**Carpathia's Mk VI Armor: Master Chief Going into Cryostasis!

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Well, the locking posts using the bondo lid are a bust. I've got a few more ideas, so I'll let you know what happens.

That sucks man. Great Idea anyway. Hopefully your next idea will pan out. You can still use those lids as light diffusers for your led's. Atleast that's what I did, just a thought. That chest piece is coming along very nicely! :D
 
Chest plate is looking awesome. :coolYou keep adding more and more details, which just blows my mind on how far you can take it.:D
 
I didn't quite understand what you were using those posts for. Can you explain a bit further?

I can try. If you take a look at this picture...

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You can see two holes on the right side of the neck. I was going to attach the plastic pieces via small bolts to the inside of the chest plate, leaving about 3/4" protruding out toward the back plate. On the part that protruded out, I attached the rivets, sticking upward. The plan was to have the rivets line up with a hole drilled in the back plate and hold the top of the chest plate in place. Then I was going to conceal the bolt heads by bondoing over them. The only thing that might have been visible woud have been the bit of rivet that was sticking up (only about 1/16" of an inch) at the neck hole. It turned out that the plastic was too flimsy. I would need something akin to spring steel for the tension that I need for this. So, I'm exploring other avenues.

I have done this before, but like I mentioned, it was on medieval armor and it was out of steel.
 
I think I kind of follow. I just used buckles and some strapping. I just hope the strapping doesn't being stretched or something after a long period of time.
 
I think I kind of follow.

Yeah, it's a little tough to explain. I looked for a few hours online trying to find a picture or video of an example to better explain. However, it's irrelevant now. I've moved onto a new method, and I don't like to look back (which is why I destroy any failed armor pieces).

I've gone back to what I originally had planned, and what most people use, magnets. First, the reason I was avoiding magnets in the first place. When I first tried on the torso, I realized that it fit, but was pretty snug, so I thought that magnets would not work well. Then, in one of Cereal Killl3r's videos, he brings up a good point, what if you move too fast or oddly and the chest plate gets knocked off? His solution was to put in a retaining strap for such emergencies, a good solution. However, magnets still will not work at the underarm connection points since they are put under constant tension. This is why I have the post lock system there, the tension (or rather outward pressure from my body) keeps the pieces connected naturally. I have to consciously take the pegs out when I go to remove the torso, it will not come apart otherwise. Yesterday when I was testing out the top latching system, I noticed that every time the top latches failed, the torso fell open, pivoting on the underarm connections points, but would only move about an inch before it stopped. So, without even trying, I created a system that makes the chest plate falling off accidentally practically impossible. And pushing the top back into place is effortless, so, magnets are once again possible for the top connections points.

So, after a bit of research, I went into good old Harbor Freight, in search of their neodymium magnets, a 10-pack of cylindrical rare earth magnets. This is the picture that is on their website...

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Looks pretty good, right? I figured that if I used 4 for each connection (2 in front and 2 in back) at four connection points, then there would be more than enough strength to hold the top connection closed and 16 magnets would mean purchasing two packs. Well, I got to HF and took a look at the packaging, and here is what twenty of the magnets look like IRL...

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TINY! I was a little skeptical at first, but all the reviews I read online said that they were incredibly strong, and the two packages were clinging together pretty well, so I took a leap of faith and forked out the $7. So far, I'm not disappointed, they are quite strong, even stronger than the cube magnets I have.

So, I set about creating the mounting points for the magnets. To start, I traced out some cardstock over the openings of the connections points...

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Then I hot-glued them on to the front and back...

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So, tomorrow, I will resin the cardstock and prep the areas for a resin pour. Then I will place the magnets I will use on the cardstock, held in place by magnets on the outside, like so...

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...and pour in some resin. Then I will connect the torso halves, position the magnets into place on the back, and pour in resin there. The cardstock will (hopefully) keep the magnets from breaking free and will form a dam for the resin pour.

Now with all this figured out, alignment once again has to be addressed. Well, allow me to present Detail Alignment Version 4...

