1st Build Scrapper and Gears' ODST Build(s)

[scrapper]

Hi all! First thread here. I'm relatively new to Halo but not to costumes or armor building. I'm currently working on constructing my first ODST- a build I'm doing in tandem with my good friend Gearsofhalo for us to troop together- Idea being they'll closely visually match to communicate two troopers from the same fireteam, utilizing the same base paints, models and shapes, weathering techniques, etc to tell the visual story.

Dan (Gears) between the two of us is definitely the true blue soft goods enthusiast, so im sure he'll stop by the thread to contribute on that front and talk about the options he's taking with his kit as well.

For now, my personal loadout plan is looking like:

• Neck to waist: AguilarWorkshop ODST files, really been loving how these print and assemble so far. photo below of the extent of my assembly so far. should be done enough that i can start finishing work on the core torso pieces as a set by the end of the week unless my printer has other plans ​
• 

  
• Helmet: decided to go with a cast- I'm running most of my armor off my CR-10S which is just small enough where it COULD probably fit the helmet but it'd make me hate my life. Treat yourself right? I grabbed a GalacticArmory cast, was delivered yesterday but i haven't had a chance to open it yet. Stay tuned for that update i suppose. Also grabbed his helmet accessory files to give myself some options to spice the helmet up- i figure i can print a few choices on my resin printers and see what feels right.​
• Backpack: downloaded the FromTheBrinkStudios files off Etsy, rather impressed with its functionality and especially how the files are divided up for printing.​
• Weapons: I really want this part of the loadout to be as pick-and-choose as possible-​
  • For starters I did some ebay spelunking for some toys, quite literally- picked up the Nerf MA40 and Bulldogs to do some modding and repainting with (made a con safe beater EE-3 for my Boba Fett builds out of the nerf special edition blaster a couple years back, pretty confident in my ability to polish these guys up into something legit).​
  • Will also be either grabbing or printing two SOCOMS, I think double wielding them would be a fun tribute to another armor i've built and one of my favorite troopers in all of Sci-Fi, Tech from the Bad Batch, who dual wields DC-17 blasters.​
  • Finally for now, I've printed a classic ODST knife Zealot props so generously put in the free files index recently. Plan being to horizontally mount it on my lower back.​
• I'm also planning to do my own little spin on the iconic ODST clips in metal with a tiiiny bit of visual complication- really looking to add these on and just feel the metal on the straps, if only for my edification. Prototypes are en route, so fingers crossed they work out! Pic of my modeled concept attached.​
• 

I've got an inordinate amount of deliveries out for parts and soft goods right now, so expect a lot of updates in a very abbreviated timeframe on my end- Super stoked to delve further on this build and get involved with the community!

 

[scrapper]

Been less than a day since last post, i know! I got around to opening my packages after work.

First off, the package from Galactic Armory: one GORGEOUS resin cast an a visor im leaving in the bag until its time to tint it blue out of fear of messing with the finish inadvertently

After that, some miscellanious packages, and besides for a noble 6 fig, master chief helmet and a couple soft goods parts we'll get into on a later date, these guys showed up:

They look and feel about how i expected, I'll get to modding and working through them once im a bit further in on the build. the MA40 is missing the little shot counter that slots to the tiny top rail, obviously thats needed at the end of the day so i did a bit of hunting. I found this model for an MA37 with some rail adapters: MA37 Ammo Counter - NERF - Halo - Printable 3d model - STL files .

Is it for the MA37 and not the MA40? yes. Will it do the trick for this? we shall see. I've sliced it up to print between some armor parts.

Speaking of printing armor, I've currently got the side back/kidney plates on my printer as I type this, and with any luck this old bed slinger will have them done in a little over a day. I have a couple more parts for the torso that i'll be printing after this, but before i continue to the arms I'll be turning focus to the backpack so i can start figuring incorporating the rigging between the two as I work on getting the rest of the armor pumped out.

