First Thread! A few questions about amounts of things needed in molding armor.

[CheshirePuma]

Alright! So i already introduced myself a week or two ago in the introduce yourself thread. I have been a forum lerker for quite sometime and I eventually decided to join. I am actually the leader of a group of highschoolers who have decided to make ODST helmets in our spare time. I am enjoying the site and have been extremely satisfied with the info given, BUT there are a few things I can't seem to find. My group and I have decided to go with a pep base that we will then bondo and add details and such to. From here we plan to make a silicone mold and use slush casting to make 7 or so casts which we will then work on. We do not have great funds to work with (about 70 each making a total of about $500). So basically i have started this thread because I can't find info on amounts of supplies used... How much silicone do you use for a helmet mold on average? Should we go ahead and purchase a gallon or look for something in the couple of quarts range (i would also like to know of any cheaper silicone molding agents because Rebound 25 cuts deep at 180 a gallon)? Also how much resin do you use on average per cast? If my guess is right we should be able to get 2-3 per gallon but i'm honestly not sure. Thanks a million! sorry if broke any rules in this thread. I'm still learning my way around so feel free to correct my bad behavior...

 

[CoolC]

I honestly think that you will blow your $500 budget easily; more than likely you won't be able to get 7 costumes out of that amount. I can tell you how much I spent on making my kids costumes. By the time I was done, I almost finished my supplies. I did not mold/cast the costumes so I'm not going to comment on that. You will probably need to add another $300 to the amount because as you probably found out it is costly to mold/cast.

Card stock = $40
2 gal Resin and 2 2in roll of fiberglass = $120
2 visors = $40
3 quarts of bondo = $40 (probably needed more if I worked on the details)
Rotary tool with diamond tip= $50
Padding for helmet = $30
LCD lights = $16
Fans for helmet = $24
Misc items = $30
Time spent = priceless

Hope this helps.

 

[CheshirePuma]

I honestly think that you will blow your $500 budget easily; more than likely you won't be able to get 7 costumes out of that amount. I can tell you how much I spent on making my kids costumes. By the time I was done, I almost finished my supplies. I did not mold/cast the costumes so I'm not going to comment on that. You will probably need to add another $300 to the amount because as you probably found out it is costly to mold/cast.

Card stock = $40
2 gal Resin and 2 2in roll of fiberglass = $120
2 visors = $40
3 quarts of bondo = $40 (probably needed more if I worked on the details)
Rotary tool with diamond tip= $50
Padding for helmet = $30
LCD lights = $16
Fans for helmet = $24
Misc items = $30
Time spent = priceless

Hope this helps.

Well we aren't focusing entire costumes. Just helmets. I am almost done with my pep model, and have bondo and a dremel already. Currently we're only about 20 bucks into the budget. As far as visors go I am going to vacuum form them. That will make visors about 4 bucks per helmet (tint not included >.>) I'm really just curious about how much casting resin and silicone we will need...

 

[carlino]

I molded an casted an iron man helmet. Using Rebound 25 for the solicone, the mother mold was made from plaster bandages and fiberglass. I had bought the gallon size rebound 25 and have molded alot more parts to the iron man costume including the entire upper body and have used about half of my silicone.

since you are only making a cast of 1 helmet and will only need the to make the silicone mold one time, you dont need the gallon size. If you use Thi-Vex (a product that thickens the silicone) during one of your silicone layers, you can probably get away with a trial size (pint size i think it is) of the Rebound 25.

For the slush casting materials, you have not said what you are looking at using for that. Im assuming you may go the route of Smooth-Cast 320 or something similar. For that, and 7 helmets, I would probably purchase the gallon unit. Dont forget, the gallon unit is a two part system so you are actually ending up with a total of 2 gallons of Smooth-Cast 320 for casting.

If you want to get away possibly cheaper (I havnt looked into the supplies cost) you can make your casts out of fiberglass. You would need to use a gelcoat first and then layer in your fiberglasss into the mold. This will be light and strong and like I said, if you buy the fiberglass in bulk (online) it should come out cheaper. Take caution and read up if you choose this method.

I bought the gallon size Smooth-Cast 320 and cast the majority of an iron man suit and still have about 1/3 of the unit. Not to mention I used extra on a few failed atempts.

 

[CheshirePuma]

I molded an casted an iron man helmet. Using Rebound 25 for the solicone, the mother mold was made from plaster bandages and fiberglass. I had bought the gallon size rebound 25 and have molded alot more parts to the iron man costume including the entire upper body and have used about half of my silicone.

since you are only making a cast of 1 helmet and will only need the to make the silicone mold one time, you dont need the gallon size. If you use Thi-Vex (a product that thickens the silicone) during one of your silicone layers, you can probably get away with a trial size (pint size i think it is) of the Rebound 25.

For the slush casting materials, you have not said what you are looking at using for that. Im assuming you may go the route of Smooth-Cast 320 or something similar. For that, and 7 helmets, I would probably purchase the gallon unit. Dont forget, the gallon unit is a two part system so you are actually ending up with a total of 2 gallons of Smooth-Cast 320 for casting.

If you want to get away possibly cheaper (I havnt looked into the supplies cost) you can make your casts out of fiberglass. You would need to use a gelcoat first and then layer in your fiberglasss into the mold. This will be light and strong and like I said, if you buy the fiberglass in bulk (online) it should come out cheaper. Take caution and read up if you choose this method.

I bought the gallon size Smooth-Cast 320 and cast the majority of an iron man suit and still have about 1/3 of the unit. Not to mention I used extra on a few failed atempts.

Thank you so much! I knew that Smooth-Cast 320 was a part two part system, but I assumed it was 2 half gallon parts. As far as fiberglass helmets go, i have seen a few and they look a little odd to me... i think the lack of color makes them not take to color as well or something... not sure. I may cast a few to experiment with. Now it's looking a LOT more like we're going to come in under budget... may go ahead and get the gallon of Rebound 25 just in case we either screw up a mold or wanna work on another helmet (or maybe a weapon or something) afterwards. You get a gold star bro