Master Chief Mk VII/Halo 4: First Build [WIP/Pic Heavy]
- Thread starter PolyEngineer
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PolyEngineer
New Member
Thanks for all of the comps! I just might be printing the pep work for the chest piece today. Little nervous about getting the size right!
I purchased the visor off of eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRONZE-BUBB...37?pt=Apparel_Merchandise&hash=item4d07c544e9
The photo on the add makes it look nearly gold, but as you can see from my personal photo it doesn't look anything like that. The more light it can reflect the more gold, or bronze, it will look. So in low light conditions it nearly looks like a smoked chrome.
Since the visor was "bubbled", or curved in both directions, I honestly didn't have to bend it very far to get it to fit correctly. Once it was cut to the appropriate size it just slipped right in. I'm having a bit of trouble keeping the left and right side of the visor secured to the inside of the helmet, i've only tried hot glue, though. I'm sure there is a much better way of securing it, just have to take the time to look into it. But for now it works!
I purchased EVA from from Home Depot, the normal stuff most people use for foam armor crafting. Then I got some foamie pieces from Joanns crafting store and used that for the detailing. It took two separate pieces of EVA foam and three pieces of foamies to finish it off.
I purchased the visor off of eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRONZE-BUBB...37?pt=Apparel_Merchandise&hash=item4d07c544e9
The photo on the add makes it look nearly gold, but as you can see from my personal photo it doesn't look anything like that. The more light it can reflect the more gold, or bronze, it will look. So in low light conditions it nearly looks like a smoked chrome.
Since the visor was "bubbled", or curved in both directions, I honestly didn't have to bend it very far to get it to fit correctly. Once it was cut to the appropriate size it just slipped right in. I'm having a bit of trouble keeping the left and right side of the visor secured to the inside of the helmet, i've only tried hot glue, though. I'm sure there is a much better way of securing it, just have to take the time to look into it. But for now it works!
I purchased EVA from from Home Depot, the normal stuff most people use for foam armor crafting. Then I got some foamie pieces from Joanns crafting store and used that for the detailing. It took two separate pieces of EVA foam and three pieces of foamies to finish it off.
PolyEngineer
New Member
Decided to go ahead and start doing the pep work on the chest piece. I don't want this project to become stagnant so I need to keep the work flowing!! WOot!!
I've changed my pep process a bit. After I took such a long, long, long,...... long time to put all of the pepakura detailing into the helmet, I ended up shaving most of it off, or removing something after the resin/bondo process in order to work on the detailing separately and just attach it to the helmet. Although it's somewhat lazy of me to skip the detail work during the pep work, I feel the final product will look better doing them separately. Let's hope i'm not wrong! Tis a trial and error process, that's for sure.
For some reason I have to use Pepakura Viewer to print. My Pep Designer program won't print anything. Anyone else have that problem?
Getting ready to print after scaling the pieces and moving the parts around in Pepakura Designer. There was a "cross bar" piece that stretched from the top left, to top right part of the front of the chest piece on this design. I used that as a reference piece for scaling it. Only had to print off two small pieces to see how it would fit across my chest. I'm glad I didn't just jump right into pepping because it took four tries to get the size right.
That "cross bar" I mentioned is the support for this section of the chest piece.
This is where I currently am! This one is going much faster than the helmet.
Thank goodness....
I've changed my pep process a bit. After I took such a long, long, long,...... long time to put all of the pepakura detailing into the helmet, I ended up shaving most of it off, or removing something after the resin/bondo process in order to work on the detailing separately and just attach it to the helmet. Although it's somewhat lazy of me to skip the detail work during the pep work, I feel the final product will look better doing them separately. Let's hope i'm not wrong! Tis a trial and error process, that's for sure.
For some reason I have to use Pepakura Viewer to print. My Pep Designer program won't print anything. Anyone else have that problem?
Getting ready to print after scaling the pieces and moving the parts around in Pepakura Designer. There was a "cross bar" piece that stretched from the top left, to top right part of the front of the chest piece on this design. I used that as a reference piece for scaling it. Only had to print off two small pieces to see how it would fit across my chest. I'm glad I didn't just jump right into pepping because it took four tries to get the size right.
That "cross bar" I mentioned is the support for this section of the chest piece.
This is where I currently am! This one is going much faster than the helmet.
Thank goodness....
PolyEngineer
New Member
Finally found some decent items to use for the missing details from Hobby Lobby.
PolyEngineer
New Member
LEDs are done!
Spartan214
New Member
Beautiful helmet, and a bit late but, I wouldn't worry about the stripe unless aesthetically, you want to change it. Depending on how tall you are, most of it probably wouldn't be visible anyway. Except if you're just like, "You know, I think this area would look better darker..."
Btw, what exactly did you spray for the mirrored effect on the visor and did you seal it with anything? I'd heard that whatever the stuff is, it can flake off easily, but idk if a sealant would mess with the material.
Btw, what exactly did you spray for the mirrored effect on the visor and did you seal it with anything? I'd heard that whatever the stuff is, it can flake off easily, but idk if a sealant would mess with the material.
PolyEngineer
New Member
Thanks! Good point, i'm 6' 2" so maybe the top of the helmet isn't something to worry about.
The visor was factory mirrored when I purchased it off of ebay. I nearly used the clear visor/spray paint method, but from most of the photos I had seen, it didn't seem like the best idea. I had never heard of the flaking problem. I'd imagine sealing it would help, maybe even plasti-dip or something?
- Member DIN
- S613
completely WOW thats all i can say.
