Tutorial: Make & Paint Your Own See-through Visor

[Redshirt]

OVERVIEW

This tutorial covers how to make a see-through reflective visor using a
pair of outer visors from the US MC-2AP chemical defense mask. Try your
local surplus store for availability. Regardless of whether you start
with this item or not, the painting and finishing techniques are applicable to
any hard plastic visor. The format of this tutorial will cover some of the background of
the original project, very specific instructions on how I built and
finished my visor, and finally, some lessons learned and some advanced
techniques to take it to the next level as skills, time, and equipment
allow.

BACKGROUND

The first thing to understand is how I came to the unique set of
circumstances that drove this build. I was (still am) deployed to
Southwest Asia on a one-year tour. I brought along a Microsoft
Legendary Edition helmet and some basic (to me) hobby supplies with the
idea of painting and weathering it to look like the in-game helmet. My
how plans change. Once I'd learned that people had succeeded in making
this prop wearable, I was hooked. The project started at the end of
July, took on a life of its own, and ended the day before Halloween in
not only a wearable helmet, but a full armor build from
cardboard that is well-covered in an earlier thread.

I won't address the disassembly and basic modifications to the Legendary
Edition helmet as others have made their mark already in this endeavor.
Suffice it to say that at the end of the conversion, you are left with a
helmet that has either no visor, or a beautiful, but non-transparent,
orange-gold visor. Unfortunately, while there are gold motorcycle
visors, and a few other products available, there is little that
captures the correct color of the Master Chief visor. Too stupid to
settle, I decided to see what I could do myself. Living in a foreign
desert with few resources (especially motorcycle visors) shaped my path.

What I did have access to were chemical defense mask visors. Eyeing up
the one I had in my possession, it looked like it would work. I needed
ones I could actually cut up though. A quick trip to Supply gave me
access to all the damaged and scratched visors we had slated for
destruction. This gave me enough visors to experiment on with various
finish techniques as well as what I needed to cut the final products.
The right size of over visor for the Legendary Edition helmet is Medium,
but Large will work as well. Knowing that the Legendary Edition helmet
is small, I'd guess that size Large would be the best choice for most
Pep and molded helmets.

Anyway, enough yammering, time to start damaging things.


MAKING A MK VI VISOR OUT OF THE OVER VISOR FROM THE MC-2AP CHEMICAL DEFENSE MASK



MCU-2AP Chemical Defense Mask With Over Visor In Place


Over Visor Removed


As I mentioned earlier, the project requires two over visors. Use your
nicest (scratch-free in the center of vision) visor as the main (back)
visor. As you hold the uncut visor up inside your helmet, use a Sharpie
(permanent marker) to mark where the helmet itself needs to be reprofiled
(ground down or cut) to allow the visor to fit evenly across the top and
bottom. Likely you will find that the curve of the visor leaves "air
gaps" at the very sides (ear area). Also, the visor may not be big
enough to cover the upper temple region. Addressing each of these items
separately: The gap at the ear area is largely concealed by the black
ear pieces. I would highly suggest leaving this gap as it is very hard
to see and gives needed ventilation. No one on the site regularly
admits it, but these helmets will fog easily as they don't lend
themselves to a great deal of ventilation. As for the gap in the
temple, we'll fix that later by adding additional pieces to fill this
area and blend in the seams.

The cutting of the plastic visor works best if you use a toothed Dremel
attachment rather than a friction attachment, i.e., cutting wheel. You
want to reduce the level of melting to the maximum extent possible to
end up with as smooth and straight cuts as possible. The best way to do
this is with a saw-toothed wheel that removes material (and sends it
flying). This will make a hell of an unwelcome mess if not done in a
shop. Please, please wear safety goggles. Often, the only way to cut
straight is to have your eyes lined up with the rotational plane of your
cutter. This is another reason to use a saw bit rather than a cutting
wheel. Cutting wheels shatter frequently.


Cutting Wheel--DANGEROUS AND WRONG!



Saw Wheel--RIGHT!