 

[OMalley]

The helmet cast is CLEAN. I'm interested to see how the visor fitting goes for you. Digging the AguilarWorkshop prints too. You, and a few others have me wanting to buy some of his STLs.

 

[scrapper]

The helmet cast is CLEAN. I'm interested to see how the visor fitting goes for you. Digging the AguilarWorkshop prints too. You, and a few others have me wanting to buy some of his STLs.

Cant recommend the Aguilar files enough dude! They've honestly been a joy to print so far. Looking forward to fitting the visor but am terrified of fingerprinting this thing up before I get it into the helmet Time will tell i suppose!

 

[scrapper]

One more update for tonight- printed out the ODST knife posted recently by Zealot props recently. started busting supports off it tonight and actually got a chance to hold the parts in hand and get a feel for them. I really like the blade and the sheath, but the handle was just a bit too small for me at its current size...

not a problem though, tossed it into meshmixer and did some edits, separated the guard from the handle and upped the latter's proportions to 125%, which threw the knife more into scale with combat and bowie knives I'm more used to.
Proportions before:

Proportions after:

Should help me get a solid grip on this thing- i'll toss it on as a quick print with some of my belt parts to get it ready to test out soon.

 

[YTunz]

Damn thats a great start! That clip design looks great, I cant wait to see the prototypes!
What are your plans for your legs? Also Aguilar or are you going with someone else's files?

 

[scrapper]

Damn thats a great start! That clip design looks great, I cant wait to see the prototypes!
What are your plans for your legs? Also Aguilar or are you going with someone else's files?

Thanks man! really excited to get the protos in and hopefully show some successful results there!

Great question on the legs- definitely gonna de the aguilar at some point but we've been debating maybe doing the thigh plate and shin in the style of the Reach ODSTs for a bit more mobility in the hip and ankle for starters. Looking at Moe Sizzlak's reach marine or the legs (HD versions): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4563156

Biggest personal issue with these ones is the straps at the back lower- since they're solid it kinda limits the sizing to how small you can get it where your foot still passes through. I tried some meshmixer-fu to remove them to make way for practical stacked elastic straps with endcaps of some sort:

Unfortunately its left some rather messy looking digital artifacts. Considering begging Moe on my hands and knees to post an edit with the straps removed if we decide to go this route

other than that swap option, definitely using the Aguilar boot armor regardless to finish off the legs.

 

[Gearsofhalo]

Okay! Dropping (punny) in here! Long time, folks. Pleased to see this board again!

As scrapper said, this is a joint build. I will also place my WIP here for consolidation.

My objective is to spearhead the under-suits, soft goods, sourcing etc. in addition obviously to putting my own suit together.

Now, I have been waiting to put my suit together for nearly 2 decades so I am going into this blazing.

Lets get started with a list of our first purchasable items we are testing: Net approx cost at once = $100.00

Undershirt BDU - will give the body a nice fitted look without being too plain a spandex and the arms will remain BDU in look. - Black
PANTS BDU - Pants only option - Very simplistic design. It is easy to go overboard on pant detailing. We went a more reserved way to let the armor do the talking. - Black
Flak Vest For Mounted Armor - we will be building onto these and top stitching on detail panels. Very comfy and gives you some nice anchor points for sewing strapping.
Thigh Mount for Thigh Armor and under belt (belt that will be below the aesthetic ODST belt. (picking off the given belt and pockets.
Belt for the Thigh Mount - Loved the buckle. Very halo without being a cobra clip. This felt very in universe.
Detail panel for the vest under the armor that velcros to the main flak (building in some detail while we work out stitching details onto the vests

Please note once all come in we will be posting our thoughts on the pieces. But I spent a good deal of time with Scrapper sorting through a lot of junk so you may not have to! Photos to come.


Inspiration for the looks:

• We want to land somewhere between the Reach ODST & what they could have looked like next to the marines in Infinite without looking like we "did our own thing".

Next Up To-Make:

• I will be patterning a scuba neoprene shoulder mount akin to the one on the Landfall armor that will drop from the shoulder strap on the Flak and help the armor sit on the shoulder.

