Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Halo Armor.

To be frank, the only Halo I've ever played was Custom Edition (and Combat Evolved for the campaign), because I couldn't find a reasonable excuse to upgrade to a 360 and purchase games in tandem with a Live subscription.

I have played while visiting friends, though- and I have discovered that I prefer the keyboard and mouse to the handheld controller.

Not really related: I'm terribad at MW2, but I enjoy playing for laughs with friends of mine on PC.

Even so, I've had a fascination with the Halo series' MJOLNIR armor since its inception with the Master Chief.

When I first discovered my interest in producing a set of armor, there were no options to do so without extensive investment in deciphering the specifications and myriad subtleties involved in every piece.

In a textbook case of the internet is awesome, within a few years there was [ http://www.405th.com/ ], who are mainly Halo costumers (although I have seen a few other projects on the forums).

They're probably associated with / inspired by [ http://www.501st.com/ ], who are Star Wars costumers. Speaking of Star Wars, I also like the Utapau Shadow Trooper costume. The idea of integrated electromagnets (or other fastening devices) that allow rapid disguise (and shedding thereof) is an interesting concept to me.

There's the ridiculously comprehensive costuming wiki over at [ http://halocostuming.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page ], which has a repository of Pepakura files that cover almost every reasonable prop that you'd want to model from the Halo universe.

For the uninformed, Pepakura is a program used to facilitate papercraft modeling- bridging the gap between CAD and origami, it allows the production of reference models that can be cut, folded, glued (and perhaps reinforced), allowing for relatively cheap production of armorlike props.

I recently discovered this application named Vanity by the folks over at [ http://veegie.com/ ], which permits the rendering of the armor available in Halo: Reach.

I'm currently considering investing in a large quantity of clay and some mannequin pieces to create molds instead of pepping (a borrowed-verb for constructing by the Pepakura-paper-mache method) and casting my pieces from some sort of light plastic.

Another idea would be to convert the Pepakura files for cutting with the CNC Plasma-cutter, because lightweight aluminum would easily weld and look decent after some finishing work.

What are your thoughts on costuming?

Related: Here's a render of an idea I've got for a finished suit (JFO helmet, ODST chest and shoulders. FJ/Para Kneeguards). It's in color, believe it or not- but I plan on painting my suit something like a camoflauged black/gray with a scarlet visor (inspired by the Utapau folks).

3 comments:

  1. Well man, I never really got into Halo too much. But as far as costumes go, I've always promised myself that if I ever become rich, I will spend the rest of my days wearing only Jedi robes. True story.

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  2. Looks really well done. But I don't like the chest plate on it. The Mark IV is one of the best, in my opinion.

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  3. I think I saw one being sold on ebay before

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