My Infinite Chief build thread.

[JSLund]

I wanted to share my journey building the Chief over the last year before meeting you guys. Please ask me anything as I will share over a series of several posts.

so here we go...the 3D print phase.
We use a Voxelab Aquilla for all the small parts and we use an Anycubic Chiron for the chest, back, and thighs.

We started with some free files courtesy of thingeverse and I’m assuming the 405th. After printing chest and back panels we abandoned those for a set of paid files. During the print phase I designed and fit a strap suit based on the iron man cosplayers under-suit types. We also printed at 100 percent the first time to see the sizes of the parts. This took a lot of time but helped us with scaling later.

AMA and more to come!

We purchased these from DO3d.

 

[JSLund]

I also want to point out this is my first halo build as a cosplayer and I started in November of last year. I finished this project on the Friday before Em-City

 

[JSLund]

Also in the last pic some parts are already in primer. I will expound on this in the nest post!

 

[JSLund]

After several months of printing I started assembling armor and massaging the finish.

After research I landed on sand and Bondo, this wasn’t the best choice. After bondo and sand and primer and sand and, and, and… I ended up with a nice chest. I continued this way for several pieces depicted in gray in the photos. You can also see the print errors in this post, I didn’t end up sealing or filling these at all. I just used the damage later for weather in the final stages. I always figured on updates and replacement I could make these issues disappear with better prints and more experience.

 

[JSLund]

At this point I had also started adjusting the scale of the individual pieces. The original scale was claimed as 100 percent for a 6ft person. I am 5 -9 3/4in so the scales for me were as follows.

Chest and Back- 100% with exception to width, which was 99%
COD- 100%
Thighs- 85%
shins- 87%
biceps- 85%
forearms- 100%
Hands- 65%
Helmet....I bought one, from Jazwares, and repainted it.

 

[JSLund]

I used a combination of a cosplay caliper, some OG renders of infinite chief, and the Jazwares 6.5 long neck chief, action figure to scale the parts to myself. It was maths but it wasnt bad.

 

[JSLund]

Once that or started to come together I learned about XTC-3D. After some experiments I found a useable and nice formula that yielded consistent results. I did applied at least one coat to each piece. I did not subsequent sanding and reapplication improved finish while further hiding and eliminating print lines. I ended up coating all of the parts, including pre primed and sanded parts. After finding out about the resin, I no longer invested time in pre priming or sanding. The xtc product filled and smoother the prints with at least one coat to a better finish than the previous work had yielded.the trick was not to rush and allow ample time for each phase to completely cure before working it.

 

[JSLund]

If you see a photo or want to see a specific part ask me, I may have a picture.

 

[JSLund]

After building a fair amount of armor pieces I began addressing the way the armor wears on the body. So I went back to the drawing. I’ll repost it. I purchased two 1in nylon and clip kits from Amazon, and some 3in metal rings from Michael’s craft store. And I went to work. I chose to make the suit so it was adjustable, and the armor could hang. All of the clips began adjustable on the strap suit side and the armor side. For fit and test this was great. I intimately eliminated the adjustability on the armor side at the end for ease of attachment. We also experimented with several under suits. We ultimately landed on a football style padded under suit. We added extra details which I will cover in a later post. But this serves as a good under suit with added details on the elbows, knees, hips and chest of the suit.

 

[JSLund]

I was trying to make sure the armor was evenly distributed as far as weight across the body. The printed parts aren't all weightless after all, and so this was my best solution for supporting all of the armor and indexing it to my body so it wouldn't sag or move out of turn. I used elastic straps on some parts like the shoulder pauldrons to maintain tension on them which forced them to maintain orientation to the shoulder.

 

[JSLund]

Some parts are already in various stages of prep, and paint, in these photos, but I wont cover that until later so just enjoy the spoilers!

 

[JSLund]

Once parts started to come together and pieces were ready for work I began sanding and planning my paint.

 

[JSLund]

This is where armor gets it story. I decided to think about the armor like it’s real armor. So, the first stage was primer and sand and finish. When the armor was smooth enough I would paint it flat black. As I completed the parts each stage of finishing got better. As I got better at crafting so times carried on each stage. Once in black I painted a metallic coat or two, or three. After the metallic layer satin black comes. The idea is to create depth and give the armor a chance to tell a story. On top of the satin black I painted the green. This gives the armor the brand new feel like the day your spartan got it new.

 

[JSLund]

We did run in to some file issues and requested help from the maker of the files and received no response so we had to do some plastic welding here and cutting for fit and finish and we backed the gaps with Eva foam that was later coated in flex seal for finish. This blacked and sealed the gaps in the armor for finishing.

 

[Viper 466]

After building a fair amount of armor pieces I began addressing the way the armor wears on the body. So I went back to the drawing. I’ll repost it. I purchased two 1in nylon and clip kits from Amazon, and some 3in metal rings from Michael’s craft store. And I went to work. I chose to make the suit so it was adjustable, and the armor could hang. All of the clips began adjustable on the strap suit side and the armor side. For fit and test this was great. I intimately eliminated the adjustability on the armor side at the end for ease of attachment. We also experimented with several under suits. We ultimately landed on a football style padded under suit. We added extra details which I will cover in a later post. But this serves as a good indersuit with added details on the elbows, knees, hips and chest of the suit.

I like the distribution of the shoulder straps and ring. I've seen some variance of this with armor suspenders before but not using the ring in the back. That's a really interesting idea. Might take that in the future.

 

[JSLund]

This the fit and finish for the back and chest finally. This didn’t happen until about the 70 days to Em-city mark. So I was definitely feeling rushed. Each panel went through this process with a light buff at between each paint coat. All the layers of paint after primer black were in either satin or metallic finish.

 

[JSLund]

More green parts and various paint stages. I also did a wear test for heat and mobility.

 

[JSLund]

The boots were interesting and awesome. I came up with an idea out necessity. I wear an ankle brace that is tied to my military service. I needed a way to wear the boots and have the brace on. So I made the boot wearable with any 9.5 shoe. It didn’t take long and it articulates with your foot. It’s a simple compressions style fit. I used Eva for the padding and friction fit, the toe has clips that clip to the boot which is one piece connected by Eva foam at the sole of the boot. It is arrested inside by a nylon strap that prevents over articulating or the boot when walking. The boot has two points of articulation, one at the heel and one inside of the arch allowing the boot to function with your shoes. The addition of padding had an unexpected side effect of making my feet hurt less during the days use. The boots have proven durable and comfortable to this point.

 

[JSLund]

So we have a whole suit of armor and its new and green now. So we did some wear on the armor. It wasn’t hard and it didn’t take long. We used a scotch brite sponge and buffed the armor out. For an understanding of this I recommend you find me on twitch JSLund. The live stream archive has about 50 hours of cosplay stream covering the entire build. It has a lot of depth so if you are interested in the best of the suit go there. Or ask me in the discord. As you can see here we used some of the print rash when we weathered to hide it and add depth to the prints. I wasn’t perfect and after 11 months I wanted to go to the con not sit at home still printing for perfection. And with the post work most of the rash went away. This is what the weather looked like on the panels before the next stage which was sealing and decals. I also added a shot of the exhaust ports on the suit. This was hand painted over a couple of days but I am really happy with how it turned out.

 

[JSLund]

I like the distribution of the shoulder straps and ring. I've seen some variance of this with armor suspenders before but not using the ring in the back. That's a really interesting idea. Might take that in the future.

the ring allows the weight to sit lower in the back between the blades, and allows the suspender style chest straps for weight and alignment.