Halo 5 DataPad in 24 Days

[TetriLys]

Finally making myself be brave enough to post a thread. Am I using this to actually hold myself accountable, or am I just distracting myself so I don't have to start on it yet? Well, I reckon we'll find out in the following days. I already know I'm going to format this thread weirdly, so forgive me for that.

The Goal:
Build and complete a DataPad from Halo 5: Guardians before July 24, 2025 (Raleigh GalaxyCon) so I can get Steve Downes and Jen Taylor to sign it

The Challenge:
In spite of my (albeit minimal) research, I have yet to find any tutorials on building a DataPad. I have found TacPad resources, but none so far for DataPads. We're flying by the seat of our pants here, folks.

The Obstacles:
Intense, all-consuming burnout and severe lack of time (40 hour work week + life responsibilities + miniscule social life)

The Fallback Plan:
Buy a dang poster at the autograph table

The Vision:

(screenshot from game)

(Pulled from a 2014 thread on Polycount)

(pulled from Video Games Artwork) *B is my personal favorite tbh

(Created by DeviantDragonclaw on DeviantArt)

The Materials/Tools:
11x14 Clear acrylic plexiglass sheets (4)
A gray sheet of plastic I had previously cut from the lid of a storage bin (I made a sanding box)
Dollar Store foam darts
Foam board
Rulers
Crafting/Xacto blades
Paint
Sandpaper
A (maybe) semi-functional cricut
A crapton of glue
+ a variety of bits n bobs from my craft/cosplay stash
And a dream

Since I can't use my printer, we're eyeballing it all. I really like the idea of having a frame around it, as pictured in photo examples 2 and 3. I think I'll make the dimensions like so:

Sooooo... yep. Don't think I can type much else without actually doing some crafting. Any input/advice or simple moral support would be much appreciated! Hopefully you'll see me back here with some progress fairly soon.

Thanks for taking the time to read all that!

 

[Parzival]

This is going to be amazing! Heck yeah! I love things like this.

 

[BlazingForge]

Dude... this project seems really cool and I don't think anyone has tackled a project quite like this yet! I'm super excited to see how this ends up going!

 

[M21]

This is insanely cool, i absolutely need to keep watch on this!

 

[TetriLys]

Day 1 (June 29 - day of initial post): Realized the acrylic sheets I had were too thin (had bought them for helmet visors). After a momentary mental crisis (I had hoped to only use supplies I already had on hand) I ordered the correct type of acrylic sheet (1/4" thickness) and scrounged up some rechargeable LEDs that I never installed in my car (installed as in... peel n stick). Congratulated myself for saving that packing foam from the 3D printer I haven't used yet. Made a crummy template out of contractor paper so I could at least feel some semblance of progress.

Day 2: Brainstormed at work. Had the brilliant idea that I would make the grip removable so I could recharge the LEDs easier. In my head, this sounded incredibly simple. Just make a switch/latch type thing so the grip would click in place and I wouldn't have to worry about the acrylic part falling off. Made the world's most useless latch while my supervisor wasn't looking (thin cardboard, tape, and a pen spring).

Alas, the latch wouldn't work. My brain was fried. It was 11pm and I was wondering when in the hell I had lost my ability to stay up until 3am without so much as a yawn. I wanted to keep the creative momentum going, especially since the acrylic sheet wasn't going to be delivered until Day 5 (supposed to be, anyway. Bezos, don't fail me now (he's done it before)), so I made a more tangible template out of foam board. May I remind you that I was intensely sleepy when making this, so the placement for the grip is off.

Day 3: Familial responsibilities had me getting home at 11pm... Got my dad to agree to cut the acrylic for me once it's delivered, because power tools = cool AND scary. He's going to use his jigsaw with the blade I bought that's supposed cut acrylic well enough. No progress to report.

