Mattster Chief
Originally uploaded by link5001.
Introducing, Master Matt!
Those of you who know me or follow my blog know that my good friend from back home, Matthew Johnson, is and has been an involved prop and costume replicator and collector for the past few years. His favorite's include movie and television pieces but he has been known to stray into other categories from time to time. His latest project takes him into a whole new realm of costuming. It is a Master Chief costume as seen in the Halo series of video games released by Microsoft's Bungie Studios for the Xbox game console. I was able to catch up with Matt earlier today and get the inside scoop on this project.
Before continuing it should be noted that this costume replica is strictly a labor of love and fan art and is not remotely intended for commercial sale.
WilmingSloan: Hello Matt, thanks for coming!
Matt: Well, thank you good sir.
WS: As you know we're here to talk about the Master Chief Armor as well as your prop/costume hobby in general. Let's start at the basics. What first got you interested in this hobby?
Matt: Star Wars costumes mostly.
WS: When did you start working on this stuff and what were some of the first things you worked on?
Matt: I started working on props in late 2002, and have gone from characters such as Jango Fett and Batman to Master Chief as seen in Halo 2
WS: Speaking of Master Chief, what is involved in this project?
Matt: Well all the armor components come as individual pieces that have to be glued together. Then any gaps must be filled in and eventually this process leads to priming and painting the piece. I make it sound easier than it really is though, this is not a project for someone with limited modeling skills
WS: So it is a full body suit of armor then?
Matt: Yes pretty much. There are a few exposed areas that revel nylon/spandex of the under suit.
WS: What drew you to this particular project?
Matt: I really just enjoyed the video game and figured this was THE piece of memorabilia to own from it
WS: I understand that you chose to go with an alternative set rather than the better known Nightmare Armor sets floating around out there. Is there any reason for this?
Matt: Yes, the alternative to Nightmare Armor was chosen because it was A) half the price and B)a much higher and professional quality
WS: At what point in the process are you currently at?
Matt: Assembling the helmet right now. It's quite a bit of gluing and cutting.
WS: Can you tell us about paint/detailing at this stage?
Matt: Well, [the armor] obviously must be primed so it will stick to the surface correctly. Then I paint the main color(a moss green) and after it is dried I will scratch areas off and paint over with silver to make "battle damage" and weathering
WS: How long to you anticipate the entire project to take?
Matt: Depending on the arrival of the next pieces and their condition, I'd say 1-3 months of work. It's a tremendous undertaking.
WS: Finally, once completed, what would you personally value the costume at. Time and Labor included (if you can estimate at this point.)
Matt: Somewhere around 2500-3000 dollars
WS: All right Matt, thanks for your time. Keep us updated and GOOD LUCK!
Matt: Thank you!
For more from the mind of matt visit his blog at www.webley.blogspot.com
For an Image of Matt's '89 Batman costume visit this link to my Flickr album BatMatt
For more on Master Chief and Halo visit the official Bunge site, Bungie.net
Domo arigoto Mr. Roachboto....
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