BrokenHawk's Mk VII Build

[BrokenHawk]

Hello everyone, with the release of the HCS Year 3 Roadmap, I wanted to share the process of my next set of armor! My next adventure will be to make my dream set of Spartan armor! I am going for a Mark VII base with the Mark V CQB helmet and a set of SAQ CDO and UA/Deming shoulders! I want to paint the armor in a similar scheme to the Flash Fjord coating in Infinite, but I will make some personal adjustments to hit my needed standard of blue. (Go blue team)

I have about 85% of the pieces out at various stages of sanding quality. Most of the suit is SkookumProp's MK VII files plus Skookum's UA/Hampus shoulder. Other pieces for the armor are the CQB helmet and SAQ CDO shoulder from Galactic Armory. I have been referencing Turbocharizard's MKVII thread a lot. Major props to Turbo for the great write-ups, and thank you NobleofDeath for answering all my questions! Looking down the road, I am not sure how advanced I want to go with the suit. I am very interested in fans for my helmets, but lights and audio might be out of my range right now. I would love to do some fiberglass reinforcement to avoid damage while traveling

For accessories, I am looking at printing out Galactic Armory's MA40 Assault Rifle with the near-exact look of the Flash Fjord coating. Also, throw around the idea of a sidearm of the sidekick or mangler. Let me know what you think I should print! The target of this suit is to have it done by September for the SLC Major hosted by SSG, but I want to 100% have it ready for deployment at HCS Worlds! Last year's Worlds was fantastic due to everyone at 343/HCS and all the great members of the 405th I can't wait to meet again!! I want to try and attend the Atlanta major, but the suit is up in the air. Thanks for reading the first post of my thread! I hope to keep this one active with monthly updates at least. My New Year's resolution is to become a 405th member so I can officially join this wonderful community! Let me know what you think!

 

[ArcSol]

It's looking so good, man! We're all pumped to see you guys again for HWC!

Lights and audio can definitely come later, they're usually one of the last things to add anyways. If you plan on wearing your suit for any amount of time you should definitely try to figure out fans. For both comfort and safety, honestly. Without them your visor is going to fog up in just a few seconds and then wearing your suit becomes legitimately dangerous - especially for things like getting on/off stages for HCS events.

It's nice to hear you are considering fiberglass too. Your prints look quite sturdy, but we're cosplayers - accidents happen and things break. It is heartbreaking seeing someone put so much time into their build and have it break on them.

Legit can't wait to see your progress on this! Killer work so far. You should be proud!

 

[BrokenHawk]

It's looking so good, man! We're all pumped to see you guys again for HWC!

Lights and audio can definitely come later, they're usually one of the last things to add anyways. If you plan on wearing your suit for any amount of time you should definitely try to figure out fans. For both comfort and safety, honestly. Without them your visor is going to fog up in just a few seconds and then wearing your suit becomes legitimately dangerous - especially for things like getting on/off stages for HCS events.

It's nice to hear you are considering fiberglass too. Your prints look quite sturdy, but we're cosplayers - accidents happen and things break. It is heartbreaking seeing someone put so much time into their build and have it break on them.

Legit can't wait to see your progress on this! Killer work so far. You should be proud!

You're too kind! For the fans I 100% agree my ODST helmet at Worlds lacked fans and it was rough. I saw some threads here I'll have to read up on right now I wanna get normal-size boots and the belt printed out. Hopefully, I should have updates to show on that soon!

 

[Emp Frosty]

Blue team approves!

 

[Emp Frosty]

For fans I recomend some Henry's Helmet fans if you're not comfortable learning to do any of the wiring yourself. I've used the usb kit on the website for my helmet for about 2 years now and havent regretted it.

Link here:

Henry's Helmet Fans

Helmet Fan kits for costuming / cosplay Cooling fan kits for Helmet , Cosplay , Costumes helmet fan kits helmet fans

henryshelmetfans.com

 

[Emp Frosty]

I keep remembering things to add only after sending the message but one more thing to add.

If you're wanting to do mag mounted weapons like I had at HSC last year feel free to reach out and I can get you the links to the different magnets I used and show you where/how I put them in.

 

[BrokenHawk]

I keep remembering things to add only after sending the message but one more thing to add.

If you're wanting to do mag mounted weapons like I had at HSC last year feel free to reach out and I can get you the links to the different magnets I used and show you where/how I put them in.

Thanks for the link to the fans, they look perfect! I'll reach out about mag mounting as well!

 

[Lojak]

Love those striking color!

 

[BrokenHawk]

Love those striking color!

Thanks! I can't wait to get it painted

 

[ArcSol]

For fans I recomend some Henry's Helmet fans if you're not comfortable learning to do any of the wiring yourself. I've used the usb kit on the website for my helmet for about 2 years now and havent regretted it.

