Building Mirage (Fireteam Splinter)

[BlazingForge]

Fireteam Splinter Mirage
(For competitions and an overall build guide)​

Recently Me, blafftat, Dragern, Satan Farted, and iLLSH0T619 have all began to start making a Spartan 3 Mirage group. Fireteam splinter. This will be the build thread that shows how exactly I create this and how I personally do everything from start to finish!

This suit will be a Cosplay I intend on using for cosplay competitions. Hoping I can win one with it; however, because it is going to be used for competitions I need to get it as accurate as I physically can. I will also deploy this suit and I'm planning to have it done before I am 18 years old since Fan expo is in June but also because I just like the idea of having made a T3 Suit before I could even deploy
This Build thread will also have a Document and Video series made with it. The link to the Document where you can read just about everything about this suit while I make it is here.
Link: Building Mirage
Youtube (this is where the videos will be posted): BlazingForgeCosplay
As for the rest of the build thread it will be split up in chapters. Each chapters will cover just about the exact same as the Build document and these two should be about the same. So there is that. And with that Here is what each chapter goes over.

Chapter 1: Files​

(Where to find the files? What you should know before buying or printing files)​

Chapter 2: Sizing​

(How is it sized and what software do you need to size things well?)​

Chapter 3: Slicing and 3D printing​

(What slicer do you use? What should be known about 3D printing these parts. And what are some tricks that you use when 3D printing it)​

Chapter 4: Post Processing​

(What grits of sandpaper are used? What should you use to fill gaps and imperfections? Why is this process “Necessary”?)​

Chapter 5: Painting​

(What brand of paint do you use? Why do you layer paint on top of each other the way you do? How can this affect the final product?)​

Chapter 6: Weathering​

(What makes it look realistic? How do you make convincing scuff marks, scratches, and paint chips? How do you make it look used?)​

Chapter 7: Foamsmithing and Wrapping​

(Foamsmithing! What did I need to make out of foam and How do I get the textures from the game?)​

Chapter 8: Sewing​

(How do you capture most of the undersuit details?)​

Chapter 9: Rigging​

(How do you put it on your body? Is it comfortable?)​

Chapter 10: Extra Details and Finished Photos​

Chapter 0

(What are we building?)​

This is a guide on how I built my Halo Infinite Mirage Suit. There will be a video format for this too however this is the written version that should be easier to fully find info about. Either way back to the topic. This again is a guide on how I built this suit HOWEVER this can be applied to just about ANY 3D printed Costume.
Overall I chose to build Halo Infinite’s Mirage Core with shoulder pads I preferred and armor coating. This goes into figuring out what you want to build. Visualize it in some way whether it be drawing out the parts and coloring it or making 3D renders or putting it together in game.
These are some in-game screenshots I gathered to just decide that I wanted to really pick up the project. These will serve as great guides to create this build and turn it from fiction into reality. This step will apply to ANY build in ANY method. Being able to visualize what you want to create and start seeing if it would even look good in my opinion is a must. It’s very easy to get carried away with “What if I did this.” or “This could look good.” that and have it turn out not exactly how you envisioned it or even wanted it to be.

With Halo Spartans luckily there’s a Blender community that has created a very modular file for people to be able to create their own spartans! It can be found here: Halo Spartan Pack 5.0 Do keep in mind this Pack is constantly being updated with the new parts from the game. So it may not be up to date. However this provides a great tool for cosplayers!

