Props Halo Style Machete Build *Updated 10/21/13* Pic Heavy

Howdy folks.

Well over on the Pepakura and Cardboard armor forum I am working on a MK.V foam build right here:

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php...m-Armor-Attempt!-Reach-MK-V-Style-*Pic-Heavy*

The reason I bring this up is that I am working on a very personalized spartan. One with a lot of features and additions that aren't found on the presets on the game. So I decided for every 2 hours I put into the armor, I'll put 1 hour into designing the props and additions for the armor. Not only will the props and additions be done by (or before) the time the armor is finished, but it also gives me a break on the armor every night cuts stress from building the armor itself.

This pic one is the machete featured in almost all of the Halo games. ( I've seen them built here before, so sorry for the "well duh" moment)



So I started by blowing up the image to be about the scale I thought would be correct. (Not going for a 1:1 scale honestly, I find that I want to be able to wield it and have a comfortable fit)

this is how it turned out.


For a little background on the weapon, it is in 4 parts currently ( I removed the black crossguard, I didn't like): the blade, the blade channel, and the grips that hold everything together.

All of the components are made out of copolymer sheeting, a resource I have readily available through working at an Orthotics and Prosthetics company. Copolymer plastic is an incredibly resilient plastic, it can't be torn, it flexes to accommodate give , yet remains rigid and doesn't warp. The stuff is used to make braces to correct spinal misalignment, realign legs and feet, it's even used in a lot of artificial limbs! The stuff is life ready! It'll dent if you whack at something with enough force, but it will never warp, bend, or lose the general shape. We have to use routers and belt sanders with carbon grit to add any detail or buff the stuff out, no sandpaper of any kind will do anything but leave a few scratches on the stuff!

The only downside is that copolymer when used in molding has almost no external detail at all. It can capture all the detail you want on the inside of the mold, but has almost no use for armor fabrication whatsoever, I have tried on multiple variations of armor from Halo to Star Wars. The thinnest it comes in is about 1/8 of an inch.

Update:

After working diligently on my armor for 2 hours, at 10 oclock I started working more on the machete.

As you can see, I removed the crossguard. By doing so, the blade didn't sit flush with the hilt anymore, so I elongated the blade channel and sanded down the hilt. It is very light, yet has a nice heft to it, you can swing it around and feel the weight, but what's the point? It's a prop.



I have sanded the edges of the blade to give it a sharpened appearance, but it's not too visible, and won't be until painted. And that won't be for a while there still is a lot of work to be done, it's still very rough and up close it's very unsightly.

And I am trying to come up with a way to wrap the hilt. Not too sure what to do there, if anyone has any suggestions, shoot! I all ears!

I also put together a sheath for it as well! Well, it's not "put together" but when it's all held in place, the blade locks in rigidly and draws very nicely so I'm pretty happy. Still needs to be sanded and prettied up. I am also going to put some felt on the inside to give the blade some cushion, as it will be painted, I don't want it to be scratched and lose visual appeal when drawn.



Anyway, leave some comments on what you'd like to see! Again I am also looking for ideas on what to wrap the hilt in, so chime in! I'd love to hear some suggestions! (no electrical tape, I already tried, it looks trashy...)

Update 8/24/13:

I have successfully put the sheath together and the blade fits like a glove!

The machete is held in place by tension and no matter how hard you shake the sheath, the blade doesn't fall out!

I went for a completely enclosed sheath design, counting there really is no real sheath or way of storing a weapon in Halo that is used as a decoration, I got creative. I am still deciding on a way to paint it, I am thinking an ammo crate design, something that has a serial number, barcode, and info regarding the blade. The sheath will be attatched to the armor "scout" style located on the lower back and can be drawn in a standard grip or reverse grip.

Something else I did was remove a corner of the grip revealing the underlying plastic. I plan on putting a hollow rivet in the handle to allow the blade to be either carried without a sheath by being attatched to a belt, or just as a hole for putting dog tags on for decoration or to remind the spartan of his fallen allies.

pics!

