Props Brute Spiker Kit Project (Pic Heavy)

Hello guys!

I recently acquired a pretty sweet Halo 3 Brute Spiker kit made by Smick6 (I picked it up from Sean Bradley who had to part with it, which I'm sure was very hard).

I don't know Smick, his profile here indicates that he hasn't been active in a while but I still wanted to share the detailing work I did on this with the community here and maybe pass along some stuff I tried out.

Without further adieu, here is the start to finish timeline.

Brute Spike Rifle



When I got the kit from Sean, most of the flaw fixing had been done already (I'm not sure if by him, or by Smick, but they did a great job) so other than a few small areas to fill and sanding it was ready for primer pretty quickly.






The blades I gave a lot of attention to. While the main model was mostly sanded up to 600 grit, for the blades I went all the way up to 1600 grit. They came out very, very smooth.

I wanted this replica to tell a bit more of a story- I didn't want it to look pristine like it had just come from the Brute Factory. I wanted it to look like it had been used frequently over a somewhat short period. I decided the Brute that used this Spiker fired or shot it a lot more than he stabbed people with it. This would mean discoloration on the metal on the front of the gun from excess heat due to being fired so much, with lighter wear on the blades.


But before I got ahead of myself with the details, I had to scale back and figure out more about the base colors of how this thing should look.

I started by searching out reference images of the Halo 3 Spiker this kit was based on





I didn't really like the way it looked in Halo 3. I know it sounds stupid, but almost every set of armor or weapon I see has blue lights in it.

So I started to look at the Halo Reach version of the rifle





Bingo.

The Reach version isn't as blue, shows more wear, and has orange lights, so I took it and ran


The next step was drilling out the indicator lights. I grabbed my dremel and a small bit kit I have for it and began going to town. I got a feeling this is what it's like to be a dentist haha








After these holes were drilled, I started to tackle how to get the base color down.

I struggled a lot with this step. The Halo 3 and Reach version of the Spiker are both a shade of Blue. I don't know what kind of blue you'd call it, it's not bright, but it's not navy so I just called it medium blue.

With every prop I work on, I get a little better at painting from learning after all the mistakes I made on the last one :rolleyes

So this time I made sure to get several shades and practice practice practice.

Initially, I tried finding a blue that exactly matched the in game shade. That was a failure. So I came to the conclusion that I'd have to blend a few colors to get the one I wanted.

After some trial and error on random scraps and cardboard, I had my colors:



(Hammered black and Ford Royal Blue)

First, I gave the handle and barrel sections a new coat of flat black primer. Once that was dry, I sprayed a thick, liberal coat of Hammered black. I used hammered paint to simulate wear a little better (this also paid of HANDSOMELY for me in the middle of the project).



For some people, that thick bubbly paint would mean more agony inducing sanding, but I wanted it to look like this.

After that layer had dried, I very gently misted (from a few feet back) a thin layer of the Royal Blue Ford paint (from Auto Zone). My hope was that the black base would stop the blue from being so glittery and I think I nailed it.

Once I had those parts down, I switched over to the blades and the arms that hold them.

I sprayed these with Dark Steel and then once that coat dried I sprayed on a layer of Hammered Antique Pewter. I also made sure to spray the screws that hold the pieces together.





For the blades, I sprayed on two coats of Dark Steel. Once they were dry, I taped off the sections around the edges of the blade and then used Silver leaf rub-n-buff. I was very pleased with it. Rub-n-Buff is GREAT stuff for simulating metal, and it goes a long way.




While I was waiting for the blades to dry, I moved back to the barrel. To achieve the worn look and discoloration on the metal, I started by lightly sanding the blue parts with 600 grit paper. Remember when I said earlier that the hammered paint would work in my favor later? Well here is where it totally did: When I sanded, the top layer of blue gets rubbed away, revealing the black underneath. When I kept sanding that exposed layer, it blended with the blue to create a slight greyish-orange that looked a lot like rust. What helped even more, is that the hammered paints unique texture creates bumps and divots so when sanded, it added to the effect!

You can see it best in these pictures





I was so tempted to just leave it like this and call it a day, but then I wouldn't really be getting the whole look I wanted, so I pressed on.

While I had a good start to the worn metal look, I needed to take it a little further. Have you ever cooked something with a copper pot and noticed that as it heats up the metal changes color a little? That was the look I wanted to emulate, so I decided to use more Rub-n-Buff.

RnB is not a paint, it is a kind of wax. I've used it once before on one of Tactonyx's pistol kits and had great success with it, so I decided to see what it might offer for the Spiker. I got an Amazon and ordered the sampler kit of colors and got a nice selection of coppers, browns and reds.

The way the material works is you dab a small amount on the part, spread it around evenly with your fingers, let it dry, and then (as the name implies) rub and buff it to a shine. The more you rub, the more shiny it becomes. Then, you need to let it sit for several days in moderate temperature. Once it fully dries, it's just like paint in that it won't come off unless you scrape it away. I tired and had to really, really dig at it with something pointy to get it to come off. If you are patient, it is a great tool for your inventory and I highly recommend it.

