Paul's Build Thread

[Contrapaul]

are you making the pieces from scratch?

I leave the 3d model up and a bunch of visual references and draw out my own plans. Nothing but the helmet is accurately modeled.

@Justinian 117 that's a good idea. I'm just a bit anal about the visor not being bright and being a bit transparent. Spartans are more imposing when you can't see anything behind the mask.

 

[Contrapaul]

Another shot of progress. I need to use a sharpie to add some black detail to a few areas, but its coming together well regardles.

 

[carlino]

Wow! Im really loving the foam armor builds! I was afraid once painted it may not look the part, but your pictures tend to prove otherwise! Well done!

So are you doing the same method I saw in Ben Streeper's video? Where you print out the pep without any tabs and basically trace it on the foam?

 

[Contrapaul]

No, I'm not a fan of taking my time to size pep correctly. I have the 3d file up, a ton of reference shots, and I measure and draw my own pieces. As far as painting- it eats paint. The chestpiece is probably 2/3 of a can of Krylon indoor/outdoor Oxford blue satin. At least 3 coats. However, for the shortcomings with that paint, the drybrushing goes awesomely. There is enough friction between the brush and the foam that things look amazing with very little work.

 

[carlino]

So basically you are 'free handing' all your pieces? Thats pretty impressive.

Had another question in regards to the paint. I noticed you said you used Krylon spray paint and some acrylic paint for details. Do the pieces bend at all since they are just foam? And if they do have flex in them, does the spray paint crack at all that you've noticed? I guess this would apply to the pieces that would tend to flex more due to moving around, like the legs and shoulders/arms?

 

[JUSTINIAN 117]

To keep from doing so many coats of paint would be to spray some Plasti Dip on it first, and then spray over it with whatever color you need. Plasti Dip is a ruber coating used for tool coating, and they usually sell it in a few colors, but most of the time it only comes in black. It woul seal the foam well, but it wont crack if you bend it at all.

 

[Contrapaul]

Made some progress over the weekend, but I had an old friend in town, and also a tough assignment to finish. Got a mid-chest plate done, added color detail, created a neck seal, and strapped the shoulder pieces. Here's a shot of the chest plate:

 

[Charlie13]

Dude, you're a beast at building armor with foam. Never seen someone, who could that with foam yet. You make it look very easy.

So keep up the awesome work. Pretty sure the end-result will look incredible.

 

[clintonmad]

where do you find the blue prints for the halo3 suit can you pleas tell me

 

[Contrapaul]

I'll get some pictures up a little later today, my phone is charging. Made some progress over the last few days, despite having a cold.

Boots/shoes are about 50% done. Grabbed an old pair of "skater" type Ocean Pacifics and have been carefully attaching foam directly to the shoes. The Reach model seems less bulky and more useable, and that is what I'm seeing so far.

The belt is done. It is a 1 piece design, with elastic in the middle that is hidden from view. You don't need to buckle it on, just step in and pull up.

Further strapping work has been done on the shoulder pieces, I'm about 75% done with them.

The shoes will be finished tonight, and I'm going to try and knock out the basic shapes of the leg pieces. I'll get pictures of the progress on shoes and finished belt up soon.

 

[StevePerv]

Liking those sexy poses Lol kidding. Doing good for a foam build.

 

[alix965]

So basically you are 'free handing' all your pieces? Thats pretty impressive.

VERY impressed.

 

[Contrapaul]

Progress pictures, as promised. If late...

The other shoe has it's over-the-shoe piece fitted, I just wanted to show detail on the back. I need to cover the front and add a few small details.

Belt in place- right as I pulled it on tonight one of my two elastic pieces came undone on the right side of the photo. That allowed the side piece to flex out a bit. Looking at this photo I feel like I need to work more with the fit of the arm pieces, and possibly add a piece to the top of the forearms. There seems to be too much of a gap on the elbow.

 

[Contrapaul]

I apologize for not having better pictures at the moment- I'm going to get some better shots in the next day or so. Right now all I have are pictures off a phone with a much worse camera than I thought.

It may not be 100% accurate, but it was a massive hit. I probably took 200 pictures with people, and high fived hundreds more. Went to Franklin Street in Chapel Hill- if anyone else was there. Didn't see any other Spartans, but I did see Gordon Freeman.

Don't know if this happens to anyone else, but I got called "Halo" about 50% of the time, "Masterchief" about 20% of the time (forgivable ), a Transformer about 10% of the time, and then other things. Got called Robocop and "Star Trek", as if "Star Trek" was a person.

 

[j3u5a8n]

I apologize for not having better pictures at the moment- I'm going to get some better shots in the next day or so. Right now all I have are pictures off a phone with a much worse camera than I thought.


It may not be 100% accurate, but it was a massive hit. I probably took 200 pictures with people, and high fived hundreds more. Went to Franklin Street in Chapel Hill- if anyone else was there. Didn't see any other Spartans, but I did see Gordon Freeman.

Don't know if this happens to anyone else, but I got called "Halo" about 50% of the time, "Masterchief" about 20% of the time (forgivable ), a Transformer about 10% of the time, and then other things. Got called Robocop and "Star Trek", as if "Star Trek" was a person.

Lol. I got called transformer 50%, robocot 10%, halo 20% and master chief 20%.

 

[JUSTINIAN 117]

Don't know if this happens to anyone else, but I got called "Halo" about 50% of the time, "Masterchief" about 20% of the time (forgivable ), a Transformer about 10% of the time, and then other things. Got called Robocop and "Star Trek", as if "Star Trek" was a person.

I hate it when that happens. But that is what happens when you make a video game character. That people who don't play video games just think you look like a robot, and they say the first robot thing they can think of.

But we know what you look like and we like it, so that is all that matters.

 

[Contrapaul]

Found another picture on Facebook via Openbook. Crazy flash, but it shows off some armor.