Mk V Custom Build (WIP) will be Pic-Heavy

Greetings, 405th!

Long time lurker, first time progress-poster here. I've finally started working on a Halo-related costume, with an aim of having it ready by April for Norwescon. I figure 6 months should be plenty of time.

This will be a largely foam build for the body, with a pepakura helmet and possibly other details added on built from pep.

I'm going with a custom Reach Spartan suit, using a grenadier helmet based closely on the various Jorge models.

The helmet I am building right now is the "Jorge-052 Helm" by Raziel 1981, unfold by BMcCl. It's my first ever work with pepakura, and has been fun so far, but I'm definitely letting my noobiness shine through. I have a feeling I may abandon this before I finalize it and re-start using a different model/unfold to get some cleaner lines and better symmetry. Which is in no way a fault of the model or the modeller, just the assembler, in this case.


Here's where I'm at so far:









As you can see on that third pic, the nose area on the chin is a bit of a mess, and the whole jaw section is skewed from the bill (or vice versa). I've definitely got some bondo work ahead of me.

The visor is just a temporary fitting of the super-cheap visor I ordered from Amazon as a test platform. The color's not bad, so I might just use it as a final piece if I don't botch it. Although I'm planning a dark blue color for the armor, so a blue-purple visor won't pop nearly as well as a gold or silver one.

EDIT 7/2/2012
Just want to throw a shout out to the good people at Loctite. This stuff is awesome for building up areas that need detail. Compare the nose section of my helmet above with the new one I sculpted and carved by adding a heap of this putty onto the nose. Easy to work like clay, cures hard like Bondo, and is easy to file/sand. Great stuff for making little details on the fly.

I would Bondo/sand a couple times before you decide to scrap it. Especially if you have not done Bondo work before. Then you will get practice, and you might be surprised at what a couple coats of Bondo can fix.

sithinstructor said:

I would Bondo/sand a couple times before you decide to scrap it. Especially if you have not done Bondo work before. Then you will get practice, and you might be surprised at what a couple coats of Bondo can fix.

Click to expand...

I second that and add that you can heat it a little and move it around a little before bondo stage.

thorn696 said:

I second that and add that you can heat it a little and move it around a little before bondo stage.

Click to expand...

Aaactually... this picture was taken after I had already reinforced the inside with a small amount of fiberglass followed by a coat of Rondo. It's not as heavy in the front areas, so I'll see if my heat gun will be enough to re-set the jaw.

Well, that wasn't in the plan. File this under "Whoops, I'm stupid". Cross reference with: "Don't read if you are squeamish".

I sliced my right index finger tip off last night.

There I was, minding my own business, lining up ruler and x-acto blade, and as I started to cut out a pattern for the Mk V torso armor, I got distracted by Erik the Viking playing on the TV. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! Fortunately, no stitches! Unfortunately, that's because I took off a neat slice of skin so there was nothing left to stitch, really. Total damage: one tiny vein and a lot of skin. A few minutes and an improvised bandage later, we were off to the Rite Aid for an overdue first aid kit purchase.

The wife should be allowing me to handle blades again in a week or so. Until then, it's back to planning and printing.

That sucks that you almost said fairwell to a finger I know a little dramatic but it sounded good, hope it heals up quick, I think alot of us have had close calls especially working with blades, I haven't cut a finger yet but I have dropped the exacto knife getting up and had it stick in my foot like a dart and lets just say it hurt, but hopefully you will get back building that torso soon, Darn Erk the Viking see what he caused J/K

6-month Status Update: (sort of)

This build is not dead yet. It's getting better!

After a winter hiatus of letting my finger regenerate (can hardly even spot the missing fingerprint anymore!), and lots of staring at my current pieces, I've decided on a 50% overhaul of my body armor. I started on the torso using an all-foam build, but scaled it a little small. While I was re-figuring the dimensions the other day, I decided to try something different: hybrid pep/foam. Essentially, all the parts that are normally raised will be built with pep, and all of the recessed areas that contact the body will be made from foam. My hope is that this will minimize the number of bending/moving parts and give a rigid-over-semi-rigid-over-soft appearance once I have it all on over the body suit.

I'll edit and post a picture to better explain this when I get home tonight.

The jury is still out on whether I will be able to make the current helmet work, so I might be redesigning that as well. Now that he weather here in the Seattle area is hitting 60 again on a regular basis, I can get back to bondoing it to death.

Edit:

This concept art piece from Bungie more or less shows what I have in mind. All of the areas in dark gray will be constructed of foam, probably with a black or dark-gray vinyl covering (those that aren't simply part of the undersuit). The areas shown in light gray will be hard surfaces built from pep, which will be painted. There are a few area on this picture that don't quite reflect what I'm thinking (knife, bottom of knee plates, lower calf-area, etc), but most of it is exactly the way I'm planning to do things.

Alright, progress update time!

Here's a little bit of the work I've been doing on this helmet over the past couple of days. The weather here in Western Washington is finally staying warm enough to make hanging out in the garage pleasant.

This is a before-bondo and after-bondo shot of the bill area. One of the telltale features of the grenadier helmet is then chunky looking bill, which the pep model I chose was lacking. So I built a cardboard frame to build up the peaks, and filled it in with bondo.

That picture is at a horrible angle, by the way. I'll take an updated picture when I get home tonight from a better vantage point.


Updated video link (old one had copyrighted music)

Hey man, you really ought to update some time. I'm looking forward to seeing this build!!!!

Shadow_of_intent3180 said:

Hey man, you really ought to update some time. I'm looking forward to seeing this build!!!!

Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that... Here's the most recent progress on the helmet from the free time I had on Thursday (same basic shape as the red helmet above, just at much better angles):





The green is a flat, self-etching primer, and all the orange stuff is spot putty for areas that needed it. Still more to go on that front.

In hindsight, I think I should have back-filled the upper visor area and carved out the center channel more, rather than building up the two ridges in the front, but it is what it is, and still my first time working with Pep + Bondo, so I'll live with it. I've still got a lot of sanding and some crack repair/reinforcing to get around to (neck area, left side of the nose, top of the visor opening on the right side, etc...)