Nov 2, 2015 | By Alec
Halloween has come and gone, but fortunately the memories, costumes and of course the photographs remain. And if you’ve put as much effort into your outfit as Redditor profezzorn, you’ll be cherishing those memories for a long time. While the web was again filled with impressive Halloween costumes, few have been as remarkable as profezzorn’s full size Master Chief armor, from the Halo video game franchise, featuring more than 15 kilograms of plastic.
This impressive tribute to the Halo video game franchise has generated quite a response from the web, doubtlessly related to a new popularity surge surrounding the release of Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox One. While many of us would be more than happy to play Master Chief on the screen, Redditor profezzorn has been spending the last eight months or so on a more tangible project. As he revealed on Reddit’s 3D printing subreddit, he has 3D printed a massive, custom-made and form-fitting suit that was truly a gigantic and time-consuming project.
The suit itself is based on the most iconic MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, known as the character’s preferred suit. To save a bit of time, profezzorn is sensibly wearing a spandex costume underneath that some of you might recognize as being a Nanosuit from Crysis – for a quick change halfway into a party perhaps? To finish off the custome, profezzorn has also added a 3D printed battle rifle.
And as he revealed, this eight-month project was an arduous one, not at least because everything is 3D printed using a Velleman k8200 (with a j-head and some minor tweaks), which only has a 20x20x20cm (~8x8x8") build space. That means lots, and lots and lots, of small pieces. All armor pieces where 3D printed at a mm in height. Except for the helmet (which he found on Thingiverse and completed with a gold iridium motorcycle visor), everything was designed at home. ‘If I had more time I would've made my own helmet as this one is lacking a lot of details (but is easy to print),’ he reveals.
Design itself took place in Blender, though profezzorn has quite some modeling experience himself. ‘I've been using other 3D tools (max/maya) periodically over the last 15 years so I had some basic know how. Googled and watched some YouTube tutorials as well [to learn Blender]. I used the obj files available as a base and added details to those,’ he reveals.
As you can imagine, the project was quite costly. While profezzorn didn’t meticiously keep track of costs, he estimates he spent up to $100 a month throughout the project’s duration, which is understandable when looking at 500 hours of 3D printing time and 15 kilograms of plastic used (not counting the countless failed prints). ‘I checked the files –an estimated print time would be 500h of constant printing! that's 22½ days. That's not counting failed prints and test so you can probably add some more time,’ he says. About 100 hours was spent on failed parts.
After sanding and fixing gaps, everything was airbrushed in his apartment or out on the balcony, with parts being added to a mannequin or taped together while the model slowly grew. It’s not hard to imagine how frustrating the assembly part can be – the gun along consisted of 13 different parts.
The results, however, were definitely worth it and make any gamer’s mouth water with jealously. If you’re hoping to recreate this fantastic suit yourself, there’s just one small problem. For the time being, at least, the successful maker isn’t planning to release the files just yet. ‘I spent too much time making these so I won't share for now. Plus, these are tailored for my body so it won't fit many,’ he says on Reddit. While that is a shame for those of us not as talented with CAD design, that’s totally up to the designer himself. What’s more, profezzorn did add that he might share them in the near future, so keep an eye out for him and a truly inspiring Master Chief suit.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Hi, would it be possible to buy the STL files for the suit? If so please contact me on my email nickynoo7961@gmail.com Please give me a quote and I will be open to an offer. Thank you Nick
David wrote at 9/4/2017 10:33:03 AM:
Hi. New to this. This it's a awesome armor!!! I am looking on working on this project. I got 3d printing files from thingiverse.com Just wondering how you make your inner suit??
luke wrote at 5/8/2017 10:39:50 PM:
hi what scale did you print these at as the ones on thingiverse are really small
Jace wrote at 9/15/2016 3:23:41 AM:
Nice job, All these files are readily available on thingyverse or Yeggi or multiple other channels. the undersuit you can but on ebay as it is from the game Crysis. Still he did a great job ; )
Justin bridges wrote at 6/22/2016 11:48:17 PM:
Hello Im just curious how much this would all cost to reproduce it just the plastic pieces for the armor and the helmet. and would you be willing to make these for people such as myself? My email is jushrz784@gmail.com
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