Halo The TV Series Master Chief full build
- Thread starter Nimitz
- Start date
Nimitz
Member
Boot cap mother mold is now done ...
And first half of boot top is also done
Tomorrow I'll finish the top piece mother mold and then add some bolts and trim up the cap mother mold and get it ready for roto casting. Assuming the resin cast works I'll then go on and make molds for the last 2 pieces of the boot.
xaero
New Member
Super cool!
Nimitz
Member
Ok, boot cap successfully cast in the 47d semi rigid resin. Is super strong but also has a nice amount of give to it ... you can see th3 cast piece
along with the PLA model it was cast from so ive cast another cap for the other boot. I've also finished the mother mold for the top piece as well as completed claying up the heel piece in preparation for making its silicon mold. Once all 4 pieces are cast I'll start testing various methods for attaching to my boots. I'm thinking I might be able to just Velcro them on to the boots which if it works would be the best solution but we'll see.
Also, using my newly acquired Singer heavy duty 4423 sewing machine I think I've figured out how to sew the piping for the under suit shoulder and elbow sections of my top shirt. I've already successfully sewed the leather gun belt and pistol holster for my Colt Severs (The Fall Guy) space cowboy costume I'm also making. That build thread is on The RPF if anyone is interested. Ryan Goslin's 'Metal Storm' costume in The Fall Guy
Also, using my newly acquired Singer heavy duty 4423 sewing machine I think I've figured out how to sew the piping for the under suit shoulder and elbow sections of my top shirt. I've already successfully sewed the leather gun belt and pistol holster for my Colt Severs (The Fall Guy) space cowboy costume I'm also making. That build thread is on The RPF if anyone is interested. Ryan Goslin's 'Metal Storm' costume in The Fall Guy
Nimitz
Member
Got the 2nd boot cap cast as well
Tomorrow I'll cast the first top piece, had a small issue with the mother mold and had to use some Smooth-On Habitat Black epoxy putty to stiffen but since it only needs to survive 2 pulls hopefully I'll be ok.
Also completed flaying up the heel and mid section pieces so as soon as my next batch of smooth cast 25 arrives I'll make each silicon mold and the plaster jackets.
Also completed flaying up the heel and mid section pieces so as soon as my next batch of smooth cast 25 arrives I'll make each silicon mold and the plaster jackets.
RageGoblin
Member
The way you're making these pieces looks really friggin cool. Do I understand correctly you're 3D printing the parts for the suit, and then using those parts as a mold to cast softer less rigid parts you'll actually be wearing??
Nimitz
Member
Correct. I was going to do the all the armor pieces this way but now that I've actually cast them I'm rethinking some of that. While it's obviously way more time consuming to do this vice just 3D print pieces, the real issue comes down to actual usefulness. Makes perfect sense for the boots since to walk normally you need them somewhat flexible but for everything else I'm not sure how much I gain. It's not like an Iron Man suit where your entire body is covered. All the joints, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are all exposed and since I'm sewing an undersuit out of stretch fabric there should be no issue with flexibility and movement.
Yes, the armor would be somewhat lighter overall but it's just PLA so it's not like it's that heavy and as for the individual pieces being not rigid I don't know what that will really buy me. And finally, the cost is pretty significant since I need mold max 25 to make each mold, a bunch of plaster bandages to make the mother molds and then the smooth cast 45d resin to make the part. While roto casting does use quite a bit less silicon for the molds, 'less' is relative ... so we'll see.
Luckily, since all the arm and leg armor are basically hollow tubes there would be much less prep for molding. Simply block off one end and you're ready to make a mold. The chest and COD will require a little more work like with the boots if I go that route.
If I could have cast the parts in a urethane rubber so that they would end up flexible like a toilet plunger that would be different but then you encounter painting issues since you need to use a Special flexible automotive paint that you spray with an hvlp sprayer and the stuff is more expensive than silicone! Now you can tint the rubber before casting but then you run into how to get exactly the same color on each part you cast since again you'd be mixing tints to get the correct color and unlike airbrushing you can't layer pre tinting the urethane resin. this smooth cast 45d is paintable just like PLA so it's easy.
