Reach Gungnir helmet build

[Revenant1988]

Howdy.

So last Christmas a good friend of mine bestowed upon me a really cool, one of a kind custom DOOM themed gift. To return the favor, I figured I'd set about bringing his favorite Halo helmet to life. My intent is to provide my Giftee with a quality resin reproduction of his avatar.

Good ol' Gungnir.

So a couple months ago I commissioned a modeler to model the helmet,



and then I contacted another good friend (Justinian 117) to print the pieces.



I just got the parts, and I figured I'd document the build process from start to finish for what it takes to master a project like this. I'm gonna cover topics like

• Prepping the 3D printed parts for assembly
• Repairing any flaws
• Sanding and filling and weeping and sanding and filling
• Priming
• Preparing the master for molding
• Making the mold
• Producing a casting
• Prepping the casting for painting & finishing

The goal is to have this done before Christmas.

For those interested, I do plan to offer a limited run of castings for anyone on 405th who would want to add this guy to their collections or their own Cosplay.

Ok? OK!

 

[Revenant1988]

Prepping the 3D printed parts for assembly

The pieces are 3D printed from a resin printer. Justinian did a great job with printing them, but they aren't quite ready to rock right away-

The first thing to do is tape the pieces together and get an idea for how they will join together and what work will need to be done. So I grab some tape and mock it up real quick, and make sure it fits my head.


The pieces will need to be joined and those seam lines filled and blended. For that, I'll tape the pieces together carefully and then join them with epoxy and regular old superglue as needed. My medium of choice to fill and blend the seams, will be Apoxie Sculpt by Aves.


Any flaws in the printing will also need to be addressed, and this print does have its share. The worst of it is on one side of the helmet where for whatever reason, the support struts imprinted into the part while they were printing. Some of these are super deep, so what I'll do is tape the other end, and then fill with Apoxie sculpt and then sand it until it blends away.


This spot also by the neck collar was deformed, and will need to be rebuilt.


I'll be starting these repairs this weekend and will update as I go. Thanks for reading!

 

[DefineLuck]

Can’t wait man, this is going to be a great build

 

[MrJamin]

I do plan to offer a limited run of castings for anyone on 405th who would want to add this guy to their collections or their own Cosplay

Please keep us updated! It looks really good.

 

[PlanetAlexander]

Dear Revenant1988,
Do not EVER let that friendship go.
Sincerely,
Everybody

That's incredible the work you two put in for each other. Will be following this for sure!

 

[cursedzeba]

The electronics would be intersting and the way that it could be made into a fully functional helmet, maybe something like using a cheap vr helmet to create a screen inside.

 

[Revenant1988]

Dear Revenant1988,
Do not EVER let that friendship go.
Sincerely,
Everybody

That's incredible the work you two put in for each other. Will be following this for sure!

Haha, thanks. I don't plan to. He's stuck with me whether he likes it or not at this point


Small update:

The parts have been joined to the best of my ability. I did a pretty good job, despite my caveman hands.


At the seams, the parts were joined with Super Glue and an accelerator, then internally a "weld" of Apoxie sculpt to add strength.


It's not all perfect however.


Here is an example of exactly what I was trying to avoid : I didn't tape the seam tight enough here and some glue seeped into the detail line here. That means Rev's gonna be spending some time with his dremel trying to undo it. Gracefully.


Here, the parts didn't quite line up perfect. It's a crapshoot sometimes with 3D prints when you slice them. The overall shape is correct, but off by maybe 1\16 to 1\8 inch. So to fix this, the best I'll be able to do is add some apoxie sculpt to that area and build it up, and then blend it in.


I was however able to re-sculpt the small chunk missing on the collar section.

So in order to be wearable, the helmet needs to be split in such a way that you can remove a section of it, fit your head in, and then close it up. Here is where the parting line is for the main section and collar.



It's a tradeoff :

If you don't do a split section, the helmet must be scaled very big to get your head in, which makes you look like a toy or bobble head.

If you do split the section, you can scale it to a more complimentary size, but you'll need to engineer a method to keep the halves attached when wearing.

Right now, I'm weighing my options, such as magnets, velcro \ elastic, or a more flexible material like vytaflex.

 

[Revenant1988]

The electronics would be intersting and the way that it could be made into a fully functional helmet, maybe something like using a cheap vr helmet to create a screen inside.

That is the million dollar question right? Over the years I've seen a lot of people talk about it. Camera tech has only gotten smaller over the last decade since Reach came out, so someone with the right skill set and know-how, I think could rig something up with a camera and small screen.

But that guy ain't gonna be me

 

[Deadman627]

This is going to be a great build. Your friend is going to love it once it’s finished and you give it to them.

 

[Deadman627]

The electronics would be intersting and the way that it could be made into a fully functional helmet, maybe something like using a cheap vr helmet to create a screen inside.

