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

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

sweet man, i go on vacation for a week and you get this much done!?!?!?

keep up the awsome work, my high res grey knight helmet is going slowly, 15 A3 pages of bits, no idea how to stick some of them so many edges, so little time....

Not that it's up to me, but don't you think it'd be better to start with something a bit simpler? Then you could always customize it and add details once you have a real-world model built.

 

[Onigiri]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Looks great but we need some big armor. Im a 48 chest and 6'3 and aside form Vader nobody makes jack for us big dudes and I think that MC should be a big dude. The helmet size looks about perfect but PLEASE gives us big guys something to wear....

Not that it's up to me, but don't you think it'd be better to start with something a bit simpler? Then you could always customize it and add details once you have a real-world model built.

 

[M Bison]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Looks great but we need some big armor. Im a 48 chest and 6'3 and aside form Vader nobody makes jack for us big dudes and I think that MC should be a big dude. The helmet size looks about perfect but PLEASE gives us big guys something to wear....

With that kind of size you should be looking at a Warhammer 40K Space Marine costume. Thorsoli can get you started with his Space Marine helm.

Although the Master Chief is like 7ft tall in his Mjolnir armor if you want to go by what the game and books say.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

After a week of being away from the workshop, I managed to make a big dent in this project today. To start with, I managed to finish fairing out the back plate. Here's a shot before I sprayed it with primer. The colors show fiberglass resin, bondo, primer, and glazing putty. I didn't take a pic of the back plate after I painted it, but you get the idea.

There was a brief moment of horror when I dropped the chest plate this morning. It broke into three pieces and I was completely heartbroken. Then I realized that I was standing in my workshop and surrounded by every type of adhesive known to modern man. It set me back an hour, but I managed to get it put back together and get most of the detail work done:

Tomorrow I'll be doing a bit of cleaning up on the details. Specifically, I need to sharpen the edges on the sternum detailing:

Once I've got that little bit sorted out, it'll all get a few coats of paint and then I can start the moldmaking.

I also managed to get the ab plate about 90% finished.

It started with some MDF and a pile of urethane foam:

Then shaped and sanded and bondoed it before I glued and clamped some pieces of Sintra PVC onto it to add the ridges in the proper places.

And here's what it looked like when the clamps came off.

Tomorrow should see the last of the shaping and sanding and the beginning of the moldmaking.

Stay tuned.

 

[RogueSolo]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Looking good!

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

So I was in such a rush to clean up the shop and start the whole moldmaking process and forgot to take pics of everything before I started with the silicone. Today I got the detail coat brushed on using the blue sticky goo:

Here's shot from the other side with the ab plate in the foreground:

Stay tuned.

 

[Halo_1]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

I love these pics! WIP pics are the heat! Thanks for sharing bro! Love the progress on your armor!

 

[loonitick]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

man that suit is going to be soooo sweet!

 

[oculus1857]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Woah! Awesome work! Yeah, Halloween 2K8 should be more than awesome for you my friend. I have admired your work from the 300dc.com forums as well. Inspiring stuff.

One quick questions, the boot and lower leg armor how are you going to mount this? Also is there a particular boot you have in mind?

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

One quick questions, the boot and lower leg armor how are you going to mount this? Also is there a particular boot you have in mind?

I'll be building the boots around a donor shoe that will be cast into the final piece. I'll post pictures when I have them, but for now it's difficult to explain in words.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Last night I actually had some help in the shop for a few hours, so I made quite a bit of progress. I now have mother molds for all three pieces of the torso armor.

Step one was to layer over the silicone glove molds with a bit of clay. This way there would be a void between the mother mold and the silicone. This void will later be filled with more silicone. Once the clay was built up, it was time to cut out all of the plywood flanges. These parts become a framework to build the fiberglass onto and make the various parts easier to separate later:

I made a similar framework for the chest piece as well. Then it was time to don protective equipment and start fiberglassing:

After some five hours worth of sticking to nearly everything I touched, I finally had the mothermolds completed:

The next step is to pull apart the mother molds, peel out the clay, re-assemble the mother molds with the silicone glove mold inside, turn the whole thing over, and pour more silicone in to fill the area where the clay was. Once that's done I will be able to pull apart the mother mold, peel the silicone off of the original parts, re-assemble the mother mold, lay the silicone glove mold inside, and start casting.

The problem is that I now have to take off and fly to Seattle for most of this week and I only have one day this month that will be available to work in the shop. So it looks like I won't be able to get to casting until the first week of April.

Stay tuned.

 

[M Bison]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

******** I love your threads Thor. Love seeing all of the steps and I honestly feel like I am learning something. Wish I lived in your area so I could come by and lend a hand to get some hands on experience with the stuff you are doing.

 

[oculus1857]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

I'll be building the boots around a donor shoe that will be cast into the final piece. I'll post pictures when I have them, but for now it's difficult to explain in words.

Understandable. Pictures work so much better. Anyway, look forward to more progress and hope to see you on the 300dc.com boards as well.

 

[Boba Frett]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Amazing work, keep it up thumbsup

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

You're going to feel a little...pressure.

 

[seven]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

sweet, looking forward to more progress, hope you had a good trip in Seattle, I'm headed there tomorrow myself

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

This isn't much of an update (I haven't been in my shop in over a week) but I figured you guys would like to see it anyway.

On a whim I decided to try cold casting one of my helmets in black-tinted aluminum. Here it is just out of the mold after a few minutes of buffing with a steel wool pad:

Here's a shot of some of the details on the back:

It'll come out a bit shinier once I've finished buffing it. The next one I make will have a bit more aluminum added to give it an even brighter metal finish.

Before anyone starts asking me what "cold casting" is, please take a moment to check out the following links:

http://www.sculpt.com/technotes/COLDCAST.htm

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1163631

 

[idonutn0]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Im still VERY impressed with your work, and look forward to your updates.

 

[Mega Gigan]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

I know I'm happy with my helmet... hopefully I'll be able to have enough for the "finished model".

Although... I haven't touched my helmet since I've gotten it. It's just too pretty! I'm planning on making me a Caboose!

 

[thorssoli]

Re: HALOween 2008 Master Chief Costume Progress

Quick update:

Yesterday I poured the last of the silicone for my chest molds. I'll be pulling it apart and making my first castings today.

I also got wired on caffeine and sat up all night cutting and folding and gluing and so forth. I finished a larger size for the high definition boots and cranked out a size-tester for the bicep armor. This is me trying it on:

I also made some progress on the first helmet that I will actually finish painting. I'll start another thread on that little side project when I've got it finished.

Stay tuned.