1st Build My custom 3D printed halo reach armor build journey (So Far)

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I am following this with great interest! I just bought my first 3d printer and I am looking to do exactly what you are doing here. In my profile is the Pic of the spartan I am going for. Right no I am getting used to a 3d printer so I'm doing many test prints of small things off thingiverse so I can get a feel for different settings and I'm narrowing in on what feels good to me.

I was going to purchase the noble 6 base suit off of nerdforgedesigns off of etsy but I was wondering how much scaling you had to do to get your armor to fit properly from his original designs? I'm 6'4" so that first oversized chest piece interested me and I was wondering was that the original design and size when you downloaded the files?
 
I am following this with great interest! I just bought my first 3d printer and I am looking to do exactly what you are doing here. In my profile is the Pic of the spartan I am going for. Right no I am getting used to a 3d printer so I'm doing many test prints of small things off thingiverse so I can get a feel for different settings and I'm narrowing in on what feels good to me.

I was going to purchase the noble 6 base suit off of nerdforgedesigns off of etsy but I was wondering how much scaling you had to do to get your armor to fit properly from his original designs? I'm 6'4" so that first oversized chest piece interested me and I was wondering was that the original design and size when you downloaded the files?
Hey, It's great to see someone starting to do a similar build to mine, and 3D printing is a fantastic hobby to get into! Ive been finishing 3D prints for years now, and 3d printing for even longer, but this is by far the biggest project Ive ever done, and if I can help someone else with the things Ive learned along the way then that's great.

What kind of printer do you have? By the end of this project, I had 3 3d printers, however for a lot of the printing in the beginning and middle i had only 1 or 2. I would say at least 1 large format printer is a must-have if you want to tackle a project like this. The less you have to slice up your prints, the better. That being said, it still took me months to print everything, and I made plenty of mistakes in the beginning.

Scaling the armor was probably the hardest thing I had to do when the project first started. I got tools like Armorsmith designer to help me out, but as you saw earlier in my posts I still messed up the chest. You being so tall, and depending on how you're shaped (I'm 6' 0", athletic build), you will have scaling in your future on the armor. Armorsmith is a good resource to get a general sense of the scale but is NOT a perfect representation of your body and just because it looks right on there doesn't mean it will look good IRL. I wasted over a week of printing and over $100 of filament on printing that first chest piece. Thankfully my good friend MarineSniper bought the large chest off me at cost for his reach armor.
I guess I got lucky with the scaling, because after the chest disaster, I started to print things at 100% (the first chest was printed at 110%), and they fit mostly great! The only thing I had to alter was the calves (I shrunk down the upper calf "circular part" in Autodesk Maya as at 100% it was much too big for me. I also had to print the forearms at a larger scale.
A method I've been using to test the scale of parts is cutting out slices of different parts of an armor piece and printing just those small slices, to see if the armor would fit at those sliced positions. The armor set you will be buying also comes with a few "sizing versions" of the armor pieces, which are just the inner shells of the armor so you can print them out and get a sense of the fit.

Be careful with NerdForgeDesigns though. I found him first on a site called CG trader, and bought the armor set there. It was advertised as having more than it actually had. The versions of the chestpiece that have holes cut out in them for lights was not included, just the normal armor set. I ended up altering the files to make my own holes for lights. Idk if the listing on etsy has the versions with the holes, but if it doesn't and you want that version, hmu and I can send you the OBJ of my altered chestpieces. The shoulder gaskets Ive 3d modeled I would think you should also use, so HMU with you want that file as well. It will only fit with the chestpiece that we are using.
 
I'm pretty much done with sanding for the helmet!

I've been working on sanding the chest piece as well, but I'm kindof hitting a block where I'm not exactly what I'm sure I need to work on. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to handle all the pieces of my chestplate. It's not just the front and back pieces, but also the two shoulder gaskets that will connect in-between them (as seen in my previous posts). I was thinking that I could have the whole chest be one piece, and slide it top down over my shoulders.

My current thoughts about the undersuit have been to have a base layer of clothes which have straps to hold the armor up at my legs and arms sewn into them, connecting to a harness on my chest, as well as the rubber undersuit gaskets integrated at the places which will be exposed in the armor. Let me know if you have any thoughts!
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I've been sanding a lot the past few days! The chest has been my main priority. None of the pieces I am satisfied with in regards to the finish, but they're coming along, especially now that I just got a bunch of Bondo spot putty. All the pieces here (plus a few that are not here) will be combined into a single piece chest plate that I slip on my shoulders top down.
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I've been sanding a lot the past few days! The chest has been my main priority. None of the pieces I am satisfied with in regards to the finish, but they're coming along, especially now that I just got a bunch of Bondo spot putty. All the pieces here (plus a few that are not here) will be combined into a single piece chest plate that I slip on my shoulders top down.
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this is looking so awesome. are you going to wear it i know you made a dummy to put the armor on. was just wondering?
 
I have to say, your build is looking extremely impressive.

How are you finding the range of motion if I may ask. I got the same files (except for any shell pieces, they weren't on cgtrader for some reason) (found them am a dumb) and range of motion has been a bit too restrictive for me.
 
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Thank you! The range of motion isn't great for a few parts, my shoulder gaskets make it so I can only lift my arms up to a T pose, but I don't think i need to move my arms more than that, and for me, looks are more important than functionality.
 
Fair and valid. Myself I'll be tinkering with the files a bit, see if I can increase their comfort and the mobility a bit. I'm looking forward to the end result on your build.
 
I can't wait to see those gaskets next to the chest piece all painted! Are you using spot putty all over the thing or just in a few problem areas?
 
I can't wait to see those gaskets next to the chest piece all painted! Are you using spot putty all over the thing or just in a few problem areas?
Mostly just the problem areas. These gaskets are actually much easier to sand then the rest of the suit, as all of these pieces of armor are covered in details/recessed bits that are difficult to sand. The gaskets being so smooth really helped, especially because if I wanted to, I could lather spot putty onto the whole thing and sand it down.
 
Mostly just the problem areas. These gaskets are actually much easier to sand then the rest of the suit, as all of these pieces of armor are covered in details/recessed bits that are difficult to sand. The gaskets being so smooth really helped, especially because if I wanted to, I could lather spot putty onto the whole thing and sand it down.
Yeah I totally understand that! that being said, filler primer is my favorite!
 
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