Halo The TV Series Master Chief full build

[Nimitz]

I would test a *prying* force. That's usually one of the easier ways to disengage magnets. And the grip of the pistol sticks out (back). If that were to get caught on some passer-by's robe for example, would it pry off easily?

Yeah I hear you but I tested these and you have to apply a significant amount of force to remove them so unless they actually get caught on something and I don't notice it and just keeping walking the pistol should not come off. My first iteration only had one magnet but that wasn't secure enough and the pistol would actually rotate on the magnet if medium force was applied. With two it simply clicks into place and locks in ...

 

[Nimitz]

Well something finally went right with my visor setup ...
Broke out the airbrush and tested spraying the inside with Mirror chrome and lo and behold it works as advertised ...

Also confirmed with GA what color they were using which turned out to be the same as what I used ... I Dye Poly golden yellow. The difference in color is because they appeared to have only done one of two dunks in the dye bath since I remember after the first round mine looked like theirs and I remember thinking to myself ... "boy I hope this gets darker" ... I needed up doing at least 5-6 rds before I was happy . Tomorrow or Sunday I'll redye the new visor depending on when the dye arrives ...
While I wait it's continuing to work on my new Fallout Wastelander costume to go with my Ghoul outfit so I have something different to wear on multiple days ...

 

[Manta]

If you look at the 2nd pic you'll see the magnets have what looks like the head of a Phillips head bolt in the middle which is exactly what it is. These magnets (Amazon) have holes in the middle on them. Also you want to use a locking nut or Locite Thread locker. If you just screw on a nut the magnets can start to rotate over time as you remove and replace the pistol. Mechanical attachment is always the most secure which is why SgtSaint's ski boot buckle system is such a great solution for attaching the chest armor

ah that makes sense. i wasn't sure what the locking nut was called lol. good to know what i need to look for. thanks!

 

[Nimitz]

ah that makes sense. i wasn't sure what the locking nut was called lol. good to know what i need to look for. thanks!

Yeah, the inside of those has a nylon collar which keeps the nut from backing off. Locktite thread locker works too it's just more annoying to get off and you need to wait 24 hrs for it to fully cure

 

[Nimitz]

Completed final sanding of the chest armor and glued up the Eva foam in the arm holes so once it dries all the armor is now ready to be painted ...

And speaking of painting, I've decided it's ok to cheat ... over the last couple of days I've been using AI to come up with a screen accurate paint scheme to match the TV show. So now I have all the necessary airbrush paints and the appropriate color ratios along with a layering and weathering guide and some good photos
I've also used AI to create some PDF templates for foam inserts for my helmet with recommended thicknesses and cutouts to accommodate my hearing aids. I also found a set of those electronic shooting hearing muffs in my closet and depending on if I have time I'll follow the tutorial on modding them for hearing enhancement in my helmet. I also have one of those wireless mic speaker things which I might also try to install if I have the time.
I also finally have all the parts I need for creating the energy sword so I can get started on that as well

 

[SgtSaint]

I've been using AI to come up with a screen accurate paint scheme to match the TV show.

Huh? Why would you need AI for that. We have the show as a reference, for the show. The last thing I would expect AI to do is be screen accurate.

 

[Nimitz]

you can certainly see the correct color from looking at pics from the show assuming you have the s/w to get screen grabs which I don't. But the images don't provide any information on HOW that paint scheme was achieved by the prop department. AI provides that critical link for how it was achieved. Think of it as having a 1 on 1 session with the folks who painted the master chief's armor ... I still have to execute the paint job and just because I know how it was done still doesn't guarantee it will come out accurate
The other big issue with just looking at screen grabs is depending on the lighting in the shot the colors and be very deceiving. With AI I got not only the actual colors used but it was optimized for typical harsh convention lighting. I also got options for tweaking the colors for photography instead.

For reference, during my Dalek build there was a 12 page thread .. 12 pages! On what the actual color was that the BBC painted the Dalek I was building even though we had 100s of images from the show. In the middle of the discussion one member relayed his conversation with a guy from the prop dept he met at a Con who looked at his Dalek and said 'you nailed the color' ... I stopped reading the thread at that point and just got some of the exact same paint he used ..

I'm just using AI since I don't have access to anyone from the show to talk to ...

 

[Nimitz]

Here's on of pint scheme reference photos it produced or me ...
Seems accurate to me ...?

 

[Nimitz]

So today was a good day in the shop ...
After spending nearly all day yesterday trying to make a manual articulating visor and failing, I was just about ready to throw in the towel
The tutorial posted in the 'turtortials' section seemed so easy, just a couple of screws and you're done. Well not so fast ... nothing against the original poster since without it I would not have even had the idea to try it but some important nuisances were left out.

Namely that where you put the pivot point on the visor is extremely critical to make it work. As you can see from this pic I didn't exactly get it right the first time ... lol

First attempt yesterday I put it at the top but because of the way the MC helmet is made with a flat top, the inside in not concave so the visor would hit up against the flat inside top and not rotate back. So I first tried to demel away small bits but that didn't work as there was not much material to work with.
So I rewatched the tutorial since she obviously made it work with a MC helmet and realized she put the pivot point at the very bottom of the visor ... so I tried that and while the visor now freely swung all the way back up it was sitting quite far away from the top of the helmet and when I tried to open the visor it would hit the top of my forehead . I'm guessing her head is quite a bit smaller than mine so there was enough room to make that work
At this point it was the end of the day and I was ready to throw in the towel and just live with it permanently mounted ... but I decided to sleep on it.
Well while watching the Olympics last night I started to think that maybe if I could pick a pivot point halfway in between there might just be enough room ... what's two more holes .. lol
So this morning I drilled hole set #3 and lo and behold it worked! So I knew I was going to need to add foam to act as friction stops so I first brokeout some more idle Poly golden yellow and redyed the new visor to make it a little darker. I did this first because my original cunning plan was to add foam to the visor but after thinking about it it was a much better idea to add foam to the helmet ... so I spent the rest of today adding and shaping various pieces of EVA foam to act as a friction lock, fill in some gaps along the helmet visor seam and also add some 'stops' at the bottom so when I pull the visor closed it stops in place

The result is I now have a manually articulating visor!

Note that I used cap head Allen head cap bolts since as everyone knows, in the future that is apparently the only type of screws and bolts there are ...
The friction fit is just s tad tighter than I would like, making opening and closing not as clean as you see in the tutorial but that should be just a matter of some light sanding. Also part of the issue may be because the visor is not very stiff since it's just .5mm PETG so I may look at trying to stiffen it by possibly adding some foam to the inside edges which are not visible?
For now I'll just take the major win and go watch more Olympics tonight and see what I think in the morning ...