TurboCharizard's Halo Reach CQB Build Log

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How the hell do you get such crisp edges? And the indented areas....? FANTASTIC work!!!!

For the EVA foam stuff, a stupid sharp knife, a ruler and quick math to figure out bevel angles.

For the 3D printed stuff, settings dialed in over the course of hundreds of days of print time and about 12 hours of sanding and filling.

If there's any specific sections you want a bit of insight into I've kept all my marked up patterns so that I can annotate the pep files later and I can bump up your query to the top of the post-con-crunch to do list when I'm cleaning up the thread.
 
what math would this be? just dividing the angles into two part or something else?

Pretty much, basically summing angles to make sure everything adds up to make the required shape. I use screen shots and manipulate views within Armorsmith to measure the angles where faces meet and then usually add a bevel to the piece in increments of 15° (15/30/45/60/75/90) because anything that's reasonably close to one of those but not exact will be pressed and pulled into form by other parts when all glued together and heat formed.

Edit because photo that hasn't been uploaded.
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Pretty much, basically summing angles to make sure everything adds up to make the required shape. I use screen shots and manipulate views within Armorsmith to measure the angles where faces meet and then usually add a bevel to the piece in increments of 15° (15/30/45/60/75/90) because anything that's reasonably close to one of those but not exact will be pressed and pulled into form by other parts when all glued together and heat formed.

Edit because photo that hasn't been uploaded.
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the helmet looks nice, remind me what are you thinking in the ways of colors?
 
the helmet looks nice, remind me what are you thinking in the ways of colors?

Brown for the primary, red for the secondary in the colour scheme. So that works out to brown on the external casing, red on the crown on either side of the central fin and then there's black for the chin and a bunch of gunmetal detailing. The visor is also a blue mirrored chrome.
 
Since I last checked in I can say that I think I slept? The good news is that I have caught up with my schedule I laid out for myself to get this costume to a wearable test fit in ten weeks even with losing two weeks to life. Shall we get this post rolling?

On the armour front, everything is awesome! This last weekend I basically spent 18 hours preparing patterns and foam for assembly and then another five sticking it all together. For you guys, I'll save the the pain and go from this.
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To this
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Easy huh?

From there it was an evening of getting into the shop and getting messy with sanders. I like to break my work into manageable chunks of similar tasks which translates to "I blended seams with a my rotary tool for three hours straight" by working from a 80 grit flap wheel and cleaning up with an aluminum oxide grinding stone. Some sections required a bit of a rougher approach that resulted in jamming wedges of foam into gaps, gluing in place and then trimming everything flush before blending it out, luckily these were few and far between because of pre-planning but it does happen! Also, have an image of proof that PPE works.
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Next item on the list was to take shiny new looking armour that just had all of it's edges cleaned up (Image A) and beating the hell out of it with various sanders and tools I had at my disposal (Image B). I like my armour to tell a story and for the damage to be reasonable and believable to my personality. With CQB armour I took a large Grenadier blast shield on my left side because I shoot right handed primarily and put a big ol' shrapnel gouge with splinters chipped out. The shins, knees and boots all have been scuffed to high heaven from clambering and trailblazing with a side of being an admittedly clumsy guy. If I didn't have all the feels I'd put a dent in my visor because be it NERF, paintball or whatever I always get hit in the left eye.
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After all the damage and wear was added I heat sealed everything and did the last little bit of shaping foam. Based on a suggestion by mblackwell1002 I tried out Woodland Scenics Foam Putty for gap filling instead of my normal DAP KwikSeal. I like it. I like it a lot. Being able to come back in with a knife to remove excess and then sand everything flush afterward is fantastic and a lot cleaner than smoothing with a wet finger. This was done at 23:00PST to allow everything to cure overnight.
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Tuesday came with rain. Awesome. The workshop got a quick reorganize, cardboard went down and the house initiated gas procedure. Leak Seal was $3 off this weekend at Canadian Tire which was good timing considering a coat of the full Spartan ate up a can on it's own. Three cans drained for this suit. I got to use the free bungee cord I found with my passenger side rear tire to suspend parts from the rafters while painting which was cool.
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The primary colour coat is now on after a coat of Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Canyon Black as a primer to help knock down the glossy shine of the Leak Seal and then three coats of Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Espresso.
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For some details I didn't feel I could do full justice to them in foam so I modelled a few. On the chest there is an illuminated panel with grating in the back which I made into several parts, the base is a transparent PLA and the grating covers are PLA+ so that LEDs can be placed underneath and diffused. Similar deal with the stomach box which will house the battery pack for my lighting circuit. The prototype/proof of concept circuit also got bashed out so that's fun.
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The prospect of being a Spartan only armed with finger guns seemed fun but you know, I can only bring so much fun to the party. Here's an M6G to keep things in check.
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Also, things may have been pretty bad for a period of time but I got good news from a cookie.
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More to come folks. I have a post planned out for later about visors and buck building on the cheap, one about my boots and a few others sitting in draft form in Word that I just haven't decided to post. Wish me luck on the home stretch!
 
