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I've been a fan of Halo since the first game I played years ago but it wasn't until I spotted people making the game's armour that I thought to myself "yeah, I want one of those!".
I found the the forum at www.mjolnirarmor.com (now called www.405th.com) where there were heaps of people wanting the same thing: a suit of Spartan armour from Halo. People would modify helmets or vacuform parts and some were able to sculpt and mould pieces (like you'd see in those behind-the-scenes features for films). Other made there's out of cardboard kind of like when you were a kid.
The last method quickly evolved into Pepakura and allowed more and more fans to make not only Halo costumes but all sorts of armour and props. And it's that very method that I'm using for this although it's not the first time I've used this method. Last year's AVCon I made this Gears of War amour.
Pepakura basically means 'paper craft'. Here's a more detailed description of it.
I began this project many many months ago but had to constantly put it aside for other more immediate projects. The first port of all was to collect all the different 'pep' parts I needed to make the costume (fortunately they are all listed at the same wiki as the previous link). The next step was to get sizing right.
These are the three helmets I have made from three different Pep files. The one on the left is a low res version I made to test the size I needed (I have a massive head). The middle helmet was a medium res version I put together originally thinking that it was going to be the one I was going to use. The one of the right is a high res model that contains all the details required of the helmet (very handy as I will not have to add them later).
Just me pissfarting about.
The helmet had been sitting gathering dust for some time until recently when I decided to pull up the socks and get back into the groove of things.
This is the work-in progress of the torso armour. Again this is a high res version of the model and in fact the second go I took at it because the first was too small. This one, as a matter of fact is about 3cm too wide but I can alter that later.
I print the unfolded pieces onto 200gsm cardstock easily purchased from Officeworks and use hot glue to glue all the tabs together. With the hundreds or thousands of tabs that need gluing I find the process rather meditative.
It's been estimated that a single suit of armour can take 12 months to create. I have three months now if I want to get it done in time for AVcon in July. So the plan is to get all the pep work done by the end of April, resin the parts starting May and get it all sanded and painted by the end of same. June would be dedicated to any other detailing and also the undersuit (some just wear black clothes underneath but I want to do this right).
More pics to follow...
