UNSC Marines

A buddy of mine hooked me up with a couple sets of 3D printed UNSC Halo Marine armor, and some weapons from the Halo games.

I painted them, rigged up some carriers for the armour out of hockey tape, grosgrain ribbon and paper towel.





I lined the under side of the armour and inside of the helmet with some fake leather I had kicking around for some extra stability and cushion.

I used some paper clip, with the tips daubed in glue and painted for the microphones. and a piece of clear soda bottle for a drop-down eyepiece.

I also replaced the strapping on an old ALICE ruck I had. More grosgrain ribbon, and paper towel rolled/folded and covered in hockey tape for the cushion band.




Had a lot of fun putting these guys together. Still have some tweaking (and minor repairs) to do. Have to make some liners with chinstraps for the helmets, and I may do some personalization and customization of the armour later on, too.

Enough shop talk! Here's the pics!

Okay, you got to spill the beans for your friend. Did he do these himself? Did he pick them up? I know LHS had weapons on Shapeway and some helmets but not UNSC armor. Sorry for all the questions but this is the first I've seen UNSC Troops since an attempt at some ODSTs on OSW six-seven years ago. Always wanted some troops to be around my 3A Master Chief.

thegreatshaggy wrote:

Okay, you got to spill the beans for your friend. Did he do these himself? Did he pick them up? I know LHS had weapons on Shapeway and some helmets but not UNSC armor. Sorry for all the questions but this is the first I've seen UNSC Troops since an attempt at some ODSTs on OSW six-seven years ago. Always wanted some troops to be around my 3A Master Chief.

Haha well from what he told me, he got some files from the game and tinkered with them. Scaled and did other tweaking, then ran them through his 3D Printer.

The plastic is pretty brittle. It's like cutting eggshells when shaping and adjusting stuff on the helmets.

PickleMunkey wrote:Haha well from what he told me, he got some files from the game and tinkered with them. Scaled and did other tweaking, then ran them through his 3D Printer.

The plastic is pretty brittle. It's like cutting eggshells when shaping and adjusting stuff on the helmets.

Eggshells, ouch. I remember doing something similar to a custom set of Mandalorian armor way back in the day. Flimsy and difficult to work it. Great work all BTW

thegreatshaggy wrote:

PickleMunkey wrote:Haha well from what he told me, he got some files from the game and tinkered with them. Scaled and did other tweaking, then ran them through his 3D Printer.

The plastic is pretty brittle. It's like cutting eggshells when shaping and adjusting stuff on the helmets.

Eggshells, ouch. I remember doing something similar to a custom set of Mandalorian armor way back in the day. Flimsy and difficult to work it. Great work all BTW

Appreciate it!

We're sorta brainstorming and with his approach to this, think he's gonna try and make them workable for 6" figures as well. Gonna be incorporating plastic with a bit more flex to it which will greatly come in handy.

Aw man Mandalorian stuff is so darn fun, too.

Fantastic upgrades and custom work , these look awesome . Really well done P.M , I am well impressed .

Chip wrote:Fantastic upgrades and custom work , these look awesome . Really well done P.M , I am well impressed .

Thanks a lot Chip!

Great Work and excellent outdoor pictures !

Yay awesome job again. Beautiful feeling when the armor just fits the figure, right?
I never played the game so they remind me of starship troopers/warhammer imperial guard.

When I was looking for some Sci Fi looking /astronaut armor,  I stumbled upon many many Halo models on Thingiverse. Some low poly, some very good and detailed. I once SLA printed a backplate of a regular Halo Marine, and although the print failed on one edge (my fault)  it came out quite thick and sturdy enough. I stopped trying to print eggshell armor though. I can take a look if I find a link to the files again.

Impressive work, as always! I'm continuously amazed by what you do with that hockey tape. I need to pick some of that up, methinks... :'D

They do remind me, too, of Starship Troopers and I think that's a good thing, because I liked those. Very nicely done. And I'm glad to see that you are staying loyal to the national material of choice (hockey tape).

That is an awesome mash-up of modern military attire with more futuristic accents. I was also going to make the comparison to the gear worn by the soldiers in Starship Troopers, but others familiar with the film have already made the connection. That's the perfect barren landscape for them, too; I can see their camouflage being able to easily blend in with their surroundings in that area.

Very cool! they look ready for anything!

Wow, this is so awesome looking, and I don't even play Halo or really care to! Love the custom pieces on the AOR camo; works well together and looks both futuristic and lived-in.

I'm going to be a little contrarian here (flame suit on!  ) and say that I hated the Starship Troopers movies and so this does not remind me of it at all because I've blocked it from my memory! I loved that book growing up and the movie was just a travesty... where were the mechanized suits? I've read someone's planning a reboot more faithful to the novel so fingers crossed!

Anyway, I digress. Love the use of hockey tape. Dare I say it's the duct tape of 1/6?

skywalkersaga wrote:Impressive work, as always! I'm continuously amazed by what you do with that hockey tape. I need to pick some of that up, methinks... :'D

As a former player myself, just be aware that there are a few types of tape. Old schoolers like me used to put the black, sticky tape on our blades (anybody else remember this stuff?), which I think would be a poor choice for 1/6 unless you want sticky residue all over your project. That stuff is actually now harder to find, so "regular white tape" (which actually comes in tons of colors, including black) is probably what you'll get (FYI it's what we put on our shafts for grip, but players these days tape their blades with it too). If you go into a pro shop and they ask you which type, just make sure you say "not the sticky one!"

Thanks a lot for checking this out, folks!

There are definitely some similarities between the Halo Marines and the Starship Troopers, with a mix of Aliens USCM marines thrown in also. Part of the Starship armor was actually re-use from Power Rangers.

It's funny that the Starship Troopers cartoon was actually a bit more faithful to the books than the movies...

But yeah, definitely get the grip tape over the blade tape!

I was productive yesterday.



Making helmet liners.

Can hardly tell that the microphone section of the green helmet had broken into two pieces and there was a huge crack down the side! It'll be nice when my buddy uses some sturdier material, haha.

Thanks for the closer look. Grip hockey tape on my list.

I'm sorry I missed this originally. Looking really good, PickleMunkey. I'm really enjoying what you've done so far, and the pictures are really cool -- especially the "in the field" ones. Your continued use of hockey tape is always fun to see what you come up with next.

Cheers Mark, thanks man!

Those are some cool looking marines for sure, great work on the backpack and the helmet straps too. The armor looks great.

Theboo-bomb wrote:Those are some cool looking marines for sure, great work on the backpack and the helmet straps too. The armor looks great.

Thanks! I know I'm gonna have some fun with these guys for sure.