I originally started this project in July 2017 with the goal of building a full set of Recluse Spartan-IV armor from Halo 5: Guardians. I began with extracted game files, separated and scaled the armor for my body, and printed the original suit on a LulzBot TAZ 6 using eSUN PLA+. That first version came together in time for Dragon Con, where wearing it for a full convention gave me a much better understanding of what worked—and what needed to change.
The project didn’t end there. In 2018 I added the missing rear power cell, and in 2019, with Halo: Outpost Discovery approaching, I decided to rebuild the armor almost entirely. Mark II gave me a chance to apply two years of lessons learned: smoother geometry, less weight, better physical detail, stronger construction, and a much cleaner finished result.
That evolution ultimately took the project farther than I ever expected when I started printing the first pieces. The Recluse Mark II went on to win Best in Show at Halo: Outpost Discovery, and the chest armor itself was featured by Polymaker at CES.
This build log covers the entire journey—from the original 2017 suit, through the power-cell upgrade, to the final Mark II build.
Project at a Glance
Armor: Halo 5: Guardians Recluse Spartan-IV Armor
Project Span: July 2017 – July 2019
Mark I — Original Build: July–September 2017
Built from extracted Halo 5 game files, scaled in Armorsmith, prepared in Meshmixer, and 3D printed in eSUN PLA+ on a LulzBot TAZ 6. The completed suit debuted at Dragon Con, where convention wear exposed several fit and rigging issues that influenced later improvements.
2018 Upgrade: Rear power cell / power plant
The missing rear power-cell model was smoothed in Blender, segmented with registration features, printed, and installed between the boosters. It improved both the stability of the rear armor and the overall Recluse silhouette.
Mark II — Complete Rebuild: March–July 2019
Rebuilt using two years of lessons from Mark I, with smoother geometry, reduced weight, additional physical detail derived from the game textures, improved alignment and reinforcement, an integrated power cell, and more efficient printable shells.
Software: Meshmixer, Armorsmith, Blender, and Simplify3D
Printer: LulzBot TAZ 6
Material: eSUN PLA+, Polymaker PLA
Finishing & Assembly: Two-part epoxy, spot putty/filler, primer, XTC-3D/epoxy smoothing, rivets, elastic, buckles, hot glue, spray paint and clear coat
Color Scheme: Metallic black with orange accents, based on my Halo 5 multiplayer Spartan and inspired in part by Poe Dameron’s X-wing.
Final Debut: Halo: Outpost Discovery Orlando, July 2019
Recognition: Best in Show at Halo: Outpost Discovery; Mark II chest armor later featured by Polymaker at CES.
Starting the Recluse Build — 2017
The project began with the extracted Halo 5 OBJ files. My first task was separating the armor into individual shells in Meshmixer so that I could work with each piece independently.
To establish the scale, I created a custom digital mannequin in Armorsmith using my body measurements. That gave me a starting point, but I quickly learned one of the biggest lessons of the entire project: a single scaling percentage does not necessarily work for an entire suit of armor.
My first bicep was too small. My first attempt at a gauntlet also needed adjustment. From that point forward, I started treating the shoulders, forearms, torso, shins, thighs, and other parts as independent fitting problems rather than assuming one universal scale would work everywhere.
Scaling Armor in ArmorSmith
The original game assets also presented another choice. The Recluse armor had a very recognizable polygonal appearance, and initially I chose to preserve much of that rather than smoothing everything away.
Game-derived files also aren’t always print-ready. I learned to inspect the meshes carefully before generating G-code because automatic repair tools can merge geometry that was intentionally separate or create problems elsewhere in the model.
Meshmixer’s Separate Shells function became particularly useful for preserving pieces that the original game artists had already modeled independently.
The various parts split in Meshmixer
Building the Chest and Boosters
The chest was one of the largest and most recognizable pieces of the build.
I kept the front and rear shells separate and divided the front chest into seven printable sections, the rear into four, and each booster into two pieces. Because the chest would be such a visible part of the finished suit, I printed those sections at a 0.2 mm layer height.
Once the first major chest section came off the printer and I confirmed the fit, I moved on to the distinctive rear boosters—one of the main reasons I had chosen Recluse armor in the first place.
Chest shells split, thank you Halo Studios
After assembly came the less glamorous part: seams.
I used spot putty and repeated rounds of sanding to hide the joints between printed sections. The armor’s compound angles made heavy body filler awkward in some areas, so I generally preferred materials that were easier to control.
Once the seams were under control, I started applying primer and developing the final color scheme.
Choosing the Color Scheme
The armor was based on my Halo 5 multiplayer Spartan, so I went with a metallic black base and orange accents.
