My first Halo armor

Hi this is my first time making a suit of armor so I have a few questions that I wasn't able to find answers to.
First of all, I've already finished the first step which is pepakura-ing the armor (I've folded and glued the entire thing) and now I've finished applying resin on the outside of the armor and am getting ready to apply resin on the inside too.
My first problem is that I don't know what the next step is. I've seen on the Instructable's website
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Halo-Armor/
that the next step is to fiberglass the inside of the armor and I've seen on cereal kill3r's youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/dghezzo
that the next step is to mix the fiberglass resin with bondo (a 50-50 mixture) and apply that to the inside. However he only seemed to do this to his chestplate.

Essentially I want to know what everyone thinks of both these methods, are they supposed to be used one on top of the other, have I misunderstood and the bondo+resin mixture is supposed to be used only on the chestplate, or is one simply better than the other.

As a side note I plan to wear this to different events if I get the chance (in case one is better at lasting a long time).


Please give me any advice you may have.

Fiberglassing and rondo ( resin and bondo mixture) coating are generally used independent of each other. For example, I used rondo to coat the inside of my helmet, as I was unfamiliar with using fiberglass. Personally, if I were to do it again, I would just use fiberglass. Let me toss some pros and cons at you!

Fiberglass:
Pros:
Relatively light
Very strong
Cons:
Takes a little more finesse and time than rondo.

Rondo:
Pros:
Very quick and easy to mix and slosh a few coats around in an armor piece or helmet.

Cons:
Quite heavy and rather brittle.
Challenging to keep even thickness.


Both are acceptable methods to use on armor parts and helmets, but I would be more inclined to use fiberglass for its strength over rondo.

Thanks for the advice, I think I'm going to go with fiberglass except for the areas that need some more work, then I'm going to use rondo.

Also, I just saw your amour and I gotta say, it looks amazing!!!

nexstar said:

Thanks for the advice, I think I'm going to go with fiberglass except for the areas that need some more work, then I'm going to use rondo.

Also, I just saw your amour and I gotta say, it looks amazing!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks!

And no problem! Looking forward to seeing your armor. Be sure to toss up a few pictures!

Well this picture is from before I applied resin it. Today though I finished applying the resin so it looks a little different.

Oh yeah, sorry about the bad quality, I took this picture with my ipod.

Hey btw, I keep on hearing people talk about primer but I've never heard of it before (the gray stuff you put on your eod helmet), what is it and what is it normally used for?

^ It's often necessary to get the best colour and adhesion out of your paint of choosing. It quite literally 'primes' the surface. Also very useful in light coats between sanding layers to bring any and all imperfections to light and help you work towards the best finish.

Otherwise, you're looking well on your way :thumbsup and I would support your choice of traditional fiber-glassing in place of rondo. I haven't attempted it myself but rondo seems best approached from a place of experience and familiarity with the substances.

Personally I like using rondo for most of the armor, it's the quickest and in my opinion easiest method (although it can get messy). The problem with rondo however is near the edges where it is most flimsy. In spots like that I use fiberglass to add a little more strength.

In in the end it's whatever is best for you, I just hate fiberglass and stick with to rondo whenever I can.

looks good so far

Okay so I've been fiberglassing a few of the pieces and things have been going smoothly so far, unfortunately though I've hit a snag and I need some advice. The forearms and forelegs are both technically the right size (they fit and they work wellwith the rest of the armour) but I know that once I strengthen them I will no longer be able to put them on like I did before (just slide them on my arms and legs). Therfore I have no choice but to cut them, I took a few pics of them with the lines that I'm thinking of cutting out.

The most simple cut would be for the forearms because it's just a simple cut all along it as you can see below. If you guys think that there is a better way to cut please let me know.
(The reason for this cut is simply that I highly doubt that my hands will fit through the holes.)

The forelegs on the other hand are a little bit more of a question, I've identified 3 places that I could cut that all seem like they would work. (Just to clarify if you don't get how I drew them) The first and lowest would be right above the lower part of the foreleg where the armor begins to dip. From there I would cut to the bottom of the piece on either side. The second way I could cut would be at about the halfway point, once again following down on either sides to the bottom. The last way that I could cut would simply be to cut the piece in halves like I'm thinking of doing with the forearms. Again, If you guys think of better places to cut please let me know.
(The reason for this cut is that my ankles currently don't go through the armor without bending it which means that when I harden it I wont be able to bend it anymore and it will no longer work.)

Also, from the limited knowledge that I currently have on the subject I think that the best way i could do this would be to rondo coat the inside of the pieces twice and then cut. The reason being that if I fiberglass then cut, the lines I make won't come out as smoothly because it'll be much harder to cut through that. Then to reattach the pieces I'm thinking of using magnets along with a few metal bars (just to make sure that the pieces don't start to move around when I wear them).
Do you all believe that these are the best ways to get around doing all this or do you know of any better ways?

Thanks for the help so far!