Day 4 (today): Putzed around at work again (used paper, tape, pen and a ruler). This time I was trying to figure out how to design the grip without making it removeable. Working idea is leaving a hollow area that's covered by a flap on the backside of the grip for ease of access, that way I can still insert/remove the LEDs as needed while having the stability of the grip being permanently attached. Obviously, the simplest solution would be to glue the grip directly to the acrylic and just make the backside thicker for the LEDs to fit... but then they would be illuminating the acrylic from underneath - which wouldn't give the desired type of "glowy" that I was looking for. If the LEDs were to illuminate the acrylic from the side, the light would appear as if it were coming from inside the acrylic (at least... this is my theory. Mythbusters taught me to enjoy being wrong because that helps you learn, but man please let me be right this time).

^These photos are what we have as of right now... Yeah, haven't progressed as much as I wanted to, but the creative process is still fun! I'm going to start working on the actual grip I will be using on the prop - will use the foam board in place of the acrylic for now. Hopefully I'll get some significant results to upload.

Thanks again if you read all that!

 

[Onyx Props]

So cool! I love props that aren't the usual weapons etc. Props like these are under appreciated. Can't wait to see it done.

 

[TetriLys]

Days 5 & 6: Bezos failed me. Acrylic wasn't delivered on July 3 (was supposed to beat the holiday) and I spent both days recovering from the work week (and a majority of Days 7 & 8, tbh) and not working on the grip piece as previously promised.

Day 7: Acrylic sheets were delivered (I got a pack of two so I would have a backup). It's got a nice, sturdy weight to it and I'm pleased to report that it was the perfect level of thickness, glossiness, and transparency. Unfortunately for me, though, my parents had traveled to the beach for the holiday weekend and I was not about to try using my dad's jigsaw on my own. I was itching to make some progress, though, so after a bit of brainstorming and a lot of YouTube tutorials, I decided to give my jeweler's saw a try (it's a lot like a coping saw, just a much poorer quality). For about half a centimeter, things seemed to be looking up, then -

Yep, I snapped the flimsy blade. And of course I didn't know where my box of replacement blades were. Besides tracing the pattern onto the acrylic sheet (it's got a paper masking to prevent scratches, that's why it looks like paper/cardboard in the photos) and that tiny cut, that's all the progress for Day 7.

Day 8: No progress to report. Spent the rest of the holiday weekend chilling with the pupper.

Day 9 (today): Did the math and realized that GalaxyCon is coming up fast. As of right now, we have 15 days until the deadline is on us. It was enough to kick my ass into gear. Once I got home from work, I methodically went through every bag, drawer, box, and cabinet in my house until I found the replacement blades for my saw. I set to work again. I broke three more blades before I got a feel for it, but man was it time-consuming. It took at least 10 minutes per inch of progress, then I finally managed to bring that down to 5 minutes per inch, then 2 minutes per inch. Listen - it was a learning curve. All in all, it took around two hours to cut the entire thing out. My saw was small too, so I had to keep repositioning the acrylic so I could cut from another angle. The corners aren't rounded and the cut edges aren't smooth, but that's (hopefully) for Day 10 to deal with. For now, I leave you with this:

 

[Temple]

Definitely bookmarking this thread! Exciting work so far, dude.
Can't wait to see the end result!

 

[sir howard]

update!!!

 

[TetriLys]

update!!!

Posting again tonight!

 

[billeybob250]

this is awsome

 

[MooseCast89]

I can't wait to se the update on this, this looks super cool. are you planning on writing on it or having any text displayed other than for signatures at cons?

 

[TetriLys]

Day 10: Couldn't make any progress. Family responsibilities, errands, and boring stuff :/

Day 11: Worked on cutting out more of the acrylic. Also brainstormed more about what material to use for the grip and felt incredibly pleased with myself when I remembered I had an old wallet that I never planned on using again... Even though foam is a perfectly suitable material to use, I was feeling "extra" and wanted something with a nice texture and feel to it.

After I had deconstructed the wallet, though, I realized that the "vegan leather" from the wallet did not hold paint/dyes well. I want the DataPad to have the same yellow grip, so I resumed my search for a different material. Then I remembered my plastic checkbook cover...