There was also a little bit of Poe Dameron’s X-wing in the visual inspiration. I liked the combination of dark surfaces with strong orange highlights, although I planned to tone the orange down slightly with weathering and a light wash.
The first painted components confirmed that the combination was going to work.
Painted and complete boosters, prior to assembly to the main body
Shins, Shoulders, and Final Armor Pieces
I printed each shin in two sections. Originally, I considered creating a magnetic split closure, but once the pieces were assembled I discovered that the opening was large enough for my foot to pass through without it.
The shins were also one of the more difficult parts to scale correctly. Fortunately, the final version still gave me nearly full knee movement.
By August 20, I had printed every major armor component except the thighs, and the suit was finally starting to look like a complete set rather than a collection of parts scattered around the shop.
Numerous pieces printed
Finished arm pieces
Making the Armor Wearable
Printing the armor was only part of the challenge. It also had to stay on my body while I walked around a convention.
For the chest connection and suspension system, I used hidden buckles attached to elastic straps. The straps were riveted to the armor, and the buckles were also hot-glued in place as an additional safeguard.
That gave me several layers of security: mechanical fastening from the rivets, flexibility from the elastic, and adhesive backup.
A half-suit test confirmed that the proportions were working, and shortly before Dragon Con I performed the first nearly complete presentation of the armor.
First test fit of the upper body
Dragon Con — The First Real Test
The first full convention outing was a success.
The armor received a great response, but more importantly, Dragon Con became a real-world stress test.
Short workshop fittings can tell you whether armor fits. They do not necessarily tell you how it will behave after hours of walking, posing, bending, sitting, and moving through a convention.
The event exposed one strap problem and several areas where the armor was biting into me painfully. None of those problems had been obvious during shorter fittings at home.
That experience changed the way I approached armor builds afterward.
A convention isn’t just where the finished suit gets shown off.
It’s where the prototype gets tested.
First professional photo, Credit Workman Reflections Photography
The Missing Power Cell — 2018
One thing had always bothered me about the original armor: the missing rear power cell.
For nearly a year, I searched for the model before finally obtaining it in 2018.
I brought the raw geometry into Blender, smoothed it, and divided it for printing. I also incorporated registration features based on techniques I had developed while working on earlier BR55 builds.
Once printed, the power cell fit between the two boosters and replaced a temporary rear strap I had been using to stabilize them.
The improvement was bigger than I expected.
Visually, the rear of the armor finally looked complete.
Functionally, it also stabilized the boosters and made the entire rear assembly feel much more substantial.
Power cell integrated into the back section
Power Cell fully integrated
Recluse Mark II — Starting Over in 2019
By early 2019, Halo: Outpost Discovery was approaching.
At that point, I had spent nearly two years learning from the original Recluse armor, other builds, and a lot more time behind a 3D printer.
Instead of continuing to modify Mark I, I decided to build another complete Recluse suit.
The goals for Mark II were straightforward:
Smoother geometry.
Lower weight.
Better physical detail.
More efficient construction.
Better overall fit and finish.
I started with the gauntlets and then moved into the shins. Meshmixer and Blender both became part of the workflow because each program handled different parts of the modeling process particularly well.
Side-by-side comparisons between the original components and Mark II immediately showed how much the process had improved.
Comparison of MK I (left) and MK II (right) gauntlets
Comparison of MK II (left) and MK I (right) shin armor
Turning Texture Details Into Real Geometry
One of the biggest changes involved details that technically existed in Halo 5 but weren’t modeled into the game’s physical geometry.
Some features existed only in the texture maps.
For Mark II, I began converting those features into actual printable relief, greebles, and surface details.
I reworked the biceps, gauntlets, and other armor piecs using this approach.
Along the way, I also learned not to over-smooth everything. On one version of the gauntlet, I realized I had rounded edges around the side circles that should have remained sharp. I went back, corrected the geometry, and restored the proper detail.
There were times when rebuilding parts from scratch probably would have been easier.
But I liked preserving a direct connection to the original game assets.
Details added to the shoulder armor
Lighter, Cleaner Parts
Mark II also gave me an opportunity to rethink how the files themselves were constructed.
My first instinct might have been to simply reduce infill or perimeter counts to save weight. Those settings helped, but they weren’t the biggest factor.
The real improvement came from removing unnecessary internal game-mesh geometry and creating cleaner printable shells.
The redesigned thighs were more detailed than Mark I while also being substantially lighter.
That became another important lesson from this project:
Efficient model design can matter more than simply lowering your infill percentage.
Printed MK II thigh armor
Redesigning the Rear Armor
The rear armor was one of the biggest opportunities for improvement.
On Mark I, the power cell had been added later as a separate component.
For Mark II, I integrated it directly into the rear chest design.
I also added internal reinforcement and guide pins so that the pieces would align more reliably and transfer load more effectively through the structure.
