CQB WIP by Hawk

Hey! I'm IstLtHawkeye, really just plain Hawk, and someone sent me over to this site when I mentioned how awesome it would be to make your own costume while watching Starship Troopers. As a Halo fan though I quickly got sucked in to all the amazing builds that people have posted here of different armor from Halo. Let me just say, I think it's really great what's happened here. It's cool to have a community of people who have been there, done that, helping others get started on their own.

Moving on... after reading pages upon pages of information here on the site, I decided to try my hand at this. For my first helmet I chose the CQB pep from that big file download on here. The first issue I ran into is that I am on a Mac which means that Pepakura is not compatible. Luckily, I have a Windows bootcamp on my Mac which means I just installed the viewer/designer on the emulator and it was no biggy. However, I can't print from VirtualBox (the emulator). I'm sure there's a way, but I don't really know how to get the damn thing to recognize USB devices. Lucky for me, I'm at my parents' for the summer and they have an old PC. Crisis averted.

The next blunder I made was measuring the height of my head, printing out all the pieces, cutting them out, folding them (btw, definitely use the pen and ruler method, life saver), and then gluing them together. You could not fathom the rage when I realized that the helmet was WAY too small... WAAAAAAAAAAAY too small. So I had to trash all that work and start from scratch. It's a learning experience though. The second time I just printed out the bottom of the helmet in different sizes and sized it that way. After all, how are you going to wear the helmet if you can't get your head into it. I definitely recommend doing this as it will save you sooooo much time and effort.

So after some minor stumbles in the road, I finally got the helmet pepped in the size I wanted. Here's the pepped helm:





As you can see, I stuffed plastic bags into the helmet and worked with it in order to help prevent warping. I did turn them all inside out though as I read somewhere that if you don't the ink will leak through which really isn't that big of a deal I guess since you will probably be adding bondo and paint to it, but just in case...

Today, literally a few hours ago, I put on the first coat of resin. I managed to find the Fiberglass Resin, mask, goggles, gloves, brushes, fiberglass, and body filler all at Lowes. You could probably get it elsewhere cheaper, but oh well. With the first coat applied:





The recommendations I followed said that you should probably put a thin coat on the outside to begin with, but my definitions and others' definitions of thin vary. I put a bit too much into my mixing bowl to start with and then put a bit too much on the helmet. In the future I will be starting with less and working with less in order to conserve resin. Remember, you can always mix more. Try not to go a bit overboard like I did.

This is my first pepped helm and my first resin job so I'm def. looking for recommendations and comments on how I'm doing. I found Bocephus's videos on Youtube to be a big help for those, like me, who need a visual to go by. You can see his page here: http://www.youtube.com/user/xXBocephusXx

Hopefully I'm posting in the right place ^_^"

You posted in the only place you are allowed to at this time so...yeah, you got it right man. Your pep looks really good. Nice to see more CQB's popping up on here. A tip for you and anyone else for that matter. Make sure you rotate your can of resin by hand for a couple of minutes before you use it for the first time. You never know how long it may have been sitting on the store shelf for. I recently bought a large container of Bondo resin from Lowes. I forgot to shake it up before using. It went on the pep model like water and nearly soaked all the way through it. Luckily, no damage was done. I just put another coat on after shaking it up and all is now well. Hope this helps. Keep up the great work.

No kidding. I didn't shake mine up at all. Didn't really think about that. That may have been why I felt like I was putting an awful lot on. I'll remember that next time, thanks for the tip.

Made some more progress today! I find that the more you use the resin the better you get at finding the sweet spot regarding the hardener. Exact measurements pretty much go out the window as it's a lot easier to guesstimate and just learn from your mistakes. Yesterday I resined the outside of the helmet and today I fiberglassed the inside.



The inside of the helmet I did pretty fast. I quickly realized that it was best to just slop your resin in there in order to save time as no one's going to be seeing the inside anyway, especially after you put some padding in there.



This is just a photo of some damage. It seems the resin ate right through the glue in one spot (or I didn't use enough glue) and the piece that sits behind the neck when the helmet it on came right apart. I duct taped it together and then put a piece of the fiberglass mat on the inside of it. I'm hoping it will stay together after I take the tap off at least until I start to bondo. Suggestions?



And another damaged spot right above where the visor is inserted. I'm thinking I'll do the same thing, but I'm not sure. Suggestions?

