Steveo's first EVER hand's on project, and its the HD Mark VI Helmet

[Steveo84]

I'm am so stoked about starting this. I have been a HUGE halo fan since I got my first halo with the original xbox. Read all the book/comics. Played the games numerous times. I have never done anything like this before. Lets see how this turns out. Hopefully half as good as some of the other ones out there.

Here is the HD Mark VI helmet. Unfortunately I measured my head wrong, so the parts came out too small. I just used the side of the paper that wasn't printed on. Its a good thing I noticed this before I started putting effort into this. As of right now, I'm just seeing how my work turns out on the helmet. After that we'll see if I am going to continue with the fullbody.

I'm going to slow. I want this helmet to be the best I can make it.

So glad it's starting to take shape. Its been a little bit of time. I have never used a hot glue gun before.

Finally! I'm a little tired. Been at this on and off for almost 9 hours now. Real life was getting in the way!

So far, I'm not all that happy with they way the back of the helmet came out. Thinking about redoing it. Plus it looks really really big on my head. I was having issues with those few pieces staying glued together in the top left section. Glue globs are all over the place.

Is there anything you guys think I can do better on from these pics? THANKS!!

 

[Satchmo III]

Looks like a good first attempt. My only suggestions would be to...

...try to line up edges perfectly. There are some definite gaps along the ridge in your last image but I see areas throughout where you can still see slivers of tabs. If the edges aren't lined up, distortions or skew with the model may become evident later.

...start from the top and work your way down. I see you've started at the top and the bottom, this will make it difficult when you get to connecting in the middle. By starting at the top and building down in layers you'll have more space to work with your hands.

You're pretty well into this one so if you are thinking of scraping due to size you may want to just finish her out to see what the end product looks like. If nothing else, it's good practice for next time.

Good luck with your build!

 

[CoolC]

I agree. Good first attempt. Here is a another suggestion.

You are making a typical noob mistake. Don't cut the tabs so precisely. If possible, leave as much space as possible. Bigger area on tabs mean more area for glue. This will help strenthen the helmet more.

See illustration below. Cut on the red line.

 

[Steveo84]

Satchmo III: Thanks for the advice. I went ahead and scraped that one. The more I thought about it, the less I liked it. I've been working on a different version of the HD Mark VI. Pics to come probably tomorrow pm. It is WAY easier to start at the top!

CoolC: thanks for the help! I went with your suggestion for most of the new helmet I'm working on. Except for thr tiny spots it was. Tremendous help.

I am reading the next step. Resin the outside and fiberglass the inside. I have to take a look again and find the forum for the reason why I need the cloth. And to see how people are putting designs in the helmet. Thanks for the help. Both of you!

 

[Steveo84]

Ok, here is the complete HD Mark VI (DIFFERENT VERSION). 10X better then my other one I think.

PLEASE can somebody tell me what to do with this area? IDK what to do. I don't really want to remake the helmet again, but if its going to make it look bad I will redo it.

Also, last thing. Please tell me this looks normal. Personally it looks WAAAAY to big. So there is a possibility of me having to do it again anyways.

 

[CoolC]

PLEASE can somebody tell me what to do with this area? IDK what to do. I don't really want to remake the helmet again, but if its going to make it look bad I will redo it.

Not sure where you went wrong. If you lined up the numbers correctly all pieces should fit like a glove. What you need to do is simply take a piece of cardstock and stick it on the back to cover the openings. Hopefully when you rondo the helmet the the hole doesn't look too out of shape. In any case, you need to redo your helmet. It is way too big. I measured my kids helmets using their head sides and add about an inch on both sides to allow space for fiberglass and padding. You should check out HaloGoddess scaling tutorial.

 

[Steveo84]

I'm not sure what went wrong there either. Halogoddess scaling page was the one I went off of, but I measured myself which was probably my mistake. I should probably have my wife measure my head. O well. Third times a charm, right...right? lol. Thanks CoolC!

 

[Steveo84]

Actually spending a combined 25+ hours on helmets, and failinglol, has kinda burned me out at the moment. I'm gonna start some shoulders and look at halo goddess tutorial page again go see if I missed something. Pics will probably come tomorrow.

 

[CoolC]

I'm not sure what went wrong there either. Halogoddess scaling page was the one I went off of, but I measured myself which was probably my mistake. I should probably have my wife measure my head. O well. Third times a charm, right...right? lol. Thanks CoolC!

In looking at the photo again, I noticed that the numbers on the brim are not lined up. See number 152 and 160.

Actually spending a combined 25+ hours on helmets, and failinglol, has kinda burned me out at the moment. I'm gonna start some shoulders and look at halo goddess tutorial page again go see if I missed something. Pics will probably come tomorrow.

This hobby takes time and with time, you will get used to this very quickly. Pepping the files is the easy part. Resin/fiberglss, bondo and sanding is what takes time and effort.

