Sean Anwalt's Mk V build

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Sean Anwalt

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I have been on here a long time, but i haven't completed a halo costume since 2012, which is disappointing. So i thought I would try my hand at foam. I want to document the whole build from start to finish, and hopefully we'll get some questions answered along the way.

I will be using the foam templates from the armory unfolded by L3X BLU3R1V3R and the back pieces by RUZE 789.

So here goes...

Getting the templates cut out:
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I'm starting with the chest piece. I don't know why, but it's my favorite part of the suit.

Wish there were more notes on the pieces, like "Hey, this edge needs to be beveled" or whatever. But it's cool. I'm just building with my computer nearby in case I get confused.

Unfortunately progress is going to be slow, since work gets in the way, but we'll keep updates as possible.

20180617_100257.jpg

Here is the bottom of the front chest. There center of the bottom edge needs to be separated, so to keep it as precise as possible, I kept it attached, then after I traced the outline I lifted it up the bottom edge but left the top attached to the foam.
20180617_100342.jpg
Then i cut the other part out *carefully!* and layed the pattern back down to trace the little piece.
20180617_100632.jpg

When I am ready to glue and assemble, that little piece is going to be pushed out for detail.

Stay tuned! Lots more cutting yet to come!
 
I'm starting with the chest piece. I don't know why, but it's my favorite part of the suit.

Wish there were more notes on the pieces, like "Hey, this edge needs to be beveled" or whatever. But it's cool. I'm just building with my computer nearby in case I get confused.

Unfortunately progress is going to be slow, since work gets in the way, but we'll keep updates as possible.

View attachment 256259
Here is the bottom of the front chest. There center of the bottom edge needs to be separated, so to keep it as precise as possible, I kept it attached, then after I traced the outline I lifted it up the bottom edge but left the top attached to the foam. View attachment 256257Then i cut the other part out *carefully!* and layed the pattern back down to trace the little piece. View attachment 256260
When I am ready to glue and assemble, that little piece is going to be pushed out for detail.

Stay tuned! Lots more cutting yet to come!

If you give me a day or two, I've annotated the whole Reach suit with bevels, mirror lines and a bunch of other fun stuff for my foam build and I can either scan or just make a PDF with labelled edges.
 
Well, here we are, a couple days in. Not a lot of progress so far. Looots of cutting. And blade changing. I knew foam was going to eat through the blades, but i wasn't expecting this bad!

20180619_074226.jpg

These little pieces for the sides of the chest front were particularly picky, because I wasn't thinking too super hard. Instead of cutting out the pieces and popping them out, why not just make new ones to fit over the original piece?!

*Caboose's voice* sometimes, I am so dumb...

20180619_074247.jpg

These cuts aren't making anyone proud, are they? I'll have to redo them, i guess. :mad:

I'm getting the hang of this foam thing, though.

Amy tips, helpful criticisms, or advice is always welcome!
 
Well a cool thing with foam is you dont really have to be a 100% accurate or else it fails kind of situation. You can sort of get away with little mistakes here and there and fix it later. Also if you're unsure how a piece will look like once its assembled, you can use duct tape or masking tape to temporarily fit the pieces together to see how it will look.
 
Yeah, I guess I could... that makes me feel better. We'll see how things look tomorrow if I get a chance to post an update
 
Well, here we are, a couple days in. Not a lot of progress so far. Looots of cutting. And blade changing. I knew foam was going to eat through the blades, but i wasn't expecting this bad!

View attachment 256311
These little pieces for the sides of the chest front were particularly picky, because I wasn't thinking too super hard. Instead of cutting out the pieces and popping them out, why not just make new ones to fit over the original piece?!

*Caboose's voice* sometimes, I am so dumb...

View attachment 256312
These cuts aren't making anyone proud, are they? I'll have to redo them, i guess. :mad:

I'm getting the hang of this foam thing, though.

Amy tips, helpful criticisms, or advice is always welcome!

