Anyone have a young child (5-6yo), whom they created a kit for?

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JustADad

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Heya guys! First time poster, ironically, but somewhat lurker prior to registering.

I had a few questions I was hoping you folks who are more versed in this than I, and it more so pertains to a young buck.

Has anyone here managed to craft an armor setup for a young child, 5-6 years of age? And if so.......

1) Have you stuck with just foam due to weight, fatigue etc?

2) How in depth did you make the armor look?

3) What was your procedure on scaling said armor down to the kiddo's size, and printing the pepekura templates if so?

Basically, I am familiar with 3D Printing but have practically absolutely 0 experience with pepekura/foam building and have a 6yo boy who wishes me to craft him "Master Chief's" armor. At the moment, I do not have an operational printer so printing files myself is out the door, which leads to foam being the next best option.

I have armorsmith, and have used it before for scaling files and understand the ability to create pepekura templates exist there once you import the file, scale and create etc so that's a possibility for me to do.

My concern is finding stl files for a full Master Chief armor set, and the files just may be too detailed and get all jarbled when trying to craft it with foam.

Is there any good file/resource someone also may be able to point me to, who has made foam armor for a kid of this age?

I'm not opposed to commissioning out the armor, as the armor won't be worn until next year anyways, but I have concerns that him in full PLA/PETG may be too much weight on him over time as opposed to possibly lighter foam builds.

I guess long story short, I'm looking for advice on how best to craft my son his own Master Chief armor that isn't paper/fiberglass...Either 3D printed possibly, or foam if it's better for him.

Help me Obi...Wait, wrong IP! Help me Cortana! You're my only chance at success!
 
Welcome to the 405th! I don't have a kid of my own, but depending on the version of Chief you want, the Armory may have files to suit. For example, the Halo 3 Mark VI comes in a "LD" (Low definition) set of unfolds that will work well with foam:

 
I remember Mini Chief. Don't know their contacts but kid seemed very small so could be perhaps somewhat close to this age?

I would advise against using 3d printed or hard parts for your kid. While for us adults it seems like the weight and hardness is no problem, for small kids it could be very tiring and even with they could potentially hurt themselves (what if he'd stumble or fall over?) with hardness and weight of the material.

From what I see the Mini Chief cosplay details are mainly just a sheet of foam glued on top as top layer. It isn't hard to do and it's up to you to decide how many details you want. Depends on which are you'd want to do for your kid you could go similar way.

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Welcome to the 405th! I don't have a kid of my own, but depending on the version of Chief you want, the Armory may have files to suit. For example, the Halo 3 Mark VI comes in a "LD" (Low definition) set of unfolds that will work well with foam:


Perfect! That's great to know that there are Low Def models as well, as i don't necessarily think he needs all the bells and whistles and would be content with something that made him feel like ole Chief!
 
I remember Mini Chief. Don't know their contacts but kid seemed very small so could be perhaps somewhat close to this age?

I would advise against using 3d printed or hard parts for your kid. While for us adults it seems like the weight and hardness is no problem, for small kids it could be very tiring and even with they could potentially hurt themselves (what if he'd stumble or fall over?) with hardness and weight of the material.

From what I see the Mini Chief cosplay details are mainly just a sheet of foam glued on top as top layer. It isn't hard to do and it's up to you to decide how many details you want. Depends on which are you'd want to do for your kid you could go similar way.

View attachment 323189

View attachment 323188
This is outstanding!

I'll have to see if I can put a bounty out on the family here and see if they can't be tracked to pick their brain!

My son is 6, roughly 35-36lbs and about 3'9, so on the slimmer side all in all.

As an added, if anyone knows who the above may be and they have social media or a point of contact, let me know. This is great!
 
This is outstanding!

I'll have to see if I can put a bounty out on the family here and see if they can't be tracked to pick their brain!

My son is 6, roughly 35-36lbs and about 3'9, so on the slimmer side all in all.

As an added, if anyone knows who the above may be and they have social media or a point of contact, let me know. This is great!
Also while making the cosplay keep in mind your son will grow significantly and in a year he might be bigger and taller.
So perhaps consider making the parts bit bigger for him if you're making it for next year because in worst scenario it may turn out too small for him.

What armor do you plan to do for your kid?
 
