Brushes, Resin, and Fiberglass questions

[silentd3at4]

Quick questions:

Is there a way to save your brushes after putting a layer of resin on the outside of your helmet? I am on layer 3 on my helmet on the outside and havenet started to resin/fiberglass the inside as suggested. Anyways my brush is like a block of, well, fiberglass. Curious if people use a new brush on every layer / have a technique of preserving the brush for multiple layers?

Next question is in regards to resin. I am on the third coat on the outside. I plan on bondoing the helmet in order to get some of the finer detail lost during resining. So my question is do I have to resin and fiberglass the inside or can i do it on the outside of the helmet?

Lastly I am doing an iron man helmet and I started resining with the mask on (So it wouldnt lose its shape resining afterwards) Anyways After the 2nd coat of resin i cut the face out and did the third layer of resin on each separately. Now after the coat has dried it still seemed to have lost shape? Is this not the right way to do it? Or will I able to fix it with some bondo along the edges and when i go back to do finer details?

Finally off topic but when putting pep together is stick glue just as viable as elmers glue?

Thanks for your time and advice towards reading this

 

[I Heart ODST]

Your supposed to do one thin layer on the outside, then fiberglass and resin the inside. After that you bondo the outside then carve details.

For the glue question i would say super or crazy glue. They are very durable and hold the best but i really wouldn't know. I would think that stick glue would disintegrate on contact with resin but i havent actualy done it. Hope you your Iron Man helmet comes out great! -ODST

 

[silentd3at4]

Any details about the brushes and maintenance?

 

[I Heart ODST]

Yes the brushes are a one time use. Harbor Freight has a good deal on a box of brushes for $5 check em out.

 

[Liq]

You can quickly wash your brushes in Lacquer Thinner to get the resin out. It can buy you a couple more uses out of the brushed, but honestly as cheap as brushes are I wouldn't worry about it. I use the little yellow tipped wooden handled 2 inch brushes. My wife works at a hardware store and I get them for like .45 each. I probably have been through about $20 worth of them with 2 suits done.

 

[ODST]

yeah you waste more money on the paint thinner than it would be to just buy new brushes so just buy a big pack of em'.

 

[The Black Hatter]

There is no way to not have your brush become "play school". You just need to find cheap one time use brushes. Harbor Freight has an awesome box of 36 1' brushes for like 8 bucks.