I wouldn't worry to much about the areas your calling damage spots, thiss happens to me every once in a while, I usually try to glue it back with either hot glue or super glue, it should be somewhat flexable, then I either take fiberglass resin or a 2 part epoxy and soak a piece of fiberglass cloth behind the spot, this works every time, then If it is a littlebit out of shape I just grind it down or smooth it out with Bondo or spot putty filler

Wow! I'm liking how this is coming along
If you don't mind me asking about how much did you spend at Lowe's getting all your materials? I need to get my step-dad to take me up there and I would like to have a guesstimation of how much money I need ^^'

Hyperballistik, thanks for the advice. I think I may do just that.

Jahilar, not at all ^_^ The first time I went to just get the basics I spend around 80 bucks. A bit steep or a steal depending on who you are. Mind you, I didn't get any paint and I didn't buy enough brushes (Didn't realize how bad the resin totaled them), but brushes are only like a buck each, so no biggy.

Good progress!!! This looks like a great pep for a first timer!!! My first pep was like 22 pages with a billion folds in it and didn't turn out as well as I'd hope. Keep on truckin!

@Mrpinski Thanks

So I removed the tape on the lower back of the helmet earlier after fiberglassing the inside while it was held together and it is holding fantastically! Thinking I'm going to try the same method with the top of the visor piece only it'll probably be a bit tricker considering the piece if a bit smaller. Should be fine though.

Couple questions as I read through some other people's work and see their methods in using bondo. It seems universal that primer should be spray-painted on before applying bondo, correct? Well if you prime the whole thing should you then sand it before bondo? Or should you prime, bondo, sand, prime, bondo, sand? I'm just looking for some different perspectives and people's experiences on that :X

Wow! That's very impressive! It looks like a very clean Pep, well folded and put together very nicely! looks great for your first build! keep up the good work!

You know, seeing this thread has me inspired to go out and get to work pepping my first helmet.. Its a shame I don't have any money coming my way till August 15th :/

I definitely encourage it ^_^ It's great fun. The hardest part is getting started, but once you get some momentum it's great.

Haha, that sounds just like every costuming project I've done xD Once I get my materials, and a moment to start I'll be set. I don't like putting down projects that I'm working on.. lol

@Weslicon Thanks ^_^

So today I fiberglassed behind the separated part above where the visor will go and it's a little bit better, but not great. I think I'm just going to have to work with it in the bondo stage and see what I can do. It's a bit frustrating to be honest.

I realize that I lack a dremel tool and am beginning to wonder how I'm going to do the detailing and making the visor. Suggestions are welcome.

Detail lines can be worked by scoring them in also. I used the back side of my razor knife and some small files for most of mine. You can also use paper to raise different parts up. You're helm is looking great so far.

Anymore progress on your CQB helmet?? I always enjoy watching others build a CQB helmet! =P

Wow. looks pretty awesome! Makes me wanna start a CQB helmet after I finish my Daft Punk helmets. (If I ever finish them >_>; I hope I do. xD )

Ist Lt Hawkeye said:

@Mrpinski Thanks

So I removed the tape on the lower back of the helmet earlier after fiberglassing the inside while it was held together and it is holding fantastically! Thinking I'm going to try the same method with the top of the visor piece only it'll probably be a bit tricker considering the piece if a bit smaller. Should be fine though.

Couple questions as I read through some other people's work and see their methods in using bondo. It seems universal that primer should be spray-painted on before applying bondo, correct? Well if you prime the whole thing should you then sand it before bondo? Or should you prime, bondo, sand, prime, bondo, sand? I'm just looking for some different perspectives and people's experiences on that :X

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I know know if anyone has answered your question yet but:

You dont need primer on the paper for bondo. Bondo sticks to ANYTHING!

One note though, Use bondo on ONE section at a time! You will surely mess up if you first cover the whole helmet in bondo at once. Go section by section and everything will turn out great!

Only primer after the whole helmet is sanded after bondo to find all of your imperfections that need filler/spot putty. then fill those imperfections, sand, primer again, repeat as needed.

MUCH LUCK!

Well, things have gotten busy on my end as college has gotten back in session. Things got hectic before I could even get to bondoing the helmet, so now it's sitting in the closet in my apartment in college, major bummer. For now, I'm swamped with work so everything else has been put on hold.

Thanks ya'll for the tips and I'll be updating again as soon as I find time to work on it.

Also @Mrpinski I heard somewhere that you needed to primer before bondo in order to add texture and help everything stick, maybe it's not true, but it's a bit late now as I primed already x.x We'll have to see how this turns out. It's my first build, so while I'm doing my best, I'm not expecting perfection.

the helmets lookin pretty sweet reguardless of the minor damages that was seen nothing a lil fixin can't handle really x3 as for me...uuuh i sized 2 forarms wrong an 2 shins wrong so ^^ plus messed up a spike grenade an flame grenade so yeah lol ^^;' but welcome to 405th an hope you enjoy your new hobby :3