HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread (helmet rebuild begins on p.19)

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Hey all, just a quick update while I'm in port to unload cargo.

I downloaded the hi-res forearms and made a couple of sizes:

I'm picking up some fiberglass at a local hardware store so I can reinforce them for transportation and storage until I'm back in my own shop.

I'll be doing more fairing, molding and casting at the end of the summer, but first I need to get through about two more months of views like this:

I'll be building the medium resolution thighs when next we leave the pier.

Stay tuned.

 

[kerotan 36]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Have fun on the high seas. Project looks really good too.

 

[CMANavy]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Awesome photo, nice change from a forward house. You know some times I think we are professional window-looker-outers with all the cool things we get to see.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Awesome photo, nice change from a forward house. You know some times I think we are professional window-looker-outers with all the cool things we get to see.

Once in a while when people ask what I do for a living, I tell them that it mostly amounts to switching back and forth between watching the clock and staring out the window.

Then they're amazed that I haven't been fired.

 

[Mega Gigan]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

I'm still watching this thread, come back safe man!

 

[Darth Mawr]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Hey thorssoli, this thread has inspired me to build my own Master Chief helmet. I've used the Pepakura method as well. I started with the high res version and fiberglassed it. I'm in the middle of bondoing it now. LOT's of sand paper as you said earlier in this thread. Hurry up and get back to port so you can post more progress as I need inspiration to keep going. MY 12 year old son want a complete suit for Halloween and I'm not sure I'm up to it.

If I've not said it already, GREAT WORK. I'll keep checking back for updates at the end of summer.:thumbsup

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Before heading home, I've been staying with my fiancee in lovely New Orleans, LA (where she's stationed) for a couple of weeks. This is no reason to put off the costume project though, so we spent some quality time yesterday spreading some polyester resin and fiberglass goodness.

Sadly she was the one holding the camera, so she got a lot of shots of me doing this sort of thing:

In the end, she did all of the glass work on my lone calf model:

Which came out pretty well considering she'd never done any work with any kind of composites before.

Otherwise, I coated two different sizes of left and right HD forearms:

I also managed to lay resin and mat into one of the thighs:

So all told, at the end of the day we'd glassed my small pair of biceps, my one unilateral calf, two pairs of forearms, and the large pair of thighs:

Not bad for a couple of hours worth of effort. Now we're recovering from a massive hangover and then adding mat and resin to the other thigh, the biceps, and the forearms. Yay!

 

[Chronos]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

Quality work, as always! :thumbsup

Great to have you back, Thor!

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

Quality work, as always! :thumbsup

Great to have you back, Thor!

There's a temporary nature to the greatness. I had another month to go on the merchant ship I was working on. Then I got word that the Navy was recalling me to active duty so they could loan me to the US Army in Afghanistan. So I had to be paid off early and make my way home on my own and now I've got a few short weeks before I pack up and fly out to play soldier for a while.

That said, I'm offering up a handful of items in the Junkyard while I've got some down time and access to my shop.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

I'm back in California again and have finally made a tiny bit of progress. So far all I've managed to do is a little bit of fairing on some of my latest round of pep models. After I started sanding I decided it would be a good idea to pour some extra casting resin inside so it wouldn't matter if I sanded through the paper parts. Then I poured expanding foam inside to keep everything a bit more stable. So now I'm ready to go into the bondo phase on my biceps, two sizes of forearms, and one size of calf:

I'm only making one calf since the left and right are the same. I may at some point make two molds of it to speed production, but I doubt that will be necessary:

Of course I messed up the pep model a little bit (there's a tiny bit of twist along the length of the piece) so there is still some symmetry work to be done:

Thanks again for all of your kind comments. Anybody who has done this knows that feedback is like fuel for a project like this. Also, if you're one of the folks who has bought any of my castings, please feel free to post pictures of your painted-up Thorssoli armor or helmets. I'm curious to see what others have done with them.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

I just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of the sideshow part of the project lately. Here's the current state of the boots. In this photo you can see the complete HD left boot, the low detail right boot, and the HD heel cup for the right boot. They all need some fine-tuning, but I'm pretty happy with them at this stage:

Bear in mind that these are only the hard parts. I will be doing all of the rubber parts (soles, instep, and toe cap) as separate pieces. Another couple of angles:

Since the left and right toes and instep straps are interchangeable, I can get away with one version for both sides and just make two different heels. I'll be taking the bottom half inch or so off of these parts before I mold them up. Once I have the molds done I'll be sculpting out and molding the various parts of the soles.

Also, after looking all over the place for a strap buckle that looked kinda like what I was after, I finally gave up and decided to sculpt out my own. Here's a snapshot of the prototype with sprues added in preparation for molding:

Stay tuned for more pics as progress continues...

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

Moldmaking continues for the boot parts. I've already managed a few pulls from my toe cap mold:

The rubber cover on the toe will be cast when I make the soles.

 

[StanzMan]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

Man, this has got to be the best Halo Master Chief built from scratch I've ever seen! 0_0

 

[Chronos]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

Man, this has got to be the best Halo Master Chief built from scratch I've ever seen! 0_0

Indeed. Thor has got the skills!

 

[MisriahArmory]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

Even if I said the same thing on the 405th Thor, it's still amazing!

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

I just noticed I forgot to post the last few rounds of progress pics here.

Here's the first:

Pictured here you can see both sets of cold-molded aluminum hard parts as well as the resin cast toe cups with the beginnings of the rubber caps and soles being sculpted on.

Here's a shot showing the current state of the boot:

And from the other side:

And a front view, because that makes it look really shiny:

And because I'm in a picture posting mood, here's another shot from the ankle hole showing the fiberglass interior:

And a close-up of the untrimmed toe and instep strap for the left boot:

And another shot of my sculpt for the rubber parts to attach to the toe:

Progress shot of both of the boot soles:

And here's a random winning shot of the Mad Cobbler (me) at work on this particular piece of the insanity:

Here's the bottoms of the masters before molding:

I was hoping to have at least one set of boots built to a wearable state before I shipped out. I worked up until pretty late the night before I flew out, but all I finished was the molds. The good part is: I'll be able to start cranking out boots just as soon as I return. So stay tuned for that.

 

[The Stig]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

What's that base boot you got there? Looks very Boba Fett-y

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

What's that base boot you got there? Looks very Boba Fett-y

The boots I wear in my shop are my Fett boots. I never found a way to weather them that I was genuinely happy with, so I've taken to wearing them whenever I expect to get dirty. This way the damage is as realistic as possible.

I will not be wasting my Fett boots by building them into this costume. Instead, the boots that I'll be building into the final molded armor boots are actually a cheap pair of UGG boot knock-offs. In the end I'm planning on rigging the boots so that they'll be integral with the shin armor as well.

 

[TK648]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

Very cool level of detail for the boots
I had the same idea back awhile ago.
I planed it out so many times in my head that I could have
had the molds made and several dozen pairs made by this time,
The same goes for my master chief armor.
I am not sure where or when I lost my desire to make costumes :confused
but great job looking forward to seeing more.

Andrew

 

[Vegas Vader 2]

Re: HALO Master Chief Costume Progress Thread

any updates on this?