First build! Spartan armor

[Xstera]

Hello everyone to whom is reading this. I am undertaking a great journey (pun intended) to 3d print master chiefs armor. It will be my first time 3d printing but I'll have help with it. I have read and listened to the tutorials, discussions, and videos I believe I am ready to start. However I would like to ask of you for advice and warnings.

1. I am going to use either the Galactic Armory or InstinctiveCreate3d Master Chief stl but I want to know if it is dated (as in found bugs and or needs corrections), been corrected, needs corrections and where I can find them, or just perfect as is. I have noticed people complain about the arm hole and gauntlets before but not too much with the Galactic armory version.
2. When designing how do you determine where buckles, magnets, and Velcro go? Also what do most people go about for the harness. (I have seen the universal guide but I want more peoples opinions and takes).
3. What is the general opinion of printing solid pieces or multiples pieces that you put together?
4. I plan on using ABS then vapor smoothing the pieces individually. I handle acetone daily at my job and know people who have vapor smoothed before.
5. What do most people do for the black under suits and do people incorporate elbow and knee pads into their outfits. I have seen some stl's come with molds and would like some clarification on if Urethane rubber or silicone is generally better and how to go about getting the mold made (I assume printing the stl files for it and going from there*.
6. Is there any accessories that anyone recommends for the builds or just something to addon to the armor to make it look better.
7. Lastly, I plan on working on this and finishing it up by this November in 9 months. So be honest what are the chances I can get this done in time or good at all.

Thank you for your attention.

 

[SgtSaint]

Most of your questions are answered 10 times over with existing build threads. Your next 50 questions will also probably be answered in existing build threads. It behooves you to make use of all that existing knowledge. A couple hours of reading will give you man-years of understand built on experience and generously documented by those that went before you.

• My "New Armorer FAQ" thread:
  SgtSaint's FAQ post
  <spoiler> I commonly recommend
  1 - starting with a less unforgiving build as your first armor, then work up to one's like this with tighter and tighter tolerances after you've leveled up your scaling skills.
  IE: A Spartan may not be your best choice for a first full armor.
  2 - Start at the feet and work up, helmet last after you've gained skills at scaling and printing.</spoiler>
  
  My 1st Spartan build (Not awesome)
  First {Halo} build - Spartan (TV series)
  My 2nd Spartan build
  Build 2 - MK-VI gen-3. With some silver timeline influence
  My 3rd Spartan build (just realized I need to finish this with more details) MK-VI Silver team season 2 [2024 build]
  My ODST Build
  SgtSaint ODST build (AU regiment) Advice:
  Just because this is new to you doesn't mean its new. You don't have to re-invent the wheel with making, finishing or painting techniques. With ANY new endeavor I urge people to scroll back in the forums and facebook pages about a year and just read, read, read. A day spent reading can gain you man-years of knowledge and insight. You see what gets asked over and over. You see the problems that pop up over and over. You see things like "after about 3 months these cracks appeared" or "how did you do strapping" or "what shade of green is this" and so on that you only get with the benefit of time.
  YouTube: Instead of watching movies this week just watch YouTubes on printing, making armor, doing painting etc. There's nothing like WATCHING something happen both good and bad to be a great learning tool.
  Read through some build threads where people detail the process, the scaling, the planning, the fails and successes, finishing, painting, strapping. These are a couple of mine but there are hundreds more. Also don't brush off build threads for armor different than yours. Just because it's a... Heavy Infantry Mandalorian, or whatever doesn't mean the lessons on scaling, padding and painting don't apply to your armor just as well.
  If you're thinking about a printer:
  "What's your printer?" thread on the 405th forum:
  What's Your Printer?
  I wish I knew this about printers before buying discussion:
  "I wish I knew" Tips When Starting to 3d Print
  My favorite section of any YouTuber's channels is the recent post by Frankly Built who is well regarded in this genre - about taking some time to learn before doing:
  
  He also just added this one about sanding and smoothing where it leans in to the same thing I keep saying: Just sand it (as opposed to the 'slather with thinned bondo magic shell' approach).
  
• 
  
  

 

[Fallen]

Hello everyone to whom is reading this. I am undertaking a great journey (pun intended) to 3d print master chiefs armor. It will be my first time 3d printing but I'll have help with it. I have read and listened to the tutorials, discussions, and videos I believe I am ready to start. However I would like to ask of you for advice and warnings.

