Spartan182 New to the 405th, First post/project.

[Spartan182]

Hello all, This is my first post to the 405th as well as my first attempt at making a suit. I have build a few Pepakura models in the past but have never had the resource to take it past a paper model. I am finally at a pont in my life where I can actually afford the time and resources needed to build a completed model. For my first project I decided to build a MJOLNIR MK VI model suit. This will probably not be completely game accurate as I am planning on a lot of extras by means of electronics and such to build a working suit, but I want to stay as close as I can aesthetically for the people pleaser aspect. This entire project will not be completely HALO by nature. I have a fair amount of experience in hobby electronics and a bit of college level experience in programming, so I will also be experimenting with ideas and developing skills in that area as well. HALO will be the vehicle by which I will implement it all. Although I can say pretty certainly that I will complete an entire suit of resin/bondo models, I can't really promise that any of the extras will work out so I will not bother mentioning then until they are at least somewhat developed. I know people are not huge fans of post with extravagant plans that never gain any momentum. With that being said I do not expect this to be a fast moving project but I will keep this forum updated as I make progress.

I would also like to mention that I am NOT a HALO fact junkie so I honestly don't know everything there is to know about HALO and you can be quite certain that I will get facts mixed up along the way. I will do as much research as I can before hand, but If I do make any mistakes please feel free to correct me as well as send any other input/recommendations you may have. I recognize that there are far more intelligent and perceptive people out there that me and I welcome their insight.

Now for the suit
As expected, I decided to start with the helmet. I imagine that the majority of my "extracurricular" project development will be contained here, so I will be working on the extras while I build the rest of the suit.
This was my very first attempt at Bondo/resin so I have had to do a lot of learning along the way. I imagine that this will be an experimental helmet I can use to develop the electronics and will build another one for the completed project once I get the techniques down. For the Pepakura model I used the HD helmet by Flyin_Squirl. I am fairly Happy with the outcome although somewhere along the way the brim became twisted and the brim and chin are no longer in alignment. I did leave the detail pieces out of the visor because I do not like the way they attach and I plan on doing something a little differently later on.



After 2 coats of resin on the outter shell and one layer of fiberglass cloth on the inside.





After a couple thin layers of bondo



In order to cut down on the amount of Bondo work and sanding, I didn't cover the entire model with Bondo like I have seen some models made. I only hit the areas that I felt needed the attention. Areas like this I felt were better left un touched. Plus it minimized the risk of losing the sharp detail.



After some more Bondo and smoothing. I put on the first Primer coats.






And after some more Bondo and sanding I put on a very basic paint job.







For my first time doing Bondo and Fiberglass, I am pleased with the overall outcome so far. As you can see there are some very obvious flaws in the base model. since I am going to have to have to make another one for the finished suit I didn't bother finishing off the pinholes or other cosmetic imperfections. As of now I am using this helmet to experiment with different detailing technics I am finding and will soon begin working on the electronics prototyping. I have just ordered a list of items That I will be using so once it all gets here I can get started. My current activity is working on the visor. I'm not completely pleased with some of the techniques I have seen and feel like most of them do not get the finish that I want. Since I plan on this being a working suit, I'm looking at different ways to make and implement a visor system. I will be looking at options and experimenting with that for now, and may throw in some electronics in when I get stumped with the visor.

Current Goals
Short: Prepping a new larger helmet (and maybe a few other pieces)
Mid: Find a suitable solution to a working visor.
Long: Prototyping some electronics for the helmet

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Wow, really great start! Thanks for sharing and I look forward to seeing more. As for the minor imperfections you have to remember that most people will be enamored with the suit as a whole and even after spending an hour with you are not going to notice the imperfections that you see, so I wouldn't even worry about them for the final piece. From what I've seen, you've done really good bondo work and that imo is the hardest part of the whole thing.

Have you seen the vacuum formed game replicated visors for sale on etsy? Seems like the easiest way to get the "correct" look.

 

[Spartan182]

I have seen some in posts here but I'm still just not sure if that will suit my needs. I'm actually working on possibly casting my own visors. Still working out the details of it. My first thoughts were to Just build up the visor out of Bondo like the rest of the helmet. This would allow me to get an exact fit for the helmet as well as let me play around with the visor detailing. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to incorporate into the suit or how I'm going to do it so I want to have the flexibility of altering my design to fit my needs.


