Spartan Ii's Armour Progress...

[SPARTAN II]

@ damasterchief: Thanks for the high praise, dude, lol. I mean, yeah, I'd like to think I've done some decent work on my own armour build so far, but never have I had someone be speechless at the sight of my handiwork

@ Skullcandy: Thanks, girl!

@ rvb4life: There is a little bit of room all around on the inside. Probably just enough to fit some padding in there (should be enough room to also install those exhaust fans). Which is fine with me, as I'd rather have it be a snug fit than too big.

At least I know I won't look like a bloody bobblehead because I have an incorrectly scaled helmet, lol. And yeah, I forgot about the flash... I'll keep that in mind for next time

Thanks again for the comments and compliments, everyone!

 

[SPARTAN II]

Well, considering the absolutely wonderful weather we've been having here over the last week (and today being the one day this week where I wasn't busy doing something outside of the house, lol), I decided to take my Mk VI helmet out of mothball and actually do some work on it

Since my intended travel plans have been postponed for the time being, I figured I might as well do something more with it in the meantime.

Not much to update on really, aside from doing some additional sanding and puttying of the seams/gaps so far (haven't even primered it yet), but with what I have been doing I have to say it's really starting to get that well-rounded look to it, heh. Getting rid of many of those sharp edges/angles from the base Pep model.

Maybe I'll post some pics later, if I can find my digital camera, lol. Just wanted everyone who's been following this to know my project hasn't been forgotten...

 

[rvb4life]

yeah, lets see some pics! i want to see what else you have done on this within the past....month......maybe more than me, since you are actually fiberglassing yours.

 

[SPARTAN II]

Well, like I said just a moment ago, if I can find my digital camera, I'll take some pics

And actually... I'm not fiberglassing mine. Instead, I'm taking the same approach Sean Bradley (and CPU64 too, if I'm not mistaken) did with his armour build and am constructing it out of layered sheet styrene. Very sturdy.

Hence why mine's taking longer than others who are resining/fiberglassing thiers. So much sanding and puttying involved, lol.

 

[rvb4life]

ah. genius.

 

[45 Calibre]

someone should write a tutorial on how to use styrene, cuz the helm looks awsome

 

[SPARTAN II]

ah. genius.

Well thanks, lol. I wouldn't be the first person to use styrene for a prop build, though; it's quite a commonly-used material within the hobby. I'm just one of the first who have used it as the basis for HALO armour. Given my years of experience using it for numerous scratch-built props, I'm very comfortable with using it.

someone should write a tutorial on how to use styrene, cuz the helm looks awsome

Thanks! It's nice to know people enjoy the work I've done. I have to admit, there have been a few times during this project where I was wondering if I should rethink my methods given how much time and effort was going into it compared to others armour builds, but decided to stick with it.

However, in light of my agonizingly-slow progress at this point, I am thinking that once done with the helmet, maybe for the rest of it I should just build up the base Pep models, resin/fiberglass and then detail the rest of it with styrene. It's just, if I want this to be ready for DragonCon in August, I may have to switch up my methods after all in order to meet that deadline.

At least the helmet will be 100% styrene, lol.

Anyway, as requested I managed to take a few more pics of its current stage of completion. The first set of pics I'm posting here are to show how I've sanded/rounded out some of the sharp geometric edges/angles from the base Pep model:

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 12

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 13

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 14

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 15

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 16

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 17

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 18

As can be seen, I managed to round out the jaw area of the helmet (nice curves, lol), as well as the sides of the crown (top) of the helmet. I still have a little work to do on the middle seam going from front to back on the recessed area behind the top vents, but all in all I think I've done some good work on rounding it out.

Also, as I'm sure everyone has noticed in these pics, I started with some test painting using the colour I found was a pretty close to the Legendary helmet; Dupli-color "GM Lime Green" (paint code CDSGM423). I figured, since I was priming part of it anyway to look for flaws I might well as spray a little of my choice paint on there to see what it could look like, heh.

The next set of pics shows a direct comparison between my helmet and the Legendary helmet:

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 19 (Colour comparison)

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 20 (Colour comparison)

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 21 (Colour comparison)

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 22 (Colour comparison)

Compared to the Legendary helmet, my choice of colour is clearly waaay too light. Then again, it's not like I had the Legendary helmet with me in the store to compare when looking for a suitable colour, lol. Don't want to be looking like a walking fruit or anything, though. I don't want that "candied" look to my armour; I want something more representative of the in-game model.

So, I'm thinking if I use a dark grey or black primer underneath (will be doing the weathering using another method) that should darken it enough. Hell, it's worked on other prop builds I've done, where the top colour had to be darker than it was right out of the spray can.

That's about it in a nutshell, I guess. Not much more progress to show, and probably less than what others were expecting/hoping, but with how crazy-busy I've been as of late it's better than nothing...

EDIT: As for a "How to Build with Styrene" tutorial, if I'd known people might be interested in seeing how that's done with something like this, I would've taken more progress pics as I went along. But, I was so excited when I got started with this I couldn't help but just fly through the assembly process, lol. I guess I could always make a tutorial of sorts, using the method I used for the helmet, on one of the other armour pieces when I start work on another part of it.

 

[23Magnum]

Words...words...words...PICTURES!

Sorry never been much of a reader, but I don't think I could help with the paint problem either. I just came by to say the helmet looks great. I hope to have my helmet start appearing out of nowhere soon...

