WHS Red vs. Blue build (Very Pic Heavy)

Okay,
So I am a high school art teacher and I wanted a way to get some of my students into sculpture, costume creation, and special effects. I made a deal with them that if they would commit to the time and work, I would hlep them create their own Halo armor. After a short debate we decided to try and recreate the Red vs. Blue cast.

We will be working after school and over the summer to complete the first armor and from there we will hopefully begin either molding the rest of the cast armors or creating special sizes when needed. (One of them is only 4'11" but real "scrappy" )

Before I start posting pictures of the progress I want to give credit and thanks to a few forum memebers who have been a help and inspiration to us even if they did not know it.

First I want to thank Thorssoli for his dedicated and continous updates to his armor thread. He was the major influence in the kids deciding to create the Red vs. Blue characters and has offered to share their progress on his blog when he can. Thor you are a genuine inspiration and we appreciate your support.

Next up is BenStreeper,
His tutorial videos have helped us tremendously so far. To be honest he has probably done more of the basic teaching than I have to this point. Who knows, maybe a career change is in the making. :cool Thanks Ben, I hope you find some amount of pride from knowing you helped these kids find their creativity.

Finally I want to thank Heavy Gunner for compiling the "All-In-One Pack" and all the modelers and unfolders who contributed their work. I've listed the exact modelers and unfolders of each piece for those I knew. If you modeled or unpacked any of these and are not credited please PM me and I will add your credit asap.

Helmet: Modeled by Flying Squirl, Unfolded by Ral Partha
Chest: Modeled by Flying Squirl, Unfolded by ?
Cod Piece: Modeled by Crackhead, Unfolded by Ral Partha
Biceps: Modeled by Robogenisis, Unfolded by Ral Partha
Forearms: Modeled by Flying Squirl, Unfolded by ?
Hand Plates: Modeled by Robogenisis, Unfolded by ?
Thighs: Modeled by ?, Unfolded by Goku
Shins: Modeled by Crackhead, Unfolded by Macattack64
2 Piece Boots: Modeled by ?, Unfolded by ?

Foam Armor Templates:
All the foam templates We will use come from L3X BLU3R1V3R. His files can be found HERE.

When I introduced them to the 405th site they became big fans so I thought this was the perfect place to share their progress. Hope you all enjoy the progress of the build (it might be a long one) and feel free to share your wisdom, advice, and constructive criticism.

UPDATE: The first suit is virtually complete. Progress Pics and techniques are throughout the thread. Here are the full suit pics.

Well, good luck to your group on the mass build. Hope all goes well.

Okay so here are the first round of progress pics. I don't have any of the students working on the pieces yet because of legal issues with showing their faces, but we have completed all the pep work for the first suit. We are debating which character to start with. It is a tight race between Church and Agent Washington. Hmm....this is a hard one for me.

Anyway here are the pics. There are a lot so I'm only linking the thumbnails but please click on any of them for a larger image.



















Ah the Cod piece...needed to modify this a bit. Master Chief must be part mule because to make the waist a 32 the groin was halfway to my knees. LOL




Here you can see the added spacers to get the right waist size.




Here are some of the details added using matboard.


This pic should explain where my signature comes from. I'll have to take a shot with the left one on my head. Then you'll really get the full effect.


*Edit; If any modelers or Unfolders recognize their work and aren't credited in my first post PM me so I can add you to the credits. Hey you earned it!

royalpain88 said:

Well, good luck to your group on the mass build. Hope all goes well.

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Thanks alot, its all in their hands now..... wow that could be a scary thought.

This look great. I wish my theatre teachers were as open minded when i was still in high school. Hope it all turns out well.

Oh, you should definitely build Washington first.

Agent Arizona said:

This look great. I wish my theatre teachers were as open minded when i was still in high school. Hope it all turns out well.

Oh, you should definitely build Washington first.

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Yeah it helps being a younger teacher. ( can I still say that at 31? hmm...)

I agree, I think I'll have to make an executive decision and go with Wash. He is just a bad*@#.

In the long run we have someone for Church, Tex, Griff, and Caboose.

Our guy for church won the right just because he's tackling the sniper pep build (the gun is as big as him)

Tex will be a hilarious 4'11" with enough moxxi to make up the extra foot or so.

Griff is our pain in the rear punching bag. We didn't have the heart to make him doughnut.

And Caboose, well if you knew the kid you'd completely get it. He wins hands down.

Once the first suit is done, the speed of the other will depend on if we can get the molds working. I have to find a cheap supplier or we just won't have the funds. Might have to run some fundraisers anyway.

These guys are just crazy excited to keep working right now. If they never finish a suit, their passion alone is a win for me.

The character casting for my group of friends was pretty much a semi-concensus among us as to who should be who. It worked out pretty well and everyone fit their characters perfectly. Our Caboose was the guy in the workshop who was so clumsy that each of us has at least one piece of armor which he's dropped, cracked, shattered, or otherwise broken at some point.

Good luck with the build and I can't wait to see more pics of your progress.

Your students have some good pepwork there.
Can't wait to see and read more progress reports.
Good luck with the project.

