Mark IV - Lookin' Good is What It's Best For

[BHE Photos]

March 31st, 10 days until C2E2:

Still haven't put any work into the soft parts, though I did bring the padded shirt down from my spare bedroom that I store all my cosplay stuff in so that when I get a chance, I can experiment with sewing some buckles to the shoulders.

Carbine:
For Con Crunching, the Carbine can be considered to be done. The color shift rattle can that I used ran a bit more than I would like, so if I have some free time I will lightly sand those areas and hit them with another coat, but if I don't get around to it I'm not too worried. I'd love to get some neon green color added to the body somehow, but I think that might have to be a future project. I need to slap a couple of coats of clear coat on it, but that can wait until the week of the Con. Right now the ammo cannister and cover are held in with friction, I might super glue some velcro to them to make it less likely for stuff to wiggle apart while walking around the Con floor.

Pauldron:
Got the chrome blue applied, clear coat, and some light weathering. For whatever reason, the acrylic wash didn't stick to this one nearly as well as the other pauldron so the weathering is much lighter, but I'm not too worried about it. The only thing needed for this piece now is to add padding and buckles for rigging.

Knives:
I bought some 1/4" aluminum rod to use as support for the knives, but it appears that the rod is ever so slightly too big, and trying to expand the hole in the PLA handle wasn't going well. I considered chucking the rod on my lathe and turning it down a few thou (I need to justify my lathe somehow), but opted instead to just 3D print some solid connecting rods. They won't hold up if I try hitting things with the knives, but will be plenty sufficient for holding them together. The sheathes are painted and ready to go. I need to paint the blades and apply plastidip to the handles, and then pick Y mounting locations. I'll probably have to suit up and figure out where I actually have enough mobility to reach, as well as where I can put them that won't interfere with my current mobility.

Helmet and torso armor fixes are the main priority for this week. At the very least I need to glue one of the ears back on the helmet, but getting the fan running again is also a highly desired goal. I would like to be able to leave the helmet on for as long as I want.
Torso armor fixes (chest buckle and shoulder strap) will be fairly easy fixes that I can knock out in an evening. Some hot staples for the shoulder straps and a Chicago screw for the chest buckles.

While I have the Chicago screws out, I'll probably also do something about the calf armor straps.

For C2E2, that's probably all that I have time for, since I still have work to do for my Jayce Talis and Judgement Paladin cosplays.

Also finished the Marine helmet for my friend. After C2E2, I might need to make my own, because I feel like it has a lot of potential for silly tiktoks.

 

[Zippyzeek]

The finish on that carbine is beautiful! how did you do that?

 

[Garthok2962]

I Second what zippy said above id love to know how you did that finish

 

[BHE Photos]

The finish on that carbine is beautiful! how did you do that?

I Second what zippy said above id love to know how you did that finish

It's actually just a straight rattle can job. The interior section is some kind of Rustoleum silver.

The outside (which I'm assuming you are more interested in) is the blue/purple "Color Shift" spray paint from Rustoleum that I picked up from Walmart.
Getting a black primer undercoat is critical to getting the blue/purple to show up, I had some of the silver showing when I taped the interior off, but it didn't show up at all in those areas. It was also really easy to have run, so definitely be very cautious with starting/ending off of the part.

 

[Garthok2962]

It's actually just a straight rattle can job. The interior section is some kind of Rustoleum silver.

The outside (which I'm assuming you are more interested in) is the blue/purple "Color Shift" spray paint from Rustoleum that I picked up from Walmart.
Getting a black primer undercoat is critical to getting the blue/purple to show up, I had some of the silver showing when I taped the interior off, but it didn't show up at all in those areas. It was also really easy to have run, so definitely be very cautious with starting/ending off of the part.View attachment 359835

Thank you for the info

 

[BHE Photos]

April 2nd: One Week of evenings remain until C2E2.

Back Armor:
Dragged my back armor out to the shop and made some repairs. The crack was in a different spot than I remember but that actually made it easier to fix. I added a bunch of hot staples along the crack, welded the seam with my wood burner, and then did a basic sanding with a rasp and some 180 grit.
I didn't get photos of the paint touch-up, but I didn't put too much effort into it. It's on the back, and I'm notorious about not caring about anything I can't see. It got primer, then the silver basecoat, and then a generous amount of the blue chrome that matches the rest of the armor. I probably won't bother weathering the spots or even repainting the detail areas that should be black/red, since I would like to redo the back armor eventually anyway (to put in fans/electronics).

