Make Your Own Halo Army

(Heavy guitar and drums)

One of the awesome things about Maker Faire is finding

people who've figured out how to take their everyday

hobbies and turn them into life size awesomeness,

like this and like this.

Shawn Thorsson based in Petaluma, California out of his

abandoned chicken barn has put together a workshop

where he's building an army of armor and weapons

all based off of Halo.

I asked him what it takes to start putting this stuff

together, this is what he said.

Well I start with a program called Pepakura,

takes a 3D model, unfolds it, lays it flat, so you can

build it in paper, you know, card stock.

After that I go ahead and I refine it using

Bondo and Fiberglass to reinforce it, smooth it out,

shape it, and make it a little bit more of a finished piece.

Once I've got that done I make a silicone rubber mold

with Fiberglass jacket, or mother mold, to keep it

all in the right shape, out of the mold I go ahead and

make Rotocast copies in urethane resin, and then

once that's done I've got a hollow shell

that's the same shape as the original,

which needs a little bit of sanding,

and shaping, and smoothing before I can go through

the trouble of priming it, painting it,

and doing all the weathering and detail.

Nice part about this is they all get to be

a little different so they don't have to be

exactly perfect castings.

Shawn and his associates have been working on their armor

for over 10 years now, but about two years back they decided

to make this their full time gig.

They've already done a Halo fan film, let's see what

they got coming up in the future.