Deaadshot's 3D Printed Halo 5 Noble Build

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Deaadshot

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Hello Spartans!

This will be my second post on the 405th forums after my welcome post a few weeks back. I'm still relatively new to the costuming world though I'm a member of the 501st Legion (Garrison Titan up in the Seattle area) after building a Shoretrooper Squad Leader and TFA Kylo Ren. I built the Shoretrooper from a kit so I do have some experience in building armor that I hope will translate well to this project. I've been a big fan of Halo since the original and I love the new look of the Spartans in Halo 5. I'll be adding to this build thread as I go. Hopefully this will provide some useful material for others or at the very least some entertainment value for the rest! I'm planning to be done with the suit by end of the year (ahead of my second child expected in January) to be [officially] debuted at Emerald City Comic Con in April.

Now on to the Halo 5 Noble build...

PLANNING: I'll be 3D printing all of the armor pieces with the exception of the helmet which I've commission from Brian Johnson. I'm printing on a Creality CR-10s and so far the results have been great! The color scheme will be a vibrant green (Montana Gold Acid Green) and flat black. I'm a big fan of weathering so the green will be dulled a bit with a black wash and silver streak weathering. I'm estimating around 800 hours of printing for all of the armor parts (roughly 35 parts total excluding the weapons).

SOURCING: The armor will be printed in PLA. So far I've used black 1.75mm Hatchbox PLA though I am going to test out some Amazon Basics PLA soon. I bought a pair of tactical boots from Amazon for about $70 that have a great futuristic look that I hope will show through the foot armor a bit. For the undersuit, I'm going with a motorcycle base layer from Dainese. The undersuit is around $100 but it should pay off. It'll be cool, form-fitting, and provide a good structure to attach armor parts to without sagging or losing it's shape. I'm going to layer thin EVA foam parts to the undersuit to give it the Halo look, primarily around the torso, naval, and hips. This will also give me a good surface for painting to give the undersuit more green surface area. I have industrial velcro that I will be gluing to the underside of the armor and suit so the parts are easily removable but secure to the undersuit. I may resort to some additional strapping if the weight of the pieces is too much for the undersuit to hold.

MODELING, SCALING, and PRINTING: I found the Halo 5 Noble .obj files on the forums posted by Art (aka 'THE FRIGGEN MAN'). The .obj opened in Blender with very soft details so I opened it through Microsoft 3D Builder and saved down a new .stl file of the full suit. I'm 5'8" so I scaled the full suit .stl to be about 60" (again, excluding the helmet) to give it some relative scale prior to parting out the .stl files by armor part. From there, I cut out each individual armor part and saved each as it's own .stl file. Fortunately, the CR-10s has a pretty large print bed (300x300x400mm) so I'm planning to print everything as one piece with the exception of the chest piece which I'm expecting will need at least six parts. Of the 35 parts (give or take depending on how I split the chest), I've printed five to date. A 'test' original Halo Magnum that I will be sizing up slightly and re-printing, bicep (with pauldron as one piece), two knees, and a foot (one of four parts of each foot). To get scaling right, I'm using a few anchor points. For the legs, I'll start with the knee, followed by the foot, and scale the shin accordingly based on the distance between. The thigh will follow from the top of the knee. The arms will start with the bicep and hand plate with the forearm scaled based on the distance between. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with the chest at this point but the general scaling I've done should be pretty close. The chest of the Noble suit does have an 'Iron Man' light that I'll be adding as well.

Onward! I'll post progress as things start to come together.
 
Picture time!

Here's a rendering of the suit in all it's glory!
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The test print Halo Magnum (will be scaled up about 120% for the next print).
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The first armor piece I printed was the bicep/pauldron. One piece. Took 50 hours to print!
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The tactical boots from Amazon. I'm hoping some of the cool details show under the four armor parts. (Edit: will be getting new boots to fit the foot armor better)

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Man, that's awesome!
If you haven't already, check out Pablo Vincentin's Concept pieces for additional information on Lighting and other details the obj. file is unfortunately missing.
Was about to start with this Armor too (mixed with Reach elements like the shoulder pauldron)....but might switch to helioskrill instead.
So good luck with your build!

