WARTHOG PROJECT
Client: Peter Cooper, Operation Chastity
Taken from the press release:
"The story of Operation Chastity follows a group of United Nations Space Command Marines fighting the survivors of a crashed alien Covenant battleship, and their final mission in the conflict – a secret mission behind enemy lines which none of them are sure they will return from. The film is a self-funded effort, with shooting planned to commence in Winter 2009 in the United Kingdom. The film project is in no way affiliated with Bungie Studios, Microsoft Game Studios or WETA studios, and is an independent work"
"An M12 ‘Warthog’ LRV will be built to be used in the film, which is a not-for-profit fan film based on the Halo Franchise held by Bungie and Microsoft "
"In the games, the Warthog LRV was the vehicle of choice for Master Chief John-117, the superhuman Spartan raised from a boy to become humanity’s greatest soldier as he went across the universe and eventually home to Earth fighting the Covenant. The vehicle being made for Operation Chastity, however, will be used by the Marines of the 267th Division as they fight the alien invaders on human soil"
Whilst working as a Project Manager at Brighton based Props Studios, Daniel Carey-George, owner of Custom Creations, was contacted by Pete, due to Dan's prior experience in building and restoring Hot Rods and Custom Cars, having supplied 10 full size 'Herbie' VW's for Disney's promotion of 2007's 'Herbie Fully Loaded' movie, as well as making a customised Golf Vr6 for a private client which made an 8 page spread and front cover of Redline Magazine.
The vehicle that is going to be used for the project is an A-reg 1984 Land Rover Defender 110.The vehicle will be fitted with a whole new body, chunky off road tyres, lifted suspension and a whole host of other upgrades to make it into the futuristic combat vehicle. This is certainly not going to be your average Land Rover!
BUILD JOURNAL
A log of the Warthog build by the fabricator, Daniel CareyGeorge
PROJECT 9352 M12 WARTHOG********************
NOVEMBER 2008*************************************
Peter Cooper had already done some prelim research, and recommended us to look into using a LandRover 110 as a donor vehicle to the project.
I sourced a few images of the vehicle, and from this drew a simple layout (below)which seemed to work well, the basic shape didn't foul any major points and there was space to maintain all existing running gear. Result !
Work then commenced on sourcing a suitable donor, and, strangely, the best one available was at GumTree 4x4, a local 4x4 specialist (www.gumtree.co.uk) who's workshops are a short walk away from the unit at Props Studios!
A few phone calls later I was able to inspect the vehicle, and here's what was bought:
Considering its age its in good shape, a bit smokey on startup, but thats to be expected with a vehicle of this age and type. Note the board by the car, I couldnt get my clothes dirty looking underneath ;-)
The price was good already, but as much of the bodywork wasn't to be used anyway, we managed to barter the price down even further! Gumtree4x4 would be able to take back what we didn't need, which helped cut our basic workload down considerably.
DECEMBER 2008*****************************
The 110 was taken back to Gumtree4x4 to be stripped, and have a new clutch slave cylinder fitted ( one of the reasons it failed its MOT).
A little while later the front shutters to Props Studios were rolled up and this strange machine was driven in by a very windswepped mechanic:
As you can see there isn't much left !
However, what we have now is the bare ladder bar type chassis, and a fully drivable base unit. Lengths of mild steel box section have been ordered in in preperation for welding the framework up as our first stage.
Work has also started on sourcing some suitable larger tyres, as well as new bucket style seats.
NEW UPDATE*******************************************
JANUARY 2009****************************************
Full of seasonal excess we returned to work in the New Year with much eagerness to get started for 'real'. This caused a major problem in terms of deadlines as apparent later................
FIrst things first- a post on the forum www.therpf.com mentioned a small Warthog Toy, so over the Holiday I ordered one in. First thing Monday morning with the troops gathered I briefed the start of the job. By scaling up from the model, not only was our work far easier, but amazingly, the difference in dimensions between the toy and the real chassis only came to within 40 mm or so, a staggering similarity considering the size jump and randomness of it all.
I printed out a small reference book for Jon Armory and Seb Pedley, who will be working with me on the project, which consisted of numerous pics, mainly of Weta Workshops version ( booooo!)
Baby Warthog !
