Sean's Halo 3 ODST Build

[seantrooper]

Hey all, thought I'd share this build with you all. I've had this kit for a while, and been slowly doing work to it. But hoping to ramp it up and get it all finished for Brisnova this year. The kit is made by Sean Bradley, and is very good indeed. Even though it is made of HIPS, the plastic the very thick and I don't have any concerns about it cracking.

Obligatory brown box photo



I'll save you from looking at photos of every piece trimmed, and skip straight to forearms being assembled.

FOREARMS

prior to assembly, after trimming




forearm taped up, with elbow sitting next to it





showing the butt join between the two halves of the forearm



I used split rivets to hold the two halves together, rather than pop rivets, as I feel the solid rivet looks much better.



inside view, you can see I used plastic "washers" to keep the parts together. Also glued a strip of plastic down the middle as you would when assembling a TK



assembled, before elbows



elbows added, I used a bent piece of scrap plastic to attach the elbows, as I didn't like the look of having exposed rivets here as suggested by the maker





I still have to add some details to the forearms as seen here. I am most likely going to make it out of plastic or foam, I already have some corrugated plastic sheet to use as the "strap", so it's just the matter of making the "buckles"




SHINS

The back part of the shins had to be butt joined together, same as the forearms.



I used plastic strips to hold the two halves together, then reinforced with some selleys knead it. It's very sturdy now, just have to fill the seam on the outside with car bog to make it seamless.




SHOULDERS


Shoulder bell trimmed out






HELMET


helmet with the visor trimmed out. The resin in this was really thick, reaching nearly 10mm in some places, so do risk of this thing getting broken any time soon. Since these photos I have sanded down the seamline and have gotten it ready for paint.

The mirror finish on the actual visor is very delicate, so I was thinking of solutions to prevent damage to it. When I ordered the kit, I was thinking about playing around with getting window tint onto a clear visor, so Sean sent me a B-grade clear visor along with my kit. When i received it and was playing around with it a bit I realised that I could solve my problems by simply placing the clear visor inside of the mirrored one, therefore protecting it from any fog/sweat that I may (will) produce. The two visors doesn't affect the visibility at all, and from what I can tell, will solve the problem completely, as the inner clear visor can be cleaned or even replaced with very little hassle and at no risk to the mirrored finish of the other visor.








I have also gotten a M6C SOCOM (the silenced pistol) kit off Branfuhr Studios and have pretty much finished that. I'll have photos up soon, with some notes on the kit.

[Triple9]

Looks awesome love halo

[PhantomBlade]

Donut can never have too many other ODSTs to play with.

[Cyclops]

This should be good .

[seantrooper]

Moving on to the weapon. I decided I wanted to get the silenced pistol (M6C SOCOM), and a maker called Branfuhr Studios makes an awesome kit.

Resin parts all laid out but pretty much as I received it, some minor assembly done for the mag, and general sanding done to remove the seamline but otherwise was a very clean cast and very detailed.



had to chop the front off this part in order to accommodate the silencer



The mag is removable and held in using rare earth magnets




detail on the bottom of the mag



front of the pistol had to be drilled out



All the pieces glued together, I decided to opt against having the slide move, as it creates extra work and lowers the overall durability for something that I would rarely use.





size comparison next to my E-11.... this is certainly a very large pistol



I painted it using Rustoleum Satin Nickel, and just the cheap flat black paint for the grip.

Here are some photos before weathering





And all weathered up. You can see the big difference the weathering makes in bringing out the detail as well as adding some extra realism. All weathering was done with black acrylic paint.

[TerrorFirma]

Loving this build mate, extra love on that pistol too

Terror

[Cyclops]

Beautiful work on the pistol mate , great weathering .

[Xmez]

I like how the pistol is almost the same size of the blaster. Haha

[DannytheBlue]

Looks great Sean , We may get to see this at Magneticon next year

[Bally]

*taking notes on paints used*

[Whitey]

Looks awesome mate. Love the way the pistol turned out. The weathering looks great.

[seantrooper]

Update time!

as promised here are my assembled shins/knees


showing how the ankle parts are connected to the front of the shin piece. I opted to glue in the little support pieces so I had no visible rivets.





both shins together with the ankle bits



another closeup of the attachment




knees were attached with rivets, as suggested by Sean




now we have the helmet.

I decided to d a base coat of silver, then use masking fluid before the top coat to make paint chips for the weathering.

I am using White Knight Squirts Metallic Charcoal for the main colour, and Midnight Blue of the same brand for the details.

Here are photos after I have painted it, with the masking fluid still on there.



with the masking fluid removed. I went for a pretty heavily weathered look, as I figure an ODST would see some action and get pretty damaged in the process.





Here I have the stripe on the helmet masked out, the masking fluid was applied over where any silver was showing through where the blue would paint over. was also done in a couple more areas to give it a little more chipping of just the blue.




Here is the finished product! I scuffed up the paint chips a bit with sand paper, so the edges aren't as harsh. Also drybrushed some black into a few of the scratches. I am planning to do a blackwash over everything as well, but I'll wait until I have the rest of the armour done so I can keep it consistent.




shot of inside the helmet, showing the clear visor stuck behind the mirrored one to protect it.



and finally proof that it fits on my head





let me know what you think! Next update will probably be the thighs, I'm working on a little something to bring the kit a bit closer to the game models. So you'll have to wait and see :P

[Triple9]

Looks awesome

[MjrD]

Very cool

[SupaTrooper]

Nice work champ !