1st Build MJOLNIR Mark V [B] Custom

[pinoyfiasco]

Two days to go. As of last night, every single piece has been painted. I spent Sunday afternoon reattaching all the straps and buckles to the pieces I had to reprint (the thighs, belt, and right arm).

Found some time last night to work on making adjustments to the strap and harness. I was pleased to find that they still fit the same since the last time I did a test fit. I even did a few laps around the house. I definitely won't be running in these but definitely good enough for getting around.

The glue on my belt buckles will have cured by the time I get home so I'll finally be able to test fit everything tonight. Fingers crossed.

 

[pinoyfiasco]

Happy Halo-Ween!

Today's the day and I'm... 95% of the way there.

• I need to readjust the straps for the belt and ab wrap since they're sitting two or three inches too low here, which doesn't give my thighs enough clearance for me to be able to bend over or sit down
• The right shoulder pauldron needed fixing, which is why it's not pictured
• I ripped a couple of the shoulder seals trying to put the chest rig on; an additional helping of E6000 and duct tape should reinforce things better
• The helmet needs some additional padding to keep it from jostling

Also, I was really hoping I wouldn't need assistance putting it on. Alas, once either the biceps or torso are on I can't reach across my chest very well.

 

[pinoyfiasco]

Halloween came and went, and I wish I'd been able to get more photos but the evening got away from us. I promise I'll have more - I put too much work into this build to not have it sufficiently immortalized.

A few things:

• It did take some assistance putting on. I can do just about everything but the torso. By the end of the night the chest completely popped out (though miraculously didn't fall), which I think was my mistake. I'd hiked the ab wrap a little too high, which put pressure against the inside of the chest and kept it from engaging fully.
• The biceps also drooped down a bit, which took away my mobility at the elbows. I think I'll need to permanently secure them to the shoulders to prevent this from happening.
• Speaking of the arms, the SAP/CDO shoulder made it incredibly difficult to put the torso on by myself. I think a reprint is in order, but this time I'm going to use some powerful bar magnets so it can be detached when necessary, but still hold during use.
• Hand guards fell off. I may just resort to a loop of elastic in addition to the hook-and-loop strip for next time.
• I absolutely need to print the inner chest rig in flexible filament. Of course, my only large format printer isn't really capable of that so I'll have to convert it to direct drive before I can do so. That or just print it in several pieces, which isn't too much of an issue since most of it isn't visible and I won't need to worry too much about seam lines.
• I didn't have time to do all of the weathering that I wanted to do, as well as add lights even though I had all the parts for it. Also, because it was so windy out I didn't want to mess with the sniper veil - I'm sure it would have only caused more problems.

Despite all of the issues I felt like it was pretty successful. It didn't feel uncomfortable to wear and I felt like the proportions looked really good for my build. Walking around felt great once I got used to the additional weight at my feet. I learned *a lot* and can really only improve from here. I got a ton of compliments walking around. Apparently the drip was the talk of the bus stop the following morning.

To be frank, I understood cosplay before - I never didn't "get it." However, donning the finished suit for the first time was an absolute rush that I can't sufficiently put into words. I've wanted to do this since Halo 3 came out. Maybe even before that. Gonna be real corny here - I felt like a SPARTAN. I'm still riding the high and I don't know when I'll be coming down from it.

I'm very appreciative of all the guidance and wisdom I've benefited from here. Between the forums, socials, and the Discord, I have learned so much from you over the last several months - and I'm still learning. I'm hoping I can meet you all before long. Until then, I'm going to keep working on this guy some more.

 

[Crows Carrion]

Absolutely beautiful work. I'll look forward to what you do next.

 

[pinoyfiasco]

Okay - update time.

Like I said before, what I had on Halloween was just enough to get walking around in the suit, but not even close to what I had envisioned.

Enter Breacher/Desert Patrol/9TAAP.

The idea is to kitbash my three favorite Mark V-B chest attachments. Not possible in-game, but definitely possible in Blender and in real life through some trickery.

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See, printing the attachments is the easy part. Making them fit together when they’re not made to is a different story.

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The first step is to get Breacher to sit flush against TAAP, but this funky protrusion gets in the way. Ideally it would nestle into the gap in the chest, so I marked how much material I would need to remove and took a craft saw to it. Not the cleanest, but it’ll be hidden, anyway.

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And that’s the first hurdle. I did a quick mockup using some double-sided tape to see how it looks. This, of course, leaves a somewhat unsightly gap where Breacher is supposed to sit flush against the chest piece since it’s now slightly more elevated. This will be the next puzzle I have to solve.

 

[pinoyfiasco]

Putting the right arm together.

Just a quick mockup of UA/P1DA Bracer and the SAP/ODST shoulder, both from Titlewave. Everything's just held together with double-sided tape right now, though the main plating for Bracer snaps onto the forearm with a satisfying "thunk."

The shoulder will be painted normally (Rustoleum Nantucket Blue/Charcoal Grey). For Bracer I'm trying to find a couple different shades of grey that will work well together for some contrast between its individual parts.

 

[pinoyfiasco]

More accessories! This is the TACPAD from Titlewave Designs. The file comes with two versions - one to accommodate a simple light, and another that can fit a smartphone. I opted to print the latter because why not?

Raw print mocked up for now. It sits nicely into the little divot in the forearm.

 

[pinoyfiasco]

It's been a while! I've had a lot going on and had been able to make any meaningful headway, but I've been on a tear the last couple of weeks printing and "engineering", so here we go.

Been hard at work on the shoulders. My cat decided to ride my left bicep like a sled and rode it off my shelf, which snapped it right off the welds. I decided enough was enough and wanted to find a way to make the pauldrons detachable, both for ease of donning/removal and safety. I turned to one of my most trusted friends:

MAGNETS!

These 20mm x 7mm magnets have a 4mm screw hole in the middle, and come with 20mm washers for mounting which are great for saving space. They're listed as 25lb, though I didn't do any scientific testing to verify that. I do know that they're decently strong and perfect for this application.

Using Orca Slicer's Boolean function, I created objects to fill in the geometries between the Titlewave MkVb biceps and the shoulder armor (a similar method I used originally, seen here and here). I then split that shape in half and Boolean'd ("Boolean'd"?) out holes for the magnets and screws to fit into. I shoved in some heat set inserts and screwed the washers into the recesses. I had to play around with the tolerance at first to make sure that the two halves could slot in with zero resistance, but minimal play. I settled with 20.5mm holes.

For the left shoulder, with WandererTJ's SAP/CDO attachment being larger and more top heavy, I used three magnets. I marked those lines because I was playing with the idea of reshaping that mount to make it look more "designed," but I figured it wouldn't be seen, anyway.

The right shoulder - ODST by Titlewave - proved to be more of a challenge. To his credit, he had the forethought to model the matching geometry into the shoulder, but this meant that I couldn't just fudge it from scratch like I did with the left shoulder. There was room for only one magnet at the attachment point, which wasn't going to be enough. I modeled a separate spacer towards the bottom of the bicep for a second magnet, which was far more secure.

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Unfortunately I don't have any photos of me with both arms on at the same time, but these'll do for the time being. At the very least, without the shoulders in the way I'm able to put the biceps and torso on unassisted and have a second person attach the shoulders after the fact, which is a huge win.

 

[pinoyfiasco]

Did a proper test fit this morning, sans torso armor. The magnets held up to even my most passionate and emotionally-charged punch dancing.