Jme's H3 MKVI Foam build

[Jme]

Edit

Here is the finished armour

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Well it is finally time to start my build. Being married with two kids in lots of activities doesn't leave a lot of time for a build. Over the past couple of months I have stared to prepare templates and cut out pieces.

I have also been playing Halo from the beginning (I received an Xbox One for Christmas). I played the first Halo when it came out, but haven't experienced the whole story until now. I have now played CE, 2, 3 and 4. I am presently playing ODST before moving to 5.

My favourite armour is the iconic MK VI of Halo3 and am really looking forward to this journey. I love to costume and Halo armour is probably my favourite cosplay.

In advance I really have to give a shout out to LongshotX who's photos I have looked at a hundred times and Spacemeat who's videos are amazingly helpful. Also a big thanks to all of you who are a real inspiration.

In any event, my wife and kids are away this weekend. So here we go..,

I decided to start with the forearms and am using Flyingsquirel's edit.

I brought the Mac upstairs to put photos up on (and play Red v. Blue in the background) and set myself up at the dining room table.

The first forearm took a really long time and is quite a mess. I must have miss-scaled as the forearms were too short. I really didn't want to re-size so I added a cuff at the bottom that I will tapper down with a sander.

The second one went much faster and is a lot cleaner (although there will still be a lot of sparkle and sanding)

"I'm just a witness"

 

[Jme]

Apparently I messed up cutting out the biceps (I am too embarrassed to say how) and now am off to print, cut, trace and cut..

(Sigh)


"I'm just a witness"

 

[Chiefwannabe]

Don't worry we all make mistakes! The forearms are looking great by the way!

 

[Jme]

Thanks Chief. I am really pleased with them. They should be nice once filled and sanded. They fit really well over the motorcycle pads.


"I'm just a witness"

 

[Reclaimara]

Oooh! You've finally posted your build!
Damn, I really like how you did the forearm gauntlet... and what did you do to the arm piece? O_O

 

[Jme]

Thanks Mara. Actually it's what I didn't do.

I accidentally did the wrong file and ended up with two sets of forearms (different unfolds).

Doh.


"I'm just a witness"

 

[Jme]

This is literally a build in progress...

"I'm just a witness"

 

[Ragnorok]

I need to know what foam to use....I was told at Wizard World in Portland, but i totally forgot the name of the foam they told me about, but they said it is relatively cheap..

 

[Jme]

I am using EVA foam mats that I bought at Home Depot

"I'm just a witness"

 

[Jme]

Okay, so last night I did one of the bicep pieces.

I am not very happy with it though and may re-do it. However today I tried spackle and sanding of one of the forearm pieces. It went really well with the forearm coming out very smooth, so I may keep the shoulder piece and use this technique on it.

Also today, I got the base chest piece built. I will have to do some detail work, but am very happy with the result.

I am really happy that I am using a hot knife as several times I found it necessary to redo pieces. I simply used the hot knife to melt the glue in order to dis-assemble the necessary parts.

Here is what I have so far..

I am going to cut out the helmet pieces tonight and hopefully get it done tomorrow.

 

[Jme]

Some of the piece safe very rough. I now have a huge appreciation for people who do really clean foam work. However, I am very confident in my ability to fill and sand the rough spots (after doing a stormtrooper build which involved bondo, filling and sanding foam is easy!).


"I'm just a witness"

 

[Jme]

Are, are very rough. Come on auto correct!


"I'm just a witness"

 

[Mesh]

You're doing awesome man, awesome foam work

 

[Jme]

Thanks Mesh. I didn't realize how important encouragement is when doing this. It is hard to know if the pieces look good after you have been staring at them for hours. I start to just see the imperfections. Having the opinion of theirs (and stepping away from the build for a bit) really helps.


"I'm just a witness"

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

Yes your doing good! Haven't tried my hand at foam just yet, but I would agree with you that the bicep/shoulder is a little bit on thr rough side. Maybe there is a different file you could use to get the results your looking for. Keep it up!

 

[kaween]

1) This will be a great piece of armor when done, no doubt about it. Just keep hammering at it like you're doing now.

2) Don't get me wrong as this is not meant in a negative way : one thing bothered me when looking at the pictures : the "indents" on the chestplate are not the same size. One side looks about twice the size of the other.
Now, normally I would not say anything about this as my armor is far from 100% symmetrical either and depending of the color scheme you're choosing, far more clear "problems" can be "painted into oblivion".
But here's the issue : when your armor is ready, you'll be wanting to put lights in those ports.
Doing so will highlight the size difference.
On my armor, there's a difference of 3mm between left and right side. When the lights are off, it's nearly unnoticalbe due to the dark color scheme I used.
But switched on, I could clearly see the difference. I camouflaged this error by playing with the led diffusor sizes but if you take a moment, you can still tell one side is wider than the other.

Considering the totally fine job you're doing on the rest of the armor, I'd recommend reworking that area prior to processing it further.

Other than that, you could make me an armor any day ! :thumbsup
I suggest reworking both sides a bit to make them look more matched.

 

[Jme]

Just what I was thinking. I am going to leave the shoulders until last and look for an easier file. I can always use the templates that I have cut but I had soMe real trouble with this one.

I stared the helmet this morning. I got stuck on the visor but took a good look at Drack's amazing helmet he foamed and figured out a mistake I made. I don't have time to correct it now as the job jar here at the house is calling, but will,pick it back up through the week.


"I'm just a witness"

 

[kaween]

Well, I'll be looking forward to your progress and there's no doubt in my mind you'll do just fine.
I think personally that unless you've got seas of time and money, there's no way to get all the problems out. There will Always be "something" which you don't like. The question is "will others see it".

As you said : after a short while you'll start to see more and more "flaws", and looking at some of the other peoples stuff doesn't help either as they have a tendancy to look _better than your own stuff_ I've noticed.
But I'm sure THEIR stuff has its flaws too, which _only THEY can see_ so do NOT EVER let stuff like that slow you down.

I went to my first con in my suit yesterday, knowing full well it is NOT as good as I tried to make it look and it still has room for improvement. You know what ? Nobody, litterally nobody said or saw anything wrong with my MKVI. I got nothing but praise and "good job man" comments so I guess the lesson in this is : do NOT stare yourself blind at the amount of errors you're making.
They do not really matter unless you're looking for a cosplay competition-level end product, something I'm not nearly good enough for.
But when you're going to highlight certain parts of an armor by putting lights in them, THOSE parts should be as clean as possible as your armor will be judged on the things that have the biggest visual impact.
On my very dark armor, the light port areas are very much 80% of the first impression so put extra effort in those.

 

[Jme]

Nicely said man.


"I'm just a witness"

 

[BlazedStarbon]

Kaween touched on a few good points, there.

Jme, you're doing a wonderful job by forking out this much progress in a matter of days. Keep in mind to not rush the project either. That will certainly cause you more headaches than it's worth. There's great potential here, especially from your previous projects. I look forward to following this build. :cool