Machete and Sheath (drawn)


Machete and Sheath (un drawn)


And I think I figured out how I want to do the grips. I have some leftover hydro dipping materials from a camo gun stock I worked on once. I am about to order some carbon fiber material for an airsoft project, and I think I am going to add that to the grips for effect!

Now I do need some help, I am looking to paint the blade silver, I have Rustoleum Silver Enamel, I am not going to paint it straight chrome so no Mirrachrome. The only problem is the sheath is in contact with the broad side of the blade as well as certain edges. I don't want the paint to scrape off on the inside of the sheath and make the blade look gross. So I thought about putting some washers in between the nuts and screws to give it a little bit of space while keeping the blade still and rigid.

My question is would adding some kind of fabric like felt reduce friction and maybe reduce scraping the paint off as well?

Update 8/28/13:

No pics right now, because my cam can't pick up the detail on what I did.

Added washers to space the sheath out to avoid potential paint scratching on the blade. In addition to that I have sanded the sheath in prep for painting.

On the blade itself I have cut down some prosthetics parts to go in place of two screws and bolts located parallel with the base of the blade. It keeps it flush without compromising the hilt.

I also sanded the hilt to make the grip feel better and look better.

Update 9/2/13:

Alrighty folks! I have made some changes tonight.

-Traced, Cut, and sanded brand new black co-polymer grips, they are in much better condition and look much cleaner than the clear co-polymer grips I have been using, and I sanded them in a way to give them a nylon fiber/Bakelite look.

-Painted the Blade, partially. The paint I used is a Rustoleum Stainless Steel enamel. I bought a new can because I cannot find my spray paint anywhere... I don't like the look of the paint as it is more metallic sparkle than smooth metallic like the other can of paint I had, so as soon as I find that, the blade is going to be refinished. On top of that, I plan on painting the flat sides of the blade matte black to give it a hard oxide look.

-Scabbard has been doubled spaced. I put washer between both sides of the walls, it gives the blade plenty of room to be inserted, as well as drawn with minimal damage to the paint on the blade. But here I am still having trouble,

HELP!!! What would anyone suggest that I put inside the scabbard to give it padding so the plastic walls don't scrape the paint off? Some kind of cloth? Craft foam? I need some input here! and thanks!

pic-y pic-y

This isn't meant as a shameless bump I swear! And I really hate to double post, but I ran out of space on the first post!

So anyway!



Update 9/4/13:

Finished up the general design of the blade and painted it:

-Custom UNSC and Spartan logos stenciled on the sides of the blade (although my technique didn't capture the detail I quite wanted)

-Acid oxidization effect added through application of matte paint.

-Cut out the belt ring on the grip of the machete, and painted that silver as well.

-Minor battle damage added

PICS!!!

WIP

WIP


Finished Product




Now, like a lot of members on the forum say, "there really is never a 'finished' product" I will continue to modify the look of the machete with additions to the grip, as well as more battle damage to make up for the stenciling issue.

Now that the blade itself is complete, I am moving on to finish the scabbard. I still need to figure out a way to pad the inside with something that isn't abrasive and could gradually strip the paint off the machete, so if anyone has any ideas, please shoot!

On top of that I need to figure out a way to attach the whole assembly to a (future) set of armor scout style (scout style as in lower back, not armor wise) So if anyone has any strapping ideas that would be great.

great job man, i want a set of those decals, i need some for my the sword i have

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/39659-Spartan-stalker-Blade

Well to be completely honest man, those decals were pretty crappy. Here's what they were: 110lb card stock that I used tacky glue to apply. I have tried multiple different decal application methods for different projects from 3M sticky paper (which the paint bleeds right through and I would not recommend), to painters tape that I overlaid the sticky paper on to give it more paint blocking power (See pic 3). The only problem with the painter's tape method for such a small detailed sticker is that the paint is too weak to peel off when you need to reapply the sticker for stenciling. You try to peel it off extremely gently and it tears, ruining your hard work.

For the most part the card stock worked very well, and I mean the best method I have used yet for detailed small stencils, but the tacky glue ultimately seeped ever so slightly outward creating a thin film I did not see. So When I removed the stencil, the tacky glue splotches revealed where I had overlooked the problem.

