ODSTCody
Member
I'm not sure if this is the right spot for newcomers to post their builds - I did look around to see if I could figure out the best possible spot, but this seemed like the right spot so here goes nothin'.
So I've been a fan of Halo pretty much the moment my dad let me play his copy of Combat Evolved at a young age, but my favorite Halo games are the Halo Wars spinoffs (primarily because RTS is my favorite genre in gaming - at least half of the games I own are strategy games) - as a consequence of playing them repeatedly I've acquired a bit of a preference towards the classic armor that Red Team wears; it's honestly my favorite sci-fi armor (rivaled only by two sets of armor in Star Wars) and I've always wanted to replicate it. Well, I've chosen to do so at long last, and I wanted to share my progress with some photos.
First, however, the most noteworthy parts of my build are two things: the first is the materials that I'm working with. I know a lot of people have a thing for Pepakura and EVA foam, but I just haven't been able to get those to work for me. I'm actually using dried floral foam, which is super easy to sand and cut to a precise degree (as you'll see in a moment), which is then covered in several coats of wood glue and then covered in Bondo to harden it.
The other thing is something I'm sure to get a lot of flak for, but seeing how this is my first costume, I'm somewhat inexperienced and I'm just doing this for fun, I'm not going to make it perfectly 100% accurate and I may resort to having "half-coverage" pieces on things like my thighs, my forearms, shins, etc., though I may renege on that decision. I also bought a helmet, and I'll share photos once that's painted and assembled.
So anyway, let's take a look at my step-by-step process. I'll start with the breastplate.
Anybody with sharp eyes might notice that only half of it has any lines/details on it; the reason for this is that I fold the posterboard in half, and draw on an exterior face, where the folded edge is the center of the piece in question (I did this for both shoulders as well). I'll elaborate more on this system in a second.
So like I was saying, I cut off little sections at a time and trace their outlines on the foam itself. I don't really keep a code of "depth" markings because I do it all in my head. Not like exact measurements or anything; I mean like how deep something needs to be or if it's at an angle or slope.
You can still see some Sharpie lines, most prominently on the outsides and the lowest quarter of the two "breasts". Those lines were so I'd have a "reference" or a "fallback" line to let me know the limits of what I need to be sanding.
And here's where I'm at right now. The right shoulder, the breastplate, and the left shoulder. I'm trying to figure out which piece to do next - I'm stuck between the back armor and the thigh guards.
Let me know what you think, though be polite about it if you dislike it.
- MacCraw.
So I've been a fan of Halo pretty much the moment my dad let me play his copy of Combat Evolved at a young age, but my favorite Halo games are the Halo Wars spinoffs (primarily because RTS is my favorite genre in gaming - at least half of the games I own are strategy games) - as a consequence of playing them repeatedly I've acquired a bit of a preference towards the classic armor that Red Team wears; it's honestly my favorite sci-fi armor (rivaled only by two sets of armor in Star Wars) and I've always wanted to replicate it. Well, I've chosen to do so at long last, and I wanted to share my progress with some photos.
First, however, the most noteworthy parts of my build are two things: the first is the materials that I'm working with. I know a lot of people have a thing for Pepakura and EVA foam, but I just haven't been able to get those to work for me. I'm actually using dried floral foam, which is super easy to sand and cut to a precise degree (as you'll see in a moment), which is then covered in several coats of wood glue and then covered in Bondo to harden it.
The other thing is something I'm sure to get a lot of flak for, but seeing how this is my first costume, I'm somewhat inexperienced and I'm just doing this for fun, I'm not going to make it perfectly 100% accurate and I may resort to having "half-coverage" pieces on things like my thighs, my forearms, shins, etc., though I may renege on that decision. I also bought a helmet, and I'll share photos once that's painted and assembled.
So anyway, let's take a look at my step-by-step process. I'll start with the breastplate.
Anybody with sharp eyes might notice that only half of it has any lines/details on it; the reason for this is that I fold the posterboard in half, and draw on an exterior face, where the folded edge is the center of the piece in question (I did this for both shoulders as well). I'll elaborate more on this system in a second.
So like I was saying, I cut off little sections at a time and trace their outlines on the foam itself. I don't really keep a code of "depth" markings because I do it all in my head. Not like exact measurements or anything; I mean like how deep something needs to be or if it's at an angle or slope.
You can still see some Sharpie lines, most prominently on the outsides and the lowest quarter of the two "breasts". Those lines were so I'd have a "reference" or a "fallback" line to let me know the limits of what I need to be sanding.
And here's where I'm at right now. The right shoulder, the breastplate, and the left shoulder. I'm trying to figure out which piece to do next - I'm stuck between the back armor and the thigh guards.
Let me know what you think, though be polite about it if you dislike it.
- MacCraw.
