Children's Master Chief Build

It time for Halloween again and time for another costume build for the boy. Early in the year he requested to be a character from Minecraft. I do enjoy that game but had a better Idea for him. I have always loved Halo and think that the character Master Chief would make a great costume for a child. I showed him one picture and he was sold.
I had to wait for fall to start this project and picked October 1st as the "go" date. I knew that I had 3 weeks to build and finish this costume and that it would be cutting it kind of close.
After building him a Jango Fett costume last year I had a good Idea of how much time I would need. Chief has a lot of hard armor to build and a primary weapon.
To start this build I scoured the internet for reference photos and chose to do a mash up of my favorite armor versions. I wanted to go with the pepakura then harden with resin route but I knew this would add a tremendous expense and time to the project. Then I read a small book called Foam Armorsmithing (http://props.punishedpixels.com/shop/foam-armorsmithing-vol-2-finishing-painting/) from a prop maker called Bill Doran. The book shows his techniques for building props and armor with EVA foam. This is the rout I ultimately chose. The material is very cheep and construction is quick and easy. The bonus is that the armor is very light.
I will post more progress later.
thanks
mk

Step one
The first day of the build involved doing a lot of research to find reference photos. I decided to use parts from different versions of Master Chief armor. I decided that I was going to do a lot of freehand design so I picked versions that would allow me to quickly design and build the components. I didn't have a lot of time for this build so I had to choose designs that I could quickly put together.
After settling on a design I then needed to make a sizing mannequin to work off of. This would allow me to design and build when the boy was in school. We used a simple technique of wrapping him in cling wrap then covering him with duct tape. This worked very well and didn't take to long. I stuffed it with pillow filling and put it on a frame made of pvc and a wooden base.
You can see a part of the mannequin below with the early stage of sizing a template for the chest armor.

Step2
Another day and hours of work later...
I started to construct the chest armor and the rear jetpack. I was using EVA floor mats for the main parts of the armor. This is a great material to work with as it cuts easy with a sharp box knife and is flexible.
While trying to fit it to the mannequin I realized that my boy was really skinny. This was making it difficult to make the armor look right. I needed to bulk him up a bit. I found a costume with built in muscles at K-mart for cheep that was a nice dark color. This allowed me to make the armor look "bulky" giving it the right scale look compared to the real character.
After getting the main parts of the armor built I then started to add details. Working with different sized craft foam I was able to create an interesting looking piece.
Here you can see the beginning stages of the detail work. I had a lot of sanding and filling to d do yet

Looks really good. My friend is a halo buff and i keep wanting to make a suit for her little kid but with her being 2 1/2 she'd outgrow it before i could finish it lol.

Step 3
Using the same techniques I then moved on to the shoulders, forearms and shins. The thighs and cod piece were some of the last that I completed
I was very happy with the shoulders but not so much with the size of the forearms. They ended up a little on the bulky side. I was having trouble with sizing and with I had the time to redo them.
always next year.

step 4.
Once all the main components were completed it was time to paint.
I used a selection of paints but most of them were acrylics. I find that they stick well to foam and then the foam flexes they dont tend to crack as much. I had plans to seal the foam with plasti dip but was having trouble getting it smooth so I ended up using a heat gun to seal up the foam and then multiple coats of primer followed by the main OD green paint. I followed every color with 3 coats of flat clear coat to seal up the paint. This gave everything a nice smooth look and even stiffened up the foam a bit. I masked off the parts that were to be black and pained them and then followed them up with clear coat as well. Weathering was done with washes of black acrylic and drybrushing silver rub and buff for scratches.

Here you can see the armor in various states of paint.

Step 5. The hard part
Next on the list was the helmet.
I had initially decided to make it out of foam like the rest of the costume but I found it was difficult to get the right shapes so I abandoned that and went the traditional rout of paper and resin. I found some pep files online and printed them out. I got really lucky with the sizing and only had to make one helmet.
After the main construction I followed it up with resin and fiberglass. Bondo smoothed out the curves and lots of sanding gave me a nice ridged and smooth helmet.
I used the same paint as before. and weathering was done with the same techniques.

Step 6
Chief needs a firearm.
I printed out some blue prints of an assault rifle in different sizes. I then cut them out and had my boy hold them up. We selected the size that look right and then started to the build.
I started with 3 sheets of floor mat lamanated together with a wooden dowel in the middle for strength. Then I started to add the details. It took a lot longer that I had expected but that was me not stopping. I just kept adding detail.
I do like the colors of this but then i decided to paint it
Painting the gun became a plague for me. I made some bad choices for colors. The first version I accidentally used a chrome paint for the main body and it looked terrible. So I picked up some acrylic gunmetal and got the result I wanted. I weathered it up and made it look very used.

Step 7
It was all just about done when I decided that I needed to bring some electronics to the party. I put 4 LEDs in the helmet and a few in the assault rifle. I found a good image of the shot counter and made a little "LCD" with a blue LED in it to light it up. On the front I added a flashlight made with PVC and a pressure switch so he can turn it on and off.
I think it completes the look of the costume.

DONE!!!
Finally finished everything I had intended to. I wanted to do gloves and boots but just didn't have the time.
I set up the studio get some pics of the finished product.
There are things I wish I had time to do again but will have to wait for next years costume.
The project took about 60-70 hours to complete and cost more that I had intended but I had a lot of fun and learned a lot about crafting costumes. I have plans for one of my own for next year.
The quality of the build if passable for a Halloween costume but he loves it and that is what matters.
I hope everyone who reads this enjoys it and maybe learned something you didn't know before.
happy building.
mk

Great Job!


Lordchammon. RPFer from Spain

Great Mini Chief!