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Man, that's awesome!
If you haven't already, check out Pablo Vincentin's Concept pieces for additional information on Lighting and other details the obj. file is unfortunately missing.
Was about to start with this Armor too (mixed with Reach elements like the shoulder pauldron)....but might switch to helioskrill instead.
So good luck with your build!

Nice! Those are great. Yeah the .obj's are definitely a little soft but a bit of the detail comes out when converting to .stl through 3D Builder. I may decide to add some more detail through Blender but for now I think most of the angular detail is close enough and will look pretty intense in person. I was actually thinking of throwing on a removable pauldon like Reach too. Potentially a piece that will fit right over the Halo 5 pauldron and is held in place by a recessed magnet. The possibilities are endless!!
 
A couple set backs this week. This week's lesson is SCALE before PRINT! The full model scaling didn't translate very well to the feet or forearms. Fortunately I caught the forearm in the first few minutes of the print. The upper opening looked way too narrow when it started printing. The length was right on which is why I didn't think to check the rest of the fit. Rookie mistake! Print aborted, plastic scraped, and on to the (re)modeling.

First I mocked up the octagon opening with the ccurrent sizing and cut it out of a sheet of paper to get an idea of sizing. Definitely too narrow (78cm)! I widened the paper opening to about 90mm and then it slid right on my arm. With that sizing in mind, I threw the forearm stl file back into blender and widened the upper opening vertices. It landed at about 85mm without affection the actual model so I just scaled up the entire model to 105% to bring it up to 90mm. Then back into the printer for the second attempt! It'll be about a 2 day print so I'm glad I figured it out now rather than in a couple days when it finished and didn't fit.

The boots have a similar problem but I may try a hot water bath and some widening once the pieces are pliable. The combat boots I have are really bulky as is so I'm going to return them for a more low profile boot that will be a better fit with the foot armor. The foot parts only take 8-to-15 hours to print so if the hot water bath doesn't work they can be scaled up and re-printed no problem.

Moral of the story... don't forget your scaling!

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I’m currently doing the Halo 5 Noble armour in foam - looking forward to seeing how your project turns out!

Awesome! I almost went with a foam build and then I used this project to finally get myself a 3D printer . Assuming you have a build thread, I'll go check yours out too!
 
Here's a pic of the boots with the 'tiny' foot armor. The scaling for the foot parts will be tricky. I'm getting a new pair of boots today so I'll measure them out and see if I can fit the armor accordingly. I've come to realize that spartans have strangely short feet...

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Awesome! I almost went with a foam build and then I used this project to finally get myself a 3D printer . Assuming you have a build thread, I'll go check yours out too!

Thanks, I do - not sure how to link to it...the 3d printed boots are looking fantastic!
 
My first forearm came off the print bed BEAUTIFULLY! The right arm is now in 3D! (Just needs an elbow). This part came out so great I decided to just reverse it and print the left forearm next. Total time for the forearm was 47 hours. Oh and the scaling was PERFECT! The wrist is just wide enough to slide my hand through and the wider opening hugs my forearm perfectly! Just enough room for an undershirt and some velcro to hold it in place.

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This image shows three stages of finishing. Forearm straight off the printer, bicep after some sanding and primer, and knee sanded, primed, and black base coat. I plan to sand and add a second coat to the knee to minimize the print lines on the flat surfaces.
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Update time! After a couple steps backwards on the printing I finally managed to hone in my CR-10s to (hopefully) avoid failures! Unfortunately, the learning came with a few setbacks on the elbows and left bicep.

KNEES: Both printed, one sanded, primed (repeat), and painted with a Rustoleum Pro Matte Back (pic below).

ELBOWS: The elbows were first printed as a pair and standing up vertically with a skirt (skirts essentially just run some filament around the perimeter of the print without actually touching the print). The bed adhesion wasn't great and one of the parts fell mid-way through the print. I came home to spaghetti (and not the, "Hey wife you're awesome!" kind of spaghetti). For the next attempt, I added a brim to give the taller print some more tooth on the bed. Worked like a charm!

