Reach AR Pep - PIC HEAVY

[Drednought08]

Greetings 405th, this is my first thread on my first pep build. I've been working on an Assault Rifle from Halo: Reach for quite a while and thought if I started a thread I could ask some questions and mostly have you guys yell at me to motivate me to work on it more.

So heres a few pics of how far I've gotten (apologies for the blurriness as I couldn't find my camera so I used one of those flip camcorders):











I chose this as my first pep because I thought it would be a little easier than a helmet primarily since I don't really have to size it too much. Later I read that weapons are usually harder than most pieces of armor... bummer.

My biggest concern at this time is twisting and warping, since it is only card stock it does bend a bit. I was wondering what would be a few good ways of correcting this. I think I've seen people use Popsicle sticks and I have some balsa sticks laying around as well. Do I even need to do that or will it slowly correct itself as I add more to it? Then how much could be corrected with just bondo, smoothing it out.

Another thing is that the magazine is actually a bit too long, that or the space for it in the rifle is a bit too short by about 1/8 inch actually. Which is a lot. I can only get it to fit in if i squeeze it a bit. Anyone else have this problem if they pepped this? Also how would you suggest fixing this, best I can think of is cutting into the gun part on the side closest to the front and moving that wall forward about 1/8th.

I would love constructive criticism, thanks guys.

 

[Hyperballistik]

I recently did a MA5C, I can tell you this much guns are harder to build then most of the helmets, when your peping out the gun and you try to get all the numbers and tabs to line up it will have a tendency to start twisting and bending, you can use craft sticks or balsa to stiffin it up a bit I just doubled up the cardstock by glueing pieces of cardstock to the back of flimsy pieces, and to minimize the twisting and bending i just let the tabs line up as best they could and glue them in place while making sure everything was still straight so most of my numbers didn't match up but in the end it looked straight, bondo can fix some bends and warping but if the gun is really bent it most likely will still look bent when bondoed, if you want to see mine its somewhere in my thread in my signature, as for the clip I havent built the Reach AR so I couldn't telll you what to do on the clip I would probably modify the clip and not the gun but good luck on your build

 

[KrovikanCorvinus]

Very impressive, I EPICLY failed at my attempt to build the halo 3 one, so gave up on guns...I'll just buy one when the time comes that I actually FINISH any set of armor I start making lol

Keep it up, I'll be following this build to satiate my need to see a pep A.R. be built!

 

[Drednought08]

Got a little further on my gun which is getting more and more challenging. The very top piece obviously isn't connected to it all I'm still working on that its being very difficult. I'm a little tempted to just postpone this and work on a helmet and get back to it but I feel like it would never get finished.

Hyperballistik - I saw the pep of your rifle and it looks great. I didn't see any further work on it though, did you ever resin and bondo it? Id love to see how it turned out. Ive also though that if my build doesn't quite meet my standards I might try a low res model and modify it with balsa and such.

KrovikanCorvinus - Thanks man I appreciate it, also Ive been following your ghost thread and Im really excited to see that.

 

[Hyperballistik]

I did resin my MA5, I hardened it with smooth cast 320 which is casting resin, finished the Bondo thats why it looks smooth, I still need to add the details plus im going to cut the barrel cooling vents out on sides of the gun, I just haven't finished it, Im going to finish building my armor which is almost done, then I will finish the Rifle, Its going to be a prop for the suit, But if you can finish that AR then you will be able to build a helmet with ease

 

[Drednought08]

Ok I found your AR, not sure how I missed it earlier, but it looks great, and very smooth. It ll look amazing when you get those cooling vents cut into it. Also your Hayabusa armor looks incredible, exceptional work man.

 

[AvAngelAvA]

Hey Dred! Your AR is looking great keep workin at it, I'm sure it'll be awesome when you finish.

 

[Finelargeaxe]

Quick note, going through some videos and screen captures of Reach gameplay: the magazine (for whatever reason) does stick out a little bit from the bottom of the slot. Maybe for ease of reloading?

 

[Smiggly]

Great work, buddy! Keep it up!