(slowly upgrading) Noble Six by MDBDesigns

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MDBDesigns

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Hello all!
My name is Miles, I'm a new member on here and I am actively working on a ODST / Spartan Build for fun!
I started out with the halo 3: odst helmet variant, I'll be continuing on by working on shoulders and weapons next.
After I've built these I'll start looking into what chest pieces I'd like to use, I was always a fan of Jorges armor from Reach, but given I'm working with ODST I think I'll be looking more towards the Collar/Breacher chest armor. and of course once the chest is complete I'll continue work on the rest, making all the extra little pieces that make the full uniform.

I currently have been 3d Printing the helmet and Visor mold, and I'm sure I'll continue to use the 3d printing techniques to my full advantage. As far as armor goes I will be using more foam than printing since it will need to be lighter and less likely to breaking. I'm already considering making a mould for the helmet so I can cast back-ups just in case (and sell on the side, but I won't plug that here)

I'll be sure to continue posting here as I go along, hopefully I'll be pretty regular but there are no promises. I'm hoping to have this full set of armor complete within 10 months being that I'm going to wear it to the Denver Pop Culture Con in 2020. Hope to see you there!

The Helmet process:

The Helmet itself was 3d printed in Hatchbox ABS on my Anycubic I3 Mega, I sliced the full model in Maya and then printed it in 8 separate parts. After all the pieces were printed, I assembled them using super glue, and then coated the inside using a strong 2 part epoxy from Plasticare. Once I had coated the inside, then came the long task of filling all the print lines using Bondo spot filler and then sanding the whole helmet to give it a nice finish. After about 3 days of sanding and filling I figured I'd be good enough but if you look closely, there are definitely areas I could've worked on more. But for photos and video sake, the helmet will look just fine. Once I'd primed the whole helmet I sprayed 2 layers of a Testors Silver to give the metallic looking under coat. Then placed toothpaste (Trick courtesy of Punished Props from youtube) on certain spots to act as a sealer on the silver that can eventually be washed away with a wet cloth. The next 2 layers were a nice flat black on the whole helmet followed by 2 coats of a gloss black on the spots around the visor to give it a slight bit more shine. Then on to marking out where the stripes were going to be and how I wanted them to look. This is where I want to start differentiating my spartan build from usual ODST's so I went with a flat red that has a single unpainted strip of black running through the middle. After painting the red I let the whole helmet sit to dry for a few hours and then came back to clean up the toothpaste and to start the weathering process! For weathering I used a silver sharpie to highlight all the panels that would get damage on their edges, and then used steel wool and rub'n'buff to make scratches appear. Then I used black brown and yellow acrylic paints and watered them down, giving the whole helmet a wash with this to leave the paint in all the cracks and even to discolor the red stripes I'd painted flat black (which gives the paint a tiny amount of tooth to grab onto washes and really get discolored and gnarly looking) and once that was done I took Cinnamon (yes you read that right) and powdered the entire helmet with a small amount to make the 'dust' really settle into all the nooks and crannies that would typically collect dirt. Once all was dry I did a quick clear coat matte finish over the whole helmet to seal everything in nicely!

The visor came next and I was able to 3d print a moulde for my visor that I could then vacuum form a piece of PETG to. Since I didn't and and clean my form, i got a lot of print line transferred onto the visor, and it's okay, but I hardly could see through the visor I made that way. So, I took some sand paper and Bondo to it as well and cleaned up my lines some more, just enough I could get a clear-ish visor from it. Once I'd made about 6 visors I came back and cleaned them up some before dying them using iDye: POLY (another tip from Punished Props) to dye my visors Red, Blue, Orange, and Black. Once these were dyed and dry, I hot glued magnets to the helmet interior and to the visors so that I can change out whatever visors I want to use!

For now this is all I have, I will be updating more though as I'm working on a dare helmet as well as my own full set of armor. Lots to make!!!! Please feel free to ask me any questions, share any ideas/criticisms! I'm looking to put this whole uniform into a portfolio and to get into model making on a professional level. So please let me know what you think!!
 