Chapter 1

(Files: Where to find them.)​

Files are one of the most necessary parts of creating most of this armor. Especially when you are 3D printing it like I am. When foamsmithing you can find unfolds that are great for creating this armor, however it can also be done freehand with time.
When 3D printing cosplay parts I heavily recommend NOT using Game rips. Game rips are just 3D models that are ripped straight out of the game. These are not made for human wearing and are typically very low polygon and low detail. Sometimes they have holes in them and need to be repaired manually. However it’s just easier to find 3D models online downloading and or buying them.
With this I personally believe Titlewave Designs has some of the absolute best cosplay 3D models on the market as well as with the most variety. I’ll be using his Mirage Files for cosplay in order to create this.
An honorable mention for 3D models is InstinctCreative3D. He has some great Cosplay models and has recently helped create a Noble Team group which has some of the best suits I’ve seen. Another honorable mention which would be the solution to anyone on a strict budget would be MoeSizzlac. He has some amazing models for full suits of armor FOR FREE. Which is great for anyone on a budget! Another place that has tons of files is Halo Costume and Prop Maker Community - 405th! Has the most halo foam/pepakura files for sure and has a large community who is willing to help you learn!
Other places to find files are Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects, Cults・Download free 3D printer models・STL, OBJ, 3MF, CAD, https://www.etsy.com/?ref=lgo, https://www.patreon.com/home! These places are my main go to’s for where I find my 3D models. Just keep in mind you cannot sell most files without the necessary license and permission from the original creator. Also keep in mind most Files will not be sized and scaled to you and thus will not look as good as you might hope. That leads us into our next part.

 

[BlazingForge]

Chapter 2

(Scaling)​

Scaling. Why is it important? Quite frankly without scaling most of the time your build will not look very proportional or even fit. Scaling is something you really need to make sure you do well and take time into doing. Without this step you’ll be remaking tons of parts because they are either too big or too small, and when building you definitely don’t want a helmet that doesn’t even fit on your head.
(FYI ARMORSMITH IS NOT ON MACBOOK I’m sorry my fellow macbook people but your best bet is to essentially get a 3D scan import it into blender and scale that way)

A tutorial I love to recommend is definitely this tutorial by a cosplayer named Frankly Built. How to Scale 3D Printed Armor & Cosplay using Armorsmith! This covers essentially the process I will be doing however due to armorsmith being very wonky at times I highly recommend getting a 3D scan if possible. My friend KaeSpoon from the 405th created this tutorial on How to Obtain and import a 3D scan into armorsmith. Which I highly recommend.
As the process goes you will buy armorsmith which is a 40$ program that really helps scale your armor and other things. (Find more info here ArmoredGarage.com) Once launched it should look remotely like this (minus the avatar which mine is already loaded in there)

From there you will need a second person to help you with all your measurements. At the bottom Right you should have the property tab and if you go down you should be able to locate all the measurements for your avatar.

From here you’ll go in and take your measurements. Armorsmith Defaults to Millimeter but if you’d like to switch to the imperial system click on Settings<Preferences<Measurements<Current Units. But for now I’ll stick with Millimeters.

Double maybe even triple check all your measurements before continuing. However once all of your measurements are set and you have an avatar that looks like your body you need to import your files which should be located in the top right corner of your workspace panel. Once you have a file imported. Use the Attach tool to add it to where it belongs. From there you can scale it using the bottom left or the scale tool at the top left!

You’ll want to attach and scale each part individually. Definitely USE a reference when scaling so then you get something proportional not only to
your body but to the actual suit you are trying to replicate. Do this for every part and you should get something that looks pretty good.

I like to write down my scaling somewhere else so then I don’t lose it. From there I took some extra filament and the scaling of each part and printed out the handplates, fingers, shoulder pad, and forearm parts to double check the scaling of the parts. These were printed with 2 walls and 5% gyroid infill.

Not strong by any means but it gets the work done for a test part. From there I used that previous piece to get a good scale for the actual parts, just simple estimations using the part and my fingers and the slicer to see where parts start and end. I will not be doing this with the rest of the suit simply because of how much material and money it costs to do it. Instead, in armorsmith I use the measure tool and then measure the parts of my shin and thighs.

Both The shin and the Thigh were not scaled correctly due to incorrect measurements… However I worked around that by trying something that should work and that is measuring how long those parts are on my body and then attempting to get them to a decent size for my body! I then imported that into my Prusa Slicer and use their measuring tool to actually get the same size in length!

For the helmet I took a helmet I’ve already scaled to my head and put it in the slicer and compared it. Since 100% scale worked I’ll be scaling it to 101% to make sure I have enough room for the visor when that is made. When scaling helmets make sure that the width and length are enough to fit your head!

