Since the creation of my blog, nothing new has been done, and I’ve promised myself to update this every Friday with SOMETHING. For the first few weeks, I decided to just do posts on past projects.

So today, we have my first armor project, the UNSC SPARTAN-II MJOLNIR MK-VI Helmet. Finished this in mid-2008, it’s been the center piece of my armor collection so far, despite a number of short comings (how smooth it is, number of details removed, visor, etc etc etc). All the same, I’m quite proud of it, and it bears a lot of sentimental value.

Of we go then!

We start in early 2008 with the base model, a Robogenisis (405th Infantry Division member) Mark-VI MJOLNIR Helmet, better known as the Master Chief’s helmet from Halo 2-3. The base model was a form of cut+paste paper components that fit together like a 3D puzzle.

This is a process that has been dubbed Pepakura, and the software is available for download and purchase here. Models are best located by Google, but most of the best Halo models are available here.

Once the paper pattern was finished up, the whole thing was coated in automotive fiberglassing resin (available at most hardware stores) and covered the interior of the helmet with fiberglass, which gave it a significant degree of durability.

With the whole helmet coated in fiberglass and resin, you can now toss it around fairly safely. It can still shatter in an impact, but it’s no longer floppy and flexible.

Next step: apply bondo to all of the places I want to be smooth on the helmet, then sand. This is probably the trickiest step of the process.

As you can see, it looks smoother then before. This isn’t a fully finished version of the helmet, so there are still a few nicks and bumps in awkward places.

Painting time!

Helmet received an olive drab coat of paint over a black under layer that was masked off to create the detail places you can see in this image. This coat of paint was a satin coat, so it had a slight sheen to it, which I didn’t really like on this helmet. Next step is lights and the grills that fill in the gaps at the front of the mouth piece.

Ignoring the poor image quality, you can now see the helmet has received three finishing touches: LEDs on the sides for sweeto-blindo vision, black grime in the grooves, and the grills on the jaw plate.

This was the final iteration of my MK-VI helmet before I repainted the whole thing with a cherry red and flat black coat for my local robotics team.

Next week, my UNSC MJOLNIR MK-VI EOD variant helmet!

UPDATE March 4, 2012:

So I’ve repainted my Mk-VI more times then I can count, so I’ll just post my most recent paintjob of the Mk-VI.

Along with the new cherry paint job, I also sealed off the gap between the visor and the helmet’s jaw, as well as added the triangular inserts on the front.