Props Halo 4 BR85, High Detail Box-card Build (*PIC Heavy/Full Process*)

Ahoy all!

I'm trying out some new techniques and sharpening some skills in general, so I thought I'd share my process since the M6S I built over in my ODST thread was fairly well received. As the title suggests, this is primarily built using cereal box card and cardboard, each in varying thickness. The basic foam form was cut as a mounting surface from insulation foam, and the only other material used so far has been PVC for the cylindrical barrel components. I am very close to assembling all the parts and beginning the finishing work, which entails a great deal of plaster-work around exposed corrugation, ridges that need smoothing, & irregular bevels.

To anyone wondering about the scale, I took it down a bit to a size that I think allows both myself (suited) and the weapon to appear equally formidable. It measures 910mm on the nose, end-to-end (barrel included).

I'm also keen on including bare-bones electronics in the form of a diffused back-lit screen and frosted, edge-lit sight. These are pretty much just being added for the sake of some bad-ass photos down the line.

Enough jibber jabber, progress pics!

Started with a print of this popular schematic, but I'm always more comfortable with my own work and noticed some bits I wanted to fix anyway. So much for saving myself some time, haha

Next, I began to plan out my layers. Basically just finding a balance between my mental "ideals" and whatever I have on hand.

Then I really dove into this build and assembled most of the lower half in a matter of days, sleepless foodless days.




At this point, life intervened and this project was forced to the shelf for a couple weeks. I picked it back up a few days ago and have just finished most of the finicky bits on the upper half.

Oops, that's the pic limit, I have more that I will likely post along with any progress I make tonight.

Thanks for stopping by, comments/critiques/questions welcome!

Looks great! Your work is very clean

It's coming along really well. Love the detail and as Miky said, very clean work!

Looking delightful as usual, I'm definitely going to have to look into cereal box card construction. I've used it before for minor things, but it's so clean, it's like matteboard.

Only thing I'd say is be careful- people like to make that carry rail square and fat with a short fat scope, and end up with like a 30mm wide Picatinny rail rather than the ~15mm or whatever it actually is. But the rail body is a kinda squat trapezium. I guess you already know this from looking at my thread, but just saying. The rest of it looks so accurate, it'd be a shame not to knock those walls in a few degrees at the top, even just approximately.

The mat you are working on where did you find that I like it

Thank you all! I'm getting pretty excited about this build as I approach the final assembly. I've really been picking up my pace these past few days, although I did flub a few small details in my haste.

Speaking of flaws, you picked up on my biggest concern as well, RobTC. Something got lost in translation in the earlier stages of my template making and led to a few compounding errors. The width of the carrying handle/rail was looking a little wide to me as well (and I'm sure it is, I didn't spend nearly as much time matching my measurements and scale to source material as I should have). You can see in the pic below where I'completely missed an inward step in the detail but after some thought and testing out a few measurements, nothing seems to look particularly out of place.
....Lol, close enough.
And here's some close-ups and progress shots.



There is a little more, but pics will come later.

@TSGstorm337, I'm quite fond of this mat, it was picked up at a walmart at a crazy discount (the only way I could afford to replace this gouge-riddled warping mess... haha).

EDIT: the green one is a Fiskars btw, and conveniently folds in half (If that kind of thing matters to you).

Clocked a few more hours on this bad boy, I'm very pleased with the progress I've made so far :cool




Just a few (..many) more details to work in, the end is in sight!

Hot diggity daffodil, that is one sweet lookin' BR. Nice job.

Wow, that looks great. Some day I want to build such a weapon too.

Was curious, what is the thickness of the insulation foam board your using? Also, awesome work, and progress on your BR!

Ahoy all, just a wee bit to add for now. I went back and cleaned up a few tiny things and added small details. For the rail I went with MDF to hold the edges better and let me mount the sight+electronics via screws. I tore apart a small flashlight with ultra bright LEDs and I'll start configuring the circuit once I de-solder what I need from the board.