wlitt
New Member
Hello to whoever reads this, this is my first thread ever haha
Ive been working on a Halo ODST cosplay for over a year now, and have been through multiple iterations of the kit, continuously upgrading because I am unsatisfied. Ranging from 3d printing to the Sean Bradley ODST kit, and now to parts from other makers whom ive met on the internet.
I discovered Branfuhr Studios and Vulture Productions on Instagram and was awestruck by the durability and game-accurate looks of the parts cast, so I decided to purchase multiple parts and paint them myself with rattle cans. I will share my journey doing it, and multiple things that I've learned along the way. This is going to be part on of a multiple-part thread or something because I have a lot to cover
Helmet:
The helmet I purchased was a branfuhr studios halo 3 odst resin cast, The quality of helmets that Justin Branfuhr makes is honestly off the charts good, and the pricing is fair too. They come as a raw cast and need to be trimmed at the bottom, and the visor needs to be cut out with a Dremel or a rotary tool. I've learned that drilling holes in the helmet along the visor helps a lot to guide the Dremel, and for the spots to cut off that are hard to reach, a pair of model nippers does the job fantastically. Here is a picture of the helmet after I trimmed it:
From there, it's pretty easy, I use some spot putty to fill in some gaps, then give it a nice thick coat of filler primer, wet sand it, going up from 600 to 1500 grit. Then it's ready for paint. I used the color Rustoleum Charcoal Grey after it was recommended by multiple people whom I spoke to through Instagram. Here's the helmet with the base coat:
@offearth3d on Instagram had a tutorial on how to create a faux texture for the helmet's faceplate (the black front part). It looked fairly easy, so I decided to give it a shot. All I needed was some Liquitex, chip brushes, and black ink. From there, I mixed the Liquitex and the Ink, then stippled it onto the helmet to give it some texture.
I think it looks cool and adds a sense of realism. From here, I used some stencils I made on my Cricut Joy to add some personalization on my helmet, threw in the visor that's also from Branfuhr studios, painted the vents and side panels black, and put on a tactical NVG mount because it looks cool. (I already know that ODST helmets have built-in NVGs.) Before I move on to the next step of weathering, I used USC Spraymax Satin 2 part to seal the helmet's paint.
I'm planning on doing some dry brushing to the helmet later to add some scratches and more weathering. But for now, I got a big bag of dirt from my local park, and some oil wash for my helmet to give it that grimy, earthy reach feeling. Here is the finished product.
There are still a few things that I am unsatisfied with on my helmet, I think that it would look good with more oil wash as the dirt took a lot of it off during its application, and I would love to find some ways to make this helmet personalized, such as a callsign logo, or war graffiti, etc, but im not the most creative guy haha.
One very important thing to note is to be very cautious when using these satin rustoleum grey paints, they're very thin and love to drip
Thank you for reading
Ive been working on a Halo ODST cosplay for over a year now, and have been through multiple iterations of the kit, continuously upgrading because I am unsatisfied. Ranging from 3d printing to the Sean Bradley ODST kit, and now to parts from other makers whom ive met on the internet.
I discovered Branfuhr Studios and Vulture Productions on Instagram and was awestruck by the durability and game-accurate looks of the parts cast, so I decided to purchase multiple parts and paint them myself with rattle cans. I will share my journey doing it, and multiple things that I've learned along the way. This is going to be part on of a multiple-part thread or something because I have a lot to cover
Helmet:
The helmet I purchased was a branfuhr studios halo 3 odst resin cast, The quality of helmets that Justin Branfuhr makes is honestly off the charts good, and the pricing is fair too. They come as a raw cast and need to be trimmed at the bottom, and the visor needs to be cut out with a Dremel or a rotary tool. I've learned that drilling holes in the helmet along the visor helps a lot to guide the Dremel, and for the spots to cut off that are hard to reach, a pair of model nippers does the job fantastically. Here is a picture of the helmet after I trimmed it:
From there, it's pretty easy, I use some spot putty to fill in some gaps, then give it a nice thick coat of filler primer, wet sand it, going up from 600 to 1500 grit. Then it's ready for paint. I used the color Rustoleum Charcoal Grey after it was recommended by multiple people whom I spoke to through Instagram. Here's the helmet with the base coat:
@offearth3d on Instagram had a tutorial on how to create a faux texture for the helmet's faceplate (the black front part). It looked fairly easy, so I decided to give it a shot. All I needed was some Liquitex, chip brushes, and black ink. From there, I mixed the Liquitex and the Ink, then stippled it onto the helmet to give it some texture.
I think it looks cool and adds a sense of realism. From here, I used some stencils I made on my Cricut Joy to add some personalization on my helmet, threw in the visor that's also from Branfuhr studios, painted the vents and side panels black, and put on a tactical NVG mount because it looks cool. (I already know that ODST helmets have built-in NVGs.) Before I move on to the next step of weathering, I used USC Spraymax Satin 2 part to seal the helmet's paint.
I'm planning on doing some dry brushing to the helmet later to add some scratches and more weathering. But for now, I got a big bag of dirt from my local park, and some oil wash for my helmet to give it that grimy, earthy reach feeling. Here is the finished product.
There are still a few things that I am unsatisfied with on my helmet, I think that it would look good with more oil wash as the dirt took a lot of it off during its application, and I would love to find some ways to make this helmet personalized, such as a callsign logo, or war graffiti, etc, but im not the most creative guy haha.
One very important thing to note is to be very cautious when using these satin rustoleum grey paints, they're very thin and love to drip
Thank you for reading
