another noob with an HD MKVI build

[agordon117]

continued from above

 

[agordon117]

Worked on the left boot last night and marked up all of the cuts for the chest. my phone was dead when i finished so no final pics of the left boot but it looks way better than the right one. i'm telling you guys, watching those vids was so helpful. anyway, the black spots on the chest are being cut. the big areas on the back and the triangles on the front are getting speakers. the smaller areas are led panels, and the thin lines are just being cut either to separate the chest or get rid of the unnecessary material.

And my first attempt at rondoing.

 

[agordon117]

alright guys, here's what I was talking about when I said my bondoing would be much better after watching those videos. you can probably see just how much cleaner the edges are and how much smoother the surfaces are. but first, here is everything layed out from strapping to undersuit pieces to electronics. pretty much the only thing not pictured is the load bearing suspenders that weren't here yesterday and the single AA battery holders that I have yet to buy.

this one shows the padding inside the helmet (super comfortable and it holds it in one place on my head) and the second visor for the layered effect. you can see it is huge before being cut down.

my neck seal. it's probably pretty crappy for a stormtrooper neck seal but by halo standards it's pretty good for not being custom made.

here is some 1.5" clips, strapping, and tri glide sliders (the little length adjustment things that go after the buckles).

and here is some 1" straps, clips, and sliders

the really big hard drive magnets I mentioned earlier

3 of the 4 flashlights I'm going to cannibalize for the side lights of the helmet. in the next two pictures, you can see that it is basically a high powered led encased in the epoxy shell of a standard 5mm led. really weird but it should work great for this

 

[agordon117]

and my 5mm leds that will be the shield port lighting.

a closeup of the ultrafires that will be powering the suit (each plate will get 1 while the chest will need 3 for the audio circuit and the helmet will get 2).

here's everything for the audio circuit. I got a double male 3.5mm headphone cable to plug from the ipod nano pictured below into the 2 channel mixer kit in the red box. I also have a temp voice amp there and 4x 5w speakers for 20W of sound.

okay, enough of the theory and plan. here's some work I did last night. the first section shown was actually bent inward in the middle so it took a lot of patience to make it just right. same thing happened in the lower section and you can see that in the pics.

this is the first pic I took because I was really into the work and forgot to take a few in between pics, but this is the finalized shape covered in spot putty.

and here is the same spot with the putty sanded smooth (220 grit)

then the bordering section bondoed and sanded

and spot puttied

and while I was waiting for the left thigh to cure, I did the right thigh bit by bit . this is the second layer of bondo to fill all of the crevices left.

sanded smooth

spot putty

and the first thing I finished last night was the rear section of the left boot.

and after an exhausting day, I could barely keep my eyes open any longer, so I called it a night.

thanks for looking guys!

 

[SpartanT117]

Let's finish the fight! looking good Spartan!

 

[agordon117]

thanks T117, here's some lunch break updates

here's some lunch break pics. doesn't look like much it different because it isn't really. I've only been working for 3 hours. but I have the bordered tier to the first smoothed part on the left shin fully finished and I started the upper tier on the back of the thigh. unfortunately, I didn't realize just how important it is to make sure your pep lines all fold the right way during resining, and as a result, I wound up with a bondo spot that's over 1" thick to make the proper shape. I'm wondering if I can cut out the fiberglass and paper area from inside and then re-fiberglass over a thinner walled bondo spot to give myself some more room. the thighs would fit perfectly if everything was bent the right way from the getgo, but since it wasn't, I have to get creative.

and the rear side of the left thigh

and the top view showing the thickness of the spot in question.

so do you guys think I can carve out some extra room via dremel or power sander on the inside and then fiberglass directly to the rear of the bondo to keep the original strength? short of that I'd have to consider redoing the part because it is super uncomfortable to wear.