BICEP (aka my 'white whale'): let me see if I can walk through the trails a bit here... It's true, I got a successful print of the right bicep previously. I have tweaked my settings since, primarily the supports to reduce marring and the infill to reduce unnecessary weight, and wanted to use these new setting on the left side. If they yielded noticeably positive results, I would reprint the right side as well (I'm estimating the cost of one bicep around $16 using high quality Hatchbox filament). First attempt failed because a support fell. OK, bummer but it happens and my new supports are thinner than the old ones with less surface area on the bed so this is not entirely unexpected. Second, I tried to print the original file, same as the right. Again, a support failed. "What the fudge?!" Same file as the previously successful bicep but reversed for the other side. Maybe I'm losing some bed adhesion since taking it out of the box? Re-worked with my new 2.0 settings to print on a brim (see above as used in the elbows print). A few different issues on this third attempt: 1) the brim was peeling up around the edges. Not ideal but not a deal breaker since the part itself was printing fine. 2) a few small gaps between rows. That's a new one, not sure what's up there but I can bondo it and you'll never know. The 50+ hour print continues! 3) and here's the deal-breaker, the filament broke off before the filament sensor and the printer continued to print air oblivious that it wasn't getting any filament. Off to the computer to review the timelapse photos to see what the hell was happening here. Fortunately, the problem was abundantly clear. The control box was tipping over, then tipping back, repeatedly. This put strain on the filament gear and is most likely the reason for the layer gap. This was also the reason for the broken filament as the filament sensor fell and ended up causing the filament to break off. Let's MacGyver our way out of this one. Sensor hot glued to the z-axis, control box [gently] clamped to the table, glue stick used on the glass bed to add next-level adhesion (no I didn't come up with this on my own, this is a tried and true method). EUREKA! The left bicep with improved 2.0 settings completed this morning and is FLAWLESS!

HELMET UPDATE: Brian is making great progress on the helmet and shared a few update pics. The Montana Acid Green is everything I could have hoped for and the contrast with the black looks great! The green will dull a bit with weathering and a clear coat so the final result won't look as bright. I challenged Brian with a velco attached-visor so I could easily swap out visor colors. My top three pics will be silver, black, and green, all with a honey comb pattern. He'll be adding a white stripe to the cheek, weathering, and adding white LEDs. I am beyond excited to see this beaut in person!

WEATHERING: I've done a bit of research and wanted to give Brian some direction on how to weather the helmet so that it matches the armor. I'll be doing a black/gunmetal wash and silver dry brushing around the edges to add a scratch effect. All of that will be underneather a matte clear coat. Stay tuned for more on weathering.

UNDERSUIT: I picked up a roll of 2mm EVA foam to add detail to the undersuit. Since EVA can both flex and take paint, it's a perfect solution to the green honeycomb that's seen in the Halo 5 armors. I'll be designing the undersuit look, painting, and using fabric fusion and/or velcro to attach it to the Dainese undersuit. The honeycomb will be painted using a vinyl stencil that I'll make with a Cricut (green base with a black grid).

I'm making progress but it is going a little more slowly than I had hoped. I guess I should just enjoy the journey, right?!

Elbows rendered in Cura
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Elbow spaghetti failure
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Knee sanded, primed, and painted (left) next to a knee straight off the print bed (right)
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The left bicep (aka my 'white whale') hanging out on the print bed. Great waking up to a 58 hour successful print!

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Brian Johnson's update on my helmet commission

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I’m very keen to see how your undersuit process goes. All looks amazing so far!

Thanks! So far it's all the 3D printer. I haven't actually done much work yet lol. Though it's taken plenty of troubleshooting to get the printer to behave. It's still early for the 3D printing tech so it's very much a DIY machine still. I'm sure in several years we'll laugh at how hands-on the tech is today. The sanding will be the true test of my perseverance. That one knee part too more sanding and priming than I expected. But I can skip some arm days at the gym!
 