Carbine:
I don't have photos of it, but I made an attempt to fix the spots where the color shift ran. This was likely a mistake. I did a light sanding of each area and then sprayed black primer over it, but it looks like the primer doesn't like to sit on top of the color shift. I haven't checked to see how it looks after drying, but I might end up having to sand all the way down to the original primer layer.

Combat Knives:
I glued the handle to the guard and the connecting rod and then sprayed them with flexseal (which I have been mistakenly calling plastidip for months). I definitely should have separated the glue/paint tasks, as the gorilla glue I used foamed out and onto the flexseal, but it's not too terrible, and I could in theory just put another coat over the messed up spots.
I painted the blades with primer and a silver top coat, then glued everything together once that was dry. I need to hit them with a clear coat for protection (the sheathes are a tight fit, so scratches are guaranteed), but otherwise they're done.

Helmet:
I have the helmet sitting on my work bench to begin the task of correctly setting up the wiring of the fan and maybe adding LEDs. I used some crude push connectors for DragonCon which I will need to completely replace (ideally with soldered connections).

Side Project, C2E2 Edition:
The theme for C2E2 this year is Western, and the specific group theme appears to be "flannels and helmets" for the Cosplay Afterparty (replacing the Prom of last year). In honor of my desire to always have too much work on my plate, I have decided to add a Cowboy Spartan cosplay.
Cowboy Spartan:

• Cowboy boots: I already own a pair from a bull riding course I took a few years ago (I will definitely never be a rodeo star), and have no plans to modify them. I thought about making some fake spurs, but fear they will just get stepped on at the party and won't really be noticeable anyway.
• Flannel: I am going to take one of my blue flannels (which matches my helmet) and embroider a large iron-on Spartan logo for the back. I need to justify my embroidery machine purchase, so this will help with that. I might also add a patch to the front, or maybe the shoulders, depending on time/how I feel.
• Belt: I want to make a large belt buckle with some kind of Halo symbol on it. I'm currently thinking of using the Legendary difficulty symbol, though I was also thinking that the AI chip could be a good option as well since it already kind of looks like a real buckle.
• Helmet: No changes to the helmet for this, but I am going to add...
• Cowboy Hat: I own several cowboy hats, but they would look tiny on my helmet. It also just feels like I'm stacking props, instead of wearing them. Instead, I have bought the cowboy hat foam pattern from Kamui Cosplay and scaled it up to 155% so that it will sit on my Mark IV helmet in such a way as to look like it is actually being worn. This is a pretty easy pattern but is also my most involved foamsmithing project to date. I bought the pattern on Etsy at like 1 am and had it all glued together by 3 am, so it was absolutely rushed and the quality reflects that. I only plan on wearing this for a couple of silly Tiktoks and this one event though, so I'm not too worried about it. I didn't take a photo of it last night, but I filled in some of the uglier seam gaps with wood filler and put down one coat of plastidip (actually plastidip this time) after doing some basic heat shaping. It looks more cowboy hat-shaped than the photo, though I still might add a wire to the brim to help hold the shape, depending on how it feels after being painted.
  • The hat will be painted black.
  • I will add a hat band made with a leather strap and then probably another Halo symbol of some kind for a front decoration. Currently probably going to go with whichever symbol I don't use for the belt buckle.
• I've tossed around the idea of making a Sheriff badge that says Spartan. Doesn't quite feel fitting for a flannel though, so it's low priority.

The Cowboy Spartan will be low priority in general beyond the hat (which mostly just needs more plastidip and then paint). Main priorities for moving forward now are to get the Carbine to a satisfactory level, make the helmet wiring fixes, attach the knife sheathes to the armor, rig the new shoulder piece, fix the chest armor, and hopefully rig the shoulders to the undersuit.

 

[BHE Photos]

April 7th Update, 3 Evenings Remain.