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I'll just add onto this thread since it's part of the same build, but if I need to post this elsewhere please let me know. Anyways, I've recently (today) been working on some patterns for Vinyl stickers to add to armors/helmets. So far I have the UNSC logo and some small details for my helmets. As i progress I'll be adding more. The triangles are for small details on the helmet, but could be used as accent stickers further on. Same goes for the chevron template towards the bottom. That should make a nice template for airbrushing or perfect spacing for them. Anyways, thanks for checking it out, if anyone is wanting me to share files, I'm happy to share
 

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If its for your build there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to post it here! Those vinyls would look awesome for adding some extras onto a suit or any piece of UNSC issued equipment (y)

Keep up the good work!
 
After a little trial and error the stickers came out. Took about 4 hours to cut them all out to shape by hand, but they look great. I have a sheet of white still to go, and I'll be making more out of shiny vinyl as oppose to matte vinyl like what I used here. Stick around for more updates in the next few days!
 

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Vinyl stickers cut, placed, and weathered and are on the final build ODST helmet.A bit more weathering on the new stickers to give them some age and it really just adds to the story of it!
 

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Starting work on my chest piece. I've always loved Jorges Grenadier Chest, and since I'm making my ideal spartan I've decided to roll with it! I'll be matching the paint job to my current helmet as well. That's pretty far out in the future still for me however. As I make progress I'll be sure to upload more images on here and explain my process. Files thanks to the current Armory page and printing from Office depot on 55lb paper for future template making in case I decide to make another chest down the road.
 

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Short update for today, might not work on this for a week after today with work and school work culminating. I've decided to build the front and back separately and then to join once they're built completely. I'm starting with the pepakura files and taping them in place, gluing smaller pieces I can easily carve from foam. Once I've built the paper model and made sure it fits me appropriately I'll disassemble and start patterning for foam. All in all I would like to make a pretty sturdy exterior with enough space within the interior cavity to allow for venting and fans as well as lighting. Potentially creating a fiberglass shell with EVA foam for padding may become an option for me. Time will tell what will be best. I'll be sure the next update I give is bigger in terms of content rather than posting lots of step by step updates. Anyways this is the current state of affairs for now, like I said I may be off for a while with my senior projects, but I am still trying to do work when I can (Especially since I'm trying to vacuum form some visors for my LOCUS helmet and my ODST helmet. Thanks for your continued support.
 

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Allllllllright. Here's a dump of what I've gotten done since last posting. I'll start with the chest piece. I'd brushed on 2 or 3 layers of resin on the exterior just to make the card stock more rigid, then once it was strng enough I split the front and back apart to fiberglass the interior of the pieces. As things stand right now I still have them fiberglassed and am waiting to continue work. I've refrained from fiberglassing the roll that comes on the front of jorge's grenadier chest because I have some plans to 3d model and print a custom one. (trying to think of ways to incorporate venting/cooling fans and/or storage) Sadly, just as I had gotten one layer of fiberglass in place, cured and ready for a 2nd layer my work and my school both decided to close up shop for the Covid-19 pandemic. I was rushed to get things out the door as quickly as possible, and had to gather supplies and take them all home.

Now that I am home, my workspace is pretty limited and the weather affects that even more so. I've been in the midst of getting school projects updated, and trying to get them ready for online reviews and presentations, etc. gist of things is that I'm scrambled like many many others. While I had some down time yesterday, I wanted to dye a few visors for my ODST Helmet and so I dyed one black and one black/blue! I'm happy with how they came out and currently have the black/blue mounted into my helmet via the magnetic system (I believe I posted on that before, if not I'll go over it. Basically just magnets hot-glued in certain spots to let it clip in and out)
 

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I totally forgot to mention the laser cutting!!!!! I took the pepakura file and saw that the back has some little spine protectors that have the potential to glow, so I found some white acrylic and lazer cut the shapes from it in hopes to put some lighting behind it after I assemble everything! (It's blue do to the protective film) And yeah, once this chest piece gets fully built I'm hoping to do some lighting on it!
 
During this time of uncertainty and fear of what might be next, I want to extend a thank you to all of those here who have liked my posts, commented, and supported/helped me when i needed it. I'm still a relatively new addition to the mountain regiment but have enjoyed getting to connect with other members here as well as the discord and facebook groups. Please take the time to continue supporting other new members and being the awesome group you all are. Stay clean, Stay safe, Stay inside and do what you can to help however you can.

