Motion's First attempt at Spartan bucket! (Cleanup/Visor/Paint work on a Mark V Cast)

[Motion26]

**SKIP TO LOWER PORTION OF PAGE 7 FOR NEARLY COMPLETED PIC'S**

**OCT 5th UPDATE**

Hey guys, I've been lurking on the forums for a while and recently I've started my first spartan helmet :-D. Since I'm new to bondo, sanding and painting things like this I figured I'd start off with an easier route by purchasing a Mark V cast then do all the cleanup work, repairing warping, mounting a visor and painting it myself .

This helmet is going to be based off the halo reach version of caboose from RvB. Below I'm posting some pictures of the cast pre modifications then some pictures as it progresses. At the moment I'm working on molding the chin to a symmetrical shape using bondo puddy, I've fixed all of the other major issues at this point, cut out the visor, cut out the vents, did my first round of sanding with 120 grit sand paper and did a few layers of primer so I could get a good look of wear its at right now (plus I couldn't resist xD). If All goes well the shape of the chin should be proper today then I can mount that visor and get to painting .

Speaking of painting, I haven't painted any types of plastic before. So what I did to get a feel for it is I got a laptop cover, sandid it and primed it quickly and I've been kinda messing around with it to see what the colours look like and how it reacts

*EDIT* I apologize some of the pictures are kind of small :-/ the original copies are quite large, I think the combination of editing them to fit together plus photobucket automatically reducing the size likely made them a little small.

 

[SuperHaloAsian]

Looks really good, I am happy with the pictures, you doing very good. Thank you for posting!

Good Luck

 

[Motion26]

Thanks , any feedback is appreciated - pretty well everything I'm doing is based off of what I see people doing on the 405th

 

[Carpathia]

Who did you purchase the cast from?

 

[Motion26]

Was off ebay, uhhhhhhhh - Username was Stonyprops got it in October of 2012

 

[Carpathia]

Ok, good. I though it looked like a StonyProps helmet. At least you got it from them and not a recaster.

 

[Motion26]

Phew! Yeah I hadn't really thought of it at the time - I have a set of storm trooper armor and I had avoided buying it from a recaster. When you asked me that I was worried for a second haha. I just checked out Stony props site, pretty nice helmets, he has a rotating GIF of the cast I have on his page.

 

[Carpathia]

Over the past few years, Stony Props has evolved into one of THE leading groups producing top notch Halo armor (mostly helmets).

But I digress. Can't wait to see more of your build!

 

[Motion26]

Yeah I can tell Ive looked at his helmets before and didint even realize that was where I bought mine previously - Thank you sir!

 

[stryde]

Looking forward to seeing this painted, especially after the seeing the test pieces you did. Were you planning on doing quite a bit of weathering/distressing?

 

[Motion26]

Looking forward to seeing this painted, especially after the seeing the test pieces you did. Were you planning on doing quite a bit of weathering/distressing?

Thanks for your interest , I'm going for the two toned look, so a lot of the lighter worn color on the edges with some darker chipping. I'm not sure if I'll be very ambitious with the distressing just because I've never painted anything like this before and I'm going to try to avoid going overboard with the scratches. Only time will tell but I would say I'm going to aim for a precise but worn look, ill attempt to be as detailed as I can but being a noob who knows what will happen haha.

 

[edwardjlw]

Seeing this makes me remember how much I looove the mark v from reach, now I really wanna do my own mark v seems like you're doing a good job on the cleanup, keep it up, and can't wait to see it painted.

 

[Motion26]

I pretty much finished shaping the chin yesterday, but I forgot to take a picture of it X.x so I'll likely post one tonight. I sanded it down and added a little primer so I could see the overall shape properly. I'm pretty happy with the adjustments I've made so far, feels good to kind of sculpt the helmet into the proper shape even though its not much compared to what a lot of you guys have to do for a scratch build . Some of the other threads I have been viewing have kind of inspired me to fix some of the smaller inconsistencies in the helmet, So I think I'm going to work on those minor issues tonight. then hopefully I can do my second sanding of the whole helmet with a lighter grit on Friday, mount my visor on the weekend, and if all goes well get to painting next week! I've pretty much decided for the edges of the helmet I'm going to go for a more authentic look on the wear by doing a coat of dark metallic on the edges before my blue and then I'll actually scrape the blue paint off showing the metal underneath, then dry brush the lighter blue for some extra two toned wear.

Even though its a slow and steady process - its exciting to see things progress!

 

[vshore100]

Who did you purchase the cast from?

Was off ebay, uhhhhhhhh - Username was Stonyprops got it in October of 2012

Yep. That's hyperballistik's Mk.V cast. Steve does some pretty cool stuff. Thanks for the kind words about Stony Props Carpathia. It's much appreciated!

The helmet is coming along nicely Motion. I like where you're going with it.

 

[Renraku]

Looks like a good start, if you have any painting questions on distressing and doing a grime/dirt pass, let me know. I just completed mine and I am quite happy with results. But a word of advice don't think to far ahead it will only bog you down just focus on each step you are currently working on. Also when you are doing the fixing of the warps make sure you are keeping the symmetry on both sides of the helmet. You shouldn't have much problem with that since it is a cast.

Renraku

 

[Motion26]

Yep. That's hyperballistik's Mk.V cast. Steve does some pretty cool stuff. Thanks for the kind words about Stony Props Carpathia. It's much appreciated!

The helmet is coming along nicely Motion. I like where you're going with it.

Thanks! Great to hear from a stony props member

Looks like a good start, if you have any painting questions on distressing and doing a grime/dirt pass, let me know. I just completed mine and I am quite happy with results. But a word of advice don't think to far ahead it will only bog you down just focus on each step you are currently working on. Also when you are doing the fixing of the warps make sure you are keeping the symmetry on both sides of the helmet. You shouldn't have much problem with that since it is a cast.

Renraku

Thanks yeah I've been doing my best to make it symmetrical but its very time consuming haha, I think I've got all the obvious defects fixed so tonigt im going to try and focus on some of the smaller ones. Doing my best to avoid rushing myself but its hard sometimes

 

[Motion26]

Chin Progress, since these pics I've added a little more bondo and am doing another sand again tommorrow:

 

[elusch99]

Looking good, can't wait for the end result.

 

[Leonidas1]

looks amazing keep it up

 

[Motion26]

Thanks for the positive words guys!

So, slight set back - today while I was sanding the helmet the Rim above the visor cracked X.x, I bondo'd it and tomorrow I'm going to fill out the hollowed out Rim..Beak..whatever you call it with spray from so it doesn't happen again :-/. Was afraid something like this would happen with this involving thin plastic and sanding, but owell its fixable. I'll probably post some pics of me putting foam in it tomorrow night.