Reach Spartan COMPLETED! (Kinda)

[GStam66]

Nother update, sorry no pics yet. The Halloween party/costume contest is a week from today, next saturday night, so it's crunch time. Everything is pepped except for 1 bicep and the shins. Something messed up with the scaling and I have 2 different sized shins. Got some dark charcoal colored foam for padding. Should blend in with the charcoal color I picked out for the armor. I'm trying to locate stencils for UNSC lettering as well as my Spartan number. Speaking of which, anybody know what font the lettering on the armor is? Detailing to the armor might be minimalistic considering time constraints though.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have everything resined. Monday and Tuesday will be devoted to sanding, and the rest of the week painting and mounting.

 

[GStam66]

Some of the resined pieces.

 

[GStam66]

Everything has been resined, except for the bicep pieces (still pepping the last one, all those little pieces are a bitch). Some pieces have been reinforced with Smooth Cast 300. I ordered it on friday, and it arrived this afternoon. Gotta give Smooth-On props for such fast shipping!

Received the visor, and I'm not really happy with how transparent it seems. In pictures it looked like it had a more reflective, mirrored finish. Maybe when the visor is in the helmet and doesnt have as much light passing out, it will look better.

Deadline's getting close, but I feel I've made some decent progress the past couple days.

 

[twistedxknights]

your fold lines are looking nice an crisp and everything looks well put together.. anxious to see the end result..

 

[GStam66]

Thank you! I tried being very meticulous about pepping the pieces as detailed as I could. I was worried about my armor turning into a resined blob.

Got everything reinforced with the Smooth Cast 300 today. I love how solid and strong it makes all the armor pieces feel. The only downside is nearly every piece of armor sprung a small leak somewhere, meaning I have dried plastic runs dribbled all over the outside, which means sanding. Freaking great. I can only recall the lack of fun I had sanding the hell out of my Fett armor last year, and this year has more pieces. Thank god I have a dremmel this year. Might be looking into using actual fiberglass to reinforce armor in the future. Seems less messy, even though it seems like it would be a nuisance to get it into all the corners and crevices. On the plus side again, the armor pieces seem to have retained their shape very well, and I'm not noticing any obvious warping.

Smooth-Cast 300 doing its thing

Plastic runs EVERYWHERE. I'll be sanding forever.

Yup, no way in hell my noggin is fitting through that opening. Time to dremmel!

Hopefully I can get all my sanding done thursday. Then Friday and Saturday I can paint, all I want is to at least have the armor painted and wearable in time for the party saturday night. Armor designs and details probably won't happen.

 

[GStam66]

Alrighty, got home from work and started dremmeling and sanding away. Cut away the support pieces, stray tabs, and the opening of the helmet so I can squeeze my head in. Separated the codpiece into 2 and removed a few inches because it was a little too big. I plan on re-attaching it with some nylon strapping and a buckle. The chest piece may be too big, because I can squeeze into it without cutting/separating. I'm tempted to cut some material away and re-attach it with nylon strapping and a buckle like the codpiece.

Sanding has begun, trying to get each piece as even as possible, and sand down any resin globs or plastic runs. I know it won't be perfect, since I'm short on time, but I can always sand down problem areas in the future and re-paint em.

Giant pile o' parts to sand

Seems to fit pretty nicely, just needs padding so it stays still

Front view

 

[onmi shift]

the fett pictures arent showing up for me. ive actually been modeling some star wars armor. you cant seem to find them anymore and the ones you do find are needless to say horrible. plus you never find the phase 2 armor, so thats what i did. im a video game design college student so i have to do stuff like that regularly. if theres anything you need made, i can do it for you.

great job on the halo armor.

 

[GStam66]

the fett pictures arent showing up for me. ive actually been modeling some star wars armor. you cant seem to find them anymore and the ones you do find are needless to say horrible. plus you never find the phase 2 armor, so thats what i did. im a video game design college student so i have to do stuff like that regularly. if theres anything you need made, i can do it for you.

great job on the halo armor.

