Reach Scratchbuild WIP

Spartan 270 · May 27, 2010

Well, 405th, the 22nd marked my "aniversary" (if you can call it that idk) of three years of membership to this great community. I became a member of these great forums back when it was just the mjolnirarmor.com forums. The thing that really inspired me was a video on youtube called "Homemade Spartan" by one member here named MonsterMaker. He built an amazing scratch build suit from cardboard and it made me realize "you don't need some super special awesome materials to build a decent armor." After seeing that video in 2006, I just began lurking around the forums here and there as I built my first suit, originally the Mk VI from Halo 2. It wasn't till a year later that I joined the forums and posted my first armor. And I'll admit, it was quite terrible when I first started out. I got some nasty comments and messages at first when I was a noob. But I didn't let that stop me from learning and progressing in this hobby over the years. And to celebrate my "aniversary" here is a mess of pictures from everything Halo Related I've built before I joined the 405th and during till now.

I gotta say, it's been quite an experience and still is. I'd like to thank Adam for creating such a great site, Smilie for helping me a bit when I started out, Sigma LS for advising me about a lot of techniques, Xalener for the project support, Kensai for the WIP of the Week nomination, and all of the community of this awesome forum. And there's a little surprise at the end of this post.

A little reason why I haven't been on the forums lately. Anyway, here's the pics.

First Mk VI

Spartan Laser

Turret

Eva Helmet

First ODST (Halo 2)

Spiker

Mk VI II and Revised Assault Rifle

Mk VI III

Hayabusa

Halo 3 ODST Ver I

Halo 3 ODST Ver II

Halo Wars Spartan

And now, my Reach Spartan Armor build

Shadow1336 · May 27, 2010

Holy crap, you are a cardboard GOD.

I wish I could craft such a fine Helm out of an otherwise unworkable material.

GREAT JOB!

Silvide dude · May 27, 2010

Nice!

It takes a huge amount of dedication to scratch build.

Well done on the reach build, looks fantastic!

Adam · May 27, 2010

Cardboard kid rules the world. Amazing stuff man!

jake11124 · May 27, 2010

While your armor aren't the most high def around, i admire you. you had the tenacity to build armor from scratch and you were brave enough to post pics here. you set aside your pride for long enough to say "i can do better" and you rebuilt your armor, twice. your skills improved every time and you still enjoy what you do, so you built more. scratch building is on of the hardest things to do and i commend you for doing better than i could have done.

I remember when i first wanted to make armor. i was playing with my brother in the living room,when i heard the tv say halo. i looked over and there was red master chief on my tv screen. he had built it himself and had also built a plasma pistol. i wanted armor like that and my little 6 year old mind started going over how to make it. then the tv said half a million dollars and i stopped dead in my tracks.

then when i was twelve, i wanted to buy a master chief costume for Halloween, but everything for sale sucked.(i'm king of a perfectionist) then i came across this site and went through a few articles and bookmarked the site. now im fourteen and im starting my marine armor.

your thread has re-inspired me to continue my armor and i thank you for it. this is the longest post i have ever made, but i had a lot to say about this.(i hope you don't mind that i shared my story too)

Goomerspartan10 · May 27, 2010

GREAT JOB MAN! i want that halo wars armor! if im mistaken it looks like paper mache in the first suit, one word of advice, NO paper mache, it causes MAJOR warpege and is not very strong ang will break easily, use fiberglass, and fiberglass resin, just use rubber gloves and a respirator

Boba Fett · May 27, 2010

I don't think that's paper mache. It looks like tape over cardboard. Wow! It's amazing to see your progression in skill! That Mk. IV is a HUGE step up from the first Mk. VI. You're giving tactics a run for his money... And really, that Mk. VI was pretty good. I'm sure there were quite a few uber-jealous kids on halloween!

Spartan 270 · May 27, 2010

jake11124 said:
While your armor aren't the most high def around, i admire you. you had the tenacity to build armor from scratch and you were brave enough to post pics here. you set aside your pride for long enough to say "i can do better" and you rebuilt your armor, twice. your skills improved every time and you still enjoy what you do, so you built more. scratch building is on of the hardest things to do and i commend you for doing better than i could have done.