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Yup, version 4 doesn't look all that different from the first iteration that I showed you all, but it's different, trust me. First, the shape is more accurate and will fit better onto the armor. Then, the fit of the alignment post is FAR improved from earlier versions, as you can see...

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To attach the detail parts to the armor, I took a moment to think ahead. Eventually, I will want to build permutations for this armor (especially CQB and Recon) and I will need a method for attaching those add-ons to the chest. So, rather than epoxying the detail into place, I'm going to attach bolts to the underside, and bolt it into place. That way, when I want to attach the permutation chest plates, I simply remove this detail, and bolt the permutation into place at that location, possibly through a dummy alignment part so the chest place remains aligned. So, to accomodate that, and to accomodate the resin pour that will make the detail part solid, I designed the file so the bottoms were open...

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There is an added benefit to leaving the bottom open, it makes it easier to pep the parts.

So, ok, not the biggest update, but there was a lot of explanation there. I hope that it was clear to everyone. If not, keep watching and you'll see it all unfold.

Until next time!
 
I love this build because there are so many new solutions to the problems going on.

I'm using similar rare earth magnets for latching the front grip on my Spartan Laser. I can say that they don't locate as positively as I'd like, though I am latching the magnets to steel rather than magnet to magnet. Your resin pour around the magnets may not hold them well enough. I filed groves around the circumference of my magnets and JB Welded them into the front grip. If you get the magnets hot while cutting them, they lose their magnetism. If I understand your pictures right, it looks like you are joining the halves by butting them together with magnets, but the interference fit of the version 4 latches will provide an interlock to keep the magnet contact areas from sliding laterally? If so, they should work well, but you might want to try and work another set of magnets into each contact face.

Redshirt
 
Yeah, that's one thing I was worried about, the magnets pulling out of the resin pour. That's why I put the cardstock over the connection points and plan on resining, and possibly backing with a bit of fiberglass, so the magnets won't be directly touching each other while the armor is closed, but be close enough to hold it closed. You're right on the purpose of the magnets and the interlock system, and I'm using all 20 of the magnets (5 for each of the four connection points), so I'm fairly confident that it should be enough strength.

I know that heat and magnets don't mesh well, but I have no plans on cutting any of the magnets, and I will be monitoring the resin pour very closely, even though I don't think that it will generate enough heat to affect the magnets.

I'll be doing this in just a few hours, so I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
I've used magnets like this before. Unless they are touching, they don't hold as well. I used resin once, and didn't fully cover the magnets. It held great, but all of the magnets came undone, so I super glued them in place, and haven't had a problem since.
 
I've used magnets like this before. Unless they are touching, they don't hold as well. I used resin once, and didn't fully cover the magnets. It held great, but all of the magnets came undone, so I super glued them in place, and haven't had a problem since.

Ok, so maybe I won't be adding in the layer of fiberglass, and will sand a bit of the cardstock away after. I've got some decent epoxy that has saved portions of the suit before, so if a magnet pulls out, I can resort to that.

Obviously, you can tell that I'm stressing a bit about this part of the built.
 
Success!

I got the magnets installed into the armor, and once again, I couldn't be happier with the result.

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Here's a few shots of the alignment, without the alignment details installed...

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And to demonstrate how strong these little magnets really are...

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I have to shake the torso pretty violently to get them to break free. I've also tried the torso on, and love how easy it is. Although, one of the rivets gave way (or rather the adhesive holding into place gave way, so I installed the small bolts that I was going to use for the original top latch design in place of both of the rivets, and they're working great. I will be bondoing over the bolt heads in the future, so they will not be visible.

FINALLY, tomorrow I should be able to get back to bondoing the chest plate and getting that one step closer to finished! I have a rough estimation of two weeks from today for completion of the suit.

I also have new motivation to complete my battle rifle. A senior film student at the University of Iowa has asked if I would appear in a small part of a Halo-based short film he's working on. If everything goes well, I will be participating in that and would really like to have my BR ready for that. So, keep watching, be prepared to see this build accelerate and as always thanks for looking and let me know what you think.
 
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WOW man i love your ideas :)
I might be useing some of them for my final chest if thats okay with you. Your build is going really well and giving me all sorts of motivation to hurry and finish mine. Thanks :)
 
Congrats on setting the bar on latches. Nice job. That is a beautiful fit.

