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KitKatGoose

RMO
405th Regiment Officer
Member DIN
S127
Hey everyone! This will be where I post progress and details of my new Reach suit. I've created two Reach suits in the past, one for myself and one for a friend. Hopefully this one will be even better looking and better functioning. This suit will be pretty much all foam, made with pep patterns and freehanded. The undersuit is probably gonna be upholstery foam, huuugely inspired by Lost Viking Props. Halo:Reach armor is my all time favorite design, so I hope to make a suit that I feel like I don't even have to improve upon after it's done lol!

Here's what I'll be making:
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I started on a chest piece a few months ago but I'm pretty sure it's too small, so I started this new one last night, hopefully it'll be the right size:
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That's all I have right now! If you have any questions about how I've done something or how I plan to do something feel free to ask! I don't have a specific deadline for this, I'll just be working on it as often as I can. Have a great weekend ^-^
 

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Also I'm a super noob to posting on here, so bear with me while I learn how to make a post how I want it to be lol (hence the weird photo set up on the last post??). Also I have a Halo 5 thread and will probably make a Halo 4 one, as I've been working a lot on all my different armor sets recently. Peace out
 
Yoooooo that chest looks super clean so far! I'll likely be tackling a Reach Spartan after my ODST is done, I'll be watching this build for sure.
 
Hey guys, its update time!! I've been hard at work the last couple weeks whenever I've had time to really get into building and I have a couple things to show for it! Also since Halo Discovery Outpost was announced I'm gonna try to have this done for the Orlando outpost, fingers crossed :rolleyes:

First, I finished up the chest piece to a point that I'm happy with for now, as I still don't really know if its the correct scale for the build.

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I used a female foam file for quite a bit of the chest, and just altered and added detail as I went. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, I'm just hoping it's the right size. I fit pretty comfortably inside it, but with other armor pieces and the undersuit and helmet it may end up being too small. I'm keeping it for now and just seeing how it looks with other pieces as I make them, and if I have to make a new chest by the end of this at least I'll have a little break with some smaller less time consuming pieces for a while. Chest pieces take up a lot of hours!

Next, I have the bicep. For this piece I compared my arm to my spartans and measured on my own arm where I thought the height of the bicep would end and just put that into the pep scaling thing. I printed it out and quickly cut the paper pattern and taped it roughly together to double check that it would be a good size, which is the following photo:
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I scaled it up for another test but the first one ended up being the best size (6.55inches tall) so I printed a fresh paper template and got to work turning it to foam!
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I used a foam pep file, and pretty heavily altered and added to it for certain parts. The scale seems good on my arm, but it was a bit tight so I messed with the back panel:
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This is the original back piece and then the one I made, I basically just added some width and tapered it into the top because it was only the bottom that was too tight. Then I put it to foam and curved the foam a bit before attaching it so that it didn't try to push apart the front and back of the bicep, I just needed a little extra space on the underarm area for undersuit and comfort.

I'll make the little shoulder connector thing when I make the shoulders. I'm probably gonna work on the arms for a while, I ordered some 6mm foam to get started on the robot arm soon and the arms are somewhat small pieces so I get satisfaction pretty quickly with these pieces lol :p
That's all for now! Happy building everyone! :D
(I sincerely hope this posts correctly, still have no idea what I'm doing)
 
Hey KitKat, saw your post on facebook earlier today, but didn't realise you had a thread here on the 405th. Any tips on getting your foam edges so clean? I usually guesstimate my angles and dremel edges where need be.

Thanks,
Squish
 
Hey KitKat, saw your post on facebook earlier today, but didn't realise you had a thread here on the 405th. Any tips on getting your foam edges so clean? I usually guesstimate my angles and dremel edges where need be.

Thanks,
Squish
Hey there! I usually guess for my angles as well, but I can say one way that helps is to cut the initial piece with all the beveling it needs, rather than cut a straight piece and then cut or sand the bevels in afterwards. To do this though it means I don't cut all my foam pattern pieces out and then build, I cut out sections and work on them until they're done because I can guess and grasp what pieces need what angles in a smaller area.. You may do all of this too lol I just know some people will cut the whole pattern and trace it to foam and then build all at once, but I figured I'd mention I do it in sections in case that helps. It makes each piece I cut cleaner from the get-go instead of trying to clean them up the best I can, because I special cut them for the shape they need to have instead of starting with a flat piece and then beveling the edges in someway. If that doesn't help or even make sense let me know, it's hard to get building details across through text :rolleyes: Maybe I'll take some photos for next update and try to show what I mean lol
 