We will be back with more soon!
Dan

 

[Gearsofhalo]

COSTUME LORE - Fireteam Gravedigger

I wanted to take a moment to make a note on the lore of our characters and the amount of story we have built around them.

In maintaining a reason for each piece of our gear, loadout, armor paint, etc. we wanted to come at this from a different perspective than other builds we have done. We will adorn, paint, strap, and make the armor by the beat of our canon and characters. Scrapper and I are building Fox and Scrapper respectively of our Fireteam Gravedigger crew, but the other roles are open to build for as well!

I have taken my lore, overview, timeline of events, mission logs and details and given them to Notebook LM to create a pretty concise podcast-style synopsis of too that is in the document tabs if you care to listen to a little fan lore and story summed up as you build in your shop. Just a good bit of fun.

LINK: DOCUMENT OVERVIEW, TIMELINE, AUDIO & MORE

Audio Companion: LINK

Let us know your thoughts on the story!


-Foxtrott

 

[scrapper]

OK folks, been a couple days. we got some progress to show buildwise, Gearsofhalo has done WONDERS with the Fireteam Gravedigger storyline so far while i continue to work toward piecing some of these physical parts together and as deliveries roll in.

First off, here's the main build so far collected into one photo-next prints are shoulders and pack parts:

prints are a combo of my current creality 10s's efforts with some printed cameos by a k2 plus for those printer heads out there. You'll also notice some hints of a vest under there, we'll get to that in a later post once i start modifying.

Eagle eyed readers will notice the new knife handle is printed and fits my hand much better!

I've alsostarted work trimming up the helmet- I've gotten it to a point where i can start twst fitting the visor as i continue to clean it up. Still figuring out how we're gonna be mounting but i do know we'll be adding some blue to that chrome before it's finally set up.

Final physical update for tonight (and excuse my phone's hard time focusing, its paired with my own eyes' issues focusing the past few weeks ) is a physical chip for Scrap's AI shard, Obi-4, covered in the Fireteam Gravedigger documentation posted diretly above this. I wanted a chip similar to the cortana chip but larger, implying an older less advanced base. Think an OG floppy disk vs the ones we had by the time they were phased out. Anyways, i had the perfect file, produced by MysteryMakers, roughly 3 in by 1.75 in by .5 in. paintjob is a combination of tamiya model colors and chrome silver and gold pens so far, further detail will be added with my cricut for its label and them some paint cleanup when my sight is nominal once again. This is gonna be more of afunctional piece, a small deck will be mounted on my armor (perhaps one of the breastplate wings) to contain it. the center ring is printed in glow in the dark blue filament, i may make an electronic element to charge it breifly when the casing is closed.

Gonna close out this post with these options for our callsigns on our breastplates- we're working with very limited space and are too happy to use either version. let us know what you guys prefer!

-Scrapper

 

[scrapper]

Small morning update! While I’m waiting for the metal protos, I’ve printed up plastic versions for the clip to test:

Looks like it’ll hold together at the least! One thing I really like about adding the screws is it gives it a touch of modularity: need to swap the bottom layer for backpack clips? Check. Need to add a layer to better grab your webbing? Check. Can’t wait to show you guys the metal versions!

-Scrapper

 

[scrapper]

Alright folks, sorry for the delay in posting. printers have not stopped and neither have I! On what should be the last print for the upper torso, the sealing plate for Aguilar's left forearm and a modified datapad from TitlewaveDesigns that i've added a cutout to hopefully fit the arm properly. I'll post more info on that when ive got a physical test out to work with.

On the helmet front I've trimmed the helmet and started preliminary painting, right now we're working in satin black and black chrome. I took a pic in the rain, I thought that was rather fitting:

(yes my car is the same color, yes im just realizing that as im posting)

I'll be adding yellow detail work this week on it, and at some point for consistency between the two costumes Gearsofhalo and i will dye and chrome our visors at the same time so everything is properly similar.