1. I am going to use either the Galactic Armory or InstinctiveCreate3d Master Chief stl but I want to know if it is dated (as in found bugs and or needs corrections), been corrected, needs corrections and where I can find them, or just perfect as is. I have noticed people complain about the arm hole and gauntlets before but not too much with the Galactic armory version.
2. When designing how do you determine where buckles, magnets, and Velcro go? Also what do most people go about for the harness. (I have seen the universal guide but I want more peoples opinions and takes).
3. What is the general opinion of printing solid pieces or multiples pieces that you put together?
4. I plan on using ABS then vapor smoothing the pieces individually. I handle acetone daily at my job and know people who have vapor smoothed before.
5. What do most people do for the black under suits and do people incorporate elbow and knee pads into their outfits. I have seen some stl's come with molds and would like some clarification on if Urethane rubber or silicone is generally better and how to go about getting the mold made (I assume printing the stl files for it and going from there*.
6. Is there any accessories that anyone recommends for the builds or just something to addon to the armor to make it look better.
7. Lastly, I plan on working on this and finishing it up by this November in 9 months. So be honest what are the chances I can get this done in time or good at all.

Thank you for your attention.

Hey Xstera

Welcome to the community! Ask 10 people, you'll likely get 10 different answers, but I'll try to go through each of yours and answer them to the best of my ability.

1. I don't have enough experience w/ files from either of these 2 creators to answer this question. I've printed props from GA but never any armor (yet).

2. I've tried a few different rigging options on suits since I started depending on the suit or where I was in my crafting journey. A harness is a great way to shift weight to sit on your shoulders rather than having the lower body mostly held by your waist. I've had a harness before and liked it but also done a combination of parts attached to the undersuit and free floating (floating examples being shins and forearms). It depends on your needs and the suit for what will be best for you.

For deciding where buckles, magnets, or velcro will go I think about how the armor will go together for me. I want to consider how is the armor split if it is and ensure I can reach whatever buckle or velcro I need to reach. I don't often have a dedicated handler with me, so I have to be as self sufficient putting on and taking off my armor as possible. A couple of files I like for helping with rigging and attaching webbing and such to prints are these ones on Printables

• Cosplay Harness Helpers
• Cosplay Strapping Anchors
• Cosplay Snap Plates

3. There's pros and cons to each. Sometimes, unless you have a large printer you may need to slice the part which solves that question for you, but in most cases I take into consideration material, time, supports, and ease of cleanup. If a part is detailed all over with no clear spot that I can hide a split made in my slicer or I can't find a low detail spot where I can just keep sanding until my seam is nice and smooth I'll try my best to keep it as one. Otherwise I have no issue splitting a part up for printing. It's not terribly difficult to sand a seam flush, and using either alignment pegs or dovetail joints on the split can help in lining parts up for gluing if that's a concern.

4. Seems like you've got a handle on this one.

5. I start by using just some black pants and shirt, usually compression or at least Drifit material. For the ab wrap mine is made of foam wrapped in faux leather and sewn together that goes over top of my undersuit with plans to apply the same for elbows and knees. Others like Drim have done silicone undersuits and would be better able to talk to that. I chose my method because it involved materials I have on hand and am comfortable working with already.

6. This is a personal opinion one so the honest answer is add whatever accessories you want. My take is factor some type of pouch into your build if you can. It doesn't have to be something that you always wear, but having a pouch that you can access to store things and still have them be accessible is well worth it, even if it's off the shelf and not 100% game accurate.

7. It's absolutely possible to build a fully wearable suit by November. I don't know your current experience, skill level, funds, and time availability to work on it which all factor in to how "complete" you'd have it by November, but I can say I've had a wearable set of Spartan armor finished in 10 weeks. Full disclosure it was a hybrid of 3D printing and foam and did not have any undersuit components other than the black pants and shirt mentioned earlier. You'll want to be diligent and avoid procrastinating because "Well I still have (8, 7, 6, 5, ...) months. I don't need to work on it right now" such that you're a month out realizing half your parts aren't even printed.

 

[billeybob250]

Hello,

i will address a single question as you have 2 very bright and well informed answers above.

Question 7, can i do it in 9 months? most definitely as long as you are able to dedicate a few hours a week to working on it. I work full time and i have a toddler. i have about 2 hours of personal free time every night maximum. i started my halo 3 mk6 in February of 2025 with my hard deadline of September for CGC (Cleveland gaming classic the 1st convention i have ever attended) I have 0 cosplay experience, extremally limited 3d printing experience and 0 actually knowledge of how to do any of it. My suit was 99% completed at the time of the con (just little bits i could have improved if i felt i needed to). most of my working time was a few hours on the weekend or a hour here and there on week nights.

its absolutely doable.

good luck and i am looking forward to the updates.

 

[SirJuicy2112]

Hey Xstera

Welcome to the community! Ask 10 people, you'll likely get 10 different answers, but I'll try to go through each of yours and answer them to the best of my ability.

1. I don't have enough experience w/ files from either of these 2 creators to answer this question. I've printed props from GA but never any armor (yet).

2. I've tried a few different rigging options on suits since I started depending on the suit or where I was in my crafting journey. A harness is a great way to shift weight to sit on your shoulders rather than having the lower body mostly held by your waist. I've had a harness before and liked it but also done a combination of parts attached to the undersuit and free floating (floating examples being shins and forearms). It depends on your needs and the suit for what will be best for you.

