1st Build Halo Reach Foam Build (Complete)

[scorch]

I spent a majority today finishing up the front of the chest piece. I have learned so much and I need to hang onto this as the real reward for the time and energy I put into this.

I'll try to show pictures in chronological order of what I did.

First I added the details to the front of a chest piece. I didn't do it the first time because I doubted myself. Going forward I will do it sooner than later. It is so much harder to add details or cuts to a piece already glued to another piece.

I attached 2 of the front chest pieces together. This was scary until it was done, and much less scary than the parts that came later . I put hot glue over the seams made from barge glue for added support. On the picture below pieces that were pictured attached in one of my previous posts above are indeed missing. This is because I had to re-do them.

I then glued this piece above to the longer segments that connect it to the back. There is a tiny strip that goes in between these two parts on the right and left side. It almost makes it seem like the joint wasn't glued nicely. Not sure if I should make that wider?

After this I worked on the collar again. I managed to finish it as a separate piece. I am not sure if this is ideal because putting it on was very very hard. I am able to get my head into this, but my concern was that I would not be able to get it out once it was attached to the rest of the chest piece.

After managing to glue it on my suspicion that my head would not fit was confirmed. I can probably still get my head in, but I cannot get my head out once it is in....

There were a lot of parts on here that didn't glue together so nicely. I have learned for next time, yet again...

Decided to move forward with completing parts of this. Here are the bottom 'collars'(?) that go onto the chest piece. I finished addint the details to them. These pieces showcase my first try with barge glue about 2 weeks ago. They could be better but I was happy with them.

Gluing these two pieces above to the chest piece was difficult . Some of the angles were too acute when I made them. More notes for next time. The foam is very forgiving though for 'making it fit' though.

And this is what it looks like.

Spider suggested I make the collar detachable which sounds like a great idea. I will have to deliberate on how I would do this . I will keep this piece as a reference. I am not sure if it is a complete lost cause at this point. I know when I make the back, I am going to mess up a lot, so my "lesser quality" back will be used with this perhaps.

In the meantime I can try to re-cut the front pieces carefully, and make them a tad better/easier to glue onto each other. If I can re-cut most of these before my procedure in 4 days then maybe I can finish the chest in this lifetime.

Me in 4 days:

I want to thank you all for your encouragement, and a big thanks to Spidermonkey60 for all the tips, patience, and feedback.

 

[Supre_]

This armour is coming together perfectly!!! Very excited to see more

 

[MNKr]

scorch its so clean! Ill let you know when it comes to the neck area, you dont need to make it removeable most reach chests tun too small in the spot. If you can pull it wide as you pop your head in and out i would just do that. The 2 reach sets ive done so far have been tight in the neck area as well

 

[scorch]

Okay back from hiatus and picking this back up while I can. Third time is a charm! Especially if I don't count the 2 tries from years ago.

This one is a bit rougher around the edges with gluing and cuts but I feel like it's healthy for me to be more lenient with myself lol. I am going to follow the suggestion of Spidermonkey60 and skip the neck area on this one since my head didn't fit through the last one. I'm wondering what I am going to do with the last one. I wondered if I could even cut out the collar part...might be too destructive.

 

[scorch]

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone in the U.S.

Almost rage quit. Still I move on.

 

[Rock Lobbster]

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone in the U.S.

Almost rage quit. Still I move on

The chest is a big pain to make, lots of small details.

 

[scorch]

I thought I would break up working on the chest piece by hitting the thighs.

This is what I have been able to do. Had to work around some mistakes as I can't afford to start from scratch. Seams are not as clean, but I am definitely learning how to use barge glue better.

I am not sure if I followed the best steps in how I constructed this in terms of order. Dry fitting these into the thighs is very hard, but maybe this is the way.

This was the part that messed me up the most - hopefully the rough edges on the seams won't be too bad.

 

[scorch]

Finished thighs. I think I could do this over and improve, but I think these aren't so bad.

If I were to do this over, I wonder if it would look better with one continuous piece from the quad through the inner thigh. I would use glue to only connect the circumference through that coffin shape.

 

[PlanetAlexander]

You did really good with those - the cuts are REALLY crisp

 

[scorch]

You did really good with those - the cuts are REALLY crisp

Why thank you! There are some rough edges here and there. I appreciate feedback on the positives.

 

[MNKr]

Dude its so clean! Im loving how its coming out

 

[scorch]

Finished a lot of work on this. I worked so much better with daylight. I bought another small lamp to give me light but it isn't as good. Praise the sun.