 

[LongShot X]

agordon117! I just read your entire thread and HAD to comment on it.
Amazing work. Simply AMAZING.
Everything your doing is spot on -and- with the correct safety equipment too!
I'm especially tickled that your doing the MK VI with all the lights and electronics and Chief colors to boot. Epicness +1 and Subscription +1
I can see the hard work and time invested in this project. Based upon your pace, I'm sure that you will have this done in time for the Halo 4 launch and even perhaps HALOween.
Believe me... I have a good feeling that once this is completed, you'll turn lots of heads. (start working on your camera poses!)

Kudos agordon117.... Kudos!


Here's a little something to keep you motivated. (I chose this pic because I know that you have a passion for light sabers)

Super cheers!

 

[agordon117]

wow, thank you for making that comment longshot. your suit is what got me inspired to begin with. everything you did is pretty much exactly how I wanted to do it. and it's the pictures of your bondoed pieces that I'm going by when I need reference. as for lightsabers... well, I'll let the pics do the talking. then it's back to work.

these are just a few of the things I've built over the last couple of years (and yes, that stormtrooper blaster is a vintage british sterling that was demilled and then I removed all of the old receiver and made a new one and attached the old pieces. but I welded the bolt in place so as to not break any laws, lol).

this next one was my loadout for celebration vi

I could go on all day about them, but then I wouldn't be working on my armor. I could probably post 20 more pictures too, but again, it's crunch time on the suit. and no, they aren't all mine (far from it). just the ones that you see in the orange case. Thanks again for the comment and the picture longshot. it really does help keep me motivated.

 

[thorn696]

Wow. You're really going to town on this, It's just one great up-date after another. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all comes together. Subscription +1

 

[agordon117]

thanks thorn. it's pretty easy to make lots of progress when you give up everything else but school, sleep, and working out. it was break time so I figured I'd upload what pics I had. a few problem spots I'm not sure about but mostly everything is going really smoothly. I've got the led slots cut out on the left thigh and I have both thighs cut slightly in the back to allow for me to bend my legs far enough to properly walk an kneel (about .5"-.75") and it looks pretty good. I also cut into the part from the inside to take down that really thick wall by about .5"-.75" and then I mixed a hot batch of resin (because I'm impatient) and fiberglassed behind the exposed bondo. I have two pictures where I pointed to the problem areas.

this picture shows the correct area on this thigh that is too low on the other thigh.

and this next one shows the spot that is wrong on this thigh but correct on the other one.

those two areas should take less than an hour to correct while still moving forward elsewhere.

this next batch of pics is the mod I had to make on the really thick portion of the left thigh.

should come out just fine. and... what else... oh, the led slots

and the rest should be self explanitory.

more to come after dinner and then before bed.

 

[SpartanT117]

Every time I see your lightsabers it rekindles my Jedi emotions. lol stop it. haha Great work man I had to go cut wood today so no pepping for me at all today. X( but keep it up! Homecoming at our HS over here is friday so I'm planning to resume the bulk of the pep work then. until then imma just hit at it slow and steady.

 

[agordon117]

it's what I do man. but seriously, you gotta get cracking on those peps if you are planning on wearing it to halo 4. have fun at homecoming. I remember mine... I actually left as soon as I got there because they tried to put my date and I at a table with no one that I knew and she went to a different school, so neither of us would have known anyone. then the people that were supposed to sit at the table with us didn't show for like half an hour, so I met up with my one buddy and we both ditched with our dates and went to texas roadhouse. *shudders* and to think I could have kept that whole next year of my life if I had just stayed there and had an akward night... uh... anyway... let's get back to our regularly scheduled programming, lol.

I started to lose my focus at around 8:00pm. it was slow progression from there but I muscled through and came pretty close to finishing both thighs. I don't think it will be more than an hour of work to finish with them completely (I still have some shield lights to cut holes for on the right thigh) and move onto the primer/paint stage. my goal is to be done with the lower body (through bondo at least) by the end of the night tomorrow. so here's some pics. 15 hours today. not too shabby, but I'll probably do 16 or 17 tomorrow. hopefully I can get to sleep pretty quickly so that I can be up early. nothing worse than being too tired to do anything but too restless to go to sleep.

as you might be able to see in that last pic, I was able to raise the one section on the top tier that was a bit too low

it sort of seems like I didn't get a whole lot done today but I've got to remember that not only are the thighs one of the more complicated pieces to bondo (since they have so many tiers and edges) but I was also going back and forth between the two of them. tomorrow morning I'll probably bridge the gap over the indent on the lowest part of the insides (meaning facing toward each other if being worn) and put some bondo on the two flat spots on the outsides as well as finish touching up the right thigh and it's pretty well done. I will note that these pieces now weigh about 5 lbs each and before they probably only weighed 1 lb.