Triple Checking your measurements is very crucial and I now say that with this experience… I probably should have been more patient and really taken my time with making sure the measurements were perfect but I didn’t have the patience for that. However the modifications and ways I did it still work for scaling though it may be a whole lot more work and more complex. Luckily it seems that my hip and Chestplate scaling should be just fine and likely the boots too. Just keep in mind with the boots you scale them to the actual boot you want to use. However with Scaling now done it’s time to move on to the next chapter!

Chapter 3

(3D printing and Slicing)​

3D printing… Where oh where do I start… For 3D printing this suit I’ve switched to Orca slicer. (Orca Slicer) Mostly because it seems everyone is using it at this point and from what I’ve heard it’s much better than most other slicers by this point in time.

3D printers tend to have a mind of their own and only work about half the time… Luckily using a good slicer program tends to bring that percentage up to about 90% which is great. Either way from there I have my filament mostly tuned because I know people who use a Neptune 4 Max with Elegoo’s Rapid PETG so I just grabbed their settings for their slicing. There are plenty of tutorials on Youtube on how to tune filament because I kinda suck at doing that. From there I imported sets of parts. I organized them by the Boots, Legs, Belt, Chestplate, Arms, Hands, and Helmet. These are how I divided up the files to start importing and slicing.

I was able to fit the entire Belt, both arms, both hands, and the helmet into one build plate for each group. The little strapping guides I also increased the wall count from 4 to 5 simply because these parts are going to be holding a lot of stress from the strapping system. They are also being printed perpendicular to the grain of the straps so then they don't split as easily. However, this takes away from the quality of those printed pieces and instead puts it in strength which should be better for those strapping guides. Additionally in orca slicer you can right click a model with several pieces and go to Split<Split into Objects which allows all the models to be separated if there are several in a model.

These are the first parts I printed for this project and the settings I used for strength are 4 walls and 5% gyroid infill. This was to balance both strength and weight as 3D printed things can get really heavy REALLY fast. So it's good to try to at least cut down on weight where you can. From my experience Walls are the main type of setting that really gets you strong parts and reducing your infill percentage can save you a lot of time, money, and painful shoulders in the long run.
Now let's talk about when you have parts that are way too big to fit on your printer! Because there are a couple tricks I’ve learned! When you have a piece that you want to print that is way too big for the printer there are tools you can utilize! One of these tools is the slice feature present in most slicers now. This tool provides a cut for a model along a certain plane that you can change the position of the cut.

Typically when cutting a model and slicing it up you want to slice it at a point of low detail. In this case there are a lot of flat edges where I plan to cut my model. This makes it easier to put together when you print out both pieces, Sand down that seam edge, And fill it so then it disappears! Another good thing to know is depending on how you print out one of the pieces you should probably print the other piece in the same way so then the grain lines up. This should help with making sanding a little bit easier since now you don’t have to worry about 2 different grains when sanding and don’t have to worry about struggling to take down those pesky layer lines. So with all that in mind let’s talk about support material!
Support material when 3D printing is vital and without proper supports it can cause your prints to fail pretty frequently. I love to use Tree supports which should be a type present in most modern slicers. Tree supports cut down cost and time when printing! I have my support threshold angle at 35% for PETG and have it to where supports will only generate on the build plate. This is because I don’t want supports forming on the model itself so then it doesn’t ruin things like where straps are meant to go within the model.

Overall this is how much support I have for my prints because PETG is a little more temperamental on overhangs than PLA is.

More to be done for this chapter...

 

[BlazingForge]

Spot Reserved for Chapter 4, 5, and 6.

 

[BlazingForge]

Spot Reserved for Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10.

 

[Dragern]

Mhm yeah totally not clueless and following blaze for everything

 

[marinesniper]

i think this is a great start im glad to see you are thinking things out before you blow a lot of money when you dont need to. i will be watching to see how you take this project to higher limits..

 

[BlazingForge]

i think this is a great start im glad to see you are thinking things out before you blow a lot of money when you dont need to. i will be watching to see how you take this project to higher limits..

Thanks I'm again planning on having on having this be a competition suit and a T3 suit before I turn 18 and am able to deploy any suit of armor!