Beyond that, the metal pieces for the clips finally came in this weekend. I grabbed a new portable press to use with my hand drill because im sick of doing tapping and countersinking by the seat of my pants, and i must admit, i think they came out rather well (hopefully even better when i deburr and finish them a bit more)

the press is also great because its giving me consistency i really need for these. are the countersinks perfect? no, but once the pieces are finished a bit more, weathered down we'll be somewhere really nice with these hopefully. Also testing out some in the hardshell pack configuration, we'll see about that.

More updates to come soon!
=Scrapper

 

[scrapper]

Hey All! It's about time for another update. Lots of stuff to share!

First up, if you've read the fireteam gravedigger dossier materials you'll know that my armor and accoutrements includes a tacpad- something i hadn't made any specific descisions on until this week. I purchased a lovely file on monday from Titlewave designs of the MC5 tac pad from Infinite, designed to work with one of his armor's forearms like so:

Needless to say i loved how it was incorporated in, but obviously I'm using an odst set and cant expect it to lock onto mine automatically like that. So in typical me fashion i went into my digital operating room, better known as meshmixer, and worked some magic to get something working, im pretty pleased with how it came out, i wanted something that felt a bit less streamlined to go with the more rugged feel of the suit geometry:

Here it is printed and sitting on my arm (did i mention my arms are printed too? well they are LOL) It'll also be physically retained but it keys in pretty dang well, i can swing my arm around without it flying off at the least.

Moving up the suit, ive added the main accent color to my helmet, and i think we're looking pretty good (visor is not the final and is just sorta jammed in there FYI)

I'm gonna add maybe an airbrushed number, maybe a detail here and there before weathering. i really like the way this paint looks next to the black chrome- this is from tamiya's TS line, metallic orange.

Moving the OTHER direction on the suit, let's talk thigh plates. I really wanted to add some functional and useful modularity to the suit and this was a spectacular place to get some work in. Reach style thighs typically have an almost decorative mount in the center. I decided it was a prime place for some picatinny rail placement- that way you can attach a holster of some sort, some hard pouches perhaps, and you'll be able to swap them out depending on what loadout you want, where youre trooping, etc. Want a canteen? make a picatinny adapter and it can go on your thigh. water bottle holder? sure. plenty of adapters out there that you can mix and match or easy enough to design your own (more on this later).

I started with Moe Sizzlac's amazing Reach thigh plates, removed the detail pieces from the center to make room for the rail. i bored holes the proper size to let the screws pass through at the distance for the lovely aluminum rails i selected, and bored a profile that fit the M-LOK T nuts to fit well from the back to help with retention, especially with heavier accessories. Printed a pair up and im pretty happy with the results:

Now, i mentioned designing your own accessories for the rail before- one of my main goals with these was ease of mount and dismount for sidearms, wether dual weilding or not. the primary mounted accessory im planning for this will be using two Fidlock SNAP size M pieces. Thought being with these is theyve got strong magnets that are pretty easy to catch and dont need a lot of effort to align, however when they go in theyre physically retained by the mechanism and will only come off if pulled in a single direction- in the case of the designs i'll be using, up. In more practical terms, you can just slam your SOCOM onto your thigh and it'll not only stick but hold fast, but when you want to hold it it'll come off like it wasn't even stuck to your leg in the first place. Expect more on that as well!

Finally, I've started some build aspects on another character from the fireteam gravedigger dossier- Doc- for a third member. expect some progress on that build and its distinct intricacies from the Scrapper and Foxtrott characters. If you're interested definitely check out the post Gearsofhalo made earlier in this thread!

'Til next time!
-Scrapper

 

[N8TEBB]

Moving the OTHER direction on the suit, let's talk thigh plates. I really wanted to add some functional and useful modularity to the suit and this was a spectacular place to get some work in. Reach style thighs typically have an almost decorative mount in the center. I decided it was a prime place for some picatinny rail placement- that way you can attach a holster of some sort, some hard pouches perhaps, and you'll be able to swap them out depending on what loadout you want, where youre trooping, etc. Want a canteen? make a picatinny adapter and it can go on your thigh. water bottle holder? sure. plenty of adapters out there that you can mix and match or easy enough to design your own (more on this later).

