Carlino's Master Chief (pic intensive)

[carlino]

Hello all! I started several months ago slowly making a Master Chief suit. I started the helmet with a pep, like most others, and I am continuing the rest of the suit in foam. If you have any questions/comments/cristicisms please feel free to share. I have some pics of how I cut the foam to try and minimize the seams, so I'll try to show everything I did and what I have. If you want a better look at something or have a question, just ask!

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i474/uosabb99/Master Chief Costume/IMAG0006.jpg

I used popsicle sticks to support the bottom rim of the helmet while I did the resin. After resin I layed down a thin layer of rondo and then fiberglassed over that.

This is actually rondo-glass, I had some left over from another project. Bondo/resin/stains of fiberglass.

After I had fiberglassed and cut out the visor

 

[carlino]

These are some pictures of me in the bondo/sanding/primer/bondo/sand/sand SAND stages.

After happy with the bondo/SAND SAND stages, I threw a coat of Oregano paint on

 

[carlino]

Sorry for all the double/triple posts but it doesnt seem to let me add more pictures to each post.

I then applied a black wash to the entire helmet to get that dirty, been through hell and back look.

This is the hose I used to the front of the helmet. $.79/foot at Home Depot

 

[SnakeFang]

Nice helmet! I'm using the same file that you are making and I was wondering did you have any problems with the scaling? I think the width is way off on the file.

 

[carlino]

Nice helmet! I'm using the same file that you are making and I was wondering did you have any problems with the scaling? I think the width is way off on the file.

I just scaled it to the height I needed. The width seems fine to me, I will have to pad the inside alot but it still looks proportional to me.

Here are some pics of the foaming I've been doing. I started off with the boots and worked my way up. I was trying to minimize seams so I back-cut alot of pieces to hide a fold. The more I got used to figuring out the back-cutting the less seams there are, you should notice as the pieces progress.

showing a piece I backcut and then folded

After the boot I worked on the shin.

I cut the top off a molibolt and glued it to the shin to add some detail, also two little caps I found laying in a drawer.

 

[carlino]

The thighs were next on my list. I used a different type of foam for them so I can make the pattern bigger for less seams. I ordered the foam online, its 3/4 in clsed cell foam.

Next up was the cod piece. Again I used the foam I got online. I have a pic of how I layed out the pattern so you can see how much is all one single piece of foam. Then from there it is all either back-cut or bent into shape.

Here on the back I added a foamie sheet and made some details just to give it some dimensions.

The pouches I just made to what size I needed them to be to fit in my wallet, cigarettes and phone. I figured it would be a good place to store them while at Haloween parties.

I dont have pics of the arms being built so next up is the chest/back which was the last piece done.

This is the chest getting coated with modpodge. I used that to seal up all the foam before painting.

 

[carlino]

Sorry again for the double post, was limited with pictures.

As of this point, all the pieces are built and are coated with the Oregano paint. Most of them are blackwashed with the exception of the cod and chest. I am currently in the process of adding in the electronics. I will have the lights on the sides of the helmet, three lights in each thigh, and I may put one on each bicep too.

 

[Pipinacan]

awesome job man! loving the look of this!

 

[carlino]

awesome job man! loving the look of this!

Thanks for the comment. Im hoping in the next few days I can get outside and finish blackwashing the other few pieces. It's been raining out so I didnt bring them outside. I have installed the lights on the helmet and also in both thighs. Getting some plastic cut in place to cover the lights on the thighs to diffuse the leds and give it a nice soft glow effect. I tried spraying on 'Frosted Glass' onto a piece of plexiglass but it wasnt diffusing the led enough so I gave it a quick shot of white primer. The white helped tone down the brightness of the led and to help diffuse the light itself I actually coated the led with hot glue, it seems to spread the light out nicely.

I have to rewire the helmet, since I am electronically challenged I seemed to have either broke a soldering joint or something while installing because they worked before going in the helmet!

 

[carlino]

So I've finished the paintjob on everything. Im pretty happy with the way it turned out. After all the blackwash I added some battle damage by dry brushing on some silver. Before I finished the paint job though I went ahead and tried it on (who can resist suiting up once it's all made!) In the pictures of me suited up I was just trying to get an overall idea of the proportions of the armor once it was all on. I wasnt wearing my gloves in the pic as you'll notice. I think the proportions came out pretty good. Sorry if the picture quality doesnt show off the detail as I hoped, also Im not great at taking pictures so excuse the lighting if its not helping the photo. I'll get some better pictures of me in the finished costume over this weekend. Hope you enjoy the pics! Let me know what you guys/gals think.

 

[carlino]

Carlino's Maser Chief Finished!! (pic heavy)

Well I couldnt wait for the party to suit up again so here are the pictures of the final paint job. One problem Im having is that the shoulders are attached to my undersuit with velcro and the velcro isnt holding onto the foam well so it keep popping off. I was going to hotglue the velcro to the foam and see if that holds better. Anyone have an idea or tried that before? Anyway here are the pics,

 

[Sky Walker]

wowowowowowowowowowowow very nice "I AM LOVIN IT" (McDonldes TR)

 

[liquid6]

awesome!!.....home depot sells stuff called extreme velcro...it'll hold up to like 200lbs or something crazy like that...its a bit om the pricey side, but it might work

 

[carlino]

wowowowowowowowowowowow very nice "I AM LOVIN IT" (McDonldes TR)

Thanks! I am loving it too.. wonder if I can get a free big mac out of it if I walked into McDonalds..

awesome!!.....home depot sells stuff called extreme velcro...it'll hold up to like 200lbs or something crazy like that...its a bit om the pricey side, but it might work

Its not the velcro that wont hold. I am using industrial strength velcro. The problem is keeping the velco attached to the foam, the backing pulls away from the foam leaving the velco attached to itself on my undersuit.

 

[Road Kill]

dang this looks great man, really awesome and you finished this project really, really fast =D

 

[carlino]

dang this looks great man, really awesome and you finished this project really, really fast =D

It actually took me several months. I just started the thread when I was almost done lol. Thanks for checking out the thread

 

[liquid6]

oh...maybe the hot glue idea would work..or could you superglue and piece of the plastic sheeting and then attache the velcro to that? maybe even use hotglue...who knows, thats about all i got

 

[S15Costuming]

Looks epic! i'm assuming that you used Pepakura as a template for the foam portion?

Did you have to modify the pep files or did you just "eyeball" it?

 

[carlino]

oh...maybe the hot glue idea would work..or could you superglue and piece of the plastic sheeting and then attache the velcro to that? maybe even use hotglue...who knows, thats about all i got

Yea I think I will try just hot glueing the velcro backing to the foam and see if that helps it. If not, I'll give adding some plastic to it and sticking the velcro on that. Thanks

Looks epic! i'm assuming that you used Pepakura as a template for the foam portion?

Did you have to modify the pep files or did you just "eyeball" it?

I did use pep files for the templates. I actually have the licensed version of pep designer so I did modify the files and remove alot of things from them to get them down to their basic shapes. Alot of the pep file is things to add thickness, so you can remove alot just because of the thickness of the foam itself.

 

[Will Turner]

Get sew-on Velcro and hand sew it onto your foam, should be able to do so and still hide the thread under the piece.