My Current Project (Mark VI Armor Including Mark V Helmet From Halo 3)

Status
Not open for further replies.

DarknessOfLight

New Member
I've only just begun creating my armor. I have folded and put together the H.D. Mark V helmet from Halo 3, the chest, and the whole left arm. I have color coded the pieces for what colors I will be painting it, so it will show somewhat of how the final piece should look. Tell me what you think of it so far, and give me some advice on what you think I should improve, or tips, or what else you can come up with.

Here are some pictures:
Snapshot_20110529.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_1.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_3.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_4.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_5.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_6.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_7.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_8.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_9.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_10.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_12.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_13.jpg


Snapshot_20110529_15.jpg


I would love to hear your feed back.
 
I've only just begun creating my armor, which, when finished, I will be using for AirSoft.

[...]

I would love to hear your feed back.

Don't use it for airsoft, it'll break, you might injure yourself and everybody will be unhappy at the end of the day.

Make sure that there are no distortions or other imperfections in your paper models before hardening them. Avoiding mistakes while pepping is a lot easier than fixing them later.
 
Thanks. The main reason why I thought I could use it for AirSoft is because how hard fiberglass, resin, and body filler makes things. I will heed your warning though. I have found a few imperfections that may need to be fixed now, because before, I thought, well maybe I can fix this when I put on the detailing stuff. Seems as if I was wrong. So I'll work hard until the end. I'll keep updating as I progress.
 
Not bad. My first major suggestion (other than obviously completely finishing the Peps) is to add in the paper visor in the helmet if the Pep model has it. I know you want to try it on and see how cool it looks, but it will really help maintain the structure's proper shape. If not, add in some support struts yourself.

Ventrue's advice is good. Especially about airsoft (it just won't work for many reasons, trust us), but the more work you put in now into making the Pep models good, the less work you will have later.

What is made out of? Seems a little flimsy; I hope you used the correct thickness posterboard/cardboard. Also, no real need to color it now. If you do it right, all that stuff will be covered over well before you get to the final paint job (i.e. Bondo, primer, etc)

The scaling looks pretty good, though the helmet seems a little small. Don't forget you'll need space inside the helmet for the hardening, the visor, and the padding.
 
I made it out of 110 LB Cardstock. There's a tutorial I followed that said I should get that. So far, it's good. It is, however, a bit more flimsy than I had hoped. But it is working fine. The visor? Well, I didn't get the pieces for that, so I will get some support struts in there A.S.A.P. Thanks for the tips. Looks like this will only be for looks, no action, talking about AirSoft. The scaling on the helmet slips right on my head, and my head doesn't rest on any side, it's more centered. If I put the back of my head to the back of the helmet, there would be a ton of space in the front. Most of my armor is scaled to 70. For the parts that don't have 86 as their default scale, I used the scaling formula. The helmet was one of those, so maybe I was off by a few decimal numbers. Other than that, the only part that didn't seem to scale right was the bicep. It was massive, until I cut it down to the right size. Looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me, huh?
 
I would glue those open or torn areas also straighten up the warps and bends as much as you can before you harden the pep pieces, or your looking at alot of body work, even if you have to redo the same piece twice usually your second piece comes out alot better because you got the problem spots figured out, Im not cutting you down or anything, your doing a great job, I just see alot of extra work in your future if you harden the parts the way they look in the pictures. And believe me these suits are not that easy to move in like they are in the video game so not using it for airsoft is a good choice, but keep it up and you'll end up with a nice MKVI set of armor, and check out Spitfires MKVI build he did it all with LD files that turned out really nice and he gives alot of good pointers to build the suit
 
Nice work so far. You are missing some pieces and it is causing warpage. I suggest you continue finish pepping the entire chest and helmet. Don't rush. The more work you put in pepping the pieces the less work you will have to finish them.

And might I suggest that you don't paint them. It looks like you used markers. Markers contain liquid. Once you apply liquid on the cardstock, it may weaken the paper, which may increase the warpage.
 
I used crayon actually. I know what markers do to paper and such items, so In made sure not to use markers. I'm not finished pepping those pieces so you're right. They are a tiny bit warped, but the chest looks more warped because I set it down against the counter, so it's leaning. I won't add paint though for sure until I'm ready for the final piece, cause, why waist paint on something that's going to get covered up, right? Well, other than those things, I just finished the cod piece, and I'm beginning the right shin. I'm not working on the pieces in any set order.
Here are some pictures of the cod piece, which, with your help with tips and such, is almost perfect. I really will owe you guys when I'm done.

Snapshot_20110530_1.jpg


Snapshot_20110530_3.jpg


Snapshot_20110530_4.jpg


Snapshot_20110530_5.jpg


By the way, I checked out Spitfire's armor, and most of the parts he has are the exact same pep files that I used. So he should be able to help me out a whole lot. The only difference is I have Halo 3's Mark V helmet. I just like the look of it more than Mark VI. But when all is said and done, I plan on replacing the Mark V helmet with a mark IV, from Halo Wars. That is my favorite helmet out of all of the helmets in the Halo game series. Expect more updates today.
 
Here's an update:
Snapshot_20110530.jpg


Snapshot_20110530_6.jpg


Snapshot_20110530_8.jpg


Snapshot_20110530_9.jpg


Also, I just realized I double posted. Sorry about that, I guess I hit the wrong button. So here is the right shin, calf, whichever you like to call it, completely pepped. This is my best piece. I made sure there were no imperfections or anything. I paid close attention to your advice, and this is the result.
 
