First {Halo} build - Spartan (TV series)

[adognamedRunt]

Shame to hear about the Anycubic giving you trouble, its on my list to get as I need a large format printer for my armor and a few other things.

That said your progress is awesome and I cannot thank you enough for sharing the good and the bad of your build.

 

[SgtSaint]

I'm curious as to why you use tack when assembling the helmet?

I am also curious about the tack. What's your process?

The tack is used for masking. You can buy masking putty at some hobby stores and on-line. Its a trick I picked up from guys that do army tank model kits. You can push tack-putty into areas you just couldn't tape. I find this cheap dollar store putty to work just as well for this use-case.
Like the louvers and details on the front of the helmet, or on soldier figures where you want to mask off at the belt or whatever where it would be impossible to tape.

In this case where I'm using it... the two halves of the helmet don't make a perfect flush join. So I mask along the seam, then glue the two together. The mask & putty act like a dam or barrier so the epoxy and resin don't go beyond the seam to be filled.

Then flip the helmet over and work from the inside. Fill the gap with your favorite adhesive for this sort of work.

Now its just filler putty, sand, primer as usual until you can't tell there is a seam.

 

[SgtSaint]

Dry fit of a couple parts.​

• Back is two-part and just duct-taped together; not yet cleaned let alone glued. Just hanging on my shoulders by nothing more than gravity.
• Arms are just slid on.
• Chest held up by free hand.

But gives me some idea that I'm not horribly out of scale. With wife holding the chest in place I can pickup and put on my helmet by myself so not an excessive amount of armor collision that I'm picking up on so far.
And I like the way this color scheme is coming out in pictures.

 

[SgtSaint]

Look what arrived. Now I have to decide if I’m taking it to the convention and if I’m repainting it.

 

[Citruspers]

Looks great Saint! Thanks for sharing the tip about putty, I was having some issues aligning and glueing printed parts and this seems like a good solution.

I'm wondering what resin you're using in your printer? I've found that the cheaper anycubic resin tends to warp quite a bit and wondered if you found something that doesn't warp as much, but is still rather economical.

 

[SgtSaint]

I'm wondering what resin you're using in your printer? I've found that the cheaper anycubic resin tends to warp quite a bit and wondered if you found something that doesn't warp as much, but is still rather economical.

I buy SirayaTech FAST grey in the 5L jugs. 6 jugs at a whack. About a week delivery time.
But I also get AC black about 20L at a time. I like how *black* their black is. But it tends to be like a month from AC through their AliExpress store.
Though... I just received 30L of eSun black and did exposure testing on it and have to say its a good true opaque black as well. Exposure time is a little high but I think that's because its plant based. I usually avoid that stuff, but the deal was good and it was a local supplier so thought I'd give it a try. But I can't put my stamp of approval on it until I do more than just exposure tests.

 

[SgtSaint]

Yesterday had to be an 'all paint, all day' kinda day since it wasn't raining.

 

[SgtSaint]

Boots test​

I'll use wide elastic to make the two boot segments pull towards each other, but still allow for stretch and freedom.​

Video attached is 45 seconds at 30mb. Your choice if you want to see me walking in these printed boots held on with only duct tape.
They sound like Dutch wooden clogs. I really thought I might have an "ED-209 moment" going down the steps, but they were good.

 

[Citruspers]

As a Dutch person: definitely sounds like clogs (though a bit too "hollow"). You'll be adding the foam underneath I assume? If the foam/rubber is stiff enough it might also work keeping the boot pieces together, while still allowing some flex.

 

[SgtSaint]

I was planning about 4 coats of truck bed liner to deaden the sound while maintaining traction.

 

[CasuallyFlacid]

I had the same issue with my boot armor. All 3D printed, so the "clickity clacks" were loud as hell. I used a little bit of paddinf between the parts and used a mixture of velcro and elactic bands to hold the parts onto the boot and keep them from touching the ground directly.

 

[SgtSaint]

I had the same issue with my boot armor. All 3D printed, so the "clickity clacks" were loud as hell. I used a little bit of paddinf between the parts and used a mixture of velcro and elactic bands to hold the parts onto the boot and keep them from touching the ground directly.

