Build Thread Halo Infinite Armor

[TechMav]

"When you get into a hobby, just sample things, try this and that, see what you like"
... HAH

So first real build, and I've got two full sets of Halo Infinite armor on the build sheet. Currently about 3 days into printing, and just finished one full leg (boot, calf, knee, and thigh). Mainly for sizing purposes, since one set is for SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) (aka the wife). Made the mistake of estimating out the time involved, and just for printing one set, I'm looking at about 23 days non-stop (doesn't include the helmet). At least I have time to fish this before next DragonCon (of course, I just cursed myself by saying that).

I never do things by halves...

 

[Squixxy]

SWMBO? I'm not that bad, right? RIGHT!?
We are using the Galactic Armory files with some modifications for printability, thanks to TechMav, and likely a few parts that I'll be designing myself.

Current build itinerary.

Armor
Me: Recon or Commando variant
TechMav: Undecided; I think EOD works well for him, though.

Tech: Radios, chilled water cooling, lights.

Weapons: Undecided.

I am seriously considering modeling a Grav-Hammer using a few things we learned when making Rory Mercurys Halbrid a few months back. The good and bad of that is I tend to go heavy with the details in my sculpts

 

[DakotaHorse]

I'm intrigued to see an Infinite build! Are you also going with the Mk. VII helmet?

 

[TechMav]

As Squixxy pointed out, she seems to think the EOD helmet would work for me, and will probably do the Recon helmet for her. Of course, there's nothing that says I can't do multiple helmets...

... as if I don't have enough to print already...

 

[Squixxy]

I am a bit of an enabler of his addiction, "You know we DO have enough room there to put a second K1 MAX"

As far as helmets go, yeah, I'm leaning towards recon, but the Mk VII and the Trooper helmets look great to me.

We will most likely have multiple shoulder pads and helmets to swap between by the time we are done.

 

[TechMav]

Guess I need to order more filament
... and upgrade the fan on the spray booth
... and order more primer

 

[DakotaHorse]

Haha, sounds like this is going to be quite an undertaking, eh! Please do share some WIPs as you go along!

 

[Hype]

Love a good husband and wife duo. I haven't gotten my wife into armor yet, and she is trying to get me into non-helmeted cosplays. I am unfortunately running out of room in my office/workshop for all the tools we have been buying. A 3D printer, two sewing machines, a decal cutter, an air compressor, and an airbrush. We really need to just start saving and buy a house and dedicate an outbuilding to this stuff, but the housing market is insane right now.

 

[TechMav]

Love a good husband and wife duo. I haven't gotten my wife into armor yet, and she is trying to get me into non-helmeted cosplays. I am unfortunately running out of room in my office/workshop for all the tools we have been buying. A 3D printer, two sewing machines, a decal cutter, an air compressor, and an airbrush. We really need to just start saving and buy a house and dedicate an outbuilding to this stuff, but the housing market is insane right now.

I feel your pain there. I've lost 2/3 of the garage to build area. Market is nuts, that's for sure. I don't even want to think about all the equipment I've gathered over the years of doing this. It's always "I could cheap out, and get something that might do it, or spend a little more and get something that'll last"... like the walking foot sewing machine I have. It'll go through anything that'll fit under the foot, including plywood.

 

[TechMav]

It's time for a progress report!! Boy howdy... have I got issues!
Keep in mind, these are pretty much fresh off the printer, no post-processing other than removing supports and glue-up. I'm printing in ABS, so I can weld things together with acetone. This is roughly 2 1/2 days of printing, not counting idle time (contrary to popular believe at some of my previous jobs, I do need to sleep on occasion).

One boot!! That's 24 hours of printing. Now to figure out how to fit things together to make it actually wearable. We test fitted against my shoe and the wife's hiking boot. Both fit, but the print could do with being about maybe 10% wider. No two ways about it... this is a test article to figure out scaling for everything.

Now, if we could find some sort of good looking buckle to go there... I could weld the front three pieces together, and set it up to buckle to the heel part.

Shin/calf armor... that's about the right size on me, but the wife's is gonna have to be scaled narrower. (Ignore the skin... it's hot out in the garage right now).

Thigh armor is about right... except I printed the wrong side inside upper armor.

Spent a couple minutes scratching my head, because I could NOT figure out where that small piece in the photo above went. Wife takes one look, flips it around, and slaps it in place on the thigh.

Butt armor... not happy with how they split it out, may have to split it myself... however...

What toothpick did they scale this for??? I swear, it's like 4" to 6" too narrow to be able to even fit over the hips. Doesn't fit on the wife, either. Once I have the rest of the parts printed for it, we'll sit down and start figuring out ratios...


Plus the fun of figuring out what parts are not in the 'Split for smaller printers' folder, since they're small enough to actually fit on a smaller printer (like the hip box connectors that go on the sides). Even though my printer has a 300^3 build volume, I'm using some of the cut parts simply to have a flat surface to put on the build plate.

 

[Squixxy]

The leg and hip scalings for me will be a Mike Foxtrot PAIN to get correct. The thigh needs to be about 15% narrower around but about 10% longer. The butt and hip armors need to be about 20% wider.

I know in-game, the male and female armor doesn't scale, just the under-armor and skeleton underneath, but here in this universe, we are a bit constrained by Euclidian geometry.


Tailoring and sewing proper under-armor is on the list as well.