First Build: ODST - Helmet Concentration

[Aster Tea]

I tried my hand at resining last week on the chest piece and stomach piece before doing the helmets. The chest piece feels nice and plasticy now. Walmart had a fiberglass resin kit that had the resin, hardener, and fiberglass cloth in it, which is perfect for starting out. I think the fiberglass cloth it comes with is perfect to do two helmets. I just need to buy more hardener later.

I did the two helmets today (since I didn't have to go into work), but just the outside. I might fiberglass the inside on Saturday if I'm not feeling too lazy. I decided to finish the helmets first rather than pep everything.

I was wondering how well foam brushes work compared to bristle brushes. I bought a pack of cheapo brushes that came with the foam ones too, but I've used up the bigger bristle brushes.

Excuse me while I pick and rub off the resin on my legs and arms. ):

 

[runcornstuntman]

Aye manlooks great. For resin and bondo and rondo stges id recommend wearing gloves and long pants. It may be hot in the pants but it stops ur legs getting covered. Id also recommend, although i work in a singlet, wearing a light long sleeved shirt or bunny suit. However if u can buy it find pure acetone, shud be a ur walmart or a car shop. Its used to clean all the stuff. It gets resin right off. Good luck

 

[Aster Tea]

Aye manlooks great. For resin and bondo and rondo stges id recommend wearing gloves and long pants. It may be hot in the pants but it stops ur legs getting covered. Id also recommend, although i work in a singlet, wearing a light long sleeved shirt or bunny suit. However if u can buy it find pure acetone, shud be a ur walmart or a car shop. Its used to clean all the stuff. It gets resin right off. Good luck

Thanks! It gets pretty hot here so I always rock shorts and flip flops. I burned through my pack of gloves fast because it got so stick when grabbing things lol. I noticed the acetone thing when I took off my nail polish after since it got ruined while I was resining haha. Does soaking the brushes in acetone work too?

 

[Aster Tea]

Double post again, but I want to keep note of things I learned.

This is my first time using rondo. I went to Walmart to get a gallon of body filler and a quart of fiberglass resin. Unfortunately the lines were long and I walked there so my weaksauce arms were aching hahaha. I had such a hard time getting those plastic tops off that the bondo brand puts on their cans. I ended up going at it with my scissors to break it off since I felt it was too shallow to use as trays/cups to mix in. I used foam brushes to do these, which was a mistake, but I ran out of the bristle brush in the pack of brushes I bought. There are bits of foam in the rondo now lol.

My first mix hardened super fast. I put too much hardener in and not enough resin since it didn't slush around so well. Luckily it did spread out, but the helmet is kinda top heavy now. I did both helmets with two batches each. I guess-timated about 1/4 resin and 3/4 bondo

I accidently set one of my helmets down too early so it dented in. This part was already flatter than it should have been during the pep stage so it got even worse. Luckily this is the helmet that has an even coat so I'm not too worried about putting extra bondo on top to smooth it out when I get to that stage.

You can see the bottom rim warped, but I don't mind since no one will really be seeing it anyway.

I'm gonna fiberglass them next and see if I feel like it's enough before bondo/sanding.

 

[Manix]

Looking great Aster!
Im gonna be starting my first ODST (first pep ever) project soon so seeing step by step as your going through it is great. I will probably be using the ODST pep by Hugh V2 as it was the only one I could find, the detail level is pretty low but my plan is to make up for that by putting in the hours with bondo.
Keep it up.

 

[Aster Tea]

Looking great Aster!
Im gonna be starting my first ODST (first pep ever) project soon so seeing step by step as your going through it is great. I will probably be using the ODST pep by Hugh V2 as it was the only one I could find, the detail level is pretty low but my plan is to make up for that by putting in the hours with bondo.
Keep it up.

