Helmet Color Scheme Ideas?

[OpticChief]

Hey everyone, starting a build thread and looking to get some community input as I prep these helmets.


I’ve got several Halo helmets printed and am still early in finishing, so I’m open to ideas before anything is locked in.

Left → Right:
• Noble Six helmet w/ heat shield (Reach)
• Master Chief – Mark VI (Halo 3)
• “Grand Moff Spartan” helmet (Halo × Star Wars mash-up)
• Noble Six helmet (base model – Reach)
• Artainus helmet (Halo Infinite – Season 2)
• Reach Recon helmet

I’m mainly looking for:
• Color scheme ideas (canon or custom)
• Thoughts on clean vs heavy weathering
• Which helmets should stay subtle vs go bold


All are PLA prints and will be fully finished (filler, sanding, paint, visors), so feedback now actually helps steer the builds.


Appreciate any ideas or opinions, curious what you’d do with this lineup.
Can comment on all or choose one or two to suggest to.
Please post pictures and references!

 

[SgtSaint]

I think to some degree you should plan the color scheme for your entire suit so you don't lean too heavy in one direction or another, or one color or another then realize that it looks good on a helmet but on the total armor its excessive. And you want to be consistent that your accent color is just accent throughout. Than the 'side panel color', is the side panels throughout. etc.

Personally, I take photos, and the images from the file seller, and a paint program (Photoshop or otherwise) and I start to dummy up some ideas.

First {Halo} build - Spartan (TV series)

Thanks. Its good to have machines up and a hobby shed getting setup a little more each day. Thought about it: Yes. But I don't have any TPU on hand. And I have to get moving on this for Supanova Brisbane in November. So don't exactly have the luxury of waiting on supplies. And its a new...

www.405th.com

you can even markup your Scaling avatar to get a feel for how it would look on you.

 

[OpticChief]

I think to some degree you should plan the color scheme for your entire suit so you don't lean too heavy in one direction or another, or one color or another then realize that it looks good on a helmet but on the total armor its excessive. And you want to be consistent that your accent color is just accent throughout. Than the 'side panel color', is the side panels throughout. etc.

Personally, I take photos, and the images from the file seller, and a paint program (Photoshop or otherwise) and I start to dummy up some ideas.

First {Halo} build - Spartan (TV series)

Thanks. Its good to have machines up and a hobby shed getting setup a little more each day. Thought about it: Yes. But I don't have any TPU on hand. And I have to get moving on this for Supanova Brisbane in November. So don't exactly have the luxury of waiting on supplies. And its a new...

www.405th.com

View attachment 371213


you can even markup your Scaling avatar to get a feel for how it would look on you.
View attachment 371214

Thanks for sharing that, I really appreciate it; it definitely gives me some good direction and ideas to think about.

Quick question while I’m in the brainstorming phase: are there any good programs or tools you’d recommend for playing around with color schemes? Ideally, something where I can mock up custom ideas and experiment visually without needing to be super fluent in Photoshop. I’m more looking to test combinations and concepts than to do anything super polished at this stage.

Just curious what others here use when planning out paint jobs.

(I have a folder with lots of already pre-made color designs and concepts I've found on the internet, but I definitely want to do my own playing around with ideas and concepts, and I'm not digitally artistic.)

 

[SgtSaint]

Quick question while I’m in the brainstorming phase: are there any good programs or tools you’d recommend for playing around with color schemes? Ideally, something where I can mock up custom ideas and experiment visually without needing to be super fluent in Photoshop. I’m more looking to test combinations and concepts than to do anything super polished at this stage.

Not that I know of. I saw one used by Mandalorians and the best it gives is something that looks like paper doll "Color forms" kinda thing.
With SO MANY options across decades of Halo armor iterations I have a hard time imaging a program for doing this.

Do you want a fast analog way to do it? Print out the photo of your armor from the file supplier. Grab some clear overhead films from the office supply store along with a variety pack of Sharpie markers, and go to town coloring on the clear sheets over your print out. Then you can layer the page with the "blue thighs" over the sheet with the "black forearms" etc. Basically just like the old school way of cartoon "cel animation". As long as you keep it to one body type per sheet you can try multiple combinations pretty quick and all you have to be able to do is color within the lines.

 

[SigmaProps]

Hey there Optic! If you have the ability to, I recommend getting the spartan Blendr pack! It allows you the customize using the same colorways that Infinite has! Here's and example of one I did:

 

[Drim]

Thanks for sharing that, I really appreciate it; it definitely gives me some good direction and ideas to think about.

Quick question while I’m in the brainstorming phase: are there any good programs or tools you’d recommend for playing around with color schemes? Ideally, something where I can mock up custom ideas and experiment visually without needing to be super fluent in Photoshop. I’m more looking to test combinations and concepts than to do anything super polished at this stage.

Just curious what others here use when planning out paint jobs.

(I have a folder with lots of already pre-made color designs and concepts I've found on the internet, but I definitely want to do my own playing around with ideas and concepts, and I'm not digitally artistic.)

So I would suggest looking at the Spartan pack for blender. If you use this, you can create your spartan within the application and apply whatever color you like. This is the method a lot of our members use. Always happy to help you with this if you need it

For reference, here is a link to the tutorial on how to export your own spartan into Blender.

[Tutorial] How to make/view/export your own Halo Spartans in Blender

The following video will help users inexperienced/experienced with Blender quickly build their dream Halo Infinite armor set (as well as other armor sets from the other games at the bottom of this post). This can be helpful for brainstorming cool cosplay ideas, experimenting with paint jobs and...

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