Yeh, that makes sense. I have only just started building again last year after a long hiatus, but looking to get back into it.I did build some Skyrim armour last year ( been watching a LOT of Punished Props on youtube) and I'm pretty sure from memory I traced it all at once, but cut it out individually. Didn't have as many angles as a Reach chest piece though . Tracing, cutting, then gluing in one go just drives me nuts. By sanding/dremeling I mean for outside edges rathar than the inner glued faces

The way you explained it makes sense to me. Best of luck with the build, I'm looking forward to seeing the end product.
 
Hey man - your armour looks awesome! What files did you use for pep scaling? I'm trying to do my halo reach character, but I'm a total noob and could use all the info/help I could get. Have a good one
 
That is some spectacular work in your chest piece. Great job!
Thank you so much!!!

Hey man - your armour looks awesome! What files did you use for pep scaling? I'm trying to do my halo reach character, but I'm a total noob and could use all the info/help I could get. Have a good one
Thank you!! So if your question is about how I scale my stuff, it depends on the piece. For my bicep and forearm I was able to just measure on my own arm the length I thought they should be, and the width just worked itself out when I typed in length. A similar thing for the chest, I was able to measure the width of my waist where I thought it should lay and then add a bit for the actual width of the chest piece as it would need to be a little larger than myself. Let me know if that helped at all, I'm happy to answer whatever!

I've watching this on instagram and have been in pure awe at your build. You all set such a great standard to shoot for. I just can't wait for the final.
Ahh thank you, that's so sweet! I'm crazy excited for the final as well!!!
 
Update time!!!

Hey everyone! I haven't had a ton of time to sit down and post, but I've been working crazy hard (like 6-8 hours a day) on my build, and I'm out of town now with a little time to relax so I figured I'd fill you all in on what I've done! It's gonna be a big update lol. I only just realized how behind I left this thread, I was too focused on building everything I had time for :lol: I'm still trying to finish a version of this build for Orlando Outpost. Idk if it's possible or not, and I'm not going to destroy myself over it. There were a couple weeks I was working so hard and I was so scared of wasting time and just felt like constant con-crunch and anxiety, I sort of had to tell myself that I was giving up on the outpost plan so that I could calm down lol. I'm working so long as its still fun and worth it, there's no point in me building anything if it's too stressful for it to be fun. With that being said, I'm still able to work about 6 hours a day on it before it stops being fun, so it's still possible for it to get done in time. I'm also prioritizing certain pieces, so I may not have the robot arm, chest attachment, helmet attachment, thigh attachment, anything extra, for the first version of this suit. I'm willing to wear a more simple suit to Outpost and then upgrade afterwards. Now with that update on my plans and state of mind, lets get to build details!


Where to start. Well here's a master list I made after being inspired by Sodiumcat on instagram. I love a good list.
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I made a forearm. It was one of my least favorite pieces, they're just so detailed and weird lol. I worked on it for like 9 hours straight and hadn't even gotten to the details.
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Here it is all done and detailed up in comparison to a screenshot
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I soon got to work on the tacpad, which only took me a few hours to make.
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Thank you very much to Rick Martinez (I'm not sure of his forum name) for the tacpad screen detail sheet and permission to use it!
I downloaded the picture of the screen, and sized it in microsoft word, put a layer of blue plastic over it and plastazote (see-through foam) underneath to diffuse the light. The tacpad isn't put together at all, I need to seal and paint it before I can secure it together.


This is everything I had at the time, tried on. I made shoulders as well but I don't have many pictures of them alone or in progress.
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At this point it was pretty apparent to me that I needed to make a slightly larger chest piece, which I'll show soon.
Next I got started on the COD piece.
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Here's another pic of everything I had, with a more finished COD piece, and a test glove.
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I've also made a boot. It's pretty dang inaccurate, but I put crazy high heels in my boots to add height and be a big girl spartan lol so it's okay with me for now. It went as planned.
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Here are some things I ordered, Jorge's dogtags for future photos, clear Sea Foam spray for the visor, and spray adhesive. I wanna give a huge thank you to Gabe Schulz of Lost Viking Props for answering any questions I've had trying to figure out my visor and undersuit plans, I've had vague ideas for stuff but he definitely helped me confirm things and think stuff through! I also wanna shout out Andrew Gillen of Infinite Props for sharing his undersuit research with me and giving me someone to talk stuff out with! You guys were very very needed in my process!!
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Now let's get onto some undersuit build details!!

