Props UNSC Marine cosplay

[ArBiTeR1400]

Here it is ladies & gentlemen.
The first part of the costume is finished with 3D printing after 3 months, sorry it took this long.

While the parts where being printed, in the mean time, I started working on the top leg armours due to the absent of them in the original files.

I used a 16cm/6.25 inch PVC pipe, cut into shape, heat gun to bend slightly out & to fold the top bits in a little. The top strap that connects to the belt is stitched to the pads behind, which those pads is bolted into the armour while the bottom straps that goes around the legs is through the two holes, the two middle straps are looped into the armour itself & velcro to the other side. Worked out how to make it 100% practical while remaining true to canon, this is an example of what I'll be doing to the whole set, make it where no strap is glued to the armour itself but make it where it can come apart easy with a whole strapping/modulation system if I need to repair or replace any part in the future if needed. This costume is to be made to last a century at minimum to be used at conventions, charity works with the 405th & hopefully fan made films.

Now onto prime filling & sanding for the second part, this will take months.

Credit to Maurice Sizzlac on thingiverse for the files.

UNSC Halo 3 - Marine Armor Set - Now in HD! by moesizzlac

Update 18/02/23 - Created Thigh ArmorUpdate 28/10/21 - Created a model that can be printed at 12%Just making a printer friendly HD version of Halo 3's UNSC Space Marine Armor. It is not cut up but it is basically set up for a 5'10" 185 LB guy. The file was made from Modeler Vrogy's files here...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[PlanetAlexander]

Nice! I hope the 405th Australia can do some charity events soon.

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

UPDATE:
Forgotten to upload my progress, got carried away trying to get parts done. Here's what I done so far, finished prepping elbow, knee & mid-upper arm armour pieces, just need to bolt to some custom-made pads I am going to make once all done with other pieces before the final stage of painting & seal.
Currently layering carbon fiber pieces, adding structural strength to the back-armour side pieces that I currently resin together on last night.

 

[PlanetAlexander]

MARINEGANG!
Those parts are looking swell, very crisp. I guess you'll be on to painting soon?

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

MARINEGANG!
Those parts are looking swell, very crisp. I guess you'll be on to painting soon?

Not til around or after Christmas at this rate, gotta sand & prime fill shin & shoulder pieces after working on back piece that I'm doing now, just waiting on the resin to cure to add more layers of carbon fiber sheets. Have to wetsand the front chest piece yet that I had to fix up a mistake on then make soft pads with some sewing for all the pieces. Also gotta figure out how to attach the knee & shin pieces as together mechanically. Long & slow process to make it look high-tier Hollywood production, sooo much to do.

 

[LawEnforcer98]

what's the best plastic material for a unsc marine helmet? I mean I was planning on 3d printing one. The safety manual that someone posted was confusing considering that I don't know half the stuff.

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

what's the best plastic material for a unsc marine helmet?

I got mine printed by someone local, I don't know too much about 3D printing, sorry. Mine is PLA. Will be putting an update soon. Just got a few pieces to wetsand & clean up.

 

[PlanetAlexander]

what's the best plastic material for a unsc marine helmet? I mean I was planning on 3d printing one. The safety manual that someone posted was confusing considering that I don't know half the stuff.

The standard is usually PLA, it's good value and prints easily enough. PLA+ sands a bit easier. There's PETG which also sands easier, is a bit stronger and takes more heat to warp. If you wanna go to the big guns, ABS is much better resistant to warping and cleans up well, but is also harder to print as it requires a higher temperature to do so.

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

Here is my latest progress.

After nearly a full year carbon fibre & resin layering the back for structural strength & adding extra detail over top by adding varies thickness of EVA foam & 1mm balsa sheets where needed for elevated areas & cut into for depth elsewhere. For the knee guards, used empty plastic marker pens for the tube shaped itself as it had the right width for a screw to go down into, giving it all that depth look which I forgot to take pictures of.

Then the hardest part, priming/prepping, then wetsanding, rise & repeat til I got a near flush finish look to paint later, their were a few times where I had to repair cracks after a piece was done either from the local weather/temperate/prssure or trapped air from the 3D printed parts themselves, despite that I filled in any & all small holes & cracks with resin prior to priming & wetsanding, the worse of that was the chest piece where I had a splint down the middle horizontally on the front from the stresses of reinforcing at the back. Filled in with resin along the line so it got inside the 3D printed chest piece, adding strength & to cover the splint up then back to prepping. Next time I'm gonna have to ask to fill in 3D prints to like 80% so I don't run into these issues again, maybe cost more upfront to get something 3D printed but then I don't have to waste more money getting more resin to fill in those hollow parts, cracking under pressure trying to reinforcing the whole thing etc.

