3D Printed - Halo 4 Helmet Build

HAL9256

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3D Printed - Halo 4 - Master Chief Helmet Build

The current 95% complete version:
IMG_4688b.jpg

I know this is a "Yet Another" Halo 4 Helmet... but it is unique in that its 3D printed, rather than pepakura, or resin cast. I am going to try to include lots of detail on the build process, to help anyone else out.

The Inspiration
I have always wanted a Halo Master Chief helmet ever since I got the Halo 3 Legendary Edition where the game came enclosed inside a scaled down MJOLNIR Mark VI helmet (although that I think that it didn't stop pretty much everyone from seeing if they could try it on... only to be disappointed that it was too small :( ).

Flash forward many years... I got myself a 3D printer, the MakerBot Replicator 2 for Christmas, and I was busy making various things with it from Thingiverse (awesome 3D printing resource). Where I happened to find one of the best Halo Master Chief Helmet helmets: Halo 4 Helmet Full Size A and I knew that I needed to built it.

Coincidentally, one of the people I follow on YouTube, Barnacules Nerdgasm, started printing out this exact same helmet (Master Chief Helmet & Halo Magnum Pistol Cosplay), and I believe he gave it to DarthTigger to finish (his build thread is here: 3D Printed Halo4 Master Chief Helmet). Which motivated me to get going and try building it.

3D Printing Files
Not only did big_red_frog do an amazing job on creating the helmet, but he also had extra mods for adding M4 Hex bolts to the chin, visor designs, etc. So, the files I ended up using for 3D printing were:

Halo 4 Helmet Full Size A - Thing:158120
TWS_1523_display_large.jpg

Halo 4 Helmet Size A Big Pieces - Thing:168678
2013-10-31_08.34.02_display_large.jpg

Halo 4 Helmet Full Size A Peak with Batteries - Thing:171912
IMG_00000897_display_large.jpg

M4 bolt modified chin front for Halo Helmet - Thing:163439
2013-10-15_08.55.54_display_large.jpg

Perforated Visor for Halo Helmet - Thing:165110
IMG_00000819_display_large.jpg

In the next post I will go over the 3D printing process...
 
3D Printing Setup
I used the following setup to print all the parts:

3D Printer:MakerBot Replicator 2
Software:MakerWare
Material:PLA
Quality:Standard
Infill:10%
Number of Shells:2
Layer Height:0.20mm
Raft:Yes
Supports:Yes

Approximate amount of PLA Filament Needed:1 Kg (2.2lbs) Spool
Approximate amount of time to print all of the parts:~60+ Hours
Actual amount of PLA Filament Used:1.3 Kg
Actual amount of time to print all of the parts:100+ Hours

3D Printing
Using MakerWare you can easily take you're .stl files from Thingiverse, place them on the build platform (and rotating if necessary), and "Make" the .x3g file that the MakerBot takes. You then either run the MakerBot off an SD card or USB. I recommend using the SD card because it will take a long time to print off all the parts.

Here is the FullBack piece:

20140429_090155a.jpg

You can see that depending on your settings, temperatures, and batch of PLA, sometimes PLA can get very stringy which requires some cleanup afterwards. Sometimes with 3D printing it requires a bit of tinkering and messing around with different settings, temperatures, etc. before you get really good quality prints.

20140429_090224a.jpg

From this picture you can see that it took 8 Hours and 37 Minutes to print this one piece. Each of the 15 pieces takes 4-9 hours to print at the "Standard" 0.20mm resolution. I don't recommend using the "High" 0.10mm resolution, because it will take twice the time to print (I don't want to be waiting 2 weeks of 24/7 printing before I can get my helmet). I usually would set the printer up at night and start printing a part before I went to bed, that way it would print through the night and be ready in the morning. Then I could kick off another print that would be ready when I came back from work.

I had lots of problems with some of the parts stopping mid-print. For example I had to print off one of the side pieces 3 times before I had a fully successful print. To get it to print off successfully I had to run it through a program called Netfabb Basic this cleans up the .stl model file, fixes any flipped triangles etc. and then re-exporting it in MakerWare.

My unsuccessful prints:
20140514_003030a.jpg

Of course it had to fail on all the big pieces and when they were 90% completed... Murphy's Law... :rolleyes

Since I had to re-print many pieces, I ended up needing about 100 hours to print everything, and used ~1.3 Kg of filament. Also, there was a lot of "waste" from all the rafts and support material that needed to be built.

Big Bag-O-Waste PLA:
20140514_003053a.jpg

But in the end, I got all 11 pieces printed in White PLA:
20140514_002826a.jpg

And another 4 in Natural PLA (closest I had to a "Transparent" color). These pieces will hold the LED's and be the visor:
20140514_002941a.jpg

In the next post, assembling the parts...
 
Assembly
After printing off all the parts, they needed to be assembled together.

The neat thing that big_red_frog had done was to use "Slotted Spring Tension Pins" to hold the separate pieces together. The ones used here were: 1/8" x 3/4" Slotted Spring Tension Pins (Part# 240-025 from Spaenaur).