To make the pattern for the outer visor, simply lay your second chemical
mask over visor on top of the Legendary Edition visor and trace the
pattern with your permanent marker. Don't worry, we'll remove any
traces later. The raised portion of the visor is beveled into the
surface of the main visor. We will replicate that effect rather than
have a hard edge around our outer visor. So, be sure to trace the
pattern to reflect the base of the outer visor (wide part of the bevel)
rather that the edges of the upper surface or you'll end up with too
small of an outer visor. An alternative to the 'trace directly onto the
plastic' method would be to put masking tape over the entire visor and
trace the pattern on to the tape. The benefit of this would be in
protecting the uncut areas of the visor from scratching during cutting.
Please note: Create useful spare visor material by offsetting your
pattern to the bottom of the over visor. You'll need some of the upper
visor material to graft on to the temple areas later. Specific to the
Legendary Edition helmet: After tracing, hold the clear visor up inside
the helmet to make sure the two upper prongs will line up with the
notches in the bill of the helmet. The act of tracing tends to widen
the distance between the prongs so they don't line up with the notches
in the helmet bill, resulting in poor fitting, and a requirement for
additional alteration of the helmet.



Ready For Marking--Note the Temple Areas Not Covered By Visor



Where To Mark



Marked and Ready To Cut


To cut the outer visor, you may want to make a couple of passes to make
the cuts all the way through. Sometimes it works out best to make a
shallow cut initially, focusing on getting it straight, followed by a
second (or third) pass to complete the cut. Try to cut with the chuck (bit holder)
portion of the tool over areas you intend to discard. That way, if the
spinning chuck contacts the visors surface, the inevitable gouge won't
be on a piece you want to keep. Don't worry if the cuts aren't perfect
so long as the basic results are straight. You'll be dressing the cuts
into beveled edges with a file anyway.


First Cut!



Taking Shape


Once all the major pieces are removed, the hard work begins, first with
the hobby knife, followed by the needle files. Do all the cleanup you
can with the knife. Next, take the needle file and make every edge
beveled. Look at the Legendary Edition helmet for the effect you are
trying to achieve. If you haven't used needle files like this before,
you need to know a couple of things: Do not saw back and forth--you
will get a bevel with choppy, uneven cuts. Only make back and forth
passes where you have a specific high spot you are trying to level. For
the bulk of your filing, make diagonal sweeps, removing material along
several inches of an edge at a time. The minimum stroke should slide
along at least three file widths to get an even finish. Use a wire
brush to clean out the file regularly. One of the first things you'll
discover is that you can't file a bevel edge into a corner without
destroying the bevel for the opposite side. Just stop the bevel
slightly short of the corner. You'll need to hand-carve the corner
bevel with a hobby knife. Using a heavy duty hobby knife, whittle the
corners into bevels, taking off only a small amount of material with
each cut. Safety note: These can be hard cuts to make. There will be
a temptation to make the cut by pulling the knife toward you or your
other hand. I have the stitch work to prove that this is a bad idea.
Getting the filing right will take a while and make your fingers sore,
but the result is way cool.


Needle Files



Basic Saw Cut



Rough Cut Bevel



Trimming the Corners



Bevel Finished


Lay the outer visor over the main visor and determine where to cut the
bottom of the main visor. You'll also need to fit the visor inside the
helmet to figure where to make the upper cut. You can have excess
material at the top, but not really along the bottom. Make the cuts to
the main visor at this time.

Now back to the main visor and the challenge of adding material to the
temples. You will also be adding material to the outer visor as well.
Taking material from the leftover pieces of visor, locate areas with the
same general curvature of the piece you need to add on to. Lay the
corner of the visor over this piece and trace the curvature of the edge,
then draw out the rest of the extension you need. Repeat for all four
add-on pieces. Cut them out, doing as careful of a job as possible
along the curve were it will mate up with the main portion. Use a
Dremel drum sander and/or needle file to make the curve mate as evenly
as possible with the main piece. Carefully glue the pieces on with
cyanoacrylate glue (Super/Crazy glue). The thick gap filling stuff is
best. Don't get any excess on the front of the visor. It is fine to
put a little extra on the back side. If you have any accelerator for
the cyanoacrylate glue, now is a good time to use it so you don't have
to stand all day holding the pieces together waiting for the glue to
set. After the glue work is done, handle the pieces carefully as they
will break easily.


