Halo 4 / Halo: Nightfall - BR85HB SR Battle Rifle

My first post on the RPF... This place has occupied quite the pedestal for me over the last ten years, so to have something I feel warrants a thread here is still slightly mindblowing to me.

Anyway... First major project. I've done little bits and pieces before, mostly when I was a kid; paper, wood, foam... All original ideas, just messing about, no great emphasis on design or quality of finish. I also had a tendency to put projects away, half-completed, and never come back to them, whether because it's too hard or taking too long and I found a new shiny squirrel, or whatever. So I decided to plant a flag, and to do so would require an object that could hold my attention while I learned my new tools and materials, since every single aspect of this project was in some way new to me.

I'm going to do the abridged version here, since the full 8-month process can be seen over on the 405th here, if anyone's particularly interested in the minutae of problem solving, general discussion, or the details of purchasing the casting runs (short version: First run of five, two slots currently left, $230+shipping. Subequent casts-on-demand, $290+shipping, add $170 for assembly and painting (a real paint job, not what you see on the beta build below!)).

Future plans include a full second build with a proper airbrushed paint job and surface finishing/seam filling and electronics/optoelectronics/mechatronics/pneumatics for the scope, ammo counter, charging lever, trigger, magazine and safety. Possibly also a (real, not LED) muzzle flash system, but I haven't got to thinking that far yet.

For now, however, this is just going to be a series of 4 image dump posts showing the highlights of the building, moulding, casting and painting processes. The dimensions should be 98% accurate to the game-rip model and its diff/bump textures to within around a millimetre. I stopped making templates pretty quickly and just started drawing working diagrams using measurements taken from the model in Blender.

Onwards!













That's beginning to initial construction completion. In real time, it was four months- beginning of October 2014 to end of January 2015. Much more detailed updates available in the first five pages of the 405th build thread above.

Next up: Finishing and moulding!

 

Let's get straight into it... First, an approximate layout of the parts, though this did change somewhat later:





This was the "master complete" point, two months later. Lots of priming and wet sanding to 2000 grit...









The rotocaster was built out of scrap wood around the shop, using primarily just a table saw and a drill. It worked much better once I found the paracord and used a couple of loops of that as a belt.

Next up: Test casting and painting!

 

Found I had fewer detail issues in the casts once I powdered the moulds, but the Dollar Tree baby powder needs drying first! There were also some over-tinting issues that I worked out.













I dry brushed the silver by spraying the Design Master Premium Metals Super Silver (if I got all of that!) into a PVC end cap to brush on.

That was last night, two months after completing the master. Total time, 8 months!

Next up: super shiny shoot time! (Though I have no armour.)

Edit: pics hate me in this post. First they didn't attach, then they attached in the wrong order.

 

...And that's the lot for the time being!

~Rob