Thanks! It's great to see another joining the ODST ranks. Hugh's helmet looks like it reduces the amount of bondo work/sanding you need, especially in the dome area. You just need to add in some floats for details with foamies or whatever you please. I would have used his helmet file had I known about it. Good luck with your build! I can't wait to see pictures!

 

[DagothDraal]

Wow great for your first try, was the pepakura assembly a pain for you? (Like cutting them out, then glueing?)

What did you use to glue the pieces together?

 

[runcornstuntman]

Thanks! It gets pretty hot here so I always rock shorts and flip flops. I burned through my pack of gloves fast because it got so stick when grabbing things lol. I noticed the acetone thing when I took off my nail polish after since it got ruined while I was resining haha. Does soaking the brushes in acetone work too?

Yeah unfortunately gloves are just disposable. But yeah if u soak the brushes in acetone between uses the brushes wont clog or dry clumpy. Just make sure u wipe the excess off before using resin or else itll thin the resin

 

[ElkMidget]

... And seeing this thread makes me want to go back to building an ODST helmet. Good job on the pep!

 

[Aster Tea]

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It was for me hahaha. The first joint in my index finger felt bruised from constant use from cutting and scoring. I recommend alternating between cutting with scissors and exacto knife where you can. I felt like I didn't have enough hands to hold pieces together while gluing. I used Turbo Tacky glue since it supposedly has a little more resin in it and it dries quicker than regular tacky glue, but it's still re-positionable. You feel pretty epic when you finish pepping a piece so it's worth it.

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I wonder if it cost less to buy more brushes or buy more acetone hahaha.

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Thanks! You should totally go for it. There's a lot of ODST helmet builds around for tips and references to help along the way.

 

[runcornstuntman]

Haha depends where you buy from. Although i just buy acetone, cause i unfortunately prefer expensive brushes, they seem to be higher quality and dont leave the bristles behind. Its looking great, cant wait to see it completed. With rondo, i mix it differently aye. I use almost fifty fifty mix and just stir it in like crazy haha. I dont know if u heard of it but there's actually a bondo with fiberglass mat spread through it. I havnt tried ye but im sure itd work well for rondo.

 

[Aster Tea]

Haha depends where you buy from. Although i just buy acetone, cause i unfortunately prefer expensive brushes, they seem to be higher quality and dont leave the bristles behind. Its looking great, cant wait to see it completed. With rondo, i mix it differently aye. I use almost fifty fifty mix and just stir it in like crazy haha. I dont know if u heard of it but there's actually a bondo with fiberglass mat spread through it. I havnt tried ye but im sure itd work well for rondo.

I really appreciate your tips and advice! I'll have to try the 50/50 mix on the next piece I rondo.
I saw that before, called Bondo Glass, but it only comes in the smaller size can. I'm a bit cheap so I just bought the big can of regular bondo so I can rondo and use it for smoothing lol.

EDIT: Slooowly working on sanding the helmets before putting bondo on it. Emphasis on slow. My makeshift sanding block and my fingers are being abused hahaha. I've been working lots because of transitioning to a new job while still working my last two week at my other. More funds for the ODST armor sets! I'm aiming to get the helmets done by the end of July at the lastest and the middle of July as my favorable goal. I still need to purchase a decent, yet cheap rotary tool to cut out the visors and do some detailing.

 

[Revenant1988]

EDIT: I still need to purchase a decent, yet cheap rotary tool to cut out the visors and do some detailing.

Be very careful with this. I would invest in a mid-high grade dremel, and not a cheaper one. Also, stay away from the cordless versions, they take a while to charge and then you only get a few minutes of work from them if you are seriously cutting into or sanding something.

The corded one will allow you to work continuously, there is noting worse than being in the mood to do something only to have to wait for the battery to charge. I was a bit upset that I paid $100 for my dremel kit but once I started using it I was glad I did because I use it for a TON of work on my suit. The detailers grip alone has been wonderful.

For cutting out the visor I had to use a plunge cut blade on a dremel multi-max (NOT a rotary tool) because the blades on my rotary dremel wouldn't reach where I needed them.