Marked For Cutting



Extra Piece Glued To Outer Visor

Now take modeler's putty and put a good fillet over the top (front) of
the glue seams, being careful not to get it anywhere other than the area
of the glue joint. You are doing this to hide the seam and the fact
that the curvature of the two pieces don't match exactly. Let this dry
24 hours. Time to wet sand. Wet sanding is a technique for flatting
down and blending raised surfaces without gouging the material. You'll
need some 800 and 1200 grit wet or dry sandpaper--the black/dark grey
stuff. You'll also need a small block of wood and a bowl of warm water
with just a drop or two of dish soap in it--no more. The water smoothes
the cutting action of the paper by providing some lubrication. It also
carries away the debris so it doesn't clog the sandpaper. The soap
helps with both of these actions. With a section of the 800 grit
wrapped around the block, dip it in the water and begin sanding the
areas with the modeler's putty. Be sure to support the piece from
behind or it will break. Your sanding must always be in short circles
and should not be hitting and surface of the main visor more than about
3/4 inch away from the edge of the putty. Keep dipping your block in
the water frequently. Sand with the 800 grit until you can just barely feel
the edges of the puttied areas with a fingernail. Switch to using the
1200 grit and repeat the process until all the edges are blended in.
You'll usually discover that you didn't get enough putty into one area
or another, so don't be surprised if you have to do two or three rounds
of puttying/sanding to get it right. Thoroughly wash and dry the parts
because painting is next.


PAINTING ANY VISOR REFLECTIVE ORANGE GOLD

All right. For all of you who never had any intention of using a
chemical defense visor in your helmet, but just wanted to know how to
paint your own see-through visor, here is what you've been looking for.
The first step is the reflective coating.

The end result you need to achieve is a very fine, very even, and very
thin coating of reflective metal on the outer surface of the visor.
Everything you do here is driving toward that. Beg or borrow the best
air brush you can. I did my first attempt with an old Testors brush
with a leaking air valve that caused the paint to spatter. I borrowed a brush locally
(apparently I'm not the only person that deploys with an airbrush) that
turned out to be only slightly better. You really need top performance
for your first job of applying the Testors Model Master Aluminum Plate
Buffing Metalizer. Be careful not to purchase the non-buffing Aluminum
Metalizer. You'll need some of the special paint thinner that Testors
makes for their Metalizer line.



Required Paints


Here we go. With your visor and outer visor meticulously cleaned with
alcohol or paint thinner, you're ready to begin. Just to be clear, the
two visors are not joined at this time. They are both to be painted
separately using the same process. Shake the Metalizer very well. You
can't afford any clumping. Add some to your airbrush's reservoir and
add the special thinner to reduce the original by about 1/4 to 1/3.
Quick mix it inside the reservoir with a toothpick and you are ready to
go. Crank up the pressure so you get really good atomization, and back
off the needle to get good flow. You thinned the product so that even
though you get good flow, you are not delivering a lot of pigment.


Spray the metalizer from 8-12 inches away such that it hits the surface
and dries almost instantly. You do not want the pigment to flow. Move
with fairly fast strokes. You want to deliver lots of very thin coats
over the entire surface, making your best attempt at even distribution.
Periodically hold the visor up to the light and looking through from the
back. Paint it just enough to look solid grey from the front, but be
see-through from the back. This is easier than you think, but a failure
to get even coats will result in "blind spots" that you can't see
through in the finished visor. I can't emphasize enough to put on a
thinner coat than you think you need. Just because you can see through
it well in the daylight outside where you are painting it doesn't mean
it will be see-through at a party, at night, or in a convention center.
This is a lesson-learned that I will apply to version 3.0 if I make it.
Do put a thicker coat over the puttied seams and the glued on portion.
These areas will never be see-through and you do not want the putty to
show through on the outside, so coat it well.

