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Masterchafed

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Well, I have been looking on the forums for a week or two now. I have fallen in love to say the least. Before I stumbled across this website, I had almost dished out some money to others selling armor because I didn't think I could do it myself. Well, I have started my own Halo items now, I made a half-as*ed Assault Rifle (pepakura but messed up cause i used clear tape, should have read, lol) and am now working on my helmet, the right way.

I have some questions though.

1. do you cut out the visor of the helmet (pepakura) before fiberglassing, resin, and bondo or after? I see many people cut out the visor beforehand just to find the helmet has no support. so that is quite high on my priority list of questions needing answers.

2. how do you go about fiberglassing a helmet? I see all of these post claiming to clarify my questions about fiberglassing and resining only to find out they didn't answer the most important question of all, where to start.


Anyway, I have all of the pieces of my helmet cut out, scored, and folded. all they need is some glue, so if anyone can answer my questions I would be grateful. Thank you all for the help in advance and thank you 405th for providing a resource for all of the want to be armor makers. I look forward to talking with the great people at this forum.

--Masterchafed
 
1.Always leave the visor in. Because if you were to resin without it the entire thing will collapse and it will look like a pile of crap. I personally didnt resin my helmet, because so I can slip my head in and out easily. I have to hot glue reinforce the chin area alot, but its worth it for me.

2.Just find a medium. Like say, make a block of wood or somethin' and stick it on a pole of wood. Then stick your helmet on it and resin all over the top.
Then the inside by simply holding the outside if you want more support. Then fiberglass if you want maximum support. Then slap on a visor.

I use a soda bottle visor with gold paint on it, and a small pentagon shape cut in the middle to see out of. Im going to cover it up soon and cut out two holes and put a plastic yellow under them so its not easy to see if I cut anything out, then look out of them. But I dont know if I want to go through with the effort.
 
Masterchafed said:
Thanks a bunch. I thought that if you resin and bondo and fiberglass it that it would be strong enough for a real visor.

you wouldnt be able to see :p
 
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Yup yup! Leave that paper visor in while you work. Don't bother resining it though. It's just there for support so you want it to be easy to trim out after you are done. Cut the paper visor out before proceeding on to fiberglassing.

Having a stand is essential, as cemetras mentioned. I made little supports out of bending coat hangers.
Your resined product will want to stick to everything so something that props it up with the least amount of contact is desirable. Lots of disposable things around the house/garage could work nicely. Be aware that resin can eat through some materials :)

So, start with a simpler piece. The first pieces I did were the space diaper and the biceps (I figured if I messed up, these could be rebuilt easily). Have all your safety gear and resin ready to mix. Mix up a modest batch for your first try (like 3-6oz). You can always mix up more later and you only have a 10min window (approx) to work with what you mix up. It's like painting with rubber cement but don't be nervous. The idea is to apply just enough to cover the whole surface without over soaking it or making it soggy. Do 1 layer at a time and let it fully cure (depending on your temperature, it can be 2 hours or it could be more) before adding additional layers or doing the inside. People's preferences for how many layers of resin will vary. I did 2 on the outside of mine, for example but you can stick with only one or add more for extra strength. After a layer has cured, it's common to see little 'icicles' of resin because it likes to run (it's pretty goopy stuff afterall). These can be trimmed and sanded off. Also, It's good to work on multiple pieces concurrently since the curing time tends to slow this project down.

Fiberglass...is also messy but it's straightforward :) Most people will recommend the cloth vs. the mat for ease of use. Using spray adhesive to keep your cloth contoured to your piece will aid you greatly when it comes time to resin it down. When you are ready to resin your cloth, it will take more resin than when you initially coated the piece (as above). The resin needs to soak all the way through the cloth so you will notice your resin will be used up fast. You know your resin has saturated the fiberglass when it turns translucent yellow. Sometimes it takes using your gloved hands to press the resin soaked cloth down. It's sticky but you can push the cloth into the details very well this way. Check on your soaked cloth often throughout the curing process. Gravity can sometimes separate the soaked cloth from the piece. Just give it a nudge or hold it into place with something that will be easy to remove later (a string, or a small dowel can help you secure stuff sometimes).