First I started with covering my duct tape dummy (its not currently the most accurate, but pretty close in size to me) in cling wrap, then in masking tape, and began drawing on the undersuit pattern and details. I used parts of my old suit to help a little with spacing and sizing, and just looked at a million references.
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Here's the waist pattern all flattened and cut. The front pieces will just be flipped to make the entire piece, and the back will have a seam with a zipper.
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So far I'm using 1/4 inch, and half inch thick upholstery foam, 1mm and 2mm thick craft foam, spray adhesive, and yaya hans matte 4 way stretch fabric (with a huge coupon of course) that's kinda rubbery.
For my size I decided it would be best to use 1/4 inch thick upholstery foam for the majority of the undersuit. Most of the pieces for the waist were simple and didn't need any detailing, but for certain spots I beveled the underneath edges a bit and then reglued them together so there would be a prominent pointed edge showing under the fabric.
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Here I'm just laying out the foam pieces on the back of the fabric, marking where it needs cut and cutting the fabric for glueing.
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This is during the glueing and wrapping process. Spray glue on back of fabric and front of foam.
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This is a craft foam back piece that gets covered in fabric, and then I add velcro to the underside so it can be placed on the back and cover most of the zipper. I'll also attach some spine pieces to it. I may need to widen it just a tiny tiny bit, as it becomes a little too thin once the undersuit starts curving around me, like it won't 100% cover the velcro placed for it. Also sorry the past tense and future tense are getting messed up with this whole post, I did so much of this so long ago so it's hard to keep track and phrase things correctly and have it be easy to understand (plus its hella late and I'm very sleepy lol :sleep:).
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This is the main structure of the back, with the velcro for the back cover, and some elastic glued on the inside for attaching to the rest of the waist.
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Before I get to the last undersuit pics I have, here's the new chest piece I slaved away at for a little over a week. I worked on it for so so so many hours and it still took that long lol. I'm much happier with the size.
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Now here's the part I kept telling my husband I was insanely proud of and couldn't wait to post about, but I wanted to get the waist wearable before I posted! He had to hear about it for quite a few days before I could tell anyone else :p I seriously couldn't sleep the night after I made this because I loved it so much.

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Testing the look and size of everything with my old helmet.
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One of my many reference pics.
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It most definitely will crease with wear, and I'm not really sure how to help that currently. It's also gonna be dang hot. But oh well. I love it lol.
Its not fully done, I need to reinforce the whole thing and add a few small detail pieces, before Outpost if I have time but we'll see.
This is the current inside. I've used lots of glue of different types, and some sewing so far. Each separate piece is connected with elastic. I think I have some better ideas for the legs though.
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Since hitting the milestone of wearability on the waist I haven't been able to work a ton, but I did manage to make the thighs way quicker than I thought I could. I forgot to save the original pictures though, so they come with instagram story captions heheh. I also used armorsmith designer to size my thighs, cause homegirls got some thighs lol. It helped SO much, and made them way less intimidating knowing I didn't have to alter them as much by hand. They also aren't as accurate as I could make them now, but they'll do just fine.
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I tested out the sizing of my old soft case to see if I could just add it to this build to add some character without taking lots of time to build a new one.
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And now we're up to date with me visiting lots of family for some graduations. I'll be out of town for a total of two weeks which is so much build time to lose, but it's fine cause I love being here with my family :) I did actually bring any paint ready armor pieces I have up here, so during down time and good weather I'm getting a little work done on those.
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I just hit the limit for attached files so I suppose I'm done! Sorry if it takes me forever to update again, just know I'll be working hard and I will get to comments and questions when I can, so ask away! I do want to mention that I have a ko-fi, so if you feel like you wanna support my work in that way, I would so so so appreciate it. I spend lots of time on my craft and I wanna share and freely offer my gathered knowledge to those it could help, I love that part of this community so much. My art and costumes do obviously cost money though lol, so if you feel like you'd like to help me out in that regard (you of course do not have to), it would make my day and make my crafts even easier to continue!

Have a wonderful rest of your week, and keep building!
-Kitkat
 

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Holy smokes. This whole build is incredible! That undersuit is the best reach undersuit I've ever seen! You should be sure to save the patterns and post them; I'd give my left arm for patterns that good!

Tremendously good work.
 
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