projects / porting and kitbashing

Porting and kitbashing Halo weapons

This is a how-it's-done write-up, not a portfolio. The goal of the project is a direct port of the original assets, or a kitbash of them where a new weapon is needed. None of the base art is mine: it belongs to the studios that made these games.

What's mine is the method and the design decisions: which parts go together, how they sit, and when a result is good enough. The arsenal below is the worked example.

Tools

Blender: All the modelling work, run headless from Python scripts so every step is repeatable. Cycles for these renders.
A browser kitbash tool: A small three.js page I had built for this. I drag, crop and scale real game parts, then paste the layout back as JSON. It is the design input.
Claude Code: An agent team does the Blender work under my direction: a refiner per weapon, and separate reviewers who see anonymous sheets.
A spec per weapon: Every decision I make goes in a file in my own words, so nothing gets re-guessed between passes.
Python and PIL: Render sets, review sheets, score tallies and a tone match that moves parts from different games onto one shared gunmetal.

The rules that made it work

Direct port or kitbash: Every main surface is a real game mesh with its original texture. Modelled geometry is limited to small connectors, because invented surfaces are what stop a part looking native.
One reference: Results are checked side by side against an approved reference weapon, not just against a score.
Hidden decoys: Reviewers get deliberately broken parts mixed in. A reviewer who passes a decoy is thrown out.
Two passes, then stop: Kitbash, four design options, refine the best two, review, repair, refine, review. Then it comes back to me.

The hard lesson: a modelled rebuild scored well with the reviewers, and I still rejected it on sight as not looking like Halo. Reviewers reward added detail. Going back to real parts fixed it.

The arsenal

Every weapon starts naked at T0, then builds to a full loadout at T4.

MA37 assault rifle
BR51 battle rifle
Marksman rifle
Light machine gun
M7 submachine gun
M6G pistol
M6C quick-draw pistol
Special weapons
Send a review

Direct port

MA37 assault rifle

The Halo: Reach MA37, stripped back to a naked base so every attachment becomes a separate slot.

MA37 assault rifle, tiers T0 to T4 stacked — T0 to T4. Where a tier's part isn't built yet, the row carries a part from an earlier tier or shared kit.

Review this weapon

1 is no, 5 is yes.

Does it read as one weapon, not parts stuck together?

1 2 3 4 5

Does it look like it belongs in Halo: Reach?

1 2 3 4 5

What would you change?

Kitbash

BR51 battle rifle

Built on the Reach MA37: its own top shroud mirrored to make the bottom one, with other real Reach parts for the rest. This one set the method for everything else.

BR51 battle rifle, tiers T0 to T4 stacked — T0 to T4. Where a tier's part isn't built yet, the row carries a part from an earlier tier or shared kit.

Review this weapon

1 is no, 5 is yes.

Does it read as one weapon, not parts stuck together?

1 2 3 4 5

Does it look like it belongs in Halo: Reach?

1 2 3 4 5

What would you change?

Kitbash

Marksman rifle

The Reach DMR body with an MA37 nose and shroud, set up to read as an earlier model of the DMR. The receiver and body plates are real MA37 panels laid out on shared lines, and the top tube ends in an integrated slot for a flashlight or a laser.

Marksman rifle, tiers T0 to T4 stacked — T0 to T4. Where a tier's part isn't built yet, the row carries a part from an earlier tier or shared kit.

Review this weapon

1 is no, 5 is yes.

Does it read as one weapon, not parts stuck together?

1 2 3 4 5

Does the front end look machined and solid?

1 2 3 4 5

Does it look like it belongs in Halo: Reach?

1 2 3 4 5

What would you change?

Kitbash

Light machine gun

Built on the Halo 4 machine gun body, with Reach shrouds, the Spartan laser's side rail and chassis, a DMR handguard, and the rocket launcher's cylinder housing used as the seat for the drum. It has its own barrel line.

Light machine gun, tiers T0 to T4 stacked — T0 to T4. Where a tier's part isn't built yet, the row carries a part from an earlier tier or shared kit.

Review this weapon

1 is no, 5 is yes.

Does it read as one weapon, not parts stuck together?

1 2 3 4 5

Does the drum look properly seated?

1 2 3 4 5

Does it look like it belongs in Halo: Reach?

1 2 3 4 5

What would you change?

Direct port

M7 submachine gun

The Halo 3: ODST M7, with its own suppressor and flip sight at T1. Higher tiers share the rifle kit for now.

M7 submachine gun, tiers T0 to T4 stacked — T0 to T4. Where a tier's part isn't built yet, the row carries a part from an earlier tier or shared kit.

Review this weapon

1 is no, 5 is yes.

Does it read as one weapon, not parts stuck together?

1 2 3 4 5

Does it look like it belongs in Halo: Reach?

1 2 3 4 5

What would you change?

Direct port

M6G pistol

The full-length Reach M6G, the modular primary pistol. Its bare stock magazine is part of the naked base.

M6G pistol, tiers T0 to T4 stacked — T0 to T4. Where a tier's part isn't built yet, the row carries a part from an earlier tier or shared kit.

Review this weapon

1 is no, 5 is yes.

Does it read as one weapon, not parts stuck together?

1 2 3 4 5

Does it look like it belongs in Halo: Reach?

1 2 3 4 5

What would you change?

Kitbash

M6C quick-draw pistol

A short sidearm cut from the Reach M6G's own parts. It only takes suppressors.

M6C quick-draw pistol, tiers T0 to T4 stacked — T0 to T4. Where a tier's part isn't built yet, the row carries a part from an earlier tier or shared kit.

Review this weapon

1 is no, 5 is yes.

Does it read as one weapon, not parts stuck together?

1 2 3 4 5

Does it look like it belongs in Halo: Reach?

1 2 3 4 5

What would you change?

Special weapons

Direct ports of single fixed builds, with no attachment tiers.

M45 shotgun, three-quarter view — M45 shotgun

SRS99 sniper rifle, side view — SRS99 sniper rifle

SRS99 sniper rifle, three-quarter view — SRS99 sniper rifle

Spartan laser, side view — Spartan laser

Spartan laser, three-quarter view — Spartan laser

ODST SOCOM, three-quarter view — ODST SOCOM

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Personal, non-commercial fan project, with nothing to download. The weapons are direct ports and kitbashes of art from Halo: Reach, Halo 3: ODST and Halo 4 by Bungie and 343 Industries. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, Xbox Game Studios or Halo Studios. Halo is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.