Sounds like you're talking about the boots hitting other armor parts making the sounds. Do I have that right?
In this case there's no part collision taking place yet. That's just the boot hitting the concrete.

 

[CasuallyFlacid]

Ya that's what I meant. Funny enough, my feet are the only constant concern I have with my armor. I eventually caved and raised the parts slightly higher off the ground so the botoms of the boots are the only thing contacting the ground. Stairs are still a freaking nightmare tho....

 

[SgtSaint]

I eventually caved and raised the parts slightly higher off the ground so the botoms of the boots are the only thing contacting the ground.

Confused. What else would be touching the ground other than the bottom of the boots?

Ok. Now I'm freaking out.

 

[CasuallyFlacid]

Confused. What else would be touching the ground other than the bottom of the boots?
View attachment 324656

Ok. Now I'm freaking out.
View attachment 324655

No need to freak, man. You just need to put em on and walk around for a minute. You'll see what I mean. The plastic coming into contact with the floor when you walk can be loud unless you use some kind of padding on the underside of the parts. You could use some kind of liner that can hold up to the wear of walking around. I actually just omited the bottoms of my boot armor entirely because I didn't feel like dealing with padding but that's just my preference.

 

[SgtSaint]

Got my Silver Timeline (IE: TV series) glove greeblies done. I need gloves that are a close match to the show with that nice hex pattern in them, but these will due for this convention. {Video attached for those with the bandwidth}

 

[SgtSaint]

Started painting the helmet. Canisters aren't attached either {hopefully will do magnets to they are removable}
More color to follow, then foam inserts and electronics.

 

[CasuallyFlacid]

Started painting the helmet. Canisters aren't attached either {hopefully will do magnets to they are removable}
More color to follow, then foam inserts and electronics.
View attachment 324700

Good lord, that looks really smooth. Even with filler primer, I couldn't get mine like that. Good work, man

 

[SgtSaint]

REALLY not happy.​

Now that I have all of this printed, and much of it wearable I'm working on... ya know... wearing it. Strap what needs straps and so on.
Everything in the legs collides with everything else. Have had to take a saws-all to finished parts in order to chop out inner thighs, ankles, back of knees... etc. in order to have some degree of the most basic movement like walking up steps or something even close to sitting.

Its almost as if the parts were never made and worn by the artist selling them. I know I'm not so out of proportion that I would have to make the legs 85% around and only 60% in length: that doesn't make sense. And unless the artist is more bow-legged than a silent-movie-cowboy there's no way to walk in them without the inside thighs banging on every step.

Really deflated about the convention in a week. All this time, energy and money put into this armor and I'm sawing it up in the hopes to remake something not totally unwearable and yet not totally embarrassing to be seen in.

​

F!​

 

[CasuallyFlacid]

REALLY not happy.​

Now that I have all of this printed, and much of it wearable I'm working on... ya know... wearing it. Strap what needs straps and so on.
Everything in the legs collides with everything else. Have had to take a saws-all to finished parts in order to chop out inner thighs, ankles, back of knees... etc. in order to have some degree of the most basic movement like walking up steps or something even close to sitting.

Its almost as if the parts were never made and worn by the artist selling them. I know I'm not so out of proportion that I would have to make the legs 85% around and only 60% in length: that doesn't make sense. And unless the artist is more bow-legged than a silent-movie-cowboy there's no way to walk in them without the inside thighs banging on every step.

Really deflated about the convention in a week. All this time, energy and money put into this armor and I'm sawing it up in the hopes to remake something not totally unwearable and yet not totally embarrassing to be seen in.

​

F!​

Unfortunately, that's just how our hobby is :/ We've all done something like this AT LEAST once. The legs and arms are BY FAR the hardest parts to both make comfortable and believable. As for the thighs, I'm not too sure how to help without seeing pictures. I'm a fairly skinny guy, so my thigh armor needs to be significantly "padded-out" and I have to wear knee pads to bulk out the joints. It also helps to keep them held up onto my belt so there is minimal rubbing and bumping. Post some pictures and some of us here might have some suggestions/solutions.