A timber frame was quickly made by Seb Pedley to enable us to adjust proportions accordingly before commiting to steel. I was very concerned at this point that we really tried to see the build as a character sculpt. For instance, if you make a Mickey Mouse with small ears, it wont look like Mickey Mouse- similarly here, any mistakes and we wont have a vehicle that looks like a Warthog!
However, at this stage disaster struck.
With a cold workshop, a first day back after a holiday and an eagerness to begin, we all steamed in, and whilst Jon readied a hole for the exhaust pipe, the drill locked up in the steel, and with non slip gloves on, the resulting spin left Jon with two broken bones in his hand!
Not only was Jon gutted to miss out on the project ( prob more than he was annoyed to have a broken hand!), it also meant I was a man down, with Seb working solo for the rest of his time on the job, whilst I was office bound on other projects.
Work was slow but at the end of the first three/ four days using Seb, this is what we had (above).
A box section steel frame was attached to the main chassis and an adjustable front end, held with zip ties, was made to enable us to tweak dimensions and see what issues were apparent with engine height.
The firewall/ Dash was also cut down by some 8 inches +
New wheels were ordered which were slightly bigger in overall diameter, and with the important smaller rim size. Budget requirements meant we couldnt go up to crazy sizes, as those wheels came at even crazier prices.....
Blow molded bucket seats were also purchased, which were actually originally used for a military contract by the manufacturer, so at least we can be sure they will hold up! I decided to push for plastic seats rather than fabric as I could see the Marine Armour quickly tearing fabric versions, and Pete also pointed out to purchase the widest seats avaialble to make room for pouches etc around the waist.
First thing which was obvious by this stage was the seats height- they needed to sit right down onto the chassis, and also as a result we needed to drop the steering column.
Also, the edges of the firewall were far too high and wide in relation to the dashboard height on the Warthog (above).......
So, with Sebs budgeted hours on the job completed, I have been left with an excellent base to finish the build.
Although I had to make up lost time for being a man down ( sorry Jon) the first thing I did was work on the seats. I made up a box section seat rail ( no runners) which sat in the space left once the original seat positions on the Land Rover were removed. A large section of rusty floor pan was repaired and a new section added to lengthen and fill in the gap left from the new seat position (I can see why the British Army dont like Land Rovers as the floor pans are very basic, good for me- bad for Land Mines !) (above)
Boring work needed to be done now. The radiator sat far too high, so Seb had drained and removed it.The large duct for the fan is also too big. I will be making up new supports for the Rad, tilting it back into the body, which will be hidden by the front whinch detailing. Even the Chassis arms are the correct width apart, Land Rover must have a very far reaching crystal ball!
Also, Id like to draw your attention to Sebs nice metal work for the front headlight sheet metal.
So, I ground off the mounts and repaired a nice 4 inch rust hole under the leaky readiator, and cut off the support legs for the air filter, which also sat far too high. Note how the camera Flash makes the chassis look rusty ( top photo flash on, bottom flash off!)
The air filter now sits about 8 inches lower, and really isn't this rusty, honest. ;-)
Seb had already taken a huge slice out of the dash top.
I then had to drop the steering column. I was worried it was a major job, and I would have to remove the pedal cluster to clear the brake lines and clutch servo, but I had a eureka moment and realised that if I undid the UJ's on thecolumn, and the mounts on the firewall, and cut a 2 inch slot out of the dash metal, the whole column would drop down between the hydraulic pedal units. I then just re welded the brackets into the new position- job done!!
This shot ( above) shows the new positioning of the air filter, and the adjustable 'bonnet'. It still sits a bit high on the firewall, and needs to come down a bit overall- a very tight fit !
This section needs to be removable for maintenance, so I welded up a whole independant frame. I cut a further three inches out of the firewall in slots, so the unit sits lower ( almost on top of the cylinder head case !
Now this front part is almost complete, I can clad it up etc, but before then I need to move around the Vehicle in much the same fashion, welding up the support frame for the body work panelling.
I am hoping that apart from making up the radiator mounts, all of the 'invisible' work is now out of the way-I can now just concentrate on body work !
16th MARCH 2009*******************************
Sorry for the delay in a build update, but holidays and prior work commitments have delayed updates somewhat!
Ok, from where I left off a fair bit more has been produced on the Warthog.
