Re: Halo 3 EOD Helmet (first build)
Ok here they are!
I worked on it to get it ready for our first snowboarding run of the year. I only got a couple runs in with it on because I was having some very serious fogging issues, and it was very hard to breathe.
I'm thinking about possibly adding some vents and some sort of nose cup, like what firefighters use on their SCBA masks to stop fogging (so you're not breathing on the visor).
I haven't been able to find a cheap pair of sunglasses with the chrome finish. So I just threw in some lenses from an extremely tinted pair that I had (no chrome).
I also added all the necessary padding just incase I did manage to crash. I came up with my own idea for a sort of liner to go around the edge to seal it. All I used was some 1/16th or so thick EVA foam, that I worked out a bit by stretching the outer edge, and glueing it about 5/8th from the edge of the helmet. I'm am happy with the results, definitely stops the flow of air and insulates everything.
I wanted to give everything a little material definition, so the rubbery parts (around the eyes and back) are flat black, while the metal is a pearlescent black with some of the inlays being a pearl grey, and the red was just plain metallic. Like I anticipated, when I applied the mate-clear, it took away most of the pearl effect (sorry I don't have any pictures of just the pearl). I was aiming for a finish that looked very close to what it does in-game, the flat black in the pictures is a perfect example of what I was thinking in terms of how the light bounces off of it.
I was aiming for some slight wear, but no battle damage. So I first applied a reflective metallic paint to simulate my metal. I was going to scratch down to this layer to get a realistic effect. But I didn't apply a clear over it, so I ended up scraping right down to the bondo. So a lot of the scrapes were repainted by hand.
I also wanted to incorporate the 405th symbol somewhere on the build, I had a few areas in mind, on each cheek, on the front inset red piece, or where it is now, but I didn't want both visible from the front at the same time, so I went with the sides. I really was hoping to get the pear effect to kick in on the symbol, so I painted it with a flat-black on top of the pearl-black, and it worked untill the clear was applied. (smallest stencil I've made yet, just over 1.5 inches)
Art Andrews did I use the symbol ok? I wasn't sure if I was suppose to use the ranks or not.
I will take some better pictures outside where theres better lighting, hopefully tomorrow. Please don't mind the couple of scrapes on the bottom (my snowboard touched it), I plan on fixing them along with possibly cutting the opening a tad bit bigger around the ears, and sealing of the edge of the foam with something black. I may wet-sand and do another coat of clear.
Well thats a lot to read! Anyways, please give any feedback you can. Constructive criticism is very helpful.
