Alright everyone,
Seeing as someone with the same question as me may come back to this thread I figured I put some feedback in now that I've started working with Aquaresin.
First of, LoneLegionarys warning up top is valid. The resin does seem to weaken the paper a fair amount and what was even worse is that some of my glue lines let go. I'm not putting the blame fully in the aqua-resin corner, this is my first project and definately the glue letting go is mostly my own fault for not glueing it properly. I can't however compare with other types of resin and lets face it, this was my very first build.
Now that the resin is dry, and I've used the fiberglass veil stuff that came in the trial kit (that stuff is cool!) I am very happy with the end quality itself. Comparing that to using fiberglass and polyester resin which I've used for doing stuff on cars, the end result seems very solid.
The glue issue I can solve by glueing things better and simply strengthening with a bit of hot glue on the back of each join (I still find the craft glue easier to use for building the project, its just not strong enough).
The main issue to solve is the warping. If I can get that under control I think this stuff will do just good.
As for the lumpyness, I found mixing it in proper containers and mixing it until the resin is really smooth solves this. I'm still experimenting with the best ratio. With the minimum amount of powder v.s. liquid as suggested by the manufacturer the end result is a very smooth coat, almost gel like, but the warping gets far worse. When you go to the suggest 2:1 mix it tends to get on the tick side.
So as an intermediate results,
cons:
- more expensive
- it dries quick but it takes a full day to cure properly
- it tends to warp the paper badly
pros:
- definitely very usable indoors and I had no problems with letting my daughter have a go
- easy to add some color so you can see what you've done, a drop or two of any water based paint does the trick. I got $2 bottles of craft paint at the hot dollar shop and worked great
- together with fiberglass it gives a solid end result.
Even though my first project is too warped I'm going to continue with it to get more experience, then continue with some smaller and easier things to see if I can get the warping and glue problem under control. Suggestions are more then welcome. I'll probably revisit another helmet by the time i have some more experience under my belt.