Project Halo-ween!

[Night Fury]

You'll have to excuse my corny title, I couldn't resist.

Hey 405th! My name is Jonathan and my goal is to have a full suit of Mark VI armor finished for wear by the 31st of this month. This project was only started on the 1st of this month when I stumbled across this site looking for a cheaper and better looking alternative to the Rubie's Master Chief Supreme Edition costume. Even with the short time frame, I decided that I'd rather try and make a suit myself that would save me some money and possibly fit me better than one I'd be shelling out $600+ for. I spent the first couple of days reading all the tutorials, lists of supplies, how-to videos and threads with answers to the questions that I had left. I started pepping my first helmet around the 5th and finished up with it on the 8th. I've also finished the left bicep and forearm, although I'm not really happy with how they fit. I'm a skinny guy, 6' ft. and 135 lb., with long arms and legs. The problem that I'm having is that I have to scale the pieces up to get them to fit in length and this makes them 2-3 times bigger around than my arms (and probably my legs too when I get to those parts). It would take a TON of padding to come anywhere close to a good fit so I'm considering just cutting them down the middle and re-gluing the two halves overlapping each other to eliminate the excess space. The only thing I'm worried about is that they might look disproportional when I finish.

Thanks for the support guys! I'll be keeping updates here on the first post so you don't have to troll the thread.

Currently: Scoring lines for the left shin.

Here are some pics. I plan on re-doing the forearm.

 

[drgon47]

I don't mean to be a buzzkill, but to make that deadline, I suggest you try out the foam method thats being pioneered here. It is likely the only way you can finish in time. Take a look at Privateer/Timecon/BenStreeper's threads.

 

[MikyVengeance]

Making a full suit of armour takes alot of time, planning and trial and error (for me). I suggest you keep your hard earned cash and use it to make a suit with no stress because of deadlines and alot of patience. The whole cutting in half and overlapping. I did that for my suit, I'm pretty tall so I had to. I did it for my forearms, biceps and shins. Nobody can tell a thing when you resin and paint.

I guess if you worked all day on the costume everyday I think it could be possible, resin, rondo, no bondo on the outside, underarmour undersuit. Problem might be a visor for the helmet, just because it takes time for it to ship here. You can use low definition armour pieces, 2 coats of resin, one in and one on the outside. 1 coat of heavy rondo on the inside. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or leave me a message on my profile.
My friends made their helmets in 5 days tops and they came out looking pretty good.

 

[matth101]

Its definitely possible with low def parts and thick rondo for strength. But yeah, since its you're first suit the trial and error or sizing and stuff will take some time. If you're desparate to meet the deadline, get a friend or sibling to help you with pepping. Once you get the size you want on the left arm, have a friend/sibling pep the right arm etc so you can move to scaling the next piece and it'll go a bit faster. I would say go with what MikyVengeance said. Resin inside and outside, rondo inside, sand the outside smooth paint and call it good. Keep the updates coming and post pics. Good luck dude!

 

[almostanangel851]

Hey, Good luck! I did my whole armor within in three weeks, but i would not recommend it.. I did spent about 8-12 hours a day working on it though.. and i skipped the Rondo part completely. My armor came out decent but I wish i spent more time on it. I am looking at the foam version now.. i wanna see if i can do it in foam, so i recommend it.. but it would not be a bad idea for you to do your first suit in pep files sand resin because you can learn so much from it. Looking forward to see your four week project. Anyway... here is a link to my three week suit.. so you can pull it off, its just you are going to spent insane amount of money and time doing so, and you will not get as much detail and as perfect.. but good luck to you.

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/28086-Sexy-Lady-Spartan-(sexy-master-chief)-project

 

[Agent Arizona]

I hear ya on the tall and skinny part. Im 6'5" and im only 140lbs. The only parts i had to modify to fit me was the chest and belt. i just cut them back and reglued them, worked like a charm. Your deadline if iffy though. iv been working on mine since August and im just now almost getting done, still a time crunch for me. Im trying to have it done my next Monday. but the resin curing is killing me because is getting cooler out side. Your goal is still doable just done rush it and order everything you need now, good luck.

 

[Night Fury]

I've got everything I need for the suit already ordered. I only need to pick up a plunger for the boots and helmet vents and a cheap pair of black gloves from Walmart. I don't have time to learn how to do the foam method or mix rondo. I've already bought fiberglassing supplies and practiced it on a few scrap pieces of card stock. I don't have to worry about the weather for resining because it's still 90 degrees outside in Mississippi. Lol.

I couldn't find my digital camera but I snapped a few quick pics off my low res cell phone. Trying to figure out how to post them now. Is there any way to do with without having them listed as a URL?

 

[Night Fury]

Just decided to use ImageShack.

 

[Night Fury]

Can anyone see those? Because I can't. lol

 

[PhantomSG13]

The time line might be a bit tight. Pepping the helmet and then actually finishing the helmet can be a multi-day event. Good luck with it though, I know when I did just the helmet took me almost a week of 8 hour days and three re-sizing

 

[MikyVengeance]

I saw the pictures through email. Everything looks great. Pep looks clean but your forearm is really short. My rule of thumb is, measure length. Length is the most important. If the piece is too wide, you can cut it in half and shorten it easily.

Rondo definatly saves ALOT of time and is totally worth it. All Rondo is a mix of 25%-30% Fiberglass Resin and 70%-75% Bondo Body Filler. I did maybe half my armour at one time, pouring, leveling it evenly in about 30 minutes. I used to do fiberglass matte but it took so much time plus it was really messy. Since you already have fiberglass matte and if you still want to go with the rondo method, you can do a technique called Mudglassing. Rondo on the inside of the armour and when it's setting, you add fiberglass matte pieces ontop of it and it will be insanly hard.

 

[AI Blue Fox]

cant see the picks. try photobucket, its the 405ths best friend. BTW if you really want a halo costume in time you might want to put the mark VI on hold and try a pilot. its basiclly just shoulders, elbow, knees and chest along with the camys

 

[Night Fury]

EDIT: Pics on first post

 

[AlexSpartan177]

You are missing the

 

[Night Fury]

^ Still doesn't work

 

[AlexSpartan177]

Just use the link
http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/jonathandavis09/SANY0674.jpg

 

[Night Fury]

Lol
It's [/IMG]
I guess that C++ class came in handy after all.

 

[Night Fury]

Will have pics of thigh and shin up later tonight.

 

[Bullseye]

I'm rooting you on, I started my build about half way though September and I am just getting to the Fiberglassing part, But anything is possible almostanangle made one as she said in 3 weeks so I hope of the best for ya. And just incase the weather there takes a turn for the worse and you still need to resin try adding like 5 to 6+ more drops of the hardener and it will cure really fast. It's what saved my build time line.

 

[Night Fury]

The shin I made last night ended up being too small. I ripped it up and made another one today. Also managed to get to the boot before I got sleepy. Here are some new pics. And thanks for the support Bullseye. It's gonna be a close call if I make it. I didn't account for having to re-do pieces.