"Holes" on 3D printed parts usually have a bunch of support material still in them. You can simply clean out the hole from the 3D printed part with a 1/8" hex shaft drill bit that attached to a screwdriver handle... I oped for more dangerous method of putting the 1/8" drill bit in my drill, and at low speed carefully cleaning out the holes... trying not to mess up anything...

Of course... Murphy's law laughs and caused me to accidentally drill through one of the parts accidentally... grrr....:angry

Remember to place a piece of masking tape on your drill bit where the "bottom" of the hole is. That way you know exactly how far down the hole you are, and to stop you from going too far.

First test putting all the pins in:
20140514_012208a.jpg

... Now... observant readers may comment that seeing the presence of a 18V XRP 2,000 RPM Dewalt Hammer Drill sitting beside a glass of whiskey in the above photo, may have played a factor in the before mentioned drilling mistake... I will remain silent on that observation... ;)

Test fitting pieces:
20140514_012356a.jpg

There is only one way that the pieces can be assembled to have all the pins work. Make sure you dry fit everything, and figure out the order to assemble them. You don't want to figure it all out after you have glued half the helmet together.

For ex. the two back bottom pieces need to be put together before the top side piece:
20140514_012504a.jpg

After assembling both sides, they then attach to the center "spine":
20140514_012913a.jpg

In this photo you can see the 4 large 1/2" holes for the super magnets to go in. This allows you to either remove the "peak" or the front jaw easily. Remember to not glue the pieces if you want to easily remove the peak (which would give you easy access to the front visor) or the Jaw.

I wouldn't recommend gluing the Jaw. Use the super magnets and pins instead. I have found out that 50% of the people at my office that have tried on my helmet can't fit their head in, especially if they have glasses. By having the removable Jaw, everyone was able to fit in the helmet.

I was one of the few who could fit in the helmet without removing the Jaw. So don't do what I did, and glue the jaw. Fortunately... as another story later on... I made the Jaw "Removable" once again... slightly.... possibly.... unintentionally... deliberately... "Removable"... ;)

And the back view:
20140514_012921a.jpg

... When you see the hammer and pliers enter the picture... that means that some of the pins needed more... -persuasion- ... than others... again, ignore the whiskey... it had nothing to do with *anything*... ;)

Adding the top "Peak"
20140514_014058a.jpg

Front Jaw assembled:
20140514_014116a.jpg

Completed dry fit:
20140514_014142a.jpg

And the obligatory "Head Fit"
20140514_014232a.jpg

In my next post: Glue and Bondo
 
Thanks for all the comments!


Gluing and Bondo

To glue everything together I used PermaPoxy 5 Minute Plastic Weld it is basically 2 part epoxy for plastic. I know that a lot of people in the 3D printing community like to use super glue. I personally find that it doesn't seem to bond all that great to the PLA plastic that I am using.
84115.jpg

The other good thing about the Plastic Weld is that because it is thicker, like epoxy, it fills in seams and cracks very well.

I mix up only a small quantity of glue, only enough for gluing 1-2 pieces at a time. 5 minutes goes by very quickly when you have to mix it, apply, and fit the parts. You know when the glue is close to setting because it starts to go really gummy and 30 seconds later it is like solid plastic. If you try to push it and try to get "that last part" glued, the bond won't be great, and won't stick properly.

After gluing, I applied Bondo to all of the seams.

20140518_004448a.jpg

Bondo is also one of those two-part, 5 minute working time, mixtures. It is great once it is set, but again 5 minutes is not a lot of time to work on making the surface look nice. The key, again, is to work in small batches, and only work on small areas at a time. I probably made up 15-20 small pebble sized batches of Bondo to fix all the seams and everything.

20140518_004455a.jpg

I would say that Bondo is great for cars and other large mostly flat areas. It is not as good for something with a lot of detail because you don't really have a whole lot of time to work with it. I know that there are other fillers out there, like a spot putty, that have a longer working time, and may work out better because have more time to get cleaner filling. It just meant that when I was done, I had a whole lot of sanding to do.

I have seen a lot of helmets where they will Bondo or fiberglass resin the entire helmet and make everything smooth and curved. I didn't want that. Technically in the game, the helmet isn't smooth, it is made up of a bunch of polygons. I wanted to keep those segments and lines (see the middle back spine of the helmet, I didn't Bondo it at all) so that in actual fact it looks -more- like the game.

To keep with the Halo 4 theme, I also deliberately left rough patches of Bondo for "Battle Damage". After all, Master Chief has been through a lot by the time Halo 4 rolls around. To create this effect, I waited till the Bondo was almost cured, and was thickening up and getting pretty grainy. I then quickly and forcefully spread that across the area I wanted that "Scarred" look.

20140519_233003a.jpg

...After lots of sanding (120 Grit), Bondo, more sanding (220 Grit to Finish), and cleanup. I gave it a coat of sand-able primer.

This is after I gave it a coat of sand-able primer from the bottom. It looked cool, so I took a picture of it :).

20140519_233010a.jpg

And a blurry one...

20140519_233014a.jpg

Looked cool enough that I almost would want to do a paint job just like this.

20140519_233021a.jpg

Next Post, More Priming...
 
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