Helmet Visors

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Bobanator125

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How the FRICK do some of y'all make your visors. I've scowered youtube and the internet looking for tutorials, but i cant find any. In the only armor I've made, i just bought a motorcycle visor and cut it out using a dremel saw, but since those things are so tough i couldn't mold the thing how i wanted to. Pls help.
 
I follow this procedure to make things like this.
DSC_0704.JPG

All said and done the materials are around $50 CAD, likely less if you have the materials floating around already.
 
How the FRICK do some of y'all make your visors. I've scowered youtube and the internet looking for tutorials, but i cant find any. In the only armor I've made, i just bought a motorcycle visor and cut it out using a dremel saw, but since those things are so tough i couldn't mold the thing how i wanted to. Pls help.
Depends on the visor/helmet. If your visor is relatively flat/ a curve with no ridges or detail, use plexiglas glass. You can heat it up with a heat gun and it will take the shape you bend it. Then you can use FRICTION FORM one way metallic window tint. Regulat tinting will ruin the plastic. If you are building an eva helmet or odst/anything with a weird shape, vacuum forming and dye is the best way to go...
 
I follow this procedure to make things like this.
View attachment 268896

All said and done the materials are around $50 CAD, likely less if you have the materials floating around already.

What? You wrote a vacuum forming tutorial and didnt put tutorial in the title!? The Tutorial Index will be updated kind sir.

 
What? You wrote a vacuum forming tutorial and didnt put tutorial in the title!? The Tutorial Index will be updated kind sir.

Why would I put tutorial in a thread title if I didn't think it'd be good enough to be considered a tutorial?
 
Wow! I would never have guessed that that's all some people use, and after spray painting over it you still have good visibility? Does the visibility decrease as you spray more paint on or stay the same?
With 2 light layers of paint it's like wearing a pair of sunglasses in terms of visibility. The more you spray it the shinier the reflection you'll get but it'll also get harder to see, if you apply it too heavily it'll be pitch black on the inside. Overall the pop figure (not the one in the picture) cost me about $15 even though I didn't get it for that purpose, and the paint cost like $11 (not cheap). For my latest helmet I got clear folder dividers for like $3 at target and it works just as well. I use the pop figure because I was in a rush and capped out on my budget.
 
Wow! I would never have guessed that that's all some people use, and after spray painting over it you still have good visibility? Does the visibility decrease as you spray more paint on or stay the same?
The visibility is okay for the first two passes and you start losing the ability to read text shortly after that. Unfortunately you'll want more than two coats to get a reflective coating that obscures the silhouette of your features behind the visor.

Here's a sample view through the Krylon Mirror Like with increasing number of coats. This is what I used for my first orange visor on my SPARTAN-III which was okay, then I moved to other methods.
1-2.jpg2-2.jpg3-2.jpg4-2.jpg
 
With 2 light layers of paint it's like wearing a pair of sunglasses in terms of visibility. The more you spray it the shinier the reflection you'll get but it'll also get harder to see, if you apply it too heavily it'll be pitch black on the inside. Overall the pop figure (not the one in the picture) cost me about $15 even though I didn't get it for that purpose, and the paint cost like $11 (not cheap). For my latest helmet I got clear folder dividers for like $3 at target and it works just as well. I use the pop figure because I was in a rush and capped out on my budget.
The visibility is okay for the first two passes and you start losing the ability to read text shortly after that. Unfortunately you'll want more than two coats to get a reflective coating that obscures the silhouette of your features behind the visor.

Here's a sample view through the Krylon Mirror Like with increasing number of coats. This is what I used for my first orange visor on my SPARTAN-III which was okay, then I moved to other methods.
View attachment 269059View attachment 269060View attachment 269061View attachment 269062


Thank you both very much for the help, love this place and the people in it
 
It's been posted before, but seriously. SERIOUSLY. I REALLY recommend IconProps Flexible Visor Sheets on Etsy. SERIOUSLY. Unless you're trying to do some crazy complicated visor, that is most definitely the way to go.
 
Depends on the visor/helmet. If your visor is relatively flat/ a curve with no ridges or detail, use plexiglas glass. You can heat it up with a heat gun and it will take the shape you bend it. Then you can use FRICTION FORM one way metallic window tint. Regulat tinting will ruin the plastic. If you are building an eva helmet or odst/anything with a weird shape, vacuum forming and dye is the best way to go...
Hi there I have a question. I'm doing an ODST helmet, I started with pepakura and I'm all done with the fiberglassing process. If I want to vacuform the visor, do I need to cut out the visor before I do the bondo work or do I build out the entire helmet, make a resin cast then cut out the visor?
 
You want the visor to be as perfect as you can, so I'd recommend going up to but not painting it. Make sure it's flush and smooth, then cut it out and use that as your buck. You may want to reinforce it.

HOWEVER! I have no experience with this, so take that with a grain of salt.
 
You want the visor to be as perfect as you can, so I'd recommend going up to but not painting it. Make sure it's flush and smooth, then cut it out and use that as your buck. You may want to reinforce it.

HOWEVER! I have no experience with this, so take that with a grain of salt.
So I cut out the visor after the bondo work or will it be easier to cut it out before?
 
It will be easier to cut out before, but it won't be as smooth, so you'll want to make the helmet as perfect as you can with the bondo and everything, THEN cut it out. That will give you a great buck. But you'll have to be careful about thickness of the visor and blah blah blah, but long story short, better quality buck, better quality visor.

Know what? I'ma tag TurboCharizard to pitch in his $2 CD.
 
It will be easier to cut out before, but it won't be as smooth, so you'll want to make the helmet as perfect as you can with the bondo and everything, THEN cut it out. That will give you a great buck. But you'll have to be careful about thickness of the visor and blah blah blah, but long story short, better quality buck, better quality visor.

Know what? I'ma tag TurboCharizard to pitch in his $2 CD.
Cool, more people to help out the better hahahaha
 
Yup. Turbo is definitely the guy to talk to.

Of course, so is everyone else let's be honest. To try to tag everyone that is good at something would take forever.
 
You can make a cast but you dont have to. I recommend working through the helmet and finishing it. You will have to spraypaint to see where areas are too high/too low and sand/fill those spots in, and then paint again and repeat. I would finish the helmet completely(not incluning paint jobs to personalize it, I merely mean the construction), and then as carefully as you can cut the visor out. If you did cast the helmet, you can just cut out the visor of the cast. This will be easier to cut out because it is thinner and maybe slightly softer, but it will be alot harder to make a helmet cast using a visorless helmet. There are also some REALLY good visors on etsy for ODSTs that would totally be worth the money. They are fairly cheap. I wanna say $30? With many different color and style options with metalic and mirror one way finishes
 
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