 

[Aster Tea]

Oh lordy. My cheap heart took a plunge hahaha. What series of the Dremel would you recommend as a minimum?

The ODST helmet's visor doesn't look too difficult to cut out. Hopefully a regular rotary tool will get it out.

 

[Aster Tea]

So against better judgement, I bought the Dremel 7300. Although it's cordless, I think this little guy works the perfect amount of time for me and it's light enough to comfortably hold like a pencil. I did a little work to get rid of bumps of resin and smooth out a helmet some more before attacking it with bondo.

I was wondering what the best way is to clean the sanding bit. The rondo got to it and it seems to early in the game for the bit to be gunked up. ):

 

[Aster Tea]

Sorry, triple posting! D;

First time doing some bondo work. I did the dome area with two batches each. You can see the color difference due to my fail consistency of how much hardender I put in. I learned a little too late to sweep in a large area to achieve maximum smoothness. I let it cure while playing some FF matchmaking. (;

I was a bit afraid of starting to sand it from the horror stories about impossible to sand bondo, but it wasn't that bad. I did as much as I had the patience to do today hahaha. I'm gonna put on another layer of bondo to smooth it out some more and maybe smooth the sides of the dome. The dent in one of the helmets still needs a sizable glop of bondo to fill in. One of the helmets has long craters and the other has little peck marks all over. ):

P.S. Applying bondo is no fun when it's super windy. ): It gets eeeverywhere.

 

[runcornstuntman]

Good call on the dremel. It will be closer to you then the very helmet your making. Ive got corded and they can get in the way at times. With the sanding bit it looks like youve sanded too soon after applying your bondo/ rondo. Its always best to leave it for a good half hour to an hour then sanding. Otherwise u pull half dry bondo up and it gunks up your sanding pads/ wheels.

What i do when i work, and i say this so you can try it out for yourself and figure out your own way of workig is, ill do one part, let it cure slightly say five mins. Then start on a piece on the opposite side of the helmet. This way when you sand everything will have cured and you focus on detailing one section at a time instead of twelve at once. Looking forward to seeing these helmets at a primed stage. Wait till you buy a palm sander or mouse sander. Thatll make life easy. Keep going!!

Keanu/ runcornstuntman

 

[Katsu]

I generally save the dremel for when I need to grind in, or do detail sanding, and use a mouse sander for the big areas. Those drum bits wear out from too much pressure, or as mentioned above, dremeling into semi wet bondo. If you are waiting an hour and still getting gunked up bondo, you may want to work with smaller, slightly hotter mixes of bondo (more red hardener). You CAN clean sanding tools, but the drum grinders are made of paper, so the efficacy of cleaning them is questionable. I think wire brushes are the suggested way to de-gunk sanding tools.

The pock marks are part of the way bondo works. You'll be able to catch the bigger ones by smoothing another dose of bondo into the holes, but there will be some tinier ones that are not worth the effort trying to catch with bondo. That's where spot putty comes in, it's the dark red cream you see Cereal spread over his armor after sanding it down in his videos. You usually do spot putty after a major layer has been bondo'd and fully sanded. Once the spot putty cures, you go over it with a 200ish grit sandpaper.

The 7300 is a pretty good lower end rotary tool. Probably the best you'll get cordless at 30$. I like the 4000 myself, but that's a corded, and is a bit more expensive.

 

[Aster Tea]

After like 30 minutes of use, I was bummed out that the sanding drum gunked up. I'll try that wire brush method to get the crud off.

I think it's time to re watch some of Cereal's videos now. Thanks for all the help like always, Katsu!

 

[runcornstuntman]

Aye again. Im not sure the wirebrush will help you out. I havnt tried myself but from previous experiences shouldnt it tear the pads apart? Best of luck though. And cereals suit and longshots are the two id recommend for learning from. They both have the best work ethics ive seen