I remember when i first wanted to make armor. i was playing with my brother in the living room,when i heard the tv say halo. i looked over and there was red master chief on my tv screen. he had built it himself and had also built a plasma pistol. i wanted armor like that and my little 6 year old mind started going over how to make it. then the tv said half a million dollars and i stopped dead in my tracks.

then when i was twelve, i wanted to buy a master chief costume for Halloween, but everything for sale sucked.(i'm king of a perfectionist) then i came across this site and went through a few articles and bookmarked the site. now im fourteen and im starting my marine armor.

your thread has re-inspired me to continue my armor and i thank you for it. this is the longest post i have ever made, but i had a lot to say about this.(i hope you don't mind that i shared my story too)

Thanks, and I don't mind at all. Keep working at your armor, not having confidence in yourself is the first step to failure. I started doing this when I was twelve and had some pretty bad scratch builds. And now I'm here four years later. Keep in mind that all of these pictures span the course of four years at work and practice at this.

Boba Fett · May 27, 2010

SpArtan-270 said:
Thanks, and I don't mind at all. Keep working at your armor, not having confidence in yourself is the first step to failure. I started doing this when I was twelve and had some pretty bad scratch builds. And now I'm here four years later. Keep in mind that all of these pictures span the course of four years at work and practice at this.

Everybody's gotta start somewhere! You learn more from mistakes and outright failures than from success... Einstein got D's. (Obviously, I MUST be a genius in that case

)

elkrisp · May 29, 2010

Wow. I'm seriously impressed at the level of quality you're getting out of the cardboard! I tried that initially, and failed miserably

Keep up the great work.

mattmann1 · May 29, 2010

Made my chest piece for last Halloween out of card board. Annoying stuff. i couldn't cut it precise enough. Though seeing how you were able to improve really makes we want to give it another chance.

gingersnapples · May 29, 2010

nice job, youve come a long way scince that first suit so long ago...

mc halo3 · May 29, 2010

Wow dude,if i tryed to make stratch armour i would just kill my self out of trying to make it look somewhat symetrical,you are an inspiration sir.

Korydabomb32 · Jun 20, 2010

Wow man. You are the cardboard lord! Also, i have unlimited cardboard( I get it free from my local giant ) so could you could sort of ''guide'' me through how to make a simple helmet?

Spartan 270 · Jul 6, 2010

I have a small update and in need of a bit of help. I just got back from a recent Vegas vacation and found my old forearm piece from one of my other spartan armors which I am no using for my Reach armor. However, I have also encountered the issue of my helmet slightly warping to the left from leaving it in the closet. I was wondering if anyone would know how to counter act this or do I have to hold it in place for like an hour? Also, I believe I have decided on painting my armor with a blue/gray/black color scheme similar to Carter's. I'm also considering how I'm going about to create a visor for this helmet. I'm hoping to use a two part visor separated by the black line in my progress pic.

S1l3nt V1p3r · Jul 6, 2010

At first I raised an eyebrow and asked "What is this?".:confused

Then I scrolled down and then I::cool

Good job, man! You've improved your skills over the years! Good to see someone walking off the pepakura path and finding their own.

Dagger06 · Jul 7, 2010

Glad to see you're still up to stuff.

Very impressive as always.

The PM system isn't up, but I wanted to let you know I set up a facebook fan page to better form a California costuming community if you're interested.

California Costuming Group Fan Page

Also, do you have any larger pics of your ODST costume I could take to put in the California group's photo album? I remember you had some great ones from the Gamestop tour, but they were lost with the gallery.

Spartan 270 · Jul 7, 2010

Trooper0621 said:
Glad to see you're still up to stuff. Very impressive as always.

The PM system isn't up, but I wanted to let you know I set up a facebook fan page to better form a California costuming community if you're interested.

California Costuming Group Fan Page

Also, do you have any larger pics of your ODST costume I could take to put in the California group's photo album? I remember you had some great ones from the Gamestop tour, but they were lost with the gallery.

Here's a few pics of my ODST finished. The suit was not entirely finished in the pics from the ODST tour.

I'll try to find some more pics from the tour.

Spartan 270 · Aug 19, 2010

After a long break, I've finally decided to work a bit more on my Reach helmet. I did some paint work on it and tried out a visor(ish). Here's the pics. It's not quite finished yet, but I'm looking for some constructive criticism or some advice