another noob with an HD MKVI build

[agordon117]

Boy, i could sand and touch up forever and still not be happy with it. I'm gonna remake the forearms. They are too small for sure. Now i know what i'm doing though. Right shoulder is 90% bondoed. About 1 more hour and it will be ready for paint. Left shoulder is about 3 hours from paint. When the weather get warmer, i'll probably remake those too, but i want the armor done now and then i can remake individual parts later if need be. So far though, i have done absolutely no work since the biceps are too big, forearms are too small, pep'd HD chest and helm were the wrong size. I'm gonna make those biceps work. I can't accept that i will have essentially done nothing for the last month, so i have to make due with what i have. For now...

 

[Katsu]

I know what you mean. I ended up spending a whole week trying to get my helmet sanded and bondoed just right, and still am not satisfied. Good luck on remaking the out of size parts man, so far it's coming alogn well and you are working pretty fast! Use your consternation over last month fuel a frenzy of work this month! Good luck!

 

[agordon117]

Thanks for the morale boost. I'm starting the codpiece for a bit of a break from the upper body.

 

[agordon117]

How much bigger do you guys think the forearms should be? 10%? 15%?

March 10th is the costume contest at work. hopefully i'm far enough along that i can wear it by then.

 

[agordon117]

Bump that last and some progress.

95% done with that piece. Just needs one last touch up with spot putty, a few more smoothed edges, and i'm good to go. Codpiece should be resined today, fiberglassed sunday. Chest should be done tuesday and helm friday. Then resin, glass, bondo, sand, sand, sand, paint, write speech, strap. Probably don't have time to redo the forearms for the speech, so i'll go without.

 

[Katsu]

pretty spiffy, I wouldn't be able to give you a good estimate on resizing. If you are super pressed for time you may want to prioritize things so what HAS to get done gets done. Like... you want all the armor made at least in time, it doesn't have to be 100% super smooth if you're just wearing it straight up... it's battle damage! And I'd hold off on any painting until the very end, rather than finishing one piece at a time, not that I think you've painted them yet.

If you want nit-picky help, I see the primer is dripping in that last picture, which means you are holding the spray can a bit too close to the piece, or holding it in one spot for too long. If you do a sanding on it, it won't be a big deal, but it will gum up your first piece of sandpaper, and save you some extra sanding time.

Keep up the great work!

 

[agordon117]

Just finishing the first piece so i have some motivation to keep going. My goal is upper body finished by feb 15th, entire costume wearable by march 10th (or whenever), and then i'll get into the electronics and remaking the biceos and stuff for halo 4 launch. Good temp days like today force painting just in case i don't get anymore.

Also, just finished the final coat of primer on the piece, and I can't seem to avoid the drips no matter how far away or how quickly I do it. I'm gonna try to keep the actual paint from dripping, but I'm not sure if I can completely stop the dripping. Well, I think it's been 20 minutes, so I'm gonna try to wet-sand off the drops.

 

[Masterkiro34]

Are you holding down the nozzle for the spray can? If so hold the can 6-8inches away from the piece, and go back and forth in a sweeping motion, spray across left, release, spray across right, release. I used to derp and hold the nozzle down ><

 

[thorn696]

Are you holding down the nozzle for the spray can? If so hold the can 6-8inches away from the piece, and go back and forth in a sweeping motion, spray across left, release, spray across right, release. I used to derp and hold the nozzle down ><

Gives great advice and I'll add to it by saying use light coats of paint. If you spry it on to thick it will drip every time. I also use old wire hangers to hang my pieces right about at eye level, so as to not spray over the part but at it. hope this helps. Good looking build have going here by the way.

 

[agordon117]

I don't really have anywhere to paint inside, so I have to make due with outside. I also don't have anywhere to hold the piece. Sure I could make a stand out of pvc, but then I'd still have to take the part off and bring it inside to dry.

I did realize I was holding it too close and applying too thick, but I'm glad you guys said it so that I know that was part of it. The primer last night dried partially, then slid down the piece, creating big cracks. Now I have to strip it off and re-prime the piece. I may leave it at the primer stage, and I may paint it just so I have one done for a morale boost.

Well, off to the hardware store to pick up some more primer and sandpaper. That stuff goes fast. I'm really glad I ordered 4 cans of spraypaint and 6 tubes of spot putty though. I would be ticked if I had to order more of either of those.

 

[agordon117]

Just finished the 1st coat of resin on the codpiece. I'll have some more pics later. Do you guys fiberglass right after the outer coat of resin (after it has cured, not the next second)? Or do you coat the inside and then fiberglass it?

 

[agordon117]

Still no pics, but i found the perfect time to fiberglass. Around 4 hours after you resin the inside of a piece, it isnfirm, but sticky. Right then is the perfect time to fiberglass. The fiberglass will stick to any previously resined section allowing you to put the fiberglass cloth on the whole inside of the part before you even mix your resin. Maybe i'm the only one that didn't know to do it that way, but it saved about an hour of trying to put each piece on individually.

 

[Metalfire]

Hm that's a really good tip, it's a pain try to get each individual piece of cloth in there and the coat over it. I'll have to remember that when I get to that stage in a few weeks. Do you have any pieces with support struts? If so do you know when's the best time to take them off? I'd imagine right after the first/second coat of resin on the outside before you glass.

 

[Katsu]

In order to keep the pieces from shifting around, I use the resin I've already mixed for the new layer! I'll dabble a tiny bit of resin on the spot I want the glass on, and set it atop that before laying on the full layer of resin, being careful to not touch the dabbled spot.

A risk to laying it while the previous layer is still tacky, is that you can get resin on your (gloved) fingers, which can cause the fiberglass to stick to your fingers!

On another note, it's weird to use glue because then you're not getting the new layer of resin to bond directly onto the previous layers, and the glue WON'T bond as strongly to the resin as another layer of resin would, and it's a bit weird to be having an extra, unnecessary chemical in the equation that WILL be mixing in with the new layer of resin to potentially weaken its strength.

However, at the end of the day it won't be THAT big a deal, any structural problems will be negligible on this small a scale, so do what works best for you! These are just a few nuggets of information gleaned from boat repair.

 

[agordon117]

Thanks. I just read it online somewhere that that was the best time to put another coat of fiberglass. It seems to have worked very nicely. I think i'm gonna split the codpiece now and then do the next layer of fiberglass on the individual parts to make it easier. It should hold its shape from the first layer of glass anyway.

Painted the right biceo last night and it looks so good. One paint drip got through, but you only notice it in certain lighting conditions, so i'm gonna leave it. I plan on redoing the biceps before halo 4 release anyway. So at this point, forearms are being redone again, i'm working on the helmet now, the chest is on deck, codpiece is almost done being glassed, biceps are almost done ( one more than the other), then thighs, shins, boots, and gloves. Looks like i won't have the upper body for my speech, but i will have the costume done by the contest at work on march 10th.

 

[agordon117]

Just one quick picture. Failed at blackwashing it and had to repaint. Looks pretty good though. Still pepping like crazy. Helm is looking good.

 

[TJX62]

Very nice job. You did an excellent job with the painting. The key with blackwashing, is to wipe it off almost right after you hit it with the black.

 

[agordon117]

I'm scared to do it again. I'll water down the paint next time. The paint just stuck hard. Had to laquer it. Couldn't sand it at all. Painted the detail lines too. Those are pretty hard as well, but imperfect does look like wear and tear, so it isn't bad to be imperfect.

 

[TJX62]

what kind of paint did you use to do the blackwash?

 

[agordon117]

I think it is in a pic of my organized workstation. Maybe not. It is plastic spraypaint. Rustoleum i think. Not sure.