At this point the crafting has moved into "make what I already have work", so I'm not going to print any more parts. This actually applies more to my Jayce Talis and Judgement Paladin builds than the Mark IV.

Cowboy Spartan:
Since this was arguably the least important part of the Con Crunch, I obviously put the most effort into this and finished it up first. The hat is pretty rough (at one point I literally poured super glue along a seam to fix a popped contact cement connection, and the run off is pretty noticeable), but it's a meme item, so it doesn't need high quality. I decided to do the Helmet and Cross-Swords emblem for the hat, and the Legendary symbol for the belt buckle.
The buckle backing and the piece that the helmet emblem sticks to were both just basic ovals cut out of EVA foam, and then the hat piece had a leather strap wove through two slots that I cut out, while the belt buckle has a belt clip attached via Chicago screws, and the Legendary symbol is Chicago screwed to the foam back.
The embroidery turned out acceptably. I had a few issues during the stitching (mostly due to not hooping it tight enough) that caused a tear-out in one spot. The iron-on adhesive also didn't seem to like sticking at the very edges, so I might end up throwing on a whip stitch or maybe some strategic safety pins where needed to make sure it doesn't peel off while busting a move on the dance floor.
Since I am a member of the Midwest, I wanted to work in at least one corn reference. I found a corn on the cob model and a very basic Halo Magnum model and kit bashed them together in Meshmixer to create this whimsical love child of a prop. Did literally zero sanding/layer filling, just straight to filler primer and then a yellow top coat for the cob and black for the metal parts. Slapped together a very basic leather holster so that I don't have to hold on to it all the time.
Cowboy Spartan is 100% complete and ready to deploy to the rave dance floor.

Carbine:
I applied the color shift paint and let it dry, and it's not terrible. I still think the original paint job was probably better, but it's good enough for carrying around at C2E2. Still need to attach some velcro for the ammo cover, though in a pinch a glob of hot glue will be acceptable for this con.

Mark IV:
No progress on helmet, have not adjusted rigging.

Combat Knives:
Applied clear coat. I held the chest plate up against my chest and tested the feasibility of putting a sheath on my pauldron, I definitely don't have the mobility to actually grab it. I think I might do one on the left thigh and the other either on the chest (left pec) or mounted under the chest plate where the ab plate currently sits.

Side Quests:
At the very beginning of this thread I mentioned wanting to do an Achilles variant, and I finally decided to start slipping in the prints for at least the helmet when I had some down time, so I cut up the Infinite versions (purchased from STLSmith on Etsy) into 4 plates and started weaving them into my queue of other prints. Yesterday I met with some friends to do some crafting and used that time to weld the pieces together. I will be forcing myself to not do any more post processing until after C2E2 though.

To-Do List before C2E2 (next 3 evenings):

• Rig new pauldron. Realistically I'm not making any undersuit changes in time, so I'll just tap in to the currently existing 1" buckle connection leftover from when I accidentally installed one on that side (happy little accidents).
• Attach knife sheathes. Left thigh (for left hand grab) for sure. Will decide on chest/ab placement as a final task (ab piece would likely be wobbly, chest piece will potentially get in the way of things). I'd be fine with only having one knife.
• I seem to be missing one of my gloves. Find or replace (they're just basic Mechanix gloves).
• Find or replace neck wrap. No clue where this ran off to either. Probably in one of my other totes with other cosplays.
• Helmet wiring. I found the LEDs that I would like to use. I will lay out a breadboard for the lights and fans tonight and see about installing them tomorrow. If this doesn't get done, I'm not worried about it.
• Adjust rigging of calf armor. Should be an easy fix, I just need to scrounge up the extra clips (I seem to be running low). I also might see about cutting some EVA foam inserts to slip in front of my shins to create a more form-fitted fit.
• Still need to fix the chest plate, but that will only take a few minutes as well. Mostly just deciding where to put the Chicago screws so that it doesn't look like I've given the MJOLNIR nipples with comically high placement.

Feeling pretty decent about the Mark IV. The armor is technically fine to go right now (with the exception of the one broken clip for the chest plate and the missing glove/neck wrap, though those are definitely *somewhere* in the house). I have a lot more that needs to be done for my Jayce Talis, as well as my Judgement Paladin.