I made a MKVI set of armour for my son roughly 5 years ago.
He was 7/8 years old at the time. His suit was made of Eva foam.
I used the LD files that @PlanetAlexanderProjects mentioned. Armorsmith was used to scale the parts. Here's a link to the thread.
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Also while making the cosplay keep in mind your son will grow significantly and in a year he might be bigger and taller.
So perhaps consider making the parts bit bigger for him if you're making it for next year because in worst scenario it may turn out too small for him.

What armor do you plan to do for your kid?
Definitely the plan!
I'll likely just do the Mjolnir MK set for him, he's not terribly picky since he doesn't know all about the various armor sets in the Universe like I do. So most of the sets kinda just make him think of Master Chief, given the color scheme he tends to see.
 
I made a MKVI set of armour for my son roughly 5 years ago.
He was 7/8 years old at the time. His suit was made of Eva foam.
I used the LD files that @PlanetAlexanderProjects mentioned. Armorsmith was used to scale the parts. Here's a link to the thread.
View attachment 323195
Perfect, I'm glad you chimed in as another Armorsmith user that scaled down the files then re-created.

Assuming you just imported the PDO files (From Alex's link), then scaled them down more, then re-created them at least..
 
Perfect, I'm glad you chimed in as another Armorsmith user that scaled down the files then re-created.

Assuming you just imported the PDO files (From Alex's link), then scaled them down more, then re-created them at least..
For sure. Just imported them and adjusted the scale.
 
For sure. Just imported them and adjusted the scale.
Perrrrfect...Just scoured thru the WIP/Progress thread of yours. Looks solid! Hopefully his comes out just as well!

Holy hell, when did Armorsmith get a shrink fit scaling option too? This is nice
 
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One other question, when it comes to printing the patterns on cardstock/paper....

What is the best method to do so, that will ensure the patterns get printed correctly sized and all?

Having never printed out a pattern, this part is also new to me :)
 
In the wayback there was a group project that slammed together a "Young Jorge" version using Jorge parts from Reach on a common ODST build pattern.

 
One other question, when it comes to printing the patterns on cardstock/paper....

What is the best method to do so, that will ensure the patterns get printed correctly sized and all?

Having never printed out a pattern, this part is also new to me :)
Whenever you scale a part, save the costume, it will print to the scale that you adjusted to.
 
Whenever you scale a part, save the costume, it will print to the scale that you adjusted to.
Yeah I realized afterwards how to properly orient the pattern to the paper graphs. Didn’t realize each “block” in the pattern is literally one sheet of paper letter sized.

Also, I noticed when creating a pattern for say, the foam helmet in armorsmith, there’s a lot of jumble and jargon off to the left of the paper pattern stuff.

Any idea what causes that? I tested it with using the foam files which have those other pieces bs the normal pdo files that seemed to not have them there.

I assume it has something to do with the foam files being unfolded and all already maybe?
 
Yeah I realized afterwards how to properly orient the pattern to the paper graphs. Didn’t realize each “block” in the pattern is literally one sheet of paper letter sized.

Also, I noticed when creating a pattern for say, the foam helmet in armorsmith, there’s a lot of jumble and jargon off to the left of the paper pattern stuff.

Any idea what causes that? I tested it with using the foam files which have those other pieces bs the normal pdo files that seemed to not have them there.

I assume it has something to do with the foam files being unfolded and all already maybe?
The jumble that's off the pages are all pattern bits that are for the original Pepakura pattern and are need for a foam build.
 
The jumble that's off the pages are all pattern bits that are for the original Pepakura pattern and are need for a foam build.
Gotcha. So those need to be printed out as well as a pattern? Or only the pattern that armorsmith generates from the foam files turned into a pattern?

I’d take some pics to show what I mean but well…chillin in the bed right now heh
 
Gotcha. So those need to be printed out as well as a pattern? Or only the pattern that armorsmith generates from the foam files turned into a pattern?

I’d take some pics to show what I mean but well…chillin in the bed right now heh
Oh sorry.
 
Ugh. Cant operate my phone....
I didn't proof read my response.
The jumble stuff is *not* needed for foam.
 
Ugh. Cant operate my phone....
I didn't proof read my response.
The jumble stuff is *not* needed for foam.
Ok perfect! I was hoping that was the case, but your response confuzzled me!

One last thing…as I have yet to mess with it but once things are saved, and patterns created..how do you save the files to print like elsewhere so to speak?

I noticed they save as a DSX file but not sure what the normal method of “Saving patterns and printing patterns” at say an Office Depot” is handled.
 
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