Rage's first build!!! The MK IV and Halo 3 Assault Rifle

[RageGoblin]

My Spartan name is Georgia (where I'm from) and my AI is Madison (my penname)
I'm going to be building this in conjunction with OFiveTwo, so my intention is for this to be a slow and steady progress.
I have decided on a MK IV Suit with an MK V helmet.
I bought the files from TitleWaveDesigns on Etsy.
I will be using TPU to print the under suit and PLA + to print the outer suit.
I will be painting this suit to mirror Texas from Red vs Blue
I have an Ender 3 S1 Plus.
This is my first time making armor or something I need to scale to wear. Armorsmith is an enigma to me. I don't know how much space I need in the gap between the armor piece and my model for it to fit once printed.
I am also trying to figure out the best way to secure the armor pieces to me to make it easier to remove the bottom half if I have to ...so bio things during a convention.
I don't know what kind of fabric actual soft gear to wear under the whole thing since I will be wearing two layers of suit.
I feel a bit too insecure to share my armorsmith model just with it being scaled the way it is without the armor. Once it has the armor layers on it, I will post a photo.
Tomorrow, I will start printing the first forearm piece

 

[VonSnake]

You can go with EVA for padding under your armor. Start with a forearm or smaller piece to figure your sizing then it will give you a scale to do the rest.

 

[RageGoblin]

I am also printing my assault rifle at the same time using PLA +. It'll be in 10 pieces. I'm currently on parts. 6-8/10 printing right now. The first photo is of parts 1-5/10

 

[RageGoblin]

Printing parts 9-10/10!! The tree supports for each of the parts failed while printing for the previous parts, so, for these last two pieces, I printed them using a raft for the first time to see if it was an adhesion issue. This fixed the problem! We're 79% done now. Next up will be printing the TPU hand and elbow piece along with the accompanying forearm suit piece that was the actual homework assignment by OFiveTwo!

 

[RageGoblin]

Ok!!
I have recently switched to a Bambu Lab P1S printer and traded in my Ender 3. I tell you what, so far this Bambu printer has been phenomenal.
The only downside is the build plate is much smaller than my previous one.
What does this mean for my suit?
I will have many more seams to smooth out.
Right now, I am working on printing a draft of my helmet to practice fusing and working on seam lines. It's going to take at least 4 days to print all of the parts for it. I have 8 build plates of data scaled and ready to go.
Currently, I am printing plate 1, which is the top back part of the helmet.
Build time: 10hours

 

[RageGoblin]

It's been awhile, but I finally got about half my suit printed.
Today, I'm working on putting my helmet together, then work on filling in the gaps with bondo before starting the sanding process.

 

[RageGoblin]

Well ... The past few days have been interesting. I was successfully able to glue all the pieces of my helmet together and got the magnets all oriented the correct direction. I did struggle a bit figuring that out and had to pry some magnets out to fix the polarity.
I was very excited to have a completed helmet and put it on without verifying the glue was dry.
Needless to say, my husband and I spent 35 minutes getting super glue out of my hair so I didn't have to cut it all off.
Now comes the million hours of sanding before priming.

I have also changed the order of my printing schedule. I will focus now on printing the under suit first. I'm using tpu. This will be a fun adventure figuring this out!

 

[RageGoblin]

The current state of my work table is a bit chaotic to say the least. However, I am making great headway (pun intended) on my helmet. I am just about ready to do my first coat of filler primer and start sanding that too. I feel like my life will be sanding for the foreseeable future. Lol
After almost 3 hrs of sanding and putting together my magnum, I went back and worked with Armorsmith and scaling my undersuit.
Somehow, the measurements for my mannequin were off, and I went through and realized the legs and torso proportions.
I am currently printing test rings for my right thigh piece. Printing with TPU has been a whole new animal. I'm looking into getting a smooth build plate to hopefully make it easier to get the print off the plate.
Any tips on how to make this easier would be most appreciated.