After say, your helmet is all done, you can glue in a visor, lights, fans, padding...all that fun stuff! Visors can be made from a variety of materials or can be purchased from motorcycle store. There are tons of options you can dive into with your suit :)

Hope that helps!

-Vex
 
crazybunny said:
you wouldnt be able to see :p

I think you misunderstood me. lol.

Thank you so much Vexona! That really helped. I thought you fiberglassed it before doing anything else and I will more than likely buy a visor for it for a more professional look. The helmet is already in construction though, so i didn't really want to stop. Besides, it is coming out pretty good so far. but if this doesn't come out near perfect, I will be scrapping it and starting over. I want this to be a great quality helmet. Also, the resin is different for the fiber glass and the resining phases right? Or is it the same type of resin? Thankyou a bunch for your help everyone.
 
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Masterchafed said:
Thank you so much Vexona! That really helped. I thought you fiberglassed it before doing anything else and I will more than likely buy a visor for it for a more professional look. The helmet is already in construction though, so i didn't really want to stop. Besides, it is coming out pretty good so far. but if this doesn't come out near perfect, I will be scrapping it and starting over. I want this to be a great quality helmet. Also, the resin is different for the fiber glass and the resining phases right? Or is it the same type of resin? Thankyou a bunch for your help everyone.

No problemo!

You use the same resin throughout.

This is a typical gallon can of Polyester Resin (it comes with hardener in the lid like normal):
mvc313fxx0.jpg


You do 2 layers of just the resin mix to 'laminate' and get it strong enough to hold the cloth.

Here's what the cloth looks like before it is resined. It has glass woven into it but otherwise it appears like a normal textile. (Handle with gloves, glasses, and particle mask on because glass dust is itchy and an eye irritant)
00002481.jpg


You cut it up into strips and use spray adhesive to hold it to the inside of the piece. Overlap the edges to keep it from having weak spots (the cloth can extend beyond the piece and be trimmed afterwards) :).

overlap.jpg


Then, using that same resin, you just paint it into the cloth, making sure it is completely saturated.
After it has cured it looks like light brown plastic.

(The inside of the space diaper after everything has cured. The excess cloth leaves spiky strands, but it ensures that the whole piece got covered)
med_gallery_3102_89_62617.jpg


(Here's the front at the same stage, note how only the interior was fiberglassed)
med_gallery_3102_89_117569.jpg


And here's a layer of primer on a fiberglassed piece just so you can see what it looks like. You would typically sand and bondo at this point to get it nice and smooth.
med_gallery_3102_89_207948.jpg


Hopefully that explains it. Let me know if anything is confusing :)

-Vex
 
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I am a bit confused. first off, you use 2 coats of resin on the inside? then you spray adhesive onto the inside with the resin right? then you coat that with more resin? Is all that correct?

Then what do I use for the outside? i thought you fiberglassed the inside, and then resined the outside. then after resining it you bondoed it on the outside.
 
Masterchafed said:
I am a bit confused. first off, you use 2 coats of resin on the inside? then you spray adhesive onto the inside with the resin right? then you coat that with more resin? Is all that correct?

Then what do I use for the outside? i thought you fiberglassed the inside, and then resined the outside. then after resining it you bondoed it on the outside.

2 coats resin outside to strengthen. Time for Inside. Use Spray adhesive to hold the cloth strips in place. Resin the cloth to make the inside tough. Back to outside. Sand and bondo.

:)
 
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Vexona said:
2 coats resin outside to strengthen. Time for Inside. Use Spray adhesive to hold the cloth strips in place. Resin the cloth to make the inside tough. Back to outside. Sand and bondo.

:)
Yeah you really want to use that spray stuff...I didn't know about it when i made my first armor...it was so stringy and nothing would stay where I wanted it to go.:(
 
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Thanks for the replies. I went to WalMart today and picked up some resin, bondo, a bunch of disposable bristle brushes, about 11 feet total of fiberglass cloth (not mat). We already have spray adhesive so I'm set! Gotta wait til this friday for it warm up and then i will be ready for action. Thanks for the replies once again.
 
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