One More HALO Project Update

I've managed to get a few things done in the shop over the past couple of days.

First up, here's an old pistol prototype I've had on the shelf for a while.


I bought it from another maker who printed it out on some sort of rapid prototyping machine. It's way too small (about half-sized) but it looks cool, so I wet-sanded and primed and wet-sanded it and then dusted it with some silver paint. I'm toying with the idea of molding it up and casting copies. They'll go well with my kid-sized helmets that I've started cranking out:


I also made the first pull from the calf mold and primed it:


Then I started the paintjob on the rest of the armor:


The plan is to make a battle-scarred version of the paintjob worn by the Master Chief in the game. To that end, I start with a black primer and then put on a solid metallic coat (DupliColor Chrome if it matters):


Then I use mustard to mask off all of the areas where I want to have scratches showing bare metal, spray the entire thing with Rustoleum "Army Green" gloss spraypaint, then dust it heavily with Krylon Camoflage Ultra-Flat something or other. It's the dark green from that color line-up. Once that starts to stiffen up, I go over the whole thing with a rag, wiping off all of the mustard masked portions to show the bare metal color underneath:

I think the effect is pretty good:


Somewhere in the past couple of days I got back to tinkering with the visor again:

I've just about perfected the look and it'll look perfect once the paintjob is done:


I still need to finish the prototypes for the thigh armor. It's still at the 75% point right now:


I ran out of moldmaking rubber over the weekend and the new shipment arrives tomorrow. I also ran out of casting resin, so I ordered another ten gallons. Because I'm an addict and I can't wait that long for my fix, I'd also picked up some smaller quantities from TAP Plastics (my local supplier) just to keep up the momentum of productivity.

The plan was to have the whole thing done and wearable in time for Halloween, and it sounded like a good deal. I have altered the deal. More about that in my next post.

Stay tuned...