Some of you know that I've done some cosplays over the years, but the vast majority were terribad, awful, just...ugh. The low quality cosplay you could get away with 15 years ago just won't fly now! Anyhoo, thanks to some prodding to play halo with some friends, I've rediscovered why I love the armor customization in Halo Reach. I mean, it's a great game to begin with, but this game is just plain awesome!
I mean, look at this! This spartan looks bad ass! And yes, that is my spartan in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. When I'm playing Reach multiplayer or campaign, that's the armor I'm wearing. And while perusing the internet a while back, I stumbled upon a forum with something very relevant to my interests.
There's a cosplay group called The 405th, and they're a Halo cosplay group in a similar vein to The 501st Legion for Star Wars cosplay. They have this wonderful little thread full of 3D printable Halo armor. And that? That...well, it got my attention. I finally decided to pull the trigger and downloaded all the parts I would need, including the MA37 assault rifle. The rifle is currently printed and ready for priming and painting:
I was gonna do all black filament, but I realized that a 3D printed prop will NEED painting and seal coating to reinforce it. Otherwise, it's simply going to break the first time something bumps into it. So after that first piece was done, I printed the rest in yellow. Mainly because I had that spool for god knows how long and I started running low on black filament thanks to the many mistakes I made while trying to print the damn thing. First it was one thing, then it was another, and it just spiraled out of control.
ANYWAY! That rifle had to be split up into 5 parts, each part requiring at least 30 hours to print. So yeah, that was, like, a week of printing. No joke. But it's done! And now I need to coat it in PVA glue and then prime and paint. Oh, and figure out an ammo display counter. No idea how I'm gonna do that one, to be perfectly honest...
But regardless, I'll keep posting updates as I go! I'm really excited to make this a thing. I like my Spartan, and I think it'll be fun to make my character.