Link here:

Henry's Helmet Fans

Helmet Fan kits for costuming / cosplay Cooling fan kits for Helmet , Cosplay , Costumes helmet fan kits helmet fans

henryshelmetfans.com

I have Henry's in my helmet too! The guy is local here and extremely nice... love supporting him. For me size was a serious concern and I have never seen fans smaller than the 30x10mm ones he has. And they work so well!

 

[BrokenHawk]

February Update!!
With the month coming to a close, I wanted to share the progress on the MK VII. It's been a slow month as progress has mainly been sanding (everyone's favorite part). I am about 95% done with printing the suit. On the bright side, all the remaining parts are the greeblies! Sanding is almost done as well. I am mainly focusing on the belt and down. I want to do one more pass on the chest to hit a few tiny spots. Another area of progress I have made is with strapping. I did a "test run" on the chest of the strapping system I wanted. Besides a few difficulties with tightening the straps, it's coming along!

In between sanding sessions, I have been getting back into learning foam. Following Turbo's suggestion to make certain parts of the suit flexible I already feel a difference in comfort. I do not have much done right now. My goal is to have all foam pieces done and installed in the suit by the end of March! It is also my first time using contact cement, and I don't know if I can ever go back to hot glue with how strong this stuff is!

Another big area of improvement is I have the Assault Rifle printed out! The surface quality of the AR was near perfect. So sanding this has been a breeze! Thanks to EMP Frosty's help, the AR was magnetized to the back of my armor. Trust me when I say that these magnets are strong!

Even with it not being a ton of showable progress on the Mark VII. I am proud of what I have done and hope to show you even more by the end of next month, if not sooner!

 

[BrokenHawk]

Mid-March Update:
After talking with some people on the 405th Discord. I realized my chest pieces were too big. After doing some readjusting on my armoursmith avatar. I ended up with a smaller and way better-looking chest. With the new scaling, I made the armor as close as possible to my body. As a first-timer, it looked too small, but the results looked to be worth it. I went down a whole 20%. Which is insane I had that much room to begin with. It's all a part of the learning process, and thanks to everyone who helped me get there. Another update I am going to do is reprint the belt at a smaller scale as well. Wasn't too happy with how it currently was looking so expect that update soon!

 

[N8TEBB]

Thanks to EMP Frosty's help, the AR was magnetized to the back of my armor. Trust me when I say that these magnets are strong!

PLEASE be careful when walking around with the AR on your back. I did the same thing but knocked it off my back, and it fell and broke into three pieces :'(
It was super nice to have it on my back up until it broke though!

 

[Emp Frosty]

PLEASE be careful when walking around with the AR on your back. I did the same thing but knocked it off my back, and it fell and broke into three pieces :'(
It was super nice to have it on my back up until it broke though!

That happened with my original 3D printed AR but it's been nice that the nerf one isnt so prone to breaking.

 

[BrokenHawk]

PLEASE be careful when walking around with the AR on your back. I did the same thing but knocked it off my back, and it fell and broke into three pieces :'(
It was super nice to have it on my back up until it broke though!

Will do! Sorry to hear about your AR. How did it get knocked off?

 

[N8TEBB]

I think I must have missed the place where both magnets hold and only connected one, and then bumped into a wall. I won't have to worry once I make it from foam though XD

 

[BrokenHawk]

Oh no! Thou

I think I must have missed the place where both magnets hold and only connected one, and then bumped into a wall. I won't have to worry once I make it from foam though XD

On the bright side that is a good reason to learn foam smithing skills. Never made a weapon out of foam but the ones I saw at HCS World 2023 from NobleOfDeath blew my mind! Hope to make one of my own one day.

 

[BrokenHawk]

End of March update:
I am back with another suit update for the end of the month! In short, it's been mainly a fixing month with my improperly scaled chest piece. Sanding is coming along and almost done, but I do have some new details to provide! I made a set of neck and arm gaskets! Coming from someone with little experience with EVA foam, the arm gasket seemed beyond my level, but once I started to connect the pieces I was shocked at how well it all fit together. The gasket is by no means perfect, but I plan to sand over it with my new Dremmel and fill some gaps with Kwik Seal. An idea I got from N8TEBB's MkVII build video that recently landed into my recommendation!

I hope to finish the right arm gasket this weekend and grind out the rest of the sanding. Hoping that come April I can update everyone with my strapping setup and maybe even some painting! Thanks for the read

 

[BrokenHawk]

End of April update:

After days, weeks, and months in the sanding mines, I have finally decided to stop and move on to the next step of the suit. Last month, I promised updates on rigging and maybe painting, but as things worked out I only made progress on painting. I will say the armor is starting to come together. All the armor but the boots are painted, with a base coat of blue. I am slowly getting the other colors worked in. My choice of paints are:

• Montana Gold - Signal Blue
• Montana Gold - Orange
• Rustoleum Flat Black
• Rustoleum Flat White

These colors are turning out amazing, and I am excited about the final result. Learn quite a few things along the way about painting armor along the way. Later this month I hope to finish all the base painting and get the suit rigged!


Photo dump:

 

[pinoyfiasco]

Straight dope. That paint job looks so good! Love those colors.