The hard part is over, I'm surprised I have such determination & patience to last this long.

Now. I'm waiting for sewing stuff to come in the mail & airsoft military elbow & knee guards coming which I will be modifying then attaching my pieces by bolting them on. I will be making pads & strapping systems for all the armour pieces to go on my body, already did the boots/shin guards pad straps so far as a test & it's working really well like the thigh guards before. Semi-tested the body straps as well which holds on it's own, works wonders.

Sorry if the photos seem to be jumbled, some reason this site is throwing them all out of order. If you have any questions, fire away, I'll answer in much detail as I can.

 

[Spidermonkey60]

Here is my latest progress.

After nearly a full year carbon fibre & resin layering the back for structural strength & adding extra detail over top by adding varies thickness of EVA foam & 1mm balsa sheets where needed for elevated areas & cut into for depth elsewhere. For the knee guards, used empty plastic marker pens for the tube shaped itself as it had the right width for a screw to go down into, giving it all that depth look which I forgot to take pictures of.

Then the hardest part, priming/prepping, then wetsanding, rise & repeat til I got a near flush finish look to paint later, their were a few times where I had to repair cracks after a piece was done either from the local weather/temperate/prssure or trapped air from the 3D printed parts themselves, despite that I filled in any & all small holes & cracks with resin prior to priming & wetsanding, the worse of that was the chest piece where I had a splint down the middle horizontally on the front from the stresses of reinforcing at the back. Filled in with resin along the line so it got inside the 3D printed chest piece, adding strength & to cover the splint up then back to prepping. Next time I'm gonna have to ask to fill in 3D prints to like 80% so I don't run into these issues again, maybe cost more upfront to get something 3D printed but then I don't have to waste more money getting more resin to fill in those hollow parts, cracking under pressure trying to reinforcing the whole thing etc.

The hard part is over, I'm surprised I have such determination & patience to last this long.

Now. I'm waiting for sewing stuff to come in the mail & airsoft military elbow & knee guards coming which I will be modifying then attaching my pieces by bolting them on. I will be making pads & strapping systems for all the armour pieces to go on my body, already did the boots/shin guards pad straps so far as a test & it's working really well like the thigh guards before. Semi-tested the body straps as well which holds on it's own, works wonders.

Sorry if the photos seem to be jumbled, some reason this site is throwing them all out of order. If you have any questions, fire away, I'll answer in much detail as I can.

Its looking great! always love seeing more boots on the ground in H3 Marine Gang!

Gang Gang

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

Very sorry for not keeping a regular update on my progress, given life circumstances & COVID, progress is slow.

The past couple of weeks I have been test fitting some parts to get it all working such as the knee & upper shin armour pieces to go over my knee pads & the shoulder pieces to work well without colliding with the front chess plate piece. Given I had over-engineered the upper shin pieces by adding extra pads inside I sewed to go with the bolted knee guard pads & BDU jeans only to find it very difficult to put on, but managed to get it working now by removing those unnecessary extra pads I wasted a month or two working on.

The shoulder pieces were originally suppose to be higher but they were colliding with the front chess piece, so I lowered them, works wonders now with full free arm movement.

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

Spinal support thingy detail on the back of the vest, sewed on & spray painted black a bit. I ain't gonna miss a detail.

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

Here are some decals to go on it, had been brainstorming & extensive researching these for months to see what would it look like in-universe, so I been trying to squeeze much lore-juice as possible making these. So I took the Marine decals from Reach at the end of game & Anniversary; the hexagon decal on the shoulder armours pieces is an Army cavalry symbol of sorts if anyone is wondering, it is not used by the Marine branch as evidence as no Marine in Anniversary has it.

Also the Landfall advertisement for Halo 3 with those decals from those Marines, one decal on the back is unkown as no clear images exist across the net other than a few frames here & there on the trailer itself which is pretty blurry. So I decided to make an educated guess their might be manufacturing & distribution stickers of sorts given theirs a tint of orange on. I use to work in the graphic design/signage industry so normally warning, manufacturing & distribution labels being used in the industrial industries mostly come in yellow or orange contrasting with white or black for an asset like a power box, tools or any heavy machinery, or at least the ones here in Australia that I was contracted to do.

 

[ArBiTeR1400]

Knee & shine guards. The pain trying to engineer a way to get them together, their bolted into the pants to prevent from slipping. that orange you see is just filler since I accidently dent it by dropping something on it from the cupboard when it was in the way.