Not only did it hold paint well, it was just the right size! (Life cheat code: most banks will give you a free checkbook cover if you ask them! I know this because I work at one. I was able to replace my checkbook cover with another one the next day)

Day 12: Realized that most inks and dyes don't like to stick to glossy acrylic, so I picked up some paint markers that reddit recommended. I tested them on some scrap acrylic and decided that Sharpie Creative would be the best option... I loved the colors from the POSCA paint markers, but it took much longer to dry - long enough for it to be a big risk for smudging. I'll be bringing the Sharpie Creative markers with me to the con for the autographs. Another conundrum, though...

The paint was still susceptible to scratches... so I'm definitely going to need to invest the time in crafting up a raised cover for the DataPad to protect the autographs between the con and home - I plan on spraying a clear protective coating over them. Unless the autograph table has some mystical kind of marker that I haven't heard of, that is. I think I'll use the packing foam for that. I also took the time to see how the LEDs contrast with the markers and... <3

Day 13: Finally cut out the areas for the LEDs to go in. Thought I had mastered the art of sawing with a cheapo saw... still took me an hour x_x. This part doesn't need to be pretty, though - it's going to be covered by the grip. On the bright side, things are really starting to look like the image in my head! I decided to scrap the idea of extending the frame in favor of it looking more like the canon DataPad from the game. I have another whole sheet of acrylic that I can experiment with later, when I have more time.

Day 14: Had planned on making a ton of progress, but a migraine got in the way of things... No progress to report.

Day 15 (today): Still felt hungover and foggy from the migraine, but I still managed some progress. Used the previously mentioned piece of gray plastic for the base layer of the grip. I plan on layering some thin foam on top of that, then the "leather" from my checkbook cover. I scored both sides so the adhesive would work better. I also wanted some rigidity so I wouldn't accidentally change the color of the LEDs or turn them off while holding it (color settings and power are toggled by pressing them like a button and they're very sensitive...). Speaking of which... the LEDs are about 1/2" thick, while the acrylic is 1/4" thick. One would think I would have planned for this. I didn't. I'll need to make the grip thicker to compensate. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it though.

I also needed to work on smoothing one side of the acrylic from my awful sawing skills. Thanks to a YouTube tutorial, it went pretty smoothly (ha)

I also removed the protective paper masking from the portions that will be in contact with adhesive and sanded them just a bit so the adhesive would be more effective there too. I didn't think to take a photo of them before moving to my PC to type this, so you'll get a photo of that next time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oof... ten days to go! I'm really trying to lock in - life just keeps happening. Tomorrow I'll be getting an assist from my sister on cutting a stencil with the CriCut. Ideally, I would just cut a vinyl sticker, but I want it to go on the underside of the DataPad so it would look nice and clean on the front, and most vinyl sticker sheets are white on the sticky side. So instead we're going with a stencil that I'll be filling in with one of the paint markers I bought - I really like the blue-green color.
Also, at first I had wanted to use a blueprint of the Mjolnir IV suit as the image on the DataPad, but - unless I was looking in all of the wrong places (likely) - I couldn't find any files with a good enough resolution... so, we're going with the UNSC image. Unless anyone else has a better suggestion?

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate the motivation from you guys

 

[TetriLys]

I can't wait to se the update on this, this looks super cool. are you planning on writing on it or having any text displayed other than for signatures at cons?

Thanks! As of right now, I plan on using this UNSC image right here:

 

[TetriLys]

Day 16 Mini Update: Don’t be a goober like me - be sure to vacuum your work area after each session and wear PPE when working with acrylic :/ I’m wearing a mask when sanding and sawing because I’m not a total dumb, but didn’t wear gloves or eye protection and now I have itchy eyes and hands. Stupid mistake considering I do own a full PPE set.

 

[MooseCast89]

Day 16 Mini Update: Don’t be a goober like me - be sure to vacuum your work area after each session and wear PPE when working with acrylic :/ I’m wearing a mask when sanding and sawing because I’m not a total dumb, but didn’t wear gloves or eye protection and now I have itchy eyes and hands. Stupid mistake considering I do own a full PPE set.

We all make little mistakes in the heat of a project. The important thing is to learn from them when we can and improve. Keep it up, looking good.