Fans of the Microsoft video game franchise, Halo, are waiting in eager anticipation for the release of the next installment in the series, Halo: Infinite. Avid gamers have dedicated countless hours to the series thus far, and the December 2020 scheduled release date for the new game could not come sooner for many. The main protagonist of the Halo series is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117.

WhiteClouds took on the challenge to recreate a highly detailed and realistic 1:1 replica of the Master Chief. This incredible statue is indeed an intimidating replica of the alien annihilator at a staggering 7" 3" tall and weighing around 100lbs.

WhiteClouds' 3D designer, Jack Staley, modeled every aspect of the Master Chief in the computer graphic application, Maya, which is used to develop everything from architectural models to video games. The artist (an avid Halo fan himself) modeled the video game icon to be as near in resemblance to the most recent rendition of the game character - a tedious task as the new game has yet to be released. Considerations were made to ensure that the physical model would stand independently without a base's assistance, hence the neutral standing pose. With almost 90 hours of design time, the 3D model totaled a massive 4 million polygons.

With the design completed, the three-dimensional model was then cut and prepped for printing on WhiteClouds' Creality FDM print farm. We cut the model into 85 separate pieces for the 2,360 hours of print time. We then puzzled individual pieces together to form sections of the monolithic statue with the use of heavy-duty industrial strength binders and glues. Special care is given to all WhiteClouds' 3D printed sculptures to ensure no print lines or seams are visible in the final models.

The Master Chief was assembled in smaller segments of the whole for bodywork and paint and then fully assembled after most of the finish-work. The finishing process included many hours of seam filling and sanding. After over 200 hours of our proprietary bodywork techniques, the statue segments were a smooth blank canvas ready for detailed paint and finishing work.

With great attention to detail, the Master Chief came to life in our in-house paint booth at the hands of our exceptional airbrushing artist, Shawn Malott. Each section of the whole was carefully painted to create a highly-detailed replica of the Chief.

Knowing that the character has been through countless battles in the video game series, the Master Chief received an ultra-realistic finish complete with battle abrasions in his armor. With the build's extensive detail, it took over 50 hours of airbrushing to get the armor just right on the Chief.

Once painted, the Master Chief was then fully assembled and then coated with a durable UV-resistant automotive-grade protective clear coating. The quality finish-work provides an uncanny realism to the model that is intimidating beyond belief.