MK VI HD Helmet

Hello 405th! Been around here for a while, but this is the first time I've unlazied myself enough to finish an entire pep. This here is your garden-variety Mark VI helm. Doesn't look spectacular, but I feel a sense of accomplishment for getting through the tedious part! Gonna give it a couple coats of resin then start the bondo!

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Questions, comments, snide remarks all welcome.

The MK VI helmet is a glorious piece of history!

Keep up the good work, and watch out for warping when you are doing the resin.

Looks slightly crumpled on the nose and top. Are you using a decent grade of cardstock?

Other than that, your raw pep work seems very good. You've got the skills, now apply yourself a little more for better results c:

Definitely a good start, what weight cardstock are you using? It looks like you have a few dull bends and a couple of edges that aren't sealed completely flat. If you're using hot glue, I find that reheating the joint with the tip of the gun works great to push it down and make it more flat.

Irradiated said:

The MK VI helmet is a glorious piece of history!


Keep up the good work, and watch out for warping when you are doing the resin.

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Thank you! What's the best way to avoid warping?

Arcanine said:

Looks slightly crumpled on the nose and top. Are you using a decent grade of cardstock?


Other than that, your raw pep work seems very good. You've got the skills, now apply yourself a little more for better results c:

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yeah, I got a little bit lazy with the fiddly pieces, can't stand those tiny folds :/ figure i'll be able to smooth the worst bits out when I bondo.

Gokussj5okazu said:

Definitely a good start, what weight cardstock are you using? It looks like you have a few dull bends and a couple of edges that aren't sealed completely flat. If you're using hot glue, I find that reheating the joint with the tip of the gun works great to push it down and make it more flat.

Click to expand...

Not sure about the weight of the cardstock, was standard walmart stuff and I've long since pitched the packaging. what weight would you recommend? Thanks for the tip! I'll try that before I resin.

seadrick said:

Not sure about the weight of the cardstock, was standard walmart stuff and I've long since pitched the packaging. what weight would you recommend? Thanks for the tip! I'll try that before I resin.

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110lb is the best for Pepakura. If the stuff you have came in a clear plastic wrapper from WM that is most likely what weight it is so you should be good to go.

Been a crazy couple of weeks, a lot of overtime at work, and had our power knocked out for 6 days thanks to tropical storm Arthur. NS power pretty much dropped the ball for the whole province, but local fire depts setup water and charging stations everywhere, kudos to them for helping us all through!


That said, it's been a while since I've spent any time working on my lid. Thought I post some pics of the latest update: Did some rondoing of the inside. I know I'll need to do a lot of reshaping on the outside of the helmet, thanks to my somewhat lazy pep job, so this'll be the first step. As well, I'm feeling quite a bit of trepidation towards taking that next step of bondoing the outside, really worried I'm gonna screw the whole thing up at this point. Anybody else have similar feelings the first time they took this step? Ah well. I'll get over it. Anyways, pics!

Mini-update! Cut out the visor. Decided to remove the visor widgets, I'll add them in later.











Took a big breath and started the bondo, not as bad as I'd expected.

I can understand your predicament...life always gets in the way of hobbies...do you plan on doing a full suit? I would do the chestplate next if so, since it's one of the most complicated bits. Either way, this looks great. Mark VI is the best variant imo

If I'd offer two bits of advice?

One: redo the pep. That's badly warped at the top, you're going to pretty much have to carve a lump of bondo into the right shape on the top, which is going to take you a lot of effort when re-doing the base work to a higher standard would be more efficient. I know you said earlier that you don't have the patience for small folds, and I'll somewhat agree with you, but - if you want the best results out of your armour, you'll need to put the effort in.

Two: Easy on the bondo. Mix smaller batches and spread it on thinly like butter, rather than slapping it on like icing sugar. Again, carving your details out of an inch of bondo is harder than simply layering it up in thin sections. It's also wasteful and harmful to your budget.

There's no rush, take things slowly and steadily. Take the time to get the best out of your work rather than splashing through - you'll really thank yourself by having the patience to take your work to the next level.

XenoPhanatiK said:

I can understand your predicament...life always gets in the way of hobbies...do you plan on doing a full suit? I would do the chestplate next if so, since it's one of the most complicated bits. Either way, this looks great. Mark VI is the best variant imo

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Does it ever! I'm gonna start off with the helmet, see where my resource and patience levels are at that point. Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, I know there's so many variants in the MJOLNIR permutations now, but THIS is the one that just screams "HALO" to me!

Arcanine said:

If I'd offer two bits of advice?


One: redo the pep. That's badly warped at the top, you're going to pretty much have to carve a lump of bondo into the right shape on the top, which is going to take you a lot of effort when re-doing the base work to a higher standard would be more efficient. I know you said earlier that you don't have the patience for small folds, and I'll somewhat agree with you, but - if you want the best results out of your armour, you'll need to put the effort in.


Two: Easy on the bondo. Mix smaller batches and spread it on thinly like butter, rather than slapping it on like icing sugar. Again, carving your details out of an inch of bondo is harder than simply layering it up in thin sections. It's also wasteful and harmful to your budget.


There's no rush, take things slowly and steadily. Take the time to get the best out of your work rather than splashing through - you'll really thank yourself by having the patience to take your work to the next level.

Click to expand...

Really appreciate the advice. I've definitely been rushing this project, and I need to just slow down. Don't get a lot of time to work on it on a regular basis, so I feel like I want to see huge results when I do. Patience is not one of my virtues, but I'm trying to develop it haha. Good call on the bondo. Finished the base coat on the helmet tonight, and your advice on thinning down my layers really helped.


As far as next plans go, I've decided to cut out the top section of the helmet, and re-pep it. it's too warped at this point to be viable. So, this project'll be on a brief hold until I can get my hands on a rotary tool




The redo spot:



Any tips for bondoing these tiny nooks and crannies?



Helmet so far:

seadrick said:

As far as next plans go, I've decided to cut out the top section of the helmet, and re-pep it. it's too warped at this point to be viable.

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Honestly... I wouldn't bother. You're going to have a very, very difficult time matching the new work to the old, and even so, there are a dozen smaller issues aside compounding your problems. I'd urge you to try a smaller, less intricate piece at first, to practise on - perhaps look at working on a Mk VI shin piece.

Don't make things unnecessarily hard on yourself. Treat this as a first attempt, learn from your mistakes, and re-do the Pepakura work from scratch. Take it steadily the second time around and make absolutely certain before you resin that your shape is good and rigid. Following that, try to keep these little hints in mind when you're working with your chemicals:

- Less is More. It's far easier to layer up than sand down, and you don't have to fight against your product's cure time to get it all on the helmet before it sets. It's also a lot cheaper since you're not wasting so much product on sanding away tremendous amounts of excess.
- Speaking of which, be mindful of your product's work time - if you're finding that you have to rush to get your bondo on, try using less hardener to give yourself a little more work time.
- When applying your bondo, make sure you're using a decent, straight-edged spatula. Imperfections in the edge of your applicator will cause grooves and bubbles in your bondo that will consume a lot of time and effort sanding out and filling. Personally speaking, I use an old plastic loyalty card, but you could always use something else like a paint stripper.

As for answering your other questions:

- If you're having trouble getting into tight corners, consider using a smaller applicator - I've used the cut-off end of a popsicle stick to great effect in smaller areas. Just take a small dob of bondo and work it GENTLY in until you're happy with it.