vidofnir234's Reach Armor Build [Picture Heavy]

[BeanwaterFox]

My work station. It's mobile too!

 

[BeanwaterFox]

The next parts I worked on are the codpiece, shoulders, and the hand plates. I'm kinda mixing and matching armor. Reach with Halo 3. The hand plates have been pepped and resined, and I don't have a picture of those The codpiece and shoulders have just been pepped.

I noticed in a lot of threads that builders ask for constructive criticism and tips in scaling, fitting, attaching, and such. I'll do likewise. If yall have any sort of input, I'll be happy to hear it!

Update 9/20/12

As some of you may have noticed, I am no longer mixing H3 armor with Reach armor. And I'm no longer making handplates, as the gloves I bought have armor on them already.
All of these pieces are at home. I'm not going to throw them away, cause I can finish them and give them to my brother or sister if they decide to make a build. I hate wasting paper, so I'm gonna finish them over Christmas.

 

[Haven923]

I actually used the same pep for the M6D that you used when I first made it. I never got past the pepping stage and eventually had to toss it, along with all my slaved away work on my AR and my Mk. VI armor, when I enlisted. How are you planning on keeping the pieces together? I had put mine off to the side to focus on pepping my armor when it all got tossed. I was trying to figure out how exactly I was going to get a working action (and regretting using the hot glue method for it).

I was a bit worried when you said that you were going to paint as-is, but then I saw the picture of your helmet and it actually looked great! That is one battle-worn Spartan! Are you going to do the same thing for the rest of your armor or invest in an electric sander? A lot of detail would probably get lost once you get to the smaller spaces like the Reach shoulder pieces and such.

 

[BeanwaterFox]

I actually used the same pep for the M6D that you used when I first made it. I never got past the pepping stage and eventually had to toss it, along with all my slaved away work on my AR and my Mk. VI armor, when I enlisted. How are you planning on keeping the pieces together? I had put mine off to the side to focus on pepping my armor when it all got tossed. I was trying to figure out how exactly I was going to get a working action (and regretting using the hot glue method for it).

I was a bit worried when you said that you were going to paint as-is, but then I saw the picture of your helmet and it actually looked great! That is one battle-worn Spartan! Are you going to do the same thing for the rest of your armor or invest in an electric sander? A lot of detail would probably get lost once you get to the smaller spaces like the Reach shoulder pieces and such.

Firstly, sir: THANK YOU FOR SERVING IN OUR ARMED FORCES. As someone who has one brother who has served and another brother attending the Naval Academy, I am in full support for our soldiers. Was and always will be. As for connecting all the pieces and putting them on, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do it, and since you mentioned that the hot glue idea is not a good one, I'm wide open to whatever you and others have to say about connecting and wearing. I did buy straps and buckles from amazon, and I plan on using those in a method kinda like football shoulder pads. I'll make a sort of belt for the codpiece, and I think I'm going to cut the shoulders in half, hinge them in a way, and strap and buckle them too. I bought magnets too, but I just planned on using those to connect weapons to my thigh and back.

As for investing in an electric sander, I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to do that. Would the detail be lost without one?

 

[thorn696]

Take you're time. Start small and work you're way up. Helmets and weapons are some of the hardest things to pep. If you do this you'll find that you're pep'ing will get better, and each part will be cleaner. That said you're work is WAY better then my first parts. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all come together.:cool

 

[BeanwaterFox]

Take you're time. Start small and work you're way up. Helmets and weapons are some of the hardest things to pep. If you do this you'll find that you're pep'ing will get better, and each part will be cleaner. That said you're work is WAY better then my first parts. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all come together.:cool

Thanks! There was one time when I didn't know dot-dash meant valley and dash-dash meant mountain, so I just kinda folded and messed up my helmet. Then I cut off parts and had to create my own flaps to repair the damage. Then that helmet ended up being too big. But I think I've come a long way from fresh noob.

And well, I'm kinda working my way down. I started with the helmet, cause that's all I was going to do originally. Then I ended up doing the torso, which happened to be too big. The thread you referred me to actually had foam templates rather than pepakura, so I think I'm gonna stick with the V3. And I have the codpiece and shoulders done (though I plan on pepping the Carter shoulder armor permutations).

I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna make an Iron Man suit next summer too, so I'll definitely know to work upwards then.

 

[BeanwaterFox]

This was a practice toe piece, and it turned out too small, so I just made it a puppy helmet

 

[BeanwaterFox]

 

[Spartan_127]

ROFL!!!!! Love the dog helmet. . . Spartans need a companion too. . . . LOL!

Like Thorn said. Take your time. It does get easier and the pep does come out looking better and better each time you do something. I found that if I rushed, I'd just mess something up and had to start over. So take it slow and it should come out OK. Keep up the good work.

