I'm a noob too. I'm a father of three and work full-time. I've been trying to finish up my boys Master Chief for the past 8 months. You need a lot of luck and time to finish it by Halloween. Here are some tips that I hope you find useful.
Cutting and Pasting - I find that cut and paste at the same time work best. The HD chest piece for example needs more than a thousand cuts. Cutting all at the same time will causes delay because you will be constantly hunting for the right piece. When you begin your cutting, you may want to cut extra space for area that will be folded and glued. Cut according to the line that will be visible. When you are ready to fold, use red and blue ball point pen. Draw a blue line on pieces that you need peak fold. Red line on valley fold. This will help in scoring lines and without losing orientation of peak/valley.
Resin and bondo - Unless you have a workspace/garage that is away from human civilization, you need to do most of your resin outdoor (resin fume kills!). If you live in a cold region, you may not be able to resin your pieces in October. Resin and Bondo will only set in a warmer temperature.
I originally thought of going HD for all armor. Since the armors that I am building are for 2 boys that are growing at an exceptional rate, it did not make sense for me to go all HD. My kids can only wear the armor for this year Halloween. After that the armor will go to museum. You may want to think if it is worth it to spend all those effort for a one-time use costume. Costume building is not cheap and it definitely will test your patience. Good luck!
I will post some pictures soon once the armors are done. I've posted some in my prior post. Look up my profile and some of the photos that I posted.
Hope this helps.