 

[BHE Photos]

May 9th, The Final Evening before I have to leave for C2E2:

No photos to share, but work has continued.

Helmet:
I laid out the components for the electrical components. I verified that the fan that is glued in will work when provided power (so the failure was definitely in poor connections). The LEDs for the ears will be blue and white. I am attaching a battery pack with 2x AAs to the outside of the helmet in the back and running the wires inside. There will be 3 total toggle switches (1 for fan, 1 for white LEDs, 1 for blue LEDs). The fan switch will be placed at the chin of the helmet not far from the fan, but I have yet to decide where I want to/can place the switches for the LEDs. The switches that I have are a bit too bulky to place along the neckline, and I don't have the time to reprint the ears with mounting holes, though that may be something I work on after C2E2. Tonight I will make the final decision for switch placement and solder everything together.

Armor:
Pauldron has padding and rigging added. Both pauldrons are still mounting directly to the torso armor via the shoulder strap.
Chest armor has been fixed with Chicago screws to hold the nylon straps. Because the straps and buckles are all underneath the armor, I don't like how the shoulder straps meet/transition with the chest plate, so after C2E2 I definitely want to update how these pieces interface, probably by doing EVA strips with nylon straps running over the top. That will also make it easier to put the armor on and more form fitting, but can't be done tonight.
I bought some new gloves because I saw some at Lowe's that would work and have blue details on them, which match the armor. I still need to find my neck gaiter.

Knives:
I realized there isn't a sufficiently flat space along the outside of the thigh armor to place the sheath, so I am probably going to place it on the front face of the thigh armor, low enough to not stab my stomach with the handle when I sit down. I'll probably glue this one tonight.

Carbine:
Still need to add velcro to the cannister cover and cannister. Will glue these on tonight.

Most of the work last night was fixing my Jayce and Paladin cosplays, and those were all finished to acceptable levels.

Tonight's Goals:

• Glue knife sheath to thigh
• Find neck gaiter
• Add velcro to carbine
• Finish wiring for helmet
• Pack armor into crates
• Pack food/booze/camera equipment for C2E2
• Prepare to meet a ton of cool 405th members at the MNKr BNKr for the Pre-C2E2 gathering tomorrow night

Next update will be a Post-C2E2 Report for Mark IV, Jayce, and Judgement Paladin builds.

 

[BHE Photos]

C2E2 After Action Report:

For the Con in general, it was a pretty good time. I always enjoy all of the Cosplays that I get to see, from the humorous to the international-competitor level. Hanging out with the 405th folks at the MNKr BNKr on Thursday night was fun, much Malört was drank. Friday I had a few photoshoots with some of the 405th, and then I hung out in the Hyatt lobby and drank some more Malört. Saturday was the photoshoot, show of force parade, official C2E2 Halo meetup, then I switched over to my Jayce Talis cosplay for the Arcane meetup, then switched into the Cowboy Spartan outfit for pizza with the 405th, and much Malört was drank. A small handful of us went to the Cosplay After Party and danced for the last hour of it (the party only ran for 2 hours total).

To wrap up the armor items from my previous post:

• I glued one knife sheath to the left thigh, which worked out decently. The main issue with this placement was actually the fanny pack that I usually wear for carrying my stuff (#foreveralone #nohandler) getting caught on the handle when I would try to move it forward or back to get out my phone or money.
• I found a balaclava instead of a neck gaiter, which works fine.
• I did manage to get the electronics working in my helmet, despite the brand new soldering iron I purchased dying on me during the first evening of use. Having a working fan was definitely very nice for the photoshoot and during the show of force parade. Having the lights definitely adds to the cool factor of the armor, and I'm excited to keep adding electronics to my cosplays. I did feel pretty cautious about battery life, which I have realized was pretty misplaced. I would turn off lights and the fan to conserve battery life, but I have been leaving them running since I got back from the Con and it looks like the 3x AA batteries can handle the 5 components (4 LEDs and 1 fan) for more than 6 hours of constant run time, which will be good to know for the next Con. There is also the issue that the switches and padding added to cover the wiring and hold everything in place makes the helmet harder to put on/take off.
• I added velcro pieces to the Carbine, and had zero issues with the cover or cannister falling off while wielding it.