 

[BeanwaterFox]

So I'm still freaking out about the scaling issue (I don't think I'll ever get over it) What do yall think? Are the biceps big enough? I'm worried they might be small...

 

[Spartan_127]

They look good, but they do look a little small. Probably need to be a few inches higher. It just looks like there is too much of your upper arms still exposed.

From everything that I've seen, the little stems that some up from the top of the bicep piece comes up to about the center to top of the shoulder. I don't know how you measured for them, but you can double check everything in pepakura designer by taking measurements before you print by right clicking on the 2D menu side and selecting the measurement option. Take a measurement of where you want the top and bottom of the bicep piece to be on your arm, then go to the pepakura designer and take the same measurement on the 3D model (if you use the front of your bicep on you then use the same on the 3D menu) and see how it compares. If it's too short then you can change the scale either by increasing 10% or inputting measurements in there and then verifying what you've put in by taking another measurement on the 3D side. I printed a couple things that were off and had to reprint, but most of the pieces came out the first time being right on my son's build when I figured out how to do that and could verify where I needed everything to be. Don't forget to add a little extra room for padding or for batteries if you're going to light it up later.

Hope this helps!

 

[BeanwaterFox]

They look good, but they do look a little small. Probably need to be a few inches higher. It just looks like there is too much of your upper arms still exposed.

From everything that I've seen, the little stems that some up from the top of the bicep piece comes up to about the center to top of the shoulder. I don't know how you measured for them, but you can double check everything in pepakura designer by taking measurements before you print by right clicking on the 2D menu side and selecting the measurement option. Take a measurement of where you want the top and bottom of the bicep piece to be on your arm, then go to the pepakura designer and take the same measurement on the 3D model (if you use the front of your bicep on you then use the same on the 3D menu) and see how it compares. If it's too short then you can change the scale either by increasing 10% or inputting measurements in there and then verifying what you've put in by taking another measurement on the 3D side. I printed a couple things that were off and had to reprint, but most of the pieces came out the first time being right on my son's build when I figured out how to do that and could verify where I needed everything to be. Don't forget to add a little extra room for padding or for batteries if you're going to light it up later.

Hope this helps!

Yessir it sure did. I was thinking the exact same things when I tried them on. I did know about the scaling ability in the Pepakura Designer, and I had used a formula that I found online for scaling Mark VI armor since Master Chief is 7' 2": [your height]/86 = [fraction], [fraction] * [current scale] = [new scale to use]. I know that most of the default pep files fit a six foot person relatively well, but I think I accidentally used the formula on the biceps. I'll just have to redo those I guess... (sigh) The trial and error is a pain in the butt but that's all part of it. Nevertheless, this is still a hobby I like.

 

[BeanwaterFox]

Update to my pistol: I added a magnet in the magazine chamber and one on the magazine to prevent it from slipping out.

I did the same thing on the Spartan knife I pepped. Sadly, I had to leave it at home today. I've gone back to college and never got the chance to finish it...

 

[BeanwaterFox]

I have received permission to reference one whose talents and generosity have never ceased to astound me: BLACKULA727

This is the Command cast I ordered from him, and am currently in the process of painting.

I'm coloring it in burgundy, and it looks pretty good so far. I'm trying to paint it clean too, so the taping part is a bit difficult

 

[BeanwaterFox]

Update on the knife: I Bondoed it yesterday. I just need to sand it now.

On my forearm, I finished pepping it a few weeks ago, and now I'm ready to fiberglass it.

I tried using rondo for the first time on my sister's Hylian shield, and it turned out terribly. I mixed it correctly (I think), but the rondo was weak, and it ended up warping the shield. If anyone has any suggestions on how to properly use rondo, please let me know.

 

[BeanwaterFox]

More updates to the Commando helmet painting job:

In all these, you can see I used Stiilus's blackwash method to create the grime and weathering effect on the helmet.

Now here are the scratching details:

 

[BeanwaterFox]

[/IMG]

Oh! Another thing! I just tried taking a picture of it, but my phone camera couldn't detect the glow, but I added glow-in-the-dark accents to the helmet. The parts circled in blue indicate where I painted glow-in-the-dark

I'll try using my real camera whenever I get back to Austin

 

[BeanwaterFox]

How's this for a rusty, worn Spartan knife?

 

[Hyperballistik]

You got some serious battle damage going on there lol, I would suggest spraying the helmet with a clear flat to reduce the shine some to help you silver scratches to show beter in brighter light or the shine will hide the silver also the flat will help hide any imperfections in the casting

 

[Stiilus]

duuuude... commando paint job turned out awesome... you should be very proud of that, i couldn't have done any better myself. well done ...