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Forging the Hammer (Mjolnir Mk VI creation)
This information was originally posted in a MySpace blog on January 21, 2007; it is here with the highwaters' permission. HBO learned about it from a forum post.
(Link to the video of my dad painting the helmet from my Mjolnir Mk VI.)
I'll
start this off with a little introduction of myself. For those of you
who don't know, I'm the biggest Halo/Bungie fan that I know of. I love
Halo's characters, the universe, the gameplay, and the fact that Bungie
is so involved with their community of fans. If most people knew the
amount of time that Halo is on my mind they would likely think
something is wrong with me, especially at the school I'm attending. I'm
enrolled in the Interactive Design and Game Development course at
Savannah College of Art and Design, and I would have never known there
were so many people who practically -hate- Halo. Final-Fantasy-lovin'
fanbo-...I'm straying off topic, though. So back to the point, my
brother Ethan, the second biggest Halo fan I know of, was essential in
what was likely the largest project I have ever undertaken. Essential
in that I always had someone reminding me how great it was going to be
when I finished.
The project. Almost two years ago I got it in
my head that I could create my own Mjolnir armor. I didn't want it to
be just some amateurish, homemade getup though.
Calendar Entry for February 24, 2005:
Looked up pictures of Mjolnir armors. I think I can do much better. I want to try.
I did some research. Gathered all the pictures I could of armor that others had made.
Calendar Entry for February 26, 2005:
Shared
idea with Ethan. Looked at Powerisers (springy kangaroo shoes/legs).
Possible Elite chicken-walker legs. Discussed possibility of him(Elite)
chasing me(MC) through Wal-Mart. Funny. But awesome. I hope I can pull
this off.
I researched the materials I could use and how to
use them, mainly fiberglassing methods. I read, I learned, I grew
discouraged. This was going to be a huge undertaking, and I had no idea
where to start. School, World of Warcraft, and Halo 2 LANs resumed
their former places in my life.
Summer 2006. I finished my first
year in Savannah. I was looking forward to a few months of doing a
project of my own. (As opposed to projects constantly doled out by
professors.) Since I can't afford a 3D program like Max or Maya (oh
sweet, Joe Dirt is starting...) and had no way to work on a modeling
project at home, my thoughts went back to the Mjolnir idea. I imagined
myself showing up at the school's Halloween party as a Spartan. I
imagined myself trying to convince some girl to let me bodypaint her a
Cortana costume. I imagined putting ice on my resulting black eye. I
knew I could do it if I could just get started.
So I started. I
bought sheets and sheets of mat board. Glue. Fiberglass. Tape. Paint. I
stared at hundreds of reference pictures of the Chief for hours. I
studied and sketched trying to figure out how to translate these 2D
images into a 3D suit of armor. The basic workflow consisted of
sketching outlines of individual pieces onto the mat board, cutting
them with my exacto knife, then shaping and gluing them all together.
This process was more time consuming than I thought it would be.
Deconstructing a piece of armor taken from a 7 foot tall warrior,
unwrapping it visually in my head, and drawing it in 2D to a scale that
would fit my body was very difficult. I managed, though, and almost
every day for 3 months I drew, cut, glued, and fiberglassed from sun up
(Yeah, right. Try 10 AM.) to sun down (Try midnight.).
Forgive the mop atop my head. I was young and impressionable.
Working on the thigh armor. Wanted to include the holsters as they were in the Halo Graphic Novel.
Layout of all the parts completely formed, sans helmet. This is before the fiberglass was applied.
Fiberglassing
was also a long process. It was a lot messier and harder to control
than I had expected, so unfortunately...I didn't get finished in time
to take it back to school with me. No Halloween party. No dancing
Spartan.
After the fall quarter, I came home and immediately got
back into my work on the suit. I fiberglassed the helmet, primed the
whole suit, and then my dad painted it bright green using an airgun
hooked to my uncle's air compressor. I would have liked to do that part
myself, but my dad had experience from painting our farm equipment and
I couldn't afford to make mistakes so I let him do it.
(*VIDEO*~Link
to the video of my dad painting the helmet from my Mjolnir Mk VI. Same
link as at the top. Just in case you missed that one.~*VIDEO*)
Ethan removing primed pieces from the box and placing them on the makeshift table in preparation for painting.
Close-up of the helmet.
Giant beast watching us work on the armor. Covenant spy?
My dad painting.
First painted pieces.
My dad still painting.
Proof I was actually there. Pardon the expression. The sun was in my eyes? It was windy?
After
letting this base coat dry for a few days I began to paint on textures
using a combination of drybrushing and plastic wrap dipped in paint.
The plastic wrap worked suprisingly well as a faux metal texture
(thanks to my mom for the idea), so I covered the entire armor with
blots of a darker green acrylic paint. Here are some pictures of the
armor after the final painting.
So
the armor was painted. Now I had to make it wearable. I added snaps,
velcro, elastic and other fasteners all over - hidden of course. I
created some blueprints so that my mom could sew black fabric over the
foam padding I had for the helmet and the back armor. She was also kind
enough to sew longer legs onto the spandex shorts I had bought. Oh,
can't forget the holsters. Using some spare metal Erector set knock-off
pieces I bolted in some swiveling rails so that the holsters on my legs
could open and close. Along with the lights in the helmet, I also have
LEDs in the upper arms and thigh armor pieces. With the padding glued
in, my under armor completed, and the lights and holsters working, I
was finally finished with my Mjolnir Mk VI.
All that was left to do was a test run, and I knew the perfect training ground.
Check
my next entry for pictures and videos of the Mk VI in action...at EB
Games. I also have more pictures of the suit in construction. I'll post
them as soon as my computer decides to release them to me.
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