Seb was able to produce a radiator mount for me in his spare time, which seems to work pretty well. Problems were originally encountered with the depth of the rad, as it fouled the steering damper, but thankfully that was easily fixed:
It looks like the ends of the chassis rails seen here will make excellent basis for the winch/ front 'teeth'. Its great the rad actually fits, as I was basing the front end design around the basis that I could mount the rad portrait instead of landscape. I have to re-plumb the hoses but hopefully that will be quite straight forward (using longer hoses)
I have also included a picture above of the developing bodywork. I have welded a set of heavy box section as the 'roll bar' top section. The horizontal bars running between the two are rigged in such a way as the whole front end 'unplugs' which enables the entire front to become one large bonnet section.
Further skeletal frame work was wleded around the rest of the body, providing support for the forthcoming bodywork. You can just make out the progress on the rear end here, and the almost finished version below:
The only problem this revealed was that the overall width of the cockpit is greatly reduced. This brought back the problems of the steering wheel being in the wrong place ! This time it wasnt the height, it was too far to the right.
So I stripped it all out, removed the column and drilled a new hole in the firewall. Thankfully there was just enough room to remount it on the existing bodywork, without re jiugging all of the foot control servos and cylinders.
You can see the original hole to the right of the dash in the shot above.
And the remounted column here- It did run between the large circular component and the rectangula box seen above on the left.
Thankfully the original UJ's provided enough room to re route it all without any further problems.
The above shot is a good way to get an idea of the final shapes I wil get once it is all clad, so allowing for the camera distortions I am pretty made up as to just how close it is to the Bungie model. Could it actually work out to be more visually accurate than Weta's version?!
Now I have begun the start the body panels- here you can see a run of 'tags' down the permiter of the outer rail.
More to follow !
*********************************************************************
UPDATE 10th JULY 2009*******************************
Well,' things do happen for a reason' and certainly the last few months were certainly an eye opener.
At the end of April/ early June I left Props Studios.
During my last few weeks at Props I worked hard to get the Warthog as finished as possible, so below are a collection of shots I had left on my phone, which shows the current status of the project. Sorry the pictures arent clearer!
I worked out nuymerous panels which were designed and cut to flex over the metal frame work. I then riveted the panels to the metal framework. Here you can see the basic shape taking place
A dashboard was cut out to cover the old landrover one, and the front clip was removed to fiber glass underneath it.
Further details were added. You cant see it here, but underneath the bodywork has been fiberglassed over, providing a waterproof and very strong, solid structure to work over. Trial fitting of the seats here show things are on target. Scoops were cut out of the side and the panel pushed inwards to give depth. This was then fiberglassed into place, and filled in.
A permimeter around the cockpit was built up with heavy timber and shaped and blended to fit, and then bolted to the metal structure. Basic panel detail shapes were then added.
Here is a pretty good shot of the basic shape now created. The front clip has been re attached and the last panel added at the very front- here you can see the hole cut from the front vent. The rear end details has been added too.
The above shot shows the rear end detail more clearly. Holes have been cut to allow lights to be added at a later date.
Panel lines were then routed over the body, and other details added- here the front vent is trial fitted, and further cutouts were needed to clear the existing pedal servos/cylinders.
So, the last twop shots are pretty much how I left it before leaving Props Studios:
Extra details were then added. you can just make out the dash board, which now has detail panels and slots cut in to take the original Landrover guages. I also cut down the steering wheel-which now looks pretty cool, and was an easy way to make the existing hardware more futuristic!
You might just make out the panel work routed into the side panels just behind the cockpit, and details put on the cockpit perimeter.
Slightly clearer shot of the detail work. The slightly greeninsh tint to the panel behind the seats is the first coating of fiberglass going on. This was then applied to the whole vehicle. The internal rear bed was also detailed and painted in resin, as was the dash. SInce this photo was taken, I resin coated the whole outer body work.
This is where the Warthog is currently at- as I understand it, for some reason, the Warthog now has to be moved out to a new location.
Whether I will be able to continue working on the Warthog depends on the logistics of its new location, and my own work load and commitments. Certainly 90% of the really hard work has all been done, its a great shame that the final stages have proved so trouble some when the end was in sight!
*** TO BE CONTINUED***********************************
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
PETER COOPER
OR
DANIEL AT CUSTOM CREATIONS :