Wait at least 15 minutes after painting to begin buffing. Use the
softest all-cotton rag or towel you have and very gently rub the painted
surface to bring out the luster. Be very patient. If you rub hard, the
finish will come off. Remember, you painted a glossy smooth surface so
adhesion of the paint is not strong. When you are satisfied that you
have made a fair approximation of home-grown mirrored sunglasses, quit
while you are ahead. These don't have to be super shiny--the in-game
visor isn't.

Now for the amber-orange tinting. You could also opt for blue, purple,
or green variants as well. One bottle each of red and amber Tamiya
clear acrylic should handle two attempts to paint your visors. Start
with a 2 to 1 ratio of amber to red, but be prepared to add more red to
get the right tone. Just keep doing all of your mixing in a small glass
jar. Don't do any mixing in the airbrush reservoir. If the color isn't
right, just dump the reservoir contents back into the jar and adjust the
color ratio. That way you will have a big batch of the right color to
do both visors (and any redos). These need to be thinned substantially
because you do want this coat of paint to flow out (but not run). Being
acrylics, they can be thinned with water (not recommended). I used
rubbing alcohol--the good stuff at better than 80% alcohol and a drop of
dish soap to help the flow once applied. Experiment with your thinner ratio to find
the right volume that will pass though the airbrush well, but not pool
and run off the visor surface.

Airbrush the color coat a little closer to the surface than you did the
Metalizer. You do want this to go on 'wet' so that it dries with an
even glossy surface. Again, the challenge is to get an even coating.
Do not be terribly concerned if the finish has an orange peel texture to
it or that your visor is no longer very see-through. Let this layer dry
very thoroughly. All of the water and alcohol need to evaporate to
reduce the risk of any unanticipated reactions between the color coat and the final gloss
coat (usually manifested by wrinkling).


Airbrushing the Amber-Orange Coat


For the final gloss coat, buy the best clear gloss aerosol that you can
find. Go to an automotive paint shop if you can. By that, I don't mean
Autozone, Pep Boys or Halfords (for you UK guys), but a Dupont, PPG, or
similar place specializing in auto body supplies. If you are building a
costume out of any of the popular materials, these guys should already be
your friends as they are likely the best suppliers of resin, Bondo, and
every tool needed to work them. Anyway, back to the gloss coat. Wipe
off the visor surface and shake your can of clear for several minutes.
Try to paint in 70 degrees or warmer temperatures to help the gloss
flow. Initially get one thin coat and let it dry for at least a half
hour. This coats the amber, but doesn't stay wet long enough to
dissolve any part of it. This will be your barrier for the second 'wet'
coat. The second coat needs to be pretty heavy, but sprayed from enough
distance that the blast from the can doesn't disturb the surface. Set
the visor down with the painted surface up and let it dry in a dust-free area for two days if
you can.


My First Attempt (1.0) Next To the Legendary Edition Visor--Version 2.0 Was Much More Even, Orange, Bright, and Smooth. You Can Clearly See the 'Orange Peel' Effect On This Rejected Visor


With some luck, you have two beautiful visor pieces. Perhaps they no
longer look as see-through as you hoped. Much of this problem is caused
by stray paint attaching to the inside of the visor during painting.
Use mild paint thinner (not lacquer thinner) to clean the inside of both
pieces, being careful not to let any thinner get on the glossy outer surface.
Be very careful with those extra pieces you glued on. This is your
last, best chance to break them off and have to start over. It doesn't
take much to join the visor pieces together. I used two small squares
of double sided cellophane tape to join mine. The act of gluing the
assembly into the helmet will permanently lock them together. Be very
careful not to slide the pieces against each other or scrape them
against anything as you position them inside the helmet. I recommend
using a hot glue gun to glue the visor inside the helmet. Do not use
cyanoacrylate glue as it causes permanent fogging of the clear surfaces
surrounding the glue.


Done!


Finished Helmet With Painted Home Made Visor



How Well Can You See Through It? Better Than This. This Is A View of My Dormitory Through My Rejected First Attempt (Bad Airbrush). Warning--All Girls May Seem Pretty When Viewed Through This Visor!