PolyEngineer
New Member
Currently the front is finished. The back is taking awhile because I couldn't find any pep files to match my reference photo. I would edit what I have in Solidworks, but the window's side of my mac is running extremely slow lately, I just hardly even go over there anymore. I've basically been editing the back of the chest piece by hand, which is a little time consuming, but aside from summer classes I have nothing else to do, so why not! Spent some time today making a dummy to better work with the chest piece. Wanted to make sure it was straight and would fit correctly after the first few coats of resin.
PolyEngineer
New Member
YESSSSSSSS... I'm Finally back at it! After starring at my chest piece for the past two months my schedule is beginning to open back up. Finals are in two weeks and most of my professors have handed out the final assignments. Once i've get them out of the way it will be time to start cranking out parts again. We have a new CNC embroidering machine at the engineering lab I work at, which is pretty awesome. I plan on using it to stitch up some honeycomb patterns for the under-suit. I also moved into a larger place since I last posted on the 405th, so i've got a larger work area and much better lighting to work during the night, which is also pretty awesome! I'll post photos once the first layer of bondo hits the chest piece.
Feels good to finally be back, missed ya guys!
Feels good to finally be back, missed ya guys!
PolyEngineer
New Member
Welllllp, I crashed and burned on the chest piece. After too much time out in the sun and a rushed attempt at pepping the thing it just wasn't up to my standards. Not only that, but I was experimenting with expandable foam for the inside of the rear piece. It worked absolutely great up until I left it in my car. The foam melted and ran all over my back seat. F#(@K!!
To start fresh I prepared foam pieces for the gloves with the laser cutter we have at work. The pieces look great! (will post photos tomorrow). I'll be hitting them with the heat gun, layering with white glue, plastidip, and might try hardening them again with an epoxy I found. Since they were so easy to cut with the laser cuter I won't mind if the epoxy experiment fails.
If my new pep + foam idea works out for the forearms i'll be continuing it for the rest of the armor. I'll be sure to upload any simplified pep file versions of the armor that I make if the stuff turns out.
Some even BETTER news then laser cutting armor is that I won tickets to Phoenix Comicon on the radio!! ACE!! That just means I'll have to speed things up on the building.
Glad to be back!!
To start fresh I prepared foam pieces for the gloves with the laser cutter we have at work. The pieces look great! (will post photos tomorrow). I'll be hitting them with the heat gun, layering with white glue, plastidip, and might try hardening them again with an epoxy I found. Since they were so easy to cut with the laser cuter I won't mind if the epoxy experiment fails.
If my new pep + foam idea works out for the forearms i'll be continuing it for the rest of the armor. I'll be sure to upload any simplified pep file versions of the armor that I make if the stuff turns out.
Some even BETTER news then laser cutting armor is that I won tickets to Phoenix Comicon on the radio!! ACE!! That just means I'll have to speed things up on the building.
Glad to be back!!
Masterchief0624
Member
- Member DIN
- S124
This build is coming out nicely, the helmet is just fantastic!! Good job and congrats on the tickets!
PolyEngineer
New Member
It took literally 30 minutes to cut, fold, and glue this thing. It actually would have taken less time but for some odd reason I was a numbskull and inverted the 3d file in pep.disigner. So all folds and printed guidelines are in the INSIDE of the piece. Derrrr.
I decided the bottom of the piece is a tad too big, plus I'm going to take down the boxy edge of the side pieces a bit. Hopefully i'll have the file edited, printed, and put together by tonight!
I decided the bottom of the piece is a tad too big, plus I'm going to take down the boxy edge of the side pieces a bit. Hopefully i'll have the file edited, printed, and put together by tonight!
PolyEngineer
New Member
Used Corel Draw to vector cut the armor pieces for the gloves out of 1/8" thick foam.
Before glueing the pieces together.
Found a set of gloves at Home Depot for $10. Even has the honeycomb print on the inside!
Before glueing the pieces together.
Found a set of gloves at Home Depot for $10. Even has the honeycomb print on the inside!
PolyEngineer
New Member
I did some test runs with the laser engraver on a hand full of different fabrics. This one turned out the best. It is a double layered fabric. Leather styled rubber on the bottom and a stretchy polyester blend on top. It's not perfect considering the rubber turns a brown gold, but it will be extremely cheap to buy compared to pre-printed honeycomb pattern fabrics.
PolyEngineer
New Member
I didn't like how the first forearm turned out, so I took another night to edit the Sketchup file. Printed and folded and much happier with this one!
2 layers of fiberglass on the outside, 2 on the inside, and a third including fiberglass mat on the inside.
Quick primer spray after a light sand.
Cut the foam detailing pieces with a laser cutter.
The layering process….
cut a 1"x.75" block of wood, then cut in half diagonally for the "spikes" on the side.
1 layer of white glue, then 2 layers of plastidip before painting.
The piece is currently getting sprayed with metallic. Then it will be hit with some olive camo and sanded for the worn effect.
2 layers of fiberglass on the outside, 2 on the inside, and a third including fiberglass mat on the inside.
Quick primer spray after a light sand.
Cut the foam detailing pieces with a laser cutter.
The layering process….
cut a 1"x.75" block of wood, then cut in half diagonally for the "spikes" on the side.
1 layer of white glue, then 2 layers of plastidip before painting.
The piece is currently getting sprayed with metallic. Then it will be hit with some olive camo and sanded for the worn effect.
PolyEngineer
New Member
Laser engraved a double layer of poly and leather to get the honeycomb effect. This set is a smaller pattern for the gloves.
Recently started cutting the pieces to glue & sew onto the gloves before attaching the armor.
Recently started cutting the pieces to glue & sew onto the gloves before attaching the armor.
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