Wow! You work so fast! And you're quality doesn't suffer.

Dont make my mistake on the cod piece for painting. I did the whole front in my primary color in white and it looks awkward. The bottom part of the front is supposed to be black no matter what. That way it looks more like a belt and less like a diaper. Lol
 
Wow! You work so fast! And you're quality doesn't suffer.
Thanks man, I have a certain set of skills and those include sitting in one place and being focussed on task for a gorram long time.

Dont make my mistake on the cod piece for painting. I did the whole front in my primary color in white and it looks awkward. The bottom part of the front is supposed to be black no matter what. That way it looks more like a belt and less like a diaper. Lol
I'll have to go check my screenshots. From what I remember the doodle plate of the cod is a different tone of the primary colour but a half shade lighter. I could be out to lunch though.

EDIT: Duke is right on this one. The multiplayer in game model has black for the cod. I was basing my memory off of the model generated in Vanity which has slightly different colour schemes.
 
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So I'm going to skip some steps in the posting process and jump to one of the "finished" shots and then catch you all up to where we're at now in the project and then post another glam shot. Good? Good.
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I posted on Wednesday about laying down the primary colour coat and then these photos were taken Sunday morning. I had two days of work in there so you do the math on how many man hours got crammed into Thursday, Friday and Saturday to make this work. The last comment by PerniciousDuke made me question the validity of the colour scheme that Vanity produced which meant that I got to go back into Halo Reach and grab two controllers to see what was what. I could have done capture through my Hauppage capture device but I was pressed for time and just wanted to quickly snap some easy to reference photos that I could check on my phone while working with masking or airbrushing. If anyone in future wants the exact placement of things in any of the XBox360 era of games I can capture video and do checks for you if you ask nicely.
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Then there was a buttload of masking for the red which was Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Apple Red applied in four coats for a solid colour.
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Wait a day for the paint to cure and then more masking for airbrush details. I like to use Vallejo Model Air and Vallejo Mecha Colour for it's consistency and ease of use. For this costume I used...
VMA 71.001 White - suit tertiary colour
VMA 71.041 Armour Brown - red lowlight
VMA 71.048 Engine Gray - black highlight
VMA 71.072 Gun Metal - metallic black highlight, darm metal
VMA 71.073 Black (Metallic) - metallic black
VMA 71.249 NATO Brown - brown highlight and muting
VMC 69.009 SZ Red - red higlight
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For the most part it was mask off sections and spray full blast with the airbrush but for highlights and lowlights it's a bit more nuanced and slow going. Light bursts and quick tracing of lines. I'm probably the worst teacher out there for airbrushing since I'm self taught and for the most part just wing it. If I can give one piece of advice though is to start on your piece as little as possible and if impossible, start where the heaviest concentration of pigment will be. This will reduce the chance of any splutter or over spray and give you an overall cleaner look.

I'll probably be adding more hazard labels and water transfers later on but for now I went with the plainly visible details that are in game and made them as cheapo vinyl stencils. Just simple things like my DIN for the player emblem, vent markings, UNSC, my ID, my regiment emblem, helmet details and the UNSC aquila. More masking and airbrushing!

The thing about masking is it's astonishingly tedious. If it's tedious to you, it means you're doing it right.
-Adam Savage 2018
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If anyone said I was a neat painter, they're a damn dirty liar.
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Then to hand detailing before a clear coat of Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Clear
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Next was the visor and electronics install. The visor as originally planned was giving me greif, to the order of three failed attempts so as you can see I have a metallic yellow (my favourite colour) instead of the originally planned blue. This one is temporary until I find a better solution for the visor but I like the colour and it looks BLAM. The electronics are all on a 5V circuit powered by a cheapo 4000mAh power bank with a stripped USB cable connected to a distribution board which sends power to three other small boards around the chest. There is spots open to add more connections later on for the arms, legs and helmet lighting later. I just didn't want to start wiring up the other body pieces without the final undersuit finished with proper cable runs and quick connects in place. Hooray for future expansion!
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I'll be posting a circuit diagram later on, it's fairly basic and if you have the patience for soldering you can easily bang it out in an afternoon. Do you kids wanna go to space?
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SPAAAAACE!
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I'm a madlad apparently and I checked the clock on this build. Eight weeks from start date to first wear test. To hype myself up for it I went for a jog in my UNSC PT gear and then put it all on as one piece for the first time.
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Damn does it feel good to be a Spartan! For a temporary undersuit I used some Walmart sale price womens leggings (not the first time I've used womens clothing in a costume in recent memory) with nylon webbing sewn on and parachute clips to allow for adjustment. What I learned from this test
  1. I need to add another half inch rise to the inside of my boot to raise my ankle and reduce friction between the shin and the boot.
  2. Add a gasket for the boot from the shin to hide the sweet Adidas.
  3. Webbing on the pants for the thigh plates needs better support to stop pants from slipping, possibly a belt hidden by the Spartan Diaper.
  4. Tighter webbing or similar with an extra elastic webbing on the biceps to keep them in place.
  5. Have a handler for the helmet, raising arms above the shoulders to grab it isn't the easiest or reduce arm seal gasket size.
  6. Dancing is fun but the backpack kid is difficult with a refrigerator costume. Stick to jumbo shrimp or seagull dance moves.
Part of the reason for the rush at the end here was to wear the costume out to a local convention, Van Isle Con, that I was invited to be a judge for at their cosplay contest. It was a one day deal and for some reason I wanted to wear Link in the morning and a Spartan in the afternoon. I just had to get out there and represent the 405th with a big armband.
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From here I need to make a proper undersuit with rigging and cable runs to the other illuminated pieces, find a suitable pair of gloves to attach the hand plates to, attach the spine to the undersuit, a bunch of squats to improve my Spartan-booty, an M45, a Gravity Hammer and possibly a big ol' Canadian Regiment themed banner CTF style.