ADVANCED TECHNIQUES AND POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES:

That turned out great, but I couldn't help but think of ways it could
have been better if I'd had access to my full shop, a bigger budget, or
hind sight. Here are my untried ideas, feel free to suggest your own
and I'll try to assess their viability:

Even at its best, a spray can gloss coat will not be glass smooth. This
condition is known in automotive circles as 'orange peel'. All modern
cars have it. Go look, I'll wait here while you do. Show cars don't.
I'll tell you how. Wet sanding and polishing. Although you can do this
with the spray can gloss, your chances of success are low because the
material is just too soft to bring back to a full gloss after disturbing
(sanding) its surface. If you have the budget and access to an
automotive spray gun, coat the visor in several coats of catalyzed clear
coat instead of aerosol clear gloss. Even with no further action, you
will get a smoother, more resilient clear coat. After it is fully
cured, wet sand the surface with 1200 grit, followed by 2000 grit paper
on your block. Don't sand deep, just enough until there are no glossy
low spots. After the 1200, follow with the 2000 grit to take out the
deeper scratches left by the 1200 grit. Next, using fine polish, bring the
surface back up to glass smooth. You may try an orbital polisher, but
your risk of breaking off the glued-on pieces, flinging the visor
against the wall, or tearing off your finger nails is extreme. To keep
the risk, rewards, and time spent in perspective, I would consider only
wet sanding and polishing the center (inside the octagon) of the visor.


Another technique would be to spray the metalizer on the inside of the
visor and not worry about buffing it. Just follow with the specified
orange coat and clear coat on the outside. The risk here is that any
rub or handling of the inside of the visor will have a strong chance of
damaging this coating--it's that fragile. You could clear coat it, but
you would have two surfaces with orange peel, resulting in very poor
visual clarity.


CLOSING THOUGHTS:

This visor project was conceived to work with a Microsoft Legendary
Edition helmet and was cut to accommodate being able to drink from a
bottle while wearing the helmet. If you have interest in that feature
or the other mods I made to that helmet, visit my Work In Review (WIR)
thread in the Pep and Cardboard forum. Overall, the chemical defense
visor has potential use either as a whole, or re-sectioned for use in several
Halo derivative helmets. The Metalizing/painting technique will work
equally well with vacu-formed visors and energy sword projects as well.
Likewise, any Elite-based Covenant weapon requires a translucent purple
surface. This is how I would achieve that, using clear red and blue
over Metalizer to make translucent purple. If you have any questions,
just ask here, or, if you are reading this long after the thread is
dead, just PM me. Thanks for looking.

Redshirt

[LastSpartan]

That's just perfect.

Man, I hope you get stickied for this, you deserve it.

[ka5p3r]

nice tut. i was going to use that same paint but the hobby store here had to order it so i went with the translucent blue for mine. i think its alittle harder to see through than yours but it will do the trick

[Chazodude]

I agree with last Spartan. Just astouding! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

I think you are the first person to do this method - hell, first person to make their own good visor! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

[Shade88]

I likie. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img]

[Enrisan]

I think you just figured out how to make a good visor for the EVA.
nice job!

[Malechei]

Awesome work. I was figuring on trying the airbrush for that effect. This is just beautiful. I second the request to sticky, this is amazingly helpful.

Edit: Also, I don&#39;t want to hijack the thread but thought I should throw this in there. If you can&#39;t find that gas mask or a visor for it, this visor should be a pretty good substitute.

[Loess]

Epic paint skills!
Definatly needs to be stickified.

[sirfroget]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Enrisan @ May 24 2009, 11:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I think you just figured out how to make a good visor for the EVA.
nice job!</div>


[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] I was thinking that to you could melt 2 of them together or make a security visor perfect . [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

[cgspartan]

Alternatively for the reflectivity, if you don&#39;t want to go through the hassle of dealing with the paint. You could always vacuum form a visor out of this stuff

http://www.mirropane.com/

then just color over it with a gold transparent paint