22 days and 20 hours until I have to be in the costume ready to rock. more to come in the morning.

 

[ODST479]

Not Bad, Not bad at all.

 

[SpartanT117]

haha I know you do and I am torn between Halo and the love of my life!!! seriously! haha I hate putting my projects on a shelf and cannot do that, it's in my blood not to, but I must become a Jedi Master with a lightsaber and movie quality robes! lol and i am actually not going to homecoming because my gf's sister's b-day party is next friday and she can't miss it. So instead of having an awkward night since I don't even go to the school, I'm gonna pep! haha I was so ticked to not be able to pep today. I am determined to get this thing done for at least H4. I'll have to redo my thighs after H4 because they're missing the inner black parts, so it's still gonna be a WIP even after H4. The armor looks fabulous, great job keep it up man!

 

[Carpathia]

The thighs are looking good. You've got a pretty good handle on the bondo process from what I can see. I remember how much of a pain it was to bondo my thighs. Keep it up!

 

[agordon117]

thanks guys and seriously though t117, don't even think about your armor while you're at homecoming. the only reason I'm in such a rush (not the right word but best I could come up with) to finish mine is because I have seriously spent every waking minute on it for the last two months and it has been a work in progress since january.

carpathiavh99, I do have a pretty good feel for the process now and I owe it to two things. #1: longshots tip about not waiting till it fully cures to begin hand sanding/rasping as it allows you to easily get rid of the high spots before they harden and give a basic shape to the secion you are working on very quickly.
#2: watching cereal killer (I think it's spelled c3r3al k1ll3r but I'm not 100%) bondo his rediculously sweet looking chest plate. he gave a tip about using a razor blade to cut the edges of the bondo while it's in the warm/ still curing state and man did that help. he also said something that you would think was common sense, but I don't know if I would have thought about it if he hadn't brought it up. he said to only bondo one section at a time if there are bordering sections of different heights. that's how my edges have stayed so clean. I've gone from the top tier (finished) to the next one down, etc rather than bondoing both at once and then trying to bring back the edge. the only thing I'm really having trouble with at this point is cleaning up the areas that aren't going to be bondoed. resin isn't as sanding friendly as bondo and it's harder to see stuff but I guess that's what the primer is for.

wow am I not focused or awake right now. I think I need to blare some disturbed and then have my coffee. here goes nothing.

 

[SpartanT117]

Good luck Spartan.

 

[agordon117]

well it's lunchtime and you know what that means.

I think the pics got scrambled by photobucket (meaning uploads might have failed and restarted) so I'm not entirely sure what came when, but as a general rule of thumb, the more red spots on a piece, the further along the process it is. just a few spots to flatten out on both and I'm moving on to the codpiece (unless the wind dies down and then I'll spray these with primer first)

 

[agordon117]

yeah luke, it's a huge pain because of them. I'm not going to make the corners perfect though. the edges will be nice but since the corners will be painted black anyway there's not a whole lot of reason to spend an extra 4-5 hours per part making them uber smooth. anyway, it's bathroom break update time, lol. But seriously I think you'll like what you see here. there are very few touch up spots needed after seeing what the primer revealed and none of those are places that I had bondoed. makes me feel like I did a really good job.

and I've moved onto the codpiece.

also needed some rondo on the buttplate and I used what I had left to do the inside of the jaw on the helmet.

the other thigh just needs a 220 sanding and then primer but it's about to rain and it's super windy so I'm in no rush to get that primed.

 

[SpartanT117]

Good work spartan! might I ask for a link or reference where to find the buckles, sliders and strapping?