For deciding where buckles, magnets, or velcro will go I think about how the armor will go together for me. I want to consider how is the armor split if it is and ensure I can reach whatever buckle or velcro I need to reach. I don't often have a dedicated handler with me, so I have to be as self sufficient putting on and taking off my armor as possible. A couple of files I like for helping with rigging and attaching webbing and such to prints are these ones on Printables

• Cosplay Harness Helpers
• Cosplay Strapping Anchors
• Cosplay Snap Plates

3. There's pros and cons to each. Sometimes, unless you have a large printer you may need to slice the part which solves that question for you, but in most cases I take into consideration material, time, supports, and ease of cleanup. If a part is detailed all over with no clear spot that I can hide a split made in my slicer or I can't find a low detail spot where I can just keep sanding until my seam is nice and smooth I'll try my best to keep it as one. Otherwise I have no issue splitting a part up for printing. It's not terribly difficult to sand a seam flush, and using either alignment pegs or dovetail joints on the split can help in lining parts up for gluing if that's a concern.

4. Seems like you've got a handle on this one.

5. I start by using just some black pants and shirt, usually compression or at least Drifit material. For the ab wrap mine is made of foam wrapped in faux leather and sewn together that goes over top of my undersuit with plans to apply the same for elbows and knees. Others like Drim have done silicone undersuits and would be better able to talk to that. I chose my method because it involved materials I have on hand and am comfortable working with already.

6. This is a personal opinion one so the honest answer is add whatever accessories you want. My take is factor some type of pouch into your build if you can. It doesn't have to be something that you always wear, but having a pouch that you can access to store things and still have them be accessible is well worth it, even if it's off the shelf and not 100% game accurate.

7. It's absolutely possible to build a fully wearable suit by November. I don't know your current experience, skill level, funds, and time availability to work on it which all factor in to how "complete" you'd have it by November, but I can say I've had a wearable set of Spartan armor finished in 10 weeks. Full disclosure it was a hybrid of 3D printing and foam and did not have any undersuit components other than the black pants and shirt mentioned earlier. You'll want to be diligent and avoid procrastinating because "Well I still have (8, 7, 6, 5, ...) months. I don't need to work on it right now" such that you're a month out realizing half your parts aren't even printed.

Point 7 is the biggest for me right now.

Just start now and keep working, your bound to get issues with parts, scaling, prints, molding etc. Life events too. I had plans to do my Daft Punk Helmet and Deadmau5 helmet and I got caught up with last min weddings and work stuff. Just chip away as much as you can now. Especially of your learning like me, you do not want to feel overwhelmed & rushed at the same time.

 

[Drim]

Hello everyone to whom is reading this. I am undertaking a great journey (pun intended) to 3d print master chiefs armor. It will be my first time 3d printing but I'll have help with it. I have read and listened to the tutorials, discussions, and videos I believe I am ready to start. However I would like to ask of you for advice and warnings.

1. I am going to use either the Galactic Armory or InstinctiveCreate3d Master Chief stl but I want to know if it is dated (as in found bugs and or needs corrections), been corrected, needs corrections and where I can find them, or just perfect as is. I have noticed people complain about the arm hole and gauntlets before but not too much with the Galactic armory version.
2. When designing how do you determine where buckles, magnets, and Velcro go? Also what do most people go about for the harness. (I have seen the universal guide but I want more peoples opinions and takes).
3. What is the general opinion of printing solid pieces or multiples pieces that you put together?
4. I plan on using ABS then vapor smoothing the pieces individually. I handle acetone daily at my job and know people who have vapor smoothed before.
5. What do most people do for the black under suits and do people incorporate elbow and knee pads into their outfits. I have seen some stl's come with molds and would like some clarification on if Urethane rubber or silicone is generally better and how to go about getting the mold made (I assume printing the stl files for it and going from there*.
6. Is there any accessories that anyone recommends for the builds or just something to addon to the armor to make it look better.
7. Lastly, I plan on working on this and finishing it up by this November in 9 months. So be honest what are the chances I can get this done in time or good at all.

Thank you for your attention.

I can speak to this a bit from my own build experience. I use a combination of urethane rubber and silicone for my undersuits, with the material choice really depending on what that specific part needs to do.

For areas that need more structure or load-bearing capability, I typically go with a 60A shore hardness polyurethane rubber. That gives you something that behaves more like a flexible structural component. A good example would be a chest support layer that forms the neck and arm gaskets while also helping carry the weight of the chest and back plates.

For components that are meant to flex and move with the body rather than support anything, I switch to Dragon Skin 10. At 10A shore hardness, it has a lot of elasticity, but still enough body that it holds its shape when at rest instead of feeling floppy.

All of my molds are 3D printed and then finished using standard smoothing methods. One thing I’ve started doing is adding a light coat of truck bed liner inside the mold to introduce texture. Without that step, the cast parts tend to come out overly smooth and a bit glossy, which doesn’t read well visually. The added texture helps sell the material as something more utilitarian and “in-universe.”