I started by dry brushing the silver onto the edges of the handle side



I then took the Spanish copper and used a small paint brush to dab and spread it on the barrel section



As I went, I added more Copper to the arms that hold the blades, and a little to the back ends of the blades to show that they'd be getting pretty hot under so much sustained fire. I also added hints of ruby to lighten the darker brown look of the Spanish copper. It had just enough sparkle in it that when spread around, it blends nicely to look almost rusty. Then when that dried, I stared to dry brush silver leaf onto the edges to make it look like bare metal.







I also went ahead and removed a chunk or two from the blades to give them some wear, and I took my x-acto and scratched lightly around the tips of the blades. I felt a little dirty doing it because they were just so perfect, it didn't seem right

At this point, I took all the pieces and did a test fit to see how everything looked. I made sure to re-touch areas so the "heat" looks like it spread logically in the affected areas. The front of the gun should look discolored and worn, while the back or grip area should look mostly un-touched, maybe just scuffed.

Once I was happy with that, I moved on to added some LEDs to the model.

I only needed 6 orange LEDs, so like any sane person I ordered 50 because they're dirt cheap and I never know when I might need to orange something up

I first began by taking a battery holder and attaching it to the main section of the prop. I used a plain machine screw to hold it in place, with a dab of hot glue under it. I put it towards the front to balance the thing out (it is quite heavy).



I next went to wiring the LED pairs into the holes I drilled earlier. Once I was happy with their positions, I glued them into place. Then I had to figure out where to put the slide switch that powers them on. This was tough. I only had two, one that was far to big to fit anywhere unnoticed and one so small that it would be hard to turn on.



I opted to use the smaller one. I'm not sure if this was a flaw in my kit or if it was designed this way, but the only area I could find to put the switch was up front near the dual barrels. My kit had a small hole in the side there and after looking at it long enough I came to the conclusion that if I made it a little bigger, I could put the switch there. So I got my sanding probe out and started to carefully remove material until I had a small hole.

I think it came out pretty good!





Once it was in snug I added some glue to be safe.

Then I wired everything up, gave it a test, and was pleased with the results. I ended up diffusing the light coming from the barrels because in the dark it looked a lot like someone was shining a double barreled orange light everywhere. To diffuse them, I used some stoppers I made out of hot glue and plugged them in.



Now it was time to add some finer details :cool!

I reassembled the Spiker and then put the main assembly in a grocery bag or two, and then splashed on some fake blood! This brand of blood is called "perma blood" and supposedly will never come off the surface it comes into contact with. Cool. So before I went psycho killer crazy in the back yard with the stuff I practiced splattering it on a card board box. Turns out there is a real science to making it look real (according to my other half, who works in haunted houses professionally. I swear that's how I got the blood. Really! Stop looking at me like that!!)

before


after (sorry for the blurry pics)


I had to wait about 12 hours for this stuff to fully dry, which kinda stunk because I was on a roll that night. Oh well. The results were well worth it!







I decided to use the blood on a whim. I thought it added more depth to the prop, maybe it had just recently taken some poor Human's life, or maybe it was liberated by a Spartan on some far away battle field, who knows?!

The next detail to add was the leather strapping on the handle. I didn't really give this much thought. I got some scrap pieces from the girlfriend and then painted them dark brown (they were very tan when I got them). Once they dried and I roughed them up a bit, I installed the trigger piece and then loosely wrapped them around the handle and guard. I didn't follow any particular pattern- I didn't wrap to tightly, but not so loose that it would droop off. I also made sure that small areas of the handle were exposed like the Brute didn't really take super care of this weapon.





Almost done!

Home Stretch!

If you've read this far, I thank you


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At this point, the piece is 99% finished. I still need to paint on the tribal symbols but have been running into sizing issues. I hope to have this done in a few weeks, but otherwise it looks pretty good.

Below are the money shots, the completed model.

Enjoy!











Even the bottom was detailed- I made sure








So there it is! My Halo Reach style Spiker kit.

I'd like to thank Sean for parting with such an awesome prop (it went to a good home) and I'd especially like to thank Smick6 for sharing a beautiful kit. I had a lot of fun putting it together and making it my own. I learned a lot of cool detailing things as I worked on this kit and it's definitely given me some help on my own builds, which will see the light, someday.

Soon....

Thats some pretty top notch weathering and highlighting you have done, it looks very battle used, i love it.

This is very impressive man *gives thumbs up*

looking very nice love the blood splatter on the blades

Those orange lights... the blood... lots of blood...



this is great work!

oh man! Nice kit project. You really turned that into a sweet spiker!

Now that is bad @$$!!!

Amazing work!! I've always been very envious of anyone that is able to get their hands on one his Spiker kits. You did it justice my friend.

-Matt

Great job.

Great job, its nice to see a finished one. Sent a lot of kits out but rarely see them done. Thanks for sharing...

WOW! I'm not around here from a long time, but that's surely the best weapon i've seen so far!

This is fantastic....it really is! Great job man

Excellent work. Totally agree with you on the blue lights, orange is a far better choice

Dude this is awesome! I ordered another one of these kits from Smick and hopefully it will be here soon! To be honest.... you inspired me to do 1 of these.

I might have to do a new version with the orange lights also, looks great that way.
Almost done with yours HaloMaster.

Hey thanks for the update Smick6. Looking forward to it!
By the way yours is lookin sick dude.