Try to avoid popping out as much as possible is my best advice. If you're having to push pieces free they may not have been cut all the way through which coupled with a push may tear the foam and ruin a clean mating surface, this only is made worse by the fact that usually the uncut section is at corners and curves that are at cut start/end points which will result usually in a loss of detail. The way I get about this is to basically quick split the larger mat down to rough shapes after tracing on the templates and not worry too much about getting anywhere near the lines, just ripping pieces down to manageable chunks that are easy to manipulate on my work surface. From there with a sharpened knife and a steel ruler I get in as exact as I can.

If you have a sharpener in your kitchen knife block, go and snag that thing. Every four or five cuts give your knife a sharpen paying close attention to the tip and leading edge up to about an inch along the blade. If you've never sharpened a knife this way, you're about to get a lot of practice so I suggest learning how to do it right and not learn any bad habits. One of my favourite videos on the internet is for this is from the Gordon Ramsay's YouTube channel, dude is all about education and teaching his craft and I have loads of respect for him, the video is for kitchen knives but the premise is the same. You'll get the hang of it and start to be able to feel where there's inconsistencies in the blade after a while and know when to give up, snap off the knife and start a fresh tip.

Your cuts aren't bad believe me, they're better than most of what's on my ODST gear. I've just had a load of practice over the last two years and this wall of text is just me trying to help out a fellow builder with some tricks I've picked up along the way. Keep up the good work and you'll ace this build!
 
Thanks, man. I'm no stranger to knife sharpening, but i don't own a decent sharpener... yet. I'm about to though! XD

I'll give that vid a look when I have a chance. I'm at work now, so that wouldn't be kosher.
 
I'm sorry to double post, but it is UPDATE TIME! Pic heavy long winded update...

I put some work in on some beveled edges, and it is my professional opinion that they suck.
20180620_071000.jpg
this is the best I was able to get with my knife. I know it is a small detail area, and I should have started bevels on a large straight practice piece, but what can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.

So I did the next best thing: DREMEL THAT SUCKER!
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dremels make everything better. Unlike phone updates that make you misspell everything! Argh!

Anyway, I did some more cutting, and dremelling, and cutting, and kicked some drunk homeless guys off my porch, and cut some more and dremelled some more and got this result:
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and then the childish urges kicked in and I broke out the duct tape, and now this is how it looks:
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And all of a sudden there was joy.

I think for the side pieces off the chest center I am going to have to back the center with another layer of foam and attach them at a step behind, and then add some detail foam to clean them up a bit... or should I wait to add the detail foam.... what do you guys think?
 
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That's a good looking razor saw! Maybe I'll save up and pick one up for myself.

Well, almost morning, another update! Didn't get a whole ton of big things done, but I did work on details.

First, took the pattern and fired it on my foamy, checkered for fit:
20180621_063726.jpg


I used a metal ruler to align the top with the edge of the foam mat to make sure it was straight. Then I cut out the center detail with an exacto knife which helped keep the corners crisp. I figure if I obsess about the little details and make them the best I can, the better the results.

Straightened the top edge of the fresh- cut piece, and carefully marked with a pen where the cut should be.

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Put some contact cement on both pieces, waited around 5-10 minutes, or however long it takes to eat a bowl of breakfast cereal (the *real* breakfast of champions), have them a second coat, waited again, and then VERY carefully layed the detail piece where it belonged.

This is the result:
20180621_070554.jpg


Usd the same procedure for the center of the neck.
20180621_073028.jpg


Got a little stain on the one side, but I'll be painting it eventually, so it's no big deal.

This has been easy, but time consuming. There is one part that has me bamboozled, though, and that's this part:

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How do I get this to fold the way I need it to? How have others done that?

Comments and tips always welcome!
 
Hmm... trying to think how to explain this...

20180621_084318.jpg

The part threat says "side" goes on the side, the part that says "front", obviously, goes in the front.

Normally I'd just be like 'well fold it at the little attachy point, silly', but it isn't that simple, because there's another piece,

20180621_084706.jpg

There ^

That fits in that little gap.

I don't want to sound unintelligent, but it is proving difficult for me to get the fold as crisp as I want.
 
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