 

[BlacRoseImmortal]

WOW sweetie, that helmet looks amazing! If only I could make one like that.....

 

[CPU64]

One thing you can do when working with styrene, is to curve the pieces around instead of having a collection of flat triangles as in the pictures he posted.

Triangles work for games because even though they are a bunch of flats, the shaders are rendered in a way that makes them look softened.
Think about the girls in the DOA series.
They're all polys, but completely and lovingly curvaceously smooth looking.. Hmmm smoothness

Anyway, back to the styrene.
If you look at my mat board helmet for example, I have a one piece strip going from the tip of the brim, to the back of the helmet.
Several sections can be done this way and not only does it save you time from cutting and gluing all those tiny pieces, it will in the end have less angles and provides a smoother look once its finished.
You just glue them all together, then use it as a flat pattern on a piece of matboard.

 

[volkov]

that's amazing, the fact that you can take pictures so zoomed in without showing signs of flaws is a very good indication! Looks great!

 

[SPARTAN II]

@ Magnum: Thanks! I'm glad you like! Btw, I'm sure you're not the only one who gets overwhelmed with all the words I put in my updates, lol. I'll be the first to admit that I'm rather talkative (when it comes to anything), but I like to fully document my progress for others' benefit, just in case someone else has any questions about what I'm doing. And don't worry about the paint issue, buddy; as I mentioned in the last post, I think I've got it covered

@ BRI: Thanks, girl! Much appreciated!

@ CPU64: Although that method works well (VERY well) for you, dude, given the thickness of sheet styrene I'm using for this build (.080, or approximately 1/8th of an inch thick) it's not all that easy for me to simply bend the styrene over the base Pep model. Maybe if I were using something thinner that would work, as it would have a little more "give" to it, but then I'd lose some of the rigidity/sturdiness of it. As my helmet is comprised only of styrene, with the exception of the thin paper model underneath, I don't want it to be fragile in any way.

As I'd mentioned in the last post, I am thinking of just doing the usual resin/fiberglass approach for the rest of the armour pieces, and then layer very thin sheet styrene over that for the details and what not. That would make my project go a lot quicker, I think. And in that case, the technique you spoke of would definately work better in that circumstance. Thanks for chiming in with that suggestion, buddy

@ volkov: Thanks! I take your reference to zooming in without showing any flaws as a great compliment! I hadn't even thought of that myself lol

EDIT: Would you guys and gals believe I managed to build the styrene over a model made out of regular printer paper, held together with low-tack painter's tape? That's right... I couldn't find any card stock around here at the time, so I just used what I had available, and considering what I was using as a base material-wise, think it came out pretty well, heh.

 

[SPARTAN II]

Alright... so, I've just been doing a lot more puttying, sanding and priming (to check for flaws) lately, but am pleased with the whole smoothing-out process thus far. Managing to get rid of a lot of those unsightly seams, lol.

Took a few more pics, though not really looking any different than in the last set I posted, but did realize I hadn't ever shown a pic of the underside of the helmet, so just for the hell of it, here it is:

Mk VI Helmet -- Pic 23

Maybe I should take some close-up shots of the details on the underside of the brim too, lol.

Clearly, there's a lot of putty work required for this part of the helmet. And, the back portion of it still needs a lot of work, but I'm getting there...

 

[LastSpartan]

Coming along nicely!

Keep us posted on your work, I DO love. ^^


I'm just back from Ottawa, it was nice

 

[SPARTAN II]

Thanks, buddy! Much appreciated

I'm hoping to have the helmet finally done by the end of this month (preferably well before then), and can then get started on the rest of the armour. Between work and rehearsals for a play I've got a part in, hopefully I'll be able to find enough free time to get it all finished in time for DragonCon.

I've decided I am going to go with the standard resining/fiberglassing approach for the rest of the suit, and will add any details using thin (.010 thickness) sheet styrene. That way, I'll still be using that material of choice in the construction of my armour.

Now, I just need to go out and find some 110 lb cardstock

 

[LastSpartan]

Staples got cheap sheets

 

[SPARTAN II]

Ah, okay... good to know. Thanks for the info! I'll stop by there on my next day off and pick some up

 

[Skullcandy Girl]

LOoking pretty amazing I love the iridescent quality of the paint you're using

 

[Falling Jihad]

Wow looks really nice. I love how you plan to put your own detail in. Makes it very original and almost like your own.
My helm is still sitting on my workbench half smoothed. (I am the definition of procrastination )

 

[SPARTAN II]

@ Skullcandy: Thank ya much, girl. Although, it's not the primer I'm using that has that iridescent quality, it's the putty I'm using, lol.

@ Falling_Jihad: Yeah, all of the details from the top vents, two small indents on the crown of the helmet, nosepiece and recessed "squares" on the rear band of the helmet have all been put in by me. The basic HALO 2 Pep file is very low-detail, and so all of that is missing from it.

Despite others saying "HD is the way to go", I'm glad to see someone understands my reasoning behind going about it this way. Putting all of this extra detail work into it myself does make it more original somehow and more my own, as you put it. I want people to be able to look at this, and me be able to say "I made that", heh.

Of course, with the time constraints I now find myself under, if I'm to have this ready for DragonCon there will need to be some compromises made as described in my last post. I'll still be using styrene for the detailing, just not as the base structure for each piece of the armour. And, some of it may even be the HD files.