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Description
So, now that I have a few minutes, this was a beast to tackle. I discovered during the process of hollowing out the EOD helmet that my Dremel's battery is on a half life of day before the charge bleeds off regardless of being connected to the Dremel or free. The cordless units just don't last. This will be my second one fried in four years.

Anyways, the Grenadier chest actually only needed a little bit of cutting to make it fit over her chest. The challenge came in for flexing the lower chest armor bits to connect with the underarm chest molding. I ended up trying the blowdryer technique and hot water, but the bit is too thick and would flex back to shape over time. My end result was to drill two holes through the upper torso, then marking on the chest where the holes were. I proceeded to take a regular nail that I shortened that fit perfectly in the hole. Again, I heated the part, ran the nail through and glued down the part. I then waited for it to harden and cool before filling in the gap to make it look natural. Some Mr. Surfacer 1000 later, and the chest nearly seamlessly integrated with the female body. I ended up tacking on some glue for the over the shoulders/back points because over time it wanted to hover. That fixed that nicely.

The kneepads were a bit of challenge. I borrowed the basic Spartan III's knees from the air assault two pack and hollowed them until the bit would fit over the legs. I then cut away the standard knee guards while trying not to lose leg details. It's tricky as there is a bit of support for the pegs built in here. Too much chopping could result in instability. The new guards lined up nicely. I bit of wire drilled in to support them and a dab of glue sealed them to her body. A bit of fill masked the whoops cuts.

Her wrist guard is a repurposed Recon shoulder bit. I drilled a small wire hole for it to peg onto her left wrist similar to the normal armor and called it good.

The med pack is actually a recast I made with Apoxy Sculpt and some of that quick cast stuff I was advised to try on here. Works nice. You can see a little bit of deformation that I'm just noticing in the pictures, but I had ones that really turned out scary. It needed just a small touch of sculpt to fill out some open spots on the legs and it worked perfect.

Everything else was staring at the game, painting, and tweaking or drybrushing to bring it together. I've noticed the female Spartan-III's joints rub harder than their male counterparts. It's kind of frustrating to have to repaint them. I've read a few guides on how to counter this but have yet to try it. Any suggestions on that would be appreciated.

You'll notice the limited posing. I have to say this isn't the final pose for this figure. I need to work on its base. I should pound out the last two priority Spartan IIIs (and a certain some one's Viking's inspired Security Spartan). This probably would have been done a bit sooner, but between online debit card hijacking and the flooding around the Duluth area, I've been a bit busy just riding out the chaos. Yee-haw!

Other views for those interested in seeing the depth chaos:

Close up of the head:
[link]

All the other views:
[link]

[link]

[link]

[link]

Description
So, now that I have a few minutes, this was a beast to tackle. I discovered during the process of hollowing out the EOD helmet that my Dremel's battery is on a half life of day before the charge bleeds off regardless of being connected to the Dremel or free. The cordless units just don't last. This will be my second one fried in four years.

Anyways, the Grenadier chest actually only needed a little bit of cutting to make it fit over her chest. The challenge came in for flexing the lower chest armor bits to connect with the underarm chest molding. I ended up trying the blowdryer technique and hot water, but the bit is too thick and would flex back to shape over time. My end result was to drill two holes through the upper torso, then marking on the chest where the holes were. I proceeded to take a regular nail that I shortened that fit perfectly in the hole. Again, I heated the part, ran the nail through and glued down the part. I then waited for it to harden and cool before filling in the gap to make it look natural. Some Mr. Surfacer 1000 later, and the chest nearly seamlessly integrated with the female body. I ended up tacking on some glue for the over the shoulders/back points because over time it wanted to hover. That fixed that nicely.

The kneepads were a bit of challenge. I borrowed the basic Spartan III's knees from the air assault two pack and hollowed them until the bit would fit over the legs. I then cut away the standard knee guards while trying not to lose leg details. It's tricky as there is a bit of support for the pegs built in here. Too much chopping could result in instability. The new guards lined up nicely. I bit of wire drilled in to support them and a dab of glue sealed them to her body. A bit of fill masked the whoops cuts.

Her wrist guard is a repurposed Recon shoulder bit. I drilled a small wire hole for it to peg onto her left wrist similar to the normal armor and called it good.

The med pack is actually a recast I made with Apoxy Sculpt and some of that quick cast stuff I was advised to try on here. Works nice. You can see a little bit of deformation that I'm just noticing in the pictures, but I had ones that really turned out scary. It needed just a small touch of sculpt to fill out some open spots on the legs and it worked perfect.

Everything else was staring at the game, painting, and tweaking or drybrushing to bring it together. I've noticed the female Spartan-III's joints rub harder than their male counterparts. It's kind of frustrating to have to repaint them. I've read a few guides on how to counter this but have yet to try it. Any suggestions on that would be appreciated.

You'll notice the limited posing. I have to say this isn't the final pose for this figure. I need to work on its base. I should pound out the last two priority Spartan IIIs (and a certain some one's Viking's inspired Security Spartan). This probably would have been done a bit sooner, but between online debit card hijacking and the flooding around the Duluth area, I've been a bit busy just riding out the chaos. Yee-haw!

Other views for those interested in seeing the depth chaos:

Close up of the head:
[link]

All the other views:
[link]

[link]

[link]

[link]