Once the first major rear section came off the printer with the power cell already integrated, it was obvious that this was a better solution.
It eliminated the movement that had bothered me on Mark I and created a much stronger rear assembly.
Back armor with added reinforcement
Back armor with Power Cell fully integrated with the print
Finishing Mark II
With the major printing complete, the build moved into finishing.
I assembled the printed sections, filled and sanded the seams, and used XTC-3D and epoxy where appropriate to smooth and reinforce the surfaces.
Primer became more than just a step toward paint.
It was also a modeling tool.
Fine greebles and surface features that were difficult to see in black filament suddenly became obvious once the parts were primed. That made it much easier to identify areas that still needed cleanup.
Parts after a fresh round of XTC-3D
Gauntlets fully primed after sanding
I also experimented with magnetically removable boosters.
They worked fine during static testing.
Walking was another story.
Normal body movement introduced enough shifting that I wasn’t comfortable trusting the magnets, so I abandoned the removable concept and bonded the boosters permanently.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the right one.
Finishing the Recluse Mark II
By June 2019, the individual pieces were moving through different stages of paint and finishing.
The gauntlet blades received a metallic base before the primary colors went on. The chest seams were filled, sanded, reinforced, and smoothed. The biceps and shoulders received their final paint, and the rear assembly became a single solid structure.
The metallic black and orange scheme returned from Mark I, but the improved geometry and surface preparation made the entire suit look dramatically cleaner.
By early July, Mark II was ready.
One final detail was particularly personal: I added my Spartan ID 037 in braille to the chest.
The first complete suit-up felt like looking at a high-definition version of the armor I had built two years earlier.
Fully completed front chest armor with braille detail
First full test fit of MK II (compare with MK I below)
MK I Recluse for comparison
Halo: Outpost Discovery
I debuted the completed Recluse Mark II at Halo: Outpost Discovery Orlando in July 2019.
That moment effectively closed a project that had started two years earlier with extracted game files, trial-and-error scaling, and a printer running almost continuously.
Mark II wasn’t just a nicer version of Mark I.
It represented everything I had learned from building, wearing, repairing, modeling, printing, finishing, and rebuilding the armor over those two years.
The finished suit ultimately went on to win Best in Show at Halo: Outpost Discovery.
With Zeta and the Halo Studios Spartans for Halo Outpost Discovery
Onstage at Halo Outpost Discovery post the Cosplay contest with Redshirt
What I Learned From the Recluse Build
Looking back, this project taught me a lot of lessons that continued to influence how I approached later armor and prop builds.
Scale armor by body region, not one universal percentage.
My early bicep and gauntlet attempts showed that shoulders, forearms, legs, and torso can all require different adjustments.
Inspect game-derived models before printing.
Missing faces, hidden geometry, merged shells, and automatic repairs can create problems that aren’t obvious until slicing.
Think about segmentation before cutting a model apart.
Part boundaries should consider printer volume, visible surfaces, assembly, and where seams can realistically be hidden.
Model efficiency matters.
Removing unnecessary internal geometry produced major weight savings on Mark II without sacrificing external detail.
Use mechanical fastening where it matters.
Elastic, rivets, hidden buckles, and adhesive backup created a flexible but secure wearable system.
Static testing isn’t enough.
The removable boosters seemed fine until walking introduced movement. Dynamic testing changed the solution.
Primer is an inspection tool.
Fine geometry that disappeared against black filament became much easier to evaluate once primed.
Wear the armor before declaring it finished.
Dragon Con exposed strap and armor-bite issues that short workshop fittings never revealed.
Most importantly, I learned that a finished build doesn’t necessarily mean the project is over.
Sometimes the best way to improve something is to wear it, learn from it, and build it again.
Final Thoughts
The Recluse armor remains one of the projects that most clearly shows the evolution of my 3D-printing and cosplay workflow.
Mark I was about figuring out how to turn a Halo 5 game asset into wearable armor.
The 2018 upgrade was about correcting something that had always felt incomplete.
Mark II was about taking everything I had learned from modeling, printing, finishing, and actually wearing the suit and asking how much better I could make it the second time around.
Two years after the first pieces came off the printer, Recluse Mark II debuted at Halo: Outpost Discovery Orlando. The armor ultimately won Best in Show at Halo: Outpost Discovery, while the Mark II chest armor was also featured by Polymaker at CES.
Armor on display at CES
Armor on display at CES
Those milestones were incredibly rewarding, but what I value most about the project is everything that happened between the first print and the final suit. Recluse taught me how much can be learned by building something, putting it into real-world use, finding the weaknesses, and then being willing to start over and make it better.
That finally felt like the right place to call the Recluse build complete.
Originally documented on the 405th Infantry Division forums under the username Alpha.
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