I would assemble the back of the chest differently if I were to repeat it. Truth is I don't know what the best way to do this is, but I know it definitely isn't the way I went about it.

Behold my nightmare of joining the front and the back. I tried dry fitting the pieces together a few ways before I figured out a way that would work. This way I attempted would NOT work. I am including pictures as a reminder for myself.

Using my yankee ingenuity I used one of my lamps, and a small box to prop up the piece while I tried to get these pieces together. Too risky to use Barge for me since it would bond with the slightest misplacement. I used super glue. No joke I was sweating hard while doing this.

End result:

Something on the back was crooked because of how I glued the left and the right sides. I decided to add something different to make it a little bit softer on my eyes.

Here is where I am stuck. I sealed one side of the armor, and left the other open. I don't know what to do now. Do I merely seal the left, then add foam to the back for velcro and make a long cut somehow? This area is so angular I can't imagine making a clean cut with these small blades. I would appreciate any input.

Unsealed left side vs Sealed right side.

Thank you for reading.

Edit: typo, grammar

 

[scorch]

Status report:

Made some more progress today, and I have learned so much. Did this under slight emotional duress from real life.

I cut some pieces of velcro out along with some craft foam and dry fitted them into the lower collar. I glued the velcro to the craft foam with barge and tested out the strength of the glue to hold the velcro ends to the foam while pulling the two pieces apart. Interestingly it did not hold at all. The velcro would rip it off the foam completely! Interestingly the super glue did hold despite having a poor track record for such forces.

I tried my best to cut through the collar - and this was very messy = ( I will probably cover it up with some thinner foam.

The other side came out MUCH better.

After making the cuts I glued the pieces of foam anchoring the velcro in place. I learned another lesson here - not much velcro is needed. The greater the surface area of velcro ends, the greater likelihood of a mismatch once they connect. On the other side I used much less velcro.

My concern at this point was if the armor itself would be strong enough to stay together when separating the velcro. Only one way to find out.

So far so good. The piece holds well. I had a hard time getting out of this to be honest. I placed the chest piece on my counter. I heard this loud "THUD" and I was like OH !@#$. Miraculously nothing broke.

 

[Mysticporo]

talk about starting from nothing, this is amazing looking through the progress it seems you had a few bumps in the road but nothing you couldnt handle,
cant wait to see more!

 

[scorch]

I am so exhausted from this project. I only worked for an hour or so to get the inner sleeve attached. Next will be details on the front of the chest. Will need to patch up some of the rough edges on the collar.

 

[scorch]

Belt is done. Lots of rough edges. Parts of this was done a while ago before I knew how to cut properly. I only needed to glue the back to the rest of the set. I glued places in before my procedure, so I can't put this on easily. I think I will re-make it and place the velcro on the front. But maybe it is good enough for a first time. I'm kind of falling in love with this process again.

Edit: I was really surprised that this fit.

 

[scorch]

Merry Christmas!

No surprise I'm redoing the belt. I need to be able to secure it from the front side. This took 4 hours. Had to re-cut stencils.

 

[scorch]

Made some progress on my belt today. Spent the whole day on this. I have gotten A LOT better at making things happen. This looks cleaner than my last try, but not sure if any better Definitely less glue sticking to the forward surfaces.

This time I did angled cuts on all sides, and I used a heat gun to twist certain pieces so that they would fit. I have no idea how I made some of these angles last time.

 

[scorch]

I did the cod piece. I f'd up a part but I think it'll be fine. I will use clay to patch it up or that spackle like substitute called drydex. I have to throw in the towel tonight. This is really getting out of hand. I'll finish this piece tomorrow, then the little side things then I will try to figure out where best to put the velcro so I can actually get it on and off alone lol.

 

[scorch]

Last time I attached each piece together, but this time I am doing something different. Instead of attaching each piece together I attached them to a foam belt. I had to put foam backing on every piece except two to make it fit.

Retrospectively, I should have attached the sides first, then anchored them to the middle. I think having one long belt was unnecessary and more difficult.

Using the 'belt method' makes this thing much more sturdy than my last belt. Only a few places came undone (pictured below) but I was able to glue them back from the front without getting too messy.

The unit isn't connected around the circumference but I am happy with it. I can pick the piece up without hearing that tear and rip sound . I used hot glue because I ran out of super glue, and am still a bit scared of barge.

Edit: Typo