This being said I'm going to be a bit slower on my build moving forward as I've donated a couple of my printers to my schools 3d printing farm to produce as many face shields as they can for local hospitals. My work is unfortunately at a stand still and may be closing their doors after all is said and done (Still completely up in the air) But with this time off I've been focusing on getting school work done and ready for my final semester and have been trying to work on my build with whatever time I have left. My helmet is done and right now I'm working on bondo/ primer for another helmet so my gf and I at least have helmets to wear to DPCC. I will continue to post what I have when I have it, but I wanted to thank everyone on here for being as supportive as they have been even while the rest of the world is in chaos.

Stay awesome 405th
 
No matter what happens the 405th will still be here! Even if you take a long break due to life (and obviously whatever aftermath happens from the carona virus) theres still plenty of time and chances to make cool things!

Happy Building and good luck in school!
~Shadowshail

P.S. keep posting dem updates if you got any! :cool:
 
Did a little work this morning during one of my Zoom meetings... don't tell my professor. And quickly started some basic ideation for the front tube that is on the Grenadier chest piece. In Halo: Reach Remastered, its much more clear this is a soft goods type..thing, Assuming it's some sort of fabric for rain or something? I honestly don't know. Anyways, I'm modeling this up in SolidWorks because I want to make this a ventilation tube/storage piece so I can pull air in and cool myself while wearing, and to also keep any battery packs/wiring I may have after lights and all that are incorporated.
 

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Alright, First off, hats off to those of you who make entire suits from EVA, it's much more of an artform than I anticipated it being. I'd read up on it, watched some youtube videos and thought I'd have this down in no time flat, but wow was I wrong.

For a first ever attempt with foamsmithing, I think i did....alright? It's holding shape!

I would be curious to know, though, When making your armors, do you cut every little fold and glue them together? Do you cut a groove on the back to get the foam to bend and look like one single piece? is it a lot of sanding/dremel work after words?
I'm experimenting and trying to find different ways that it can be done, but still finding myself having a few issues here and there when gluing up or matching angles.

What are some tips or tricks you folks might have for a newbie like myself? I've been sharpening my blade as I go along, and like I said cutting grooves to try and bend, the only thing I don't have currently is a heat gun, and I know that helps, but sadly I don't have one on hand at the moment.

Thanks for any help and to those of you who keep checking in and liking my stuff!! much love to all of you!
 

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UPDATE :D

So far I have fiberglassed the chest about 75%
I split the paper chest in half (Front and back) and fiberglassed them as separate assemblies ( looking back may not have been an awesome idea, but that's what happened)Due to these pieces being separate, I wasn't keeping them aligned perfectly, so it's a little warped.

That being said, I've only put down one layer of fiberglass, so a bit of cutting and dremmel work should help me to correct some problem spots before adding another layer. Once I've thrown another layer of fiberglass onto this, I'll give another update, and then begins bondo and building up the 'body' of the chest piece.
 

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Took me about 8 hours today to make one shin (And the kneecap is upside down smh)

BUT, It's progress! I've learned a lot today by working on the fly, and I plan on making the other shin tomorrow. I'm running low on supplies, so I may make a combined supplies/grocery run in the next couple days. I'll definitely be tuning in for the build stream tomorrow and building along side everyone, just on my own little projects instead lol.
 

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Update! I've been working on my chest piece the past day or two, and I figured I'd post about it.

From the start I made the chest piece in the hardest way I could, I'm starting to realize this more and more, but I've decided to push on to make it a completed build instead of starting from scratch.

I've fiberglassed the inside of the entire piece, and have coated over the fiberglass in certain areas with Bondo to smooth it out a bit.
I'm beginning to work on the outside now, skimming it with bondo and sanding, then priming and bondo again, working until I'm happy with the surface finish.

Now, all things considered, I know this is going to fall apart on me in the future, the bondo will crack, break away, and expose the paper/apoxies beneath it. I plan on continuing none the less to finish what I set out to do. Maybe sometime down the road I'll redo this all and make it from foam, but for now it is what it is.

Next steps for me will be sanding, sanding, and more sanding, followed by some wet sanding. One of my saving graces in this whole build is that I'm aiming for a distressed/damaged look similar to my ODST Helmet. So that being said, any warping/chipping/breaking will add to the damaged look, but will need touching up as the piece ages.
 

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Looking good, but are you using bondo spot putty rather than bondo automotive filler? I am curious because of how red it is. The bondo should be mixed and thick and usually white ish. If you sand the edges/corners down a bit and then apply the bondo, it should get the shape you want alot easier. The fiberglass method is also very sturdy, so although there may be minor cracks, you will not be able to see them through the paint and it will last you a very long time.
 
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