My first armor build (Pepakura Halo 4 Master Chief - WIP)

[thisguy]

Hey guys and gals,
So at the Melbourna Supanova Expo last year I had the good fortune of being asked to wear a Blue Spartan suit to help promote the Red vs Blue guys who were visiting at the time (Marshall and Joel, for those who were wondering)

Yeah, needless to say, I had a lot of fun.

I recently moved to Texas and also discovered that the suits in the above pictures were made by those hooligans over at Blue Realm Studio. I also had the further fun of knowing that their studio is pretty much around the corner and down the road from my house. I digress; the fun day I had sporting the gear has left me with an itch that needs some scratching, and so I've decided to make my own Halo 4 Master Chief suit for RTX in July.

I've chosen to go with a Pep build because that Blue Realm suit has just made me a sucker for that hardened and heavy armor. Anyhow, I've been working on the helmet (one of Harnor's pep files) thus far and so here we go:

Front view of the visor (pardon the mess):

Side view of the visor:

It's a little clunky at the moment, some slight warping, but I'll smooth it out later on.

 

[thisguy]

Just a quick test post with an image of my resined helmet

EDIT: Success! I'll be posting more images soon!

 

[Adam]

glad to see that pics work again.

 

[thisguy]

Likewise. Loved that Lindsey Stirling video you appeared in by the way.

 

[Zero Prime]

The pep looks good and clean, if the helmet is any indication than your build is going to be sweet.

 

[thisguy]

Thanks, Zero Prime.

Quick update: The fiberglass cloth stage is going pretty well. Working on the second shin, then it's just the chest and helmet to go for the main pieces. I'm trying to get this suit ready for RTX next month so I'm rushing for the finish line. So I might just skip the handplates and boots for now. Otherwise I can just complete the helmet and take it to a dinner with friends while in a suit. Anyway, here's a couple of pieces:

Discovered the hard way that test fitting before dremeling the over-reaching fiberglass cloth strands was a bad idea, but certainly worth it.

Here's the chest piece after having a coat of resin painted inside and out. I have to reattach the two top shoulder pieces before I fiberglass it, I've got a few cardstock paper tabs inside each shoulder holding the two halves together. It's not exactly symmetrical right now but I'll be using a hairdryer to heat up specific sections, manipulate the shape and then apply the fiberglass to correct it as much as possible.

 

[thisguy]

So, to follow up on the status of this build: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the whole suit done and ready for RTX last July. However, I was able to do a rush job finish of the helmet, thus making this my first completed prop:

I was able to put some bondo on most of the helmet, but some of it had to make due without it. I used a bit too much on the bondo layer and ended up creating more work for myself than needed. So, lesson learned: If you're not 100% sure on how much bondo you should use, go for less then you think you will need at first. Applying bondo can be a pretty quick process, but sanding it down? Not so much.
So yeah, due to time constraints I wasn't able to apply putty and smooth it down and the paint job is pretty rough but I'm glad I was able to at least give it some little features like detail highlights and mud.
Ultimately, given the circumstances and the fact that this is my first build: I'm pretty happy with the result.

Yeah, I had some fun.

That said, I'll definitely be revisiting the rest of the suit later on down the track, including rebuilding the Master Chief helmet. I've got a separate project in mind that I'll be starting up a new thread for shortly. I'm hoping to noticeably improve the quality of my work.

Other than that, RTX was great, I had the good fortune to meet up with a few other 405th members (even got some feedback on my helmet, which was fantastic), got to see some great Spartan builds up close and in person. It was a fun experience!