That would be a cool thing to see someone pull that off with the gungnir. Technology with cameras has gotten a lot better and can see someone pulling it off. But that’s going to be a ton of work to do it and someone really smart would be the one to do it.

 

[marinesniper]

i cant wait to see how you do this i have some ideas but its to much work for me so if you find a simpler way i will follow your lead on the helmet. but the helmet is way cool i like it a lot.

 

[EVAkura]

One of my all time favorite helmets! Can't wait to see how you tackle the issues, and produce the final product Also look forward to the progress of course!!

 

[Zackurai]

Yeah, that's actually clean, cool friend too, mine just pick on me about my hobby, I got an idea I saw on youtube, maybe use a peephole for a door, it'll probably gave between 140 to 240 degree of view. But other than that, it's really clean even with the slight deformaties!

 

[Tannerj9876]

The electronics would be intersting and the way that it could be made into a fully functional helmet, maybe something like using a cheap vr helmet to create a screen inside.

I have a bit of experience with VR and the biggest hurdle would be syncing 2 cameras and having realtime software to merge the two together to give the illusion of depth, or you can just go with one camera and not worry about depth ether way would definitely be a game-changer with come cosplays I see around

note* you need depth for hand-eye coordination as an example try to close one eye and catch a football

 

[Tannerj9876]

or i guess another thing you could do is have 2 cameras and 2 screens and as long as you block your left eye from seeing your right screen and vice versa you could get the same effect tho it may cause motion sickness if the cameras refresh rate are off so I would go with ~120 hz cameras and displays if you want to go this route

 

[Revenant1988]

Small update for the day:


Repairing any flaws

&

Sanding and filling and weeping and sanding and filling


Started the first round of sanding, concentrating on the seam lines with a pass of 80 grit until things were level.

Then, I gave the entire helmet a pass with 120 grit. The seam lines are about 90% gone already, which is fantastic. The Apoxie Sculpt blends super well at this stage so I prefer it to spot filler as much as I can. The support marks on the side are almost completely gone, and it didn't take a lot of effort (just patience to let the material cure).



That said, I can't get totally away from the spot filler. Some marks and scratches are just too small. So, I slathered on some putty. I went heavy handed, just to ensure coverage. 98% of this will be sanded away.

Kinda looks like war paint.




That's it for today. I'll let it cure over night. Tomorrow's goal will be to give the whole helmet a pass in 220 & 320 grit, and if necessary touch up any areas that might need more material added.

 

[Revenant1988]

As for visibility, that isn't one of my goals for this project. My intent is to get the bucket mastered, casted and painted in his colors to make a premium display piece, that could be wearable, if the work was put in. Basically, I'm not getting involved in electronics, cameras and screens lol.

For me, this is about as good as it's gonna get

BUT, I'll have castings available for those who are more talented than I who want to try

 

[EVAkura]

Holy WOW! I agree, don't worry about the optics! I would be more than happy to get a raw cast of a perfect helmet that I can work out the details on! My motto is: the less moving parts (or in this case, the less "tricky" parts), the less points of failure. This is not meant as a negative thing. This is meant as crafter's point as a means to provide a wonderful product that others can build upon if they want... or in my case, an amazing case display as it is! Super glad to see someone do this helmet in its raw form, as I will certainly be ordering a cast if you offer it

 

[Revenant1988]

Holy WOW! I agree, don't worry about the optics! I would be more than happy to get a raw cast of a perfect helmet that I can work out the details on! My motto is: the less moving parts (or in this case, the less "tricky" parts), the less points of failure. This is not meant as a negative thing. This is meant as crafter's point as a means to provide a wonderful product that others can build upon if they want... or in my case, an amazing case display as it is! Super glad to see someone do this helmet in its raw form, as I will certainly be ordering a cast if you offer it

Thanks! It's taken me some time to learn to not over-engineer things.... there is a time and a place for sure (looking at you, Plasma Pistol I need to re-do....)

Small update

The details where I had some glue slip through have been fixed. I took my dremel and very, very slowly and carefully removed the excess in the "trenches" on the face and top.

Then, spot putty was applied where needed and then the whole helmet was given a pass of 180 grit. With my fingernail, I tested around the seam lines to see if there were any "catches" where more material needed to be added and thankfully, I think I got it all!

But the only way to be sure is to mist some paint on and see if the lines disappear. Looks like they did!




It is much easier to do your filling now, rather than work up to a high grit number, prime, and find you still have flaws that need attention.

At this point, I should be OK to proceed to a pass of 220, then 320, then 400 and prime it. From there, I'll have to check for any remaining areas that might need attention, or if things are good, I could potentially sand to a higher grit or move straight on to getting ready for molding.

We'll see!

 

[crackhead09]

so for the helmets that cut out visibility I would recommend you to have the helmet have parts that can be removed. So for Gungnir, I would say the "box" part that holds the lens be able to pop off via magnets. I did something similar with my saint 14 build which rendered my 95% blind.