Redshirt
 
WOW man i love your ideas :)
I might be useing some of them for my final chest if thats okay with you. Your build is going really well and giving me all sorts of motivation to hurry and finish mine. Thanks :)

No problem at all. That's why I've been posting the techniques I use, so others can see it, build off of those techniques and possibly generate new ideas. That's what I love about this site. If you have any questions on how to specifically do anything I've done, let me know. As always, that goes for everyone.

Sweet! Glad to see that it work out so well.

Dude this looks like a great build!!!

Congrats on setting the bar on latches. Nice job. That is a beautiful fit.

Redshirt

Thank you all very much!

I managed to finish up the bondo job on the other side of the chest plate, and get bondo applied to the rest of the areas that had no been smoothed out yet. However, it got too dark to smooth out those areas, so I called it a night. Then I proceeded to wear my un-sanded torso around the house for about an hour to see how it held up. I put on my helmet, grabbed the Battle Rifle base, and... well... you know, played around a bit. :D

I'm happy to sat that the magnets work EXTREMELY well as the chest plate only broke free once, and only on one side, due to a rather extreme movement. I even tried to see what would happen if it completely broke free by pulling the top connection apart and letting the chest plate hang. It does not move more than an inch, 1-1/2" at the most, before it stops moving due to the way the underarm attachment works. I'll try to get a few pics of that up tonight, after I completely finish smoothing the chest plate.
 
Awesome work man! Your build has inspired me to take my time on the few pieces I'm going to remake.
 
Awesome work man! Your build has inspired me to take my time on the few pieces I'm going to remake.

That's the best way to do it. That way you know you're going to end up with a quality piece! Thanks.

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Ok, I've got kind of a HUGE update for you all. So many pictures I'm going to have to do this update in two posts (9 pictures in this post and 13 in the next). So, here we go.

First of all, I got the rest of the chest plate bondoed and smoothed...

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And there were a few thin spots, so I backed them with some extra bondo...

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Next, it was on to the details. For all my details, I used my standard 1/16" mat board.

First up was the ridges around the perimeter of the depressions at the connection points...

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Then, the greebles in front of the neck...

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And everything up to this point added in...

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(Continued on next post...)
 
Next, it was time to get the alignment details put in place. As I had mentioned earlier, I want to be able to add in permutations like the CQB and Recon without being required to make a new chest piece or permanently affix the additions to the chest plate. So, I decided to make the alignment details removable, to provide a point for future additions to be added.

To do this, I first started with the a cutout in the shape of the void on the underside of the detail with 3 holes punched into it...

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Then I put bolts into each hole, securing a nut on either side of the blank to keep the bolts in place and even...

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This allowed me to place the bolt heads into the detail which would be filled with resin...

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Obviously, I had to pour the resin before I could put the bolt heads in, but it came out pretty nicely...

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Now, one thing I was worried about was getting the detail perfectly aligned without guessing where to drill the holes into the armor. So, I created a stencil. I used the same blank with the punched in holes I used to place the bolts, tracing that onto a piece of paper and punching out the holes. Then I positioned the detail onto the paper and traced the outline of the detail...

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Then I cut out the tracing and positioned it onto the armor...

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Then I marked the hole locations...

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This gave me the perfect hole locations, so I drilled the holes and installed the details. I had previously reinforced the back side of the armor with bondo, so the bolts would hold on without the risk of breaking through...

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The perfect fit...

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And here is the fruits of most of my labor for the evening...

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Of course that wasn't all I did. After I got the details positioned, I removed them and did this...

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So, Sunday I'll be sanding that smooth and applying a coat of primer, as well as finishing up the alignment details.

HOWEVER, the fit of the chest plate is so good as it is right now, I don't think the alignment details will do anything but create more of a headache as I try to get the female end installed. So, I'm thinking about cutting away the peg on the male ends and leaving it as simply a detail. We'll see what happens.

So, that's it! It's been a long night, but I'm a bunch of steps closer to finishing this up! Let me know what you think.
 
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