I assembled the paper visor that came with the helmet and attached it to the helmet with some tape.I also lined the visor opening with tape to provide a surface that I hopped would allow the new Bondo to release from relatively easily. I put on a coat or two of resin and used a rasp to file down the assembly edges. You can see how much the visor pulled away from the nose piece because of the warping of the helmet.


I put on a few layers of Bondo to build up a finished surface




and after much filling and sanding I got a pretty reasonable finish



I still had to do some filling and shaping around the nose piece and still wasn't able to get it right. Since this is jut an experimental helmet I just ignored it and made it work. In order to get a smooth surface I applied a thick coat of resin and used a high grit sand paper to buff out the rippled to a smooth finish

but during my holiday travels to visit family I dropped the face shield and broke it in half. It is currently being glued and filled to hopefully salvage it.



I used a dirty sandpaper to "stain" the high points of the visor to make it easier to see when I had an even surface. You can see on the right side how smooth it was getting before I broke it. I was adding Bondo to the back side to build up a thickness and then ill finish it off like I did the front. I'll try to cast that and see how it goes and if it works ill add the rest of the detail. I'm debating on weather or not to continue with this method or try to find another material to use to get a uniform thickness. I may try a few other ideas and see which one works the best

If anyone has tried this method or tried casting their own visors at all please let me know what your experience was like and any recommendations/pitfalls you may have.

 

[ravinousbunny]

That's some pretty sweet work!! I had never though to do that method to create a "mold" for a visor. Interested in seeing how you continue this!

 

[Spartan182]

Well. I went and bought some 5mm foam earlier today. I wanted to try something that had a uniform thickness. It was really difficult to spread Bondo on an inside curved surface, much less get it built up to a uniform thickness. It was using way too much Bondo and I wasn't getting anywhere with it. I may would suggest building up a dam on the edges and then trying to roll in a few layers of rondo. I may try that approach if I can get my Bondo visor put back together. For now Im going to continue with the foam approach until I am satisfied that I won't be able to make it work.

Here is the foam build up I threw together real quick. I wasn't happy with the smoothness of the visor on the model by Flyin_squirl So I used the pieces from JTM1997's Halo 3 Mk VI Helmet



It actually fit pretty well into my helmet with little effort despite the helmet being crooked.



Apparantly the nose piece has also pushed in during the build to it interferes with the placement of the visor. I had to trim the visor back a bit to make it fit over the nose piece. On the next helmet I will probably set the visor before putting on the nose piece just to make sure I get a good seal.

BTW. does that look like too much curvature in the visor?

 

[B1ondeange1]

Very nice job so far! I look forward to seeing the completed armour!

 

[Spartan182]

SO....... Not a whole lot of progress to speak of. I wanted to build a new helmet before I continued on because my first one had some unrecoverable defects in it. I looked at a couple of different pep files and some had details I really like while others had different details I liked but I couldn't find any that had every thing I liked. So I thought I would give a go at making my own models. As a result, I have been spending most of my free time trying to learn how to use Blender. I have gotten some basics down but I'm still not getting as far as I would like. I'm working from the raw files provided in the file archives and figured out how to apply the textures to it. It made things a lot easier being able to see to detail in it as I was going. Still not getting very far though...


one hang up I am having is that I decided to change the style of the armor I want to build. Im not exactly sure what its official name is but so far I have seen it as the MK VI legendary in some pics. of gameplay.



This s what I am going for but there is a lacking of pep files for it in the archives. Im also considering the possibility of 3D printing it and will be getting a 3D printer with my tax returns. Although I have found a ton of great reference pictures online I cannot seem to find any good orthographic views of it.

I found some of the MK VI from halo 4


As well as pics like this of other armors but I cant find any of the one Im trying to build. Does anyone have any idea where I can find some?


Apart from the Blender adventures I have slowly been getting in a few electronic components I ordered and am working on a few small ideas for the Helmet and such. Nothing exciting to show right now but ill throw a few things up as I get more done.

 

[GingerOfMidgard]

Looking forward to seeing more progress, keep it up ^_^

 

[soldier466]

Dang that is really clean for your first bondo/resin, looks amazing looking forward to more.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Fantastic work. Keep it up. Looking forward to the finished product.