I have a few more tips for you to speed up the process:
1) I noticed that you are using hot glue. A lot of members prefer this tool. Try using Elmer's glue or any paper glue. I've completed 4 sets of armor using just Elmer's glue. Total cost: less than $5. There is a trick on how to use Elmer's glue. See this quick tutorial that I put together.
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php...or-Papercraft-or-Pepakura?p=508629#post508629

2) Don't use X-acto knife. Use a sharp scissors with rubber grip. You have better control of what you cut, no rulers needed. You don't have to be precise with all the cut. As I mentioned earlier, the tabs can be cut larger. A tab will just need 3 seconds to cut out with a pair of scissors. Once everything is glued, resin, bondo, any imperfection that you cut will be covered up.

3) Don't fold every lines. Open Pepakura Designer and look at the model. You can skip folding all the curved surface. Pepakura by default draws a line on peak fold. The line just represent concave surface. This will help tremendously when you start the bondo process.

See the chest piece without fold in my thread.
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/29855-ODST-for-my-kids-WIP?p=483940#post483940

See my kids MK VIs with the folds that are noticeable on the thigh and chest. They look very angular. I was in a rush so I skipped the bondo on the armors.

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php...mpleted-More-Updates-Soon?p=473743#post473743

Hope this helps.

 

[Dizzerak]

The only other thing I would say to change is to use two different color ink pens to make the lines on the folds. I usually go with blue, for mountain folds and red, for valley folds. This makes it much easier make the folds quickly.

I also make all the lines at one time, then cut out each piece as I need it. This is just my way, I hope it may help others.

 

[Steveo84]

Alright! After looking at your kids in the suits, CoolC, I got revived all over again! I triple and quadrouple read Halogoddess scaling tutorial. Idk what I did wrong, but this time I had somebody else measure my head, instead of doing it myself. Maybe that was the issue. When they measured my head they got 1 1/2 inchs smaller then when I measured myself. So...hopefully that will work. If that doesn't work then at least I have a TON of practice lol! At least this stage of the game isn't a bank buster ya know? Just time... Time to turn on some music and start. Pics to come tomorrow!

@Dizzerak I was gonna do that originally but then in my excitment of finding something like this project, I completely forgot. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[sandy1973]

the scale of the helmet should be anywhere between 275 mm to 290 mm high.

 

[Steveo84]

Hey everybody,

Sorry its been a few days. Been busy. I completed the helmet!! ...again... lol Let me know how it looks!

This is just a comparison between my second helmet and my third helmet. The smaller one is the third helmet, and the one I just finished.

Here is a few pics with me wearing it.

And the last picture. Let me know what you guys think. I think it LOOKS a little small, but let me know. Seems to fit perfectly though.

Anybody have constructive criticism? Thanks

 

[Matronoke]

well that helmet looks to be a good size. It always looks big or small at first but it usually ends up being perfect once you see how it looks with the chest

 

[Spitfire22V]

Looks to be just the right size. It actually still looks too big at the moment, but that's just because you're wearing it without any other armor on. One of the cool things I found out and loved about a full armor set was just how much it bulked you up. When you get to the stage where you have a wearable chest piece and shoulders, etc, that helmet will be the right size.

Great work so far, and good perseverance, something you'll need a lot of with a project like this! Good choice on the helmet file, I think it's one of the best Mark VI Pep files out there.

 

[thorn696]

The New helmet looks great. The pep is clean for the most part. Don't let re-do's get you down, we all get them ( I act. have allot of them.)
It should be a little big for padding, fans, and lights. Spitfire22V has a really great build you can check out to see how the MC can be put together.
Well till you're next set of pic's, keep pepping and you'll be done in no time.

 

[Steveo84]

Another update.
Today I got the Left Shoulder complete. It was pretty tough. Got some pictures for you guys. I think it looks a little large.

Here's what I have completed so far.

Tell me what you guys think! Its so fun doing this project. Throw up some Halo soundtracks on the iTunes, or listen to the audiobooks! Time will fly. lol

 

[sandy1973]

Shoulder looks very big. You should scale it a few cm down.

 

[Spitfire22V]

Yes, the shoulder looks quite large. It will have clearance issues on top of the shoulder near the chest piece, and that bit on the bottom of the part of the front bicep piece will dig into your inner elbow restricting movement. I'd suggest making the shoulder even a little smaller than required to help with arm mobility.

Your pepping quality looks very good though. No doubt that if you keep this up, you will have an excellent set of armor. Keep it up.

 

[Steveo84]

Thanks foe the advice but I guess I'm in need of some scaling help. I read a bunch of scaling forums but I found halo goddess to be the easiest to understand. I also read somebody's tu (I'm sorry I don't remember who now) that said to find a full body pic and print it out and do some mathematics. Tried that but that got to be a little confusing. I have all my measurements written down already. After MY project my wife would like me to help her out with hers. What I'm trying to say is that I really really don't want to have to do every piece two and three times before I actually get the right size. I'm 27 years old 5'6" 125 lbs. I just printed out my chest piece and cut out 6 pages worth. Chances are the pieces are probably to big, going off of past experience. I measured my chest as 12" and halo goddess said it would be good to add two inches for padding. That makes it 14". Can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong? I will let this go a few days before I work on anything. Tomorrow I will probably look into some LEDs and fans for my helmet. And possibly some resinning the outside. Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.