Hey man, sorry the Fett pics aren't working, dunno what happened to em. Here's a link to them: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/FallenLord66/Boba Fett build 2011/


I decided to hit up the chest with some primer, just to see what it might look like... Not gonna lie, kinda like the random marks and chips in the armor. I sanded down the blobs, but some edges aren't perfectly smooth, and theres some pock marks and other imperfections here and there, but hell, it's combat armor, not a tuxedo. It's not supposed to look brand new and mint condition. It kind of reminded me of the Fett armor, and how I used the imperfections as damage, and everyone was commenting how it made sense for there to be cracks and divets and marks on the armor. I saw another Fett costume and it almost didnt look "real". Looked like perfectly cast and smooth pieces you'd get from a toy factory. Damage FTW!

 

[GStam66]

Well, I barely got the costume done in time for the party. Was still gluing padding and straps on an hour beforehand. Last thing I did was attach the combat knife with a couple screws. Lesson learned, start over the summer next time lol.

Got quite a bit of compliments on the suit, even though it was unfinished. Only had time to paint it black, no time for taping off and doing other colors and details, or weathering. I'll definitely be finishing it in the next couple months though, adding some weathering ideas that I came up with. The thigh pieces kept sliding down, codpiece wasnt tight enough, and the biceps kept sliding down as well. If I started earlier I wouldve had more time for strapping properly I guess.

Toward the end of the night, some drunken jackass slapped me in the chest piece pretty hard and put a nice crack in it. Wasn't too happy about that, so I partially unsheathed the knife and said "This isn't made out of paper." He was definitely surprised haha. Yay for functional armor components! The chest was too big, so I was probably going to remake it anyway. I could put it on without splitting it, with some twisting and contorting.

PICTURE TIME! (Yes I know the suit is bland-looking)

chest getting primer

helmet all primed

visor after cutting it to fit

Helmet getting the first coat of black

Finished (for now) helmet

flash kept messing up the visor's color

testing fitment before padding

padded helmet and chest armor, checking scale, realizing chest was way too big. Meh.

forearms were padded and fit perfectly

pile of armor parts as I finished padding em

chest armor with combat knife (yes its real)


FINISHED PRODUCT:

Not as many pics as I'd have liked, completely forgot to have pics of the back and sides shot, but it was a pretty small party and I was busy enough trying to eat and drink and keep the armor from sliding around haha.

Overall, I'd have to say I'm happy with how it turned out in the short amount of time. I know I could've done better if I gave myself more time, and I'll definitely work on this suit and get it weathered, or maybe go with an actual Master Chief suit next year. Hell, maybe even an Elite or Flood.

 

[onmi shift]

nice work on the fetts armor. have a friend whose trying to make the armor out of sheet metal. i told him hes nuts. lol

 

[GStam66]

nice work on the fetts armor. have a friend whose trying to make the armor out of sheet metal. i told him hes nuts. lol

Thanks man. Damn, metal? lol I dont know how he's going to attach it. My jetpack was paper mache and cardboard, and it was pretty heavy. The armor attaches to the flak jacket, so its going to sag like crazy if the pieces are too heavy.

 

[GStam66]

Completed Noble 6 build!

Bump, anybody have any input or advice? Feedback?

 

[Ghost01]

Thats a great looking suit you built. Was there a specific reason you went with all black as your color? The armor blends in with the undersuit a little too much and hides all the work you did. But for a first time pep'er you did great!

 

[GStam66]

Thats a great looking suit you built. Was there a specific reason you went with all black as your color? The armor blends in with the undersuit a little too much and hides all the work you did. But for a first time pep'er you did great!

Went with all black because I knew I was running short on time and wanted it to look "completed". Instead of having the armor half fully painted and half primered, I decided to go all black. Didn't even have time to weather it, but it's my own fault for not starting earlier.

I'm either going to remake the Reach chest a little smaller, or do the Mark VI chest (not sure how it would look with Reach legs and arms). After that, I'll have to decide if I want to keep the black and weather it and add details, or change the color altogether. My Reach Spartan is a dark charcoal/steel color with burgundy/crimson accents. The helmet wasn't sanded perfectly, due to the time rush, so maybe the color change will let me go back and sand it more.

Thanks for the input!