Anyway, it may turn out that the chest pieces would benefit greatly from being semi flexible so we'll see ...
Yes, the armor would be somewhat lighter overall but it's just PLA so it's not like it's that heavy and as for the individual pieces being not rigid I don't know what that will really buy me. And finally, the cost is pretty significant since I need mold max 25 to make each mold, a bunch of plaster bandages to make the mother molds and then the smooth cast 45d resin to make the part. While roto casting does use quite a bit less silicon for the molds, 'less' is relative ... so we'll see.
Luckily, since all the arm and leg armor are basically hollow tubes there would be much less prep for molding. Simply block off one end and you're ready to make a mold. The chest and COD will require a little more work like with the boots if I go that route.
If I could have cast the parts in a urethane rubber so that they would end up flexible like a toilet plunger that would be different but then you encounter painting issues since you need to use a Special flexible automotive paint that you spray with an hvlp sprayer and the stuff is more expensive than silicone! Now you can tint the rubber before casting but then you run into how to get exactly the same color on each part you cast since again you'd be mixing tints to get the correct color and unlike airbrushing you can't layer pre tinting the urethane resin. this smooth cast 45d is paintable just like PLA so it's easy.
Anyway, it may turn out that the chest pieces would benefit greatly from being semi flexible so we'll see ...
RageGoblin
Member
That sounds so much more intense than regular 3d printing, sanding, filling and priming, and then painting. I agree it makes total sense for the foot pieces to be flexible. That's actually an issue I have been troubleshooting with my suit.
If you were to do a mixed media suit, how difficult would it be to get the finally coloring to match across the entire suit once all is said and done? I am afraid it would be quit difficult to get the shine or lack thereof to be consistent with some parts being cast and other parts being 3D plastic.
If you were to do a mixed media suit, how difficult would it be to get the finally coloring to match across the entire suit once all is said and done? I am afraid it would be quit difficult to get the shine or lack thereof to be consistent with some parts being cast and other parts being 3D plastic.
Nimitz
Member
When you look at it i think it actually might be less work ... all the effort is in prepping the part for molding. The actual mold making and casting doesn't take much time at all and when the part comes out of the mold it's literally ready to paint. Since I'll be using the exact same process for painting it doesn't matter that the underlying part is cast resin or PLA ...
BDUB
Sr Member
Dig the extra effort you’re putting in for these molds. I’m curious - how is the cost of molding/casting these types of parts?
I love the idea of casting my armor but i hesitate (and gravitate away from) because i know the cost is usually fairly high and, for me at least, not worthwhile unless I plan on producing at least a dozen.
The durability benefits of casting a part in almost whatever you want is probably the biggest draw for me.
I love the idea of casting my armor but i hesitate (and gravitate away from) because i know the cost is usually fairly high and, for me at least, not worthwhile unless I plan on producing at least a dozen.
The durability benefits of casting a part in almost whatever you want is probably the biggest draw for me.
Nimitz
Member
It's not cheap .. Trial size of Mold Max 25 for making the silicon molds is ~$37 and I needed 2 of them. Smooth cast 45d flexible resin is ~$43 for a trial size and I needed 2 of them. Plaster bandages is another $50 and then you need all the misc supplies like a good gram scale, cups, chip brushes, stir sticks etc but I already had all that from when I made my Cooper Howard aka The Ghoul full head platinum silicon mask. All that just gets you 2 sets of boot armor ... and there is some skill in learning to make good molds effectively unlike 3D printing ...
And as I said I don't really see a ton of benefit for the rest of the armor pieces
And as I said I don't really see a ton of benefit for the rest of the armor pieces
BDUB
Sr Member
Why don’t you 3D print your mold boxes?
Might save you some time and material. You could probably use less silicone if you built registration into the printed mold boxes.