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Photo titled "Test fit, OK" or "Spartan thighs save lives" you decide!

I have plenty of work still to do but there's a bit less of a crunch on for now. Don't worry boys and girls, this thread will keep going strong. As always, any tips you have are much appreciated and remember, keep your stick on the ice.
 
You’ve done an amazing build here. I’m not too keen on the color scheme, but that’s all personal preference. But sorry now I’m gonna be that guy, (I hate that guy) that guy that gives that critique that has no business critiquing others work because that guys own work is sub par. Make sense? But it just looks like your lower half is a bit on the large size. Damn that guy, why’s he always got knock everyone down? Maybe you could add some of those fancy height/ego boosters that duke used? Might give you a little spacing at least between the shins and the boots. None the less, your work is superb especially with that crazy shirt build time. Just scaling looks funny to me.
 
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You’ve done an amazing build here. I’m not too keen on the color scheme, but that’s all personal preference. But sorry now I’m gonna be that guy, (I hate that guy) that guy that gives that critique that has no business critiquing others work because that guys own work is sub par. Make sense? But it just looks like your lower half is a bit on the large size. Damn that guy, why’s he always got knock everyone down? Maybe you could add some of those fancy height/ego boosters that duke used? Might give you a little spacing at least between the shins and the boots. None the less, your work is superb especially with that crazy shirt build time. Just scaling looks funny to me.

I was looking at adding an extra half inch to reduce friction between parts and raise the thighs with better webbing, do you think a two inch riser would be necessary? Legitimate question coming from a short guy.
 
I was looking at adding an extra half inch to reduce friction between parts and raise the thighs with better webbing, do you think a two inch riser would be necessary? Legitimate question coming from a short guy.
I’d at least do 2 and raising thighs I think will help too, when I get to doing another build for myself I will be using 3” or maybe even 4” I’m short for a spartan as well. I don’t know may just be me but I seem to think Spartans have abnormally long legs
 
Haha same 5’9. I’ll be adding the ego boosters to my builds for sure. Oh and I love the detail in your bucket, top notch

The helmet is still a work in progress, I have fans and a light in the crest to add in still along with small piping on the cheeks. It looks good but there's room for improvement.

Thanks for being that guy by the way, the 405th can be a bit of an echo chamber of positivity some times and I appreciate the honesty on where I can improve. I'm by no means a master and want to be called out on my sloppy work.
 
Eight weeks? You could make a whole fireteam in less than a year! I call dibs on being in it! Lol. Great job.

SI3RRA 117 is right on Spartans being abnormally long legged, at least in reach for sure. Just look at that Vanity picture!

Is it possible to get some thin fingers on those gloves? Pulls me out of the "are they human" thought that comes with being a super soldier.
 
Eight weeks? You could make a whole fireteam in less than a year! I call dibs on being in it! Lol. Great job.

SI3RRA 117 is right on Spartans being abnormally long legged, at least in reach for sure. Just look at that Vanity picture!

Is it possible to get some thin fingers on those gloves? Pulls me out of the "are they human" thought that comes with being a super soldier.

I mean, I could outfit a whole fireteam and it'd probably be quicker with pipelining processes but I don't have enough locals to don the kit at this time unfortunately. I'm in an anime and superhero fanboy/girl heavy area and us heavily armoured videogame characters are a rare sight.

Those gloves were just the ones I use for paintball and stuff, for the final gloves I'll have actual fingers instead of the fingerless MMA gloves. Do you think I should go for one size down to exaggerate the fit?

Very cool! I agree that the leg parts could benefit from some increased spacing (both for accuracy and probably movement) but I think it still looks great where you're at with it now. Congratulations on nearing completion!

Thanks Satchmo. I think the issue can be solved with more secure rigging and some extra lift in the heel. Everyone seems to be hating on the colour scheme but loving the shape of the armour :p

Lesson to everyone out there that's bow-legged, when measuring the length of your shin for Armorsmith use a measurement parallel to a wall going from your knee to your ankle and not straight along your leg length.

Holy crap brother!! That looks absolutely amazing!

-Matt

Thanks Matt, it's much appreciated.
 
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