Awesome! I wish I could make pepakura at schoolXD I'm stuck reading for my English test tomorrow Looking forward to see more updatesDD

thorssoli said:

The character casting for my group of friends was pretty much a semi-concensus among us as to who should be who. It worked out pretty well and everyone fit their characters perfectly. Our Caboose was the guy in the workshop who was so clumsy that each of us has at least one piece of armor which he's dropped, cracked, shattered, or otherwise broken at some point.

Good luck with the build and I can't wait to see more pics of your progress.

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Your right about the characters falling into place Thor, our caboose does have a slightly higher IQ than most lab rats but he has a horrible case of foot-in-the-mouth disease. (Those are his words) But he's so funny you just have to laugh around the kid.

Longshot-X
Thanks for the compliments. We should have some pics of the resin stage coming soon. There was a little delay because I manage not to convey how important it is to read the instructions for proper hardener to resin ratios. 1 drop per ounce just doesn't cut it. LOL. Lets hope the second coat does the job.

Jico,
You have no idea how many points I earned for starting this project with them. But for the most part we are working after school. I just can't see the school dropping money for 30 respirators just so we can resin during class. Although would make for one hilarious photo. Might look like high school art the Fallout 3 way.

that pep work looks great! definitely can't wait to see this! i wish i had known about 405th when i was in highschool because my ceramics teacher would have been SO down to let me made some molds! i probably would have been her favorite ahaha! how many students are working on this? if you had about 10 kids working on it, then it'll be done SO fast! hope you do find a supplier!

Here are some of the cheapest prices Ive found on bulk items so far. Jason-549 posted a link to this site a while back.

http://www.aeromarineproducts.com/

I got some free samples from them and their molding/brushable silicones and casting plastics are nice. You can find everything you need here!

I honestly can't wait to see the progress on this. I wish I had an art teacher that would have come up with an idea like this. I wish you the best of luck and keep up the good work!

Starvinartist80 ok first of all man, you have got to be one of the best teachers on the planet. Second, the pep work looks great, i hope everything turns out great for the kids and yourself. Keep up the good work with them. Im new to building as well so i will do my best as well. You inspire me more with what your doing Grats!!!

Arioch said:

Here are some of the cheapest prices Ive found on bulk items so far. Jason-549 posted a link to this site a while back.

http://www.aeromarineproducts.com/

I got some free samples from them and their molding/brushable silicones and casting plastics are nice. You can find everything you need here!

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Thanks for the link man. Its now in my favorites so when we do get the funds built up I'll have it saved.

Achilla137 said:

that pep work looks great! definitely can't wait to see this! i wish i had known about 405th when i was in highschool because my ceramics teacher would have been SO down to let me made some molds! i probably would have been her favorite ahaha! how many students are working on this? if you had about 10 kids working on it, then it'll be done SO fast! hope you do find a supplier!

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I felt the same way and I think that was really what made me do this. I always wanted a chance to do stuff like this when I was in high school, although there was no Halo back when I graduated (man that makes me feel old). Currently I have six kids working on and off on the project. With summer coming up that may drop a little, but once we get the first suit done I know we'll have no problem getting people interested.

Macattack64 said:

I honestly can't wait to see the progress on this. I wish I had an art teacher that would have come up with an idea like this. I wish you the best of luck and keep up the good work!

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Thanks Macattack, I try to find ways to make things fun for my students and this just presented a great project we could work on outside of regular classes. Extra thanks goes to you for unfolding the shins we used. They were such a breeze to put together.

Mstruvmgc said:

Starvinartist80 ok first of all man, you have got to be one of the best teachers on the planet. Second, the pep work looks great, i hope everything turns out great for the kids and yourself. Keep up the good work with them. Im new to building as well so i will do my best as well. You inspire me more with what your doing Grats!!!

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I'm glad your inspired by the work. That means a lot to the guys. We be looking forward to seeing how your build goes.

So here are few real brief updates:

We got the helmet resined up and got a final size check. It looks like this one will fit most of us perfectly.



Here is the orignial helmet that inspired my signature. I really do look like a bobble-head in that thing. The sad part is I have one or two guys who actually fit this monster.




And here we are just havin a little fun before exams start. The big helmet just couldn't stand up to the impact testing.



Last but not least, we got half the chest resined before we had to leave yesterday. I'm hoping to have it finished tomorrow.







We are having to get used to mixing the right amount of resin so we don't waste too much. Right now we are only able to get through about an ounce a piece before the mixture sets in the cup. I've tried reducing the hardener a bit but then it doesn't seem cure correctly on the cardstock. But so far so good using the smaller amounts. We'll try using just one cup for two people next time to see if we can spend less time mixing.

Dude..... you are literally the coolest teacher ever!

This stuff looks great, really inspiring me to finish mine... i'm doin a Tucker suit.

Awesome stuff man! Cant wait to see more!

Rhinoc said:

Dude..... you are literally the coolest teacher ever!

This stuff looks great, really inspiring me to finish mine... i'm doin a Tucker suit.

Awesome stuff man! Cant wait to see more!

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Thanks man. Best of luck with your build keep us posted.

haha nice. im trying to be a teacher too. one day I plan to walk in with my suit.

that looks awesome man, keep up the great work =D

Nice progress!