I’d design it to more or less follow the contours of the part with an inch or so of space between the part and the interior of the mold box.
You could also build vents into the top of the printed mold boxes so that you can pour it once and call it done without trapping air.
I’d also probably slurry some XTC-3D (or some other silicone friendly resin) into the interior of the mold boxes to seal it and remove the layer lines. I imagine the layer lines could cause some slight registration issues; too many features to register to.
IDK lol, might be more complicated than it’s worth but if it produces easier to build molds, might be worth it.
Nimitz
Member
Interesting but mold boxes really use a LOT more silicon then making a brush on mold and a plaster jacket. I suspect by the time you design a mold box, print it and then pour silicon it's actually not that much more time then adding some clay walls and doing a brush on mold. Also every part would need its own unique mold designed and printed. I'm very comfortable doing brush on molds and plaster jackets because of making the full head platinum silicon mask so it's easy to just stick with what I already know works. And it's only a few pieces.
Plaster jacket and one side of last two pieces completed this morning, tomorrow I'll finish the last half of the jacket and then I just have resin casting of each of the parts left
Plaster jacket and one side of last two pieces completed this morning, tomorrow I'll finish the last half of the jacket and then I just have resin casting of each of the parts left
PowerMaster MD
New Member
I made the same Mando Vibro-blade. It was one of my favorite pieces but people rarely see it because it's usually tucked into my boot.
Nimitz
Member
All casting now complete. Time to figure out how best to attach everything to my boots ...
Also completed an initial concept test for undersuit piping around the elbows which are exposed ....ignore the bright colored thread as i needed to see what i was doing since I've never don anything like this before.
The plan is to have a long sleeve Lycra black top and then over that I've have a vest which as the laser cut foam pieces that make up the exposed parts of the abdomen & back undersuit as well as these 'piping sleeves' which will fit over each elbow and be attached via Velcro.
For the exposed parts of the shoulder the vest will actually have short sleeves so that I can sew the piping directly on to it.
I used 5mm piping for this test but have some 10mm piping coming to try also.
So overall it should end up being the following:
Undersuit consisting of 3/4 length stretch fabric pants with 1" wide pipping sewn in it, long sleeve Lycra top, ribbing elbow sleeves, vest with sewn in ribbing on shoulders and foam abdomen and spine pieces, PLA armor, flexible cast resin boot armor ...
The plan is to have a long sleeve Lycra black top and then over that I've have a vest which as the laser cut foam pieces that make up the exposed parts of the abdomen & back undersuit as well as these 'piping sleeves' which will fit over each elbow and be attached via Velcro.
For the exposed parts of the shoulder the vest will actually have short sleeves so that I can sew the piping directly on to it.
So overall it should end up being the following:
Undersuit consisting of 3/4 length stretch fabric pants with 1" wide pipping sewn in it, long sleeve Lycra top, ribbing elbow sleeves, vest with sewn in ribbing on shoulders and foam abdomen and spine pieces, PLA armor, flexible cast resin boot armor ...
Last edited:
Nimitz
Member
My 8mm piping arrived so it was time to break out the real material I planned to use for the piping and have at it...
When I test fit it , it looks like I may need to scale up the bicep armor a bit as it didn't really fit well over the piping and I also need to make the piping probably 2" wider so it fits under both the firearm and bicep armor with room to spare. It took quite a long time because I thought I'd be clever and sew the end Velcro on first and then insert the piping and sew each piece one at a time. That works but it was very time consuming. For the next ones I'll just sew all the piping and then trim them and add the Velcro at the end ...
Nimitz
Member
I ended up resizing the bicep armor from 90% to 95% and now the elbow undersuit ribbing fits perfectly inside it ...
If anyone is looking for some bicep armor I'll be selling ones I already made along with a helmet I 3D printed but dont need. The files are from GA and I'll post the 'for Sale' ad shortly in the 'marketplace' sub. Forum