To save you time on the sanding, try out XTC3D. I have tested it on some failed prints before going to my finished pieces and it works great! Very easy to use, you can get a small order on amazon (6.4 oz) for around 20 bucks, and that honestly goes quite a long way.
Thanks! So far it's all the 3D printer. I haven't actually done much work yet lol. Though it's taken plenty of troubleshooting to get the printer to behave. It's still early for the 3D printing tech so it's very much a DIY machine still. I'm sure in several years we'll laugh at how hands-on the tech is today. The sanding will be the true test of my perseverance. That one knee part too more sanding and priming than I expected. But I can skip some arm days at the gym!
 
Thanks! So far it's all the 3D printer. I haven't actually done much work yet lol. Though it's taken plenty of troubleshooting to get the printer to behave. It's still early for the 3D printing tech so it's very much a DIY machine still. I'm sure in several years we'll laugh at how hands-on the tech is today. The sanding will be the true test of my perseverance. That one knee part too more sanding and priming than I expected. But I can skip some arm days at the gym!

3D printing will always be DIY to some degree, if it ever changes and bits start becoming proprietary that's when people like myself will start jumping ship hard and build their own even more so. Being able to customize your machine to your needs is the best part of the hobby!

Sand, body fill, sand, resin coat, sand, body fill, sand, paint. JK1897 has the right idea.

To save you time on the sanding, try out XTC3D. I have tested it on some failed prints before going to my finished pieces and it works great! Very easy to use, you can get a small order on amazon (6.4 oz) for around 20 bucks, and that honestly goes quite a long way.

Don't get the small version of anything by Smooth-On. Sure it's convenient but for twice the price you get four times the product. Sample kits and small versions are the way they make money and they're killing it.
 
To save you time on the sanding, try out XTC3D. I have tested it on some failed prints before going to my finished pieces and it works great! Very easy to use, you can get a small order on amazon (6.4 oz) for around 20 bucks, and that honestly goes quite a long way.

3D printing will always be DIY to some degree, if it ever changes and bits start becoming proprietary that's when people like myself will start jumping ship hard and build their own even more so. Being able to customize your machine to your needs is the best part of the hobby!

Sand, body fill, sand, resin coat, sand, body fill, sand, paint. JK1897 has the right idea.

Don't get the small version of anything by Smooth-On. Sure it's convenient but for twice the price you get four times the product. Sample kits and small versions are the way they make money and they're killing it.

Thanks! I just ordered a 24oz of XTC3D on Amazon. It was only a few dollars more for the larger size so I went with that. I'll give it a shot! So far, I've had good results with just sanding, primer/filler, sanding, painting (knee) but it was a pretty clear print to begin with. The bicep will be a challenge and this stuff might save me a couple hours of finishing work!
 
EvaKura Armory, who is currently doing a secret costume commission for 343i.. :eek: Just spilled his secret at our PAX panel for smoothing 3d prints... it is using Kyrlon's Triple thick Glazing spray, then immediately hitting with Kyrlon's Chalky Spray paint. Something about the chemical reaction between the two makes it dry fast and sand easy and still keeps edges crisp. He's been able to keep the quality he is used to with the look, but with 1/4 of the sanding time. And with the price of these products it seems tough to beat.

For the record he is not a Krylon fan, just like the rest of us. Lol
 
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EvaKura Armory, who is currently doing a secret costume commission for 343i.. :eek: Just spilled his secret at our PAX panel for smoothing 3d prints... it is using Kyrlon's Triple thick Glazing spray, then immediately hitting with Kyrlon's Chalky Spray paint. Something about the chemical reaction between the two makes it dry fast and sand easy and still keeps edges crisp. He's been able to keep the quality he is used to with the look, but with 1/4 of the sanding time. And with the price of these products it seems tough to beat.

For the record he (and like none of us) are Krylon fans. Lol

I haven't tried it out yet but overall it seems like it'll be a cheaper approach than the heavy body primer method I use for small gap filling. Krylon rattle cans in Canada are usually $9/each and my usual Duplicolor heavy body automotive primer is $13/can. I guess it's time to do a bit of testing to see the mileage difference.
 
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