Here's one of my last updates for the night. It's a picture of all my parts so far. I have both biceps done, a forearm, a hand plate, a shin, chest piece, helmet, and cod piece. In the picture I have them laid out in what position the pieces are supposed to be in. I have support struts in the pieces, but at the current angle you are unable to see them. I will continue to update tomorrow. I will most likely have the other forearm done, as well as the other shin, hand plate, and possibly a boot. Visit often to see all my updates.

Snapshot_20110530_11.jpg
 
I would like to know, when I'm finished, I don't know which is better to use. Fiberglass Resin Jelly, or just Fiberglass Resin. Also, I wrote down prices of all the things I'm going to need for that step, but I wrote down a possible alternative for Bondo Glass. It says on the container that it's twice as strong as normal body filler, but I'm not sure if that's what I should get. Last but no where near the least, should I get a Fiberglass Cloth or Fiberglass mat? I'm just not sure of the strength of most of the items named, so I'm asking the ones who know what to do.
 
I would like to know, when I'm finished, I don't know which is better to use. Fiberglass Resin Jelly, or just Fiberglass Resin. Also, I wrote down prices of all the things I'm going to need for that step, but I wrote down a possible alternative for Bondo Glass. It says on the container that it's twice as strong as normal body filler, but I'm not sure if that's what I should get. Last but no where near the least, should I get a Fiberglass Cloth or Fiberglass mat? I'm just not sure of the strength of most of the items named, so I'm asking the ones who know what to do.

Use regular fiberglass resin.

Try to get normal or "gold" body filler, I heard bondo glass is very hard to sand, in fact, I'm not sure if it even works for what we use it for.

Mat vs Cloth is usually personal preference but cloth is so much neater and easier to use in my opinion, mat is annoying and is hard to stick to the right places. Basically mat is just a bunch of fiberglass pieces stuffed together while cloth is actually woven together.

Hope that answered all of your questions.

Edit: As for prices and amounts, if you are planning to do the whole suit I'd start with 2 quarts of resin @ $10 each, one tub of bondo @ $20, and 2 packs of cloth @ $5 each. So its going to be around $60 tax included, also I got all of my stuff at Walmart, it's all in the auto section.
 
Thanks. That did answer my questions. I'm going to go ahead and get cloth because as you said, the mat is just a bunch of fiberglass threads thrown together. The reason I didn't know is because the cloth looks almost metallic, like a woven piece of steel wool. But I see now that it isn't. Thanks mate.

Edit: I did look in the auto section at Wal-mart. I wrote down the price of everything I might need. With your recommendations, here's the total price: 54.85 without tax. It's safe to just say it's 60 dollars. I was looking at gold body filler, and I think it costs the same as regular, so I'm thinking about getting that. When my dad gets back with the super glue, I'm going to finish up my last forearm, shin, and the boots. I still have to print out the thighs, but that won't be a problem. By the end of the week, I'll be resining most of the pieces.
 
I may use the mud option, but for right now, for the main parts like the helmet and chest, I'm going to follow through with the normal routine, because since this is my first attempt at making a suit, I don't want to do anything out of the ordinary that may mess it up, you know what I mean?
 
I don't think I've even heard of resin "jelly". I'm going to go ahead an agree with Darkrider on all his suggestions:
1. Just use regular fiberglass resin.
2. Regular Bondo is fine, don't need the higher quality stuff.
3. I prefer cloth also, for the same reasons Darkrider provided.

And for the record, I ended up using a little less than 4 packets of fiberglass cloth for my suit. One layer on all pieces. Hope this helps a bit.
 
Yeah it's something new, I think. It comes in the same cylinder shaped container as the body filler does. I think it's just a non-runny version of resin, something like super glue gel, rather than liquid. I won't get it though, cause it may be something totally different. Also, I don't know if I'll have an update by tonight or not. I ran out of super glue today, and I just got more about 2 hours ago. I'm finished with a couple more pieces, but I still have the left shin and both boots left. I know I'll have a juicy update tomorrow if I don't get to it tonight. What I would do is just stand by and watch for updates, you know, check in from time to time. Also, by 4 packets of cloth, do you mean whole 8 square feet pieces?
 
Finally got an update for you. I have all the pieces pepped, except for the thighs, because I ran out of cardstock. I'll get some more today though, and I'll be done with them by the end of the week. Anyway, I have some pictures for you, in case you were wondering. There's a picture for ever set of new pieces I put together, and a couple of the helmet, and a few of me in the armor. I told you this was going to be a juicy update.
Pictures:

Shins
armor001.jpg


Boots
armor002.jpg


Biceps
armor003.jpg


Forearms
armor004.jpg


Helmet (With Support Strut)
armor005.jpg

armor006.jpg


Helmet
armor007.jpg


All The Pieces In Proper Order Layout
023.jpg


Me In The Armor (Even Without The Thighs, It's Still Quite Awesome)
025.jpg

026.jpg

028.jpg


So there's your update. Now it's on to getting the body filler and fiberglass. I'll work on the thighs later today, no worries. By the way, thanks Ventrue and Lawacr, I already have most of the safety equipment, and I definitely won't be wearing my Vans or Shox while working with the Resin or other things. Thanks for the tips guys.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top