This is so clever! Progress is good! Keep up the good work

 

[scrapper]

This is so clever! Progress is good! Keep up the good work

Thanks so much! doing my best to make this as functional and cool as I humanly can. Got a few tricks up my sleeve still!

 

[scrapper]

Update time of the week folks! some big stuff cooking.

First off- thigh plates- we left off with the picatinny rails test fit on the prints. Having rails is one thing but being able to use the rails is another. i found this great quick release model with regularly spaced m3 bolt head screw holes that was exactly what i wanted, so instead of re-inventing the wheel i decided just to use it as the basis: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3515707
With that taken care ofm i designed a piece to actually hold the fidlock SNAPS- i mde a secondary decorative piece meant to evoke some of the shape of the inner clip and... voila!

I won't be able to get a proper SOCOM test in for a while but in the meantime i'll design some other useful kit around it- keep an eye out!

While i was looking into the Fidlock SNAP system and other options, i stumbled upon a model they produce called PINCLIP, they seemed interesting so i ordered a few samples. While the SNAP system in the context of the parts we're using I kinda mentioned had magnetic closure and some physical locking to hold it in place except in one direction, the pinclip system is magnetic but it has like a 1 in by 1.5 in tab you need to pull out to successfully release the other side of the fastener.

Concurrently I decided that the rest of the build had outgrown the standard knife I had printed- it's a fine model, its just not what i ended up feeling for the suit. Once again i found myself of Titlewave designs' etsy looking at his gen 2 marine chest knife file. Naturally, just like the tacpad this knife sheath has a predesigned key in for his armor- very nice, just not what I need with this hodgepodge of files so i immediatley got to thinking- how lucky i was to have gotten these pinclip fasteners in!
I redesigned the interfacing surface of the sheath to screw into the fastener and decided to mount to my left shoulder armor. With the help of a printer and a 4mm drill bit in a dremel we have it all set up!

One of the nice things i immediately noticed too is if i didn't want the knife for a troop for any reason, it easily will pop off and the mechanism definitely feels appropriate for the context of the armor, while some more traditional "cosplay" methods being shown would take me out of the visual experience some. Here the shoulder is with no knife:

From there, my mind immediately decided to retread some covered grount: My tacpad mount on my left forearm. I changed its angle rotationally on my arm and it sitts in a much better spot now, i think It's far superior to the original mounting idea:

And of course the versatility of it: it pops off now and can be used as a handheld unit!

Now, if youve been paying attention this post, you might point out that this means that now the tacpad and the knife sheath are interchangable, in which case you'd be correct! the knife can mount (oddly) on my arm or for some insane reason i could mount the pad on my shoulder.

looks goofy as hell I know! BUT! as i develop more accessories for the suit and maybe find a couple more worthy mount points, it may prove to be a useful system for even more modular loadouts in cooperation with the picatinny rails, SNAP system, yadda yadda...

In unrelated news on something i havent (bur probably soon will) figure out some zany connectors for, I've been making significant progress on my hardshell backpack, files from fromthebrinkstudios:

FAR from done with this but most of the hinges are done and installed (needed to pull some rotary tool magic to get some US hynges to fit but it all works out in the end!). INSANE amount of storage in this for its form factor. very pumped to wrap it up.

And on the miscellanious accessories front, had some time to work last week woth the multifilament system at work and printed up my hollowed and split edit of MoeSizzlac's Reach health kit, added some extra hinges from the backpack and a clasp and... boom. another box i can stash stuff in. unsure how or if i'll mount it anyhow, for now just a fun part. might mask off the reds just to spritz it white to do away with some of the filament system pink artifacts.

Anyways that's about all I've got for now, thanks for braving another wall of text with me. more updates to come!

Til next time.
-Scrapper