that still leaves me with 2 full days until halloween. I started working on the leds and since I didn't have any single AA battery holders for my li-ions I decided to put each piece's cell on a disconnect so I can just charge straight in the armor piece. sure it will take about 6 hours to charge the suit (not counting the helmet and chest as they will have 7.4 and 11.1v packs respectively) but it will last a long time drawing only 40 mA. Also, with erv's upcoming voice core v3 and throat mike support, I won't have to have any wires going from the chest (where the speaker will be) to the helmet as the microphone will stop at my neck. can I hear a woot woot?
okay, onto my weathering decisions. I decided to go a bit heavier on the weathering for this suit than most I've seen. I wanted this to look like the chief should have looked when he popped out of that cryo tube in the halo 4 trailer after going through 2 flood ships (well, a ship and a city I guess) and ignited the halo ring when we last left him on halo 3. I like how it turned out. I really do. and I can honestly say that no matter what, I'm proud that I made this suit with my own hands. The only help I've had the entire time on the suit itself is today when my buddy held a huge cardboard box opened up and walked with me outside to spray each armor piece with clearcoat and then walked back in protecting the pieces the whole way from the rain.
/rant
this was around lunchtime. note the black spots on the chestpiece. it wasn't until later that I realized those spots weren't really supposed to be black so I had to wipe the dried paint off (very carefully with paint thinner)
currently waiting for the epoxy to set on those straps
and these ones
wow, are all of these pictures blurry? I need to get a real camera.
and the first shield lights installed. it's okay, but these are the biggest ports on the suit and they're really hard to light up from the sides. I'm considering getting some el foil but as a general rule of thumb led>el.