Armor After Action:

• As mentioned, the helmet is a much more snug fit now. I would like to switch out the switches for something more slim and possibly accessible from outside the helmet (right now the switches are located a couple of inches from the bottom of the helmet on the inside, around the rear of the jaw). I am tempted to experiment with wireless controls placed in one of the bracers. I have a bunch of esp8266 and arduino minis floating around, so it could be a fun project to play around with.
• Having an added strap on the other side of the calf armor seemed to help keep it from rotating on my shins.
• The thigh armor still seemed a bit tight, despite having cut the inside part out a few Conventions ago. I also found that the fiberglass lining I added was sometimes catching on the leggings I wear for the undersuit, and could potentially cause a tear at some point. It also made it a bit uncomfortable when it would dig into my thigh.
• The shoulders seemed to cooperate, which is actually surprising because almost every time I've worn the Mark IV I've had at least one shoulder item (usually a buckle) break.
• Still refusing to wear the bicep/tricep armor pieces.
• One of the issues I ran into was needing both hands to put on/take off my helmet, but also having to be careful about how I handled the carbine (there's no way to balance it on it's own), so I often ended up wedging the carbine under my cod piece to keep it from sliding away.

Future Goals of Mark IV:

• Helmet wiring can definitely be improved. As mentioned above, I'd like to slim down the switches and/or move them to better locations. Potentially also add one more fan on the other side of the helmet (behind the other vent) or find a way to slip one into the rear of the helmet. I suspect there isn't any room for that though.
• I have been wanting to get back into dabbling with vacuum forming, and ordered some proper PETG sheets. I'd like to form a properly shaped visor.
• The cowboy hat gave me a taste of working with EVA foam and while I definitely did a shoddy job, I feel that I could do decent work if I took my time. I would like to revisit the idea of making foam versions of the calf armor, though I am also interested in either vacuum forming them and adding a foam lining, or even go further and 3D scan my leg and cast the calf armor out of some lightweight rubber. Basically I want to be able to run in my armor.
• I still want to do either a foam or rubber set of bicep/tricep plates so that I can wear them with my armor.
• The boot coverings also definitely need to be improved, with no specific plans for how I want to do that. I don't care too much about boots, though I will at the very least add some EVA foam to the undersides of the covering pieces to limit the amount of noise I make while clomping around.

In general, I consider this armor to be 90% complete. It's manageable to wear and I spent almost 6 hours in it on Saturday. The upgrades/updates listed above will mostly be for the purposes of learning new techniques, as opposed to directly upgrading the armor.

My next main priority within the 405th is going to be taking what I learned from this build and applying it to a new build. I want to combine the idea of building a Hunter shield with the Achilles variant helmet I have printed, and start focusing on a full Greek/Roman-esque armor build. I've spoken to a few people at C2E2 that have also mentioned similar build ideas.
I will start up a new build thread once I gather some more concept ideas and gather my thoughts. I'll probably shift that over to the "Halo Costumes and Props" category.

The next Con I plan to go to is Anime Central in mid-May, but unless I hear of a Halo meet-up or a substantial number of 405th members attending, I probably won't bring the Mark IV. It takes two full totes and I hear that ACen is pretty toasty.
The next Con that I will probably bring MJOLNIR armor to (either Mark IV or the Achilles project) is likely to be DragonCon. Maybe I'll bust it out at Kitsune Kon in Green Bay, though that Con doesn't have any escalators and I definitely don't plan on repeatedly dealing with stairs until I have foam/rubber calf armor.

I took a photo when I got back to my room after the meetup and was so ready to be out of the armor that I didn't even notice the carbine was upside down. Oops.

 

[SPARTAN A128]

Great job on the suit! I know you've had it for a while, but still. AWESOME!

I've been looking around for stuff on the Mark IV helmet and your posts are really helpful.

 

[Bargo]

Your Spartan looks absolutely awesome!


I just have two small suggestions for improvement:

• I’d recommend tucking the sleeves into the gloves – if the sleeves aren’t long enough, you could sew on a bit of black fabric to extend them.
• Same goes for the balaclava – try to adjust it so no skin is visible around the neck or helmet area.

Just small details, but they can really boost the overall look and immersion!