I am thinking about redoing the blade actually, I just need to find the co-polymer plastic I used, which will be hard considering the thickness of plastic I used isn't a common type of co-polymer we use. But for the most part detail wasn't bad.

But if you wanna do the stencils I will give you the links to the pics I used, just put them into Microsoft Word (or any other program you'd wanna use) and scale them to your liking. If you wanna try again with the 110lb card stock, go ahead, but I would recommend not using tacky glue as the adhesive, but if you have a different idea on what could be used, please shoot! I'd love an alternative!

To be fair, any rough edges you see are the stencil itself, the paint did not seep through any of the stencils (minus the Marathon symbol) and the bubbles coming off the stenciled area are the tacky glue splotches. For the most part the stencils did their job very well, it was the adhesive that was the problem.

Pics:





{Co-Polymer mask}(3M + Painter's tape) [the nastiness in the middle of the mask was actually me mistaking a can of clear coat acetate for a can of clear matte acrylic, instead of protecting the dried paint like the acrylic, the acetate ate though it and almost made it to the co-polymer beneath]

well either way i think it turned out well

^Why thank you very much! I apologize for not getting back, I've been trying to put some time into my armor, much to no avail :/ But thank you! I should have better decals and stencils very soon, I'm working with a friend's parent who is very good at vinyl stenciling^

Update 10/3/13:

It's been a while since I've done an update, as I have been working on my armor on the side (with no good results).

But anyway, I actually took off the original layers of paint in an effort to make the blade itself look better. In a side note, thank God for sand blasters...

-Sanded the blade down

-Re-painted to give it a better finish

Here's the newly painted blade.


Up close view. Look at dat shine!


Closer. Here you can actually see it kind of looks like a brushed/stainless steel. I'll explain how I got that a little farther down.


I used to have a very nice can of Rust-oleum enamel flat steel color, a tad duller than what you see in the pic. I mean it had a very nice light metal look when applied right almost giving 3D props like masks a cast aluminum effect. I used it on everything from masks to "weapons" to redoing ammo cans. It was great stuff. Unfortunately I lost it along with about 16 of my other rattle cans and I cannot find them anywhere.

So I bought a new can to start my collection over, only as you can see from the first pics of the machete, the color was kinda gross, very very dull and almost a slightly browned look.

Well I came across this paint while picking up new tail lights for my Jeep. It's a high polish chrome paint.


It's designed for application to metal and wood. Not necessarily plastic, and unlike other spray paints that has a "dry to touch" time of about 1/2 an hour, this stuff can only be handled in 3 hours. Long dry time. So 2 nights ago I tried it on the freshly sanded blade, I applied 3 light coats to give it a nice shine. Well after letting it dry for 2 hours, I checked on it and the stuff peeled right off, it didn't even bond. The plastic was still perfectly sanded. So last night I tried giving it a primer coating (which isn't recommended on the can) of the original kind of crappy brownish metal paint and then applied 2 light layers of the chrome and let it dry for 3 hours. As you can see by the pics, it came out very nicely!

There is something very odd about the chrome paint though. It has a very light, powdery residue on the surface and I can't figure out what it might be. On top of that it isn't the most durable of paints I have used, it's kind of fragile and scratches easily. It also comes up fairly easily as well, not as easily as it did without primer, but enough that I am afraid to tape the blade edges off to give it the oxide look.

Now I am facing a problem. The enamel reacts with acetone based anything... My clear coat varnish is all acetone based, from the matte varnish to the gloss varnish. Without a clear coat, the fragile chrome is highly susceptible to scratching and wear. I am all for wear and tear, but I don't want this paint destroyed. Are there any good alternatives to acetone based clear coats that anyone knows of?

Update 10/21/13

I finally got the look I was going for! I put down the initial coat of aluminum colored enamel, buffed it down and layered it with the chrome paint, then taped off the edges and put a coat of flat black enamel giving it the oxide effect!

Now I am having a friend plasma cut out the inner handle to not only give the whole blade more stability, but allow me to move onto better more accurate grips as well!

PICS! (sorry for poor quality, my phone is being stupid)



The silver part will be made out of either aluminum or steel.