Lancer's Recon Build

[Lancer942]

Hello All,

I am new to the 405th, but have been looking at this site, and doing research for quite some time now. However, I figured I would wait to have something to show, before I decided to make my first post.

At this point, the helmet has been resined, fiberglassed, and is in the early stages of bondo. I have also cut out and test fit the visor to make sure I have modified it to be the proper size, and curvature to fit inside with no issues.

(I apologize in advance for the crappy cell phone pictures. I promise better ones will come soon)

Visor modification:

And of course... The test fit

Bondo first coat:

And that's all for now. Any comments, criticism, or ideas are more than welcome. Stay Tuned...

 

[Cjsuner]

wow! looking good! this your first time useing pep?

 

[Reconation]

Man, I want to buy the finished product. I'm a serious buyer and not a kid. Please let me know if you're willinng to sell it.

 

[j3u5a8n]

Your helmets looking really good. Can't wait to see the rest.

 

[Kommissar]

this is a very, very well done pep build.
any particular tricks or techniques that have really helped you keep it this clean?

 

[nirvana katana]

how is the vision out of the eye hole. i was always worried about not being able to see enough out of the eye slot on the recon.

 

[Lancer942]

Thank you all for your responses so far. I'm currently waiting for more bondo to dry, to be able to continue plugging away, but I figured I would sit down and take some time to write back.

Cjsuner:

wow! looking good! this your first time useing pep?

Thanks! No this isn't my first time. I had a few projects I had started before (One of which you can see in the background on top on my piano heheh), but never really got around to finishing them. Life intervened, if you will.

Reconation:

Man, I want to buy the finished product. I'm a serious buyer and not a kid. Please let me know if you're willinng to sell it.

Thank you! I sent you another personal message in response.

J3u5a8n:

Your helmets looking really good. Can't wait to see the rest.

Thank you! It's coming along nicely. I will have more pictures up probably tomorrow.

Kommissar:

this is a very, very well done pep build.
any particular tricks or techniques that have really helped you keep it this clean?

Thank you very much! I found that I become very OCD with the organization of all my pep materials when building lol. I cut out all of the pieces first, and then mark them as I go. I make my folds with a ruler and a blue and black, or red and black pen (I don't care for the scoring method really). when I am done working on it for awhile, or for the evening, all the pieces go into a small rubbermaid container to keep them all together, and to prevent anything from happening to them.

As far as the clean folds, when I mark, I mark directly on the line, and when I glue it to the corresponding piece, I leave a little of the line exposed like this:

And that's about it! don't be afraid to score over the cardstock a couple of times, and then make all of your approximate folds before you put the pieces on. Sometimes it helps if you attach the difficult pieces together first, and then attach. Hope this helps!

Nirvana_katana:

how is the vision out of the eye hole. i was always worried about not being able to see enough out of the eye slot on the recon.

It's not... Terrible? I mean for me, the overall look of the helmet is far worth the sacrifice of the vision of say a MkVI variant. I removed the interior cardstock visor that you build when pepping for the visor attachment, but there is still little, to no peripheral vision whatsoever. As far as forward, It seems like it should be acceptable anyway. Just have to make sure I know where the dog is first before trying to walk around

Back to Bondo! Stay tuned...

 

[Lancer942]

Update: In what spare time I do have, I have managed to mostly bondo the top half of the helmet. I still need to make a few adjustments to some high, and low points, and also add the skull details, but at least you get an idea of how the project is progressing for now. I only added the paint to better see where I needed to make adjustments.

Before making some adjustments:

After making adjustments... But still more to go.

On that last photo, I'm think I may leave those few small divots on the visor, and weather them as sort of a battle damage. Good idea? Bad idea?

More to come...

 

[Deputy Dog]

good idea. Your helmet looks great and your pep work was perfect.

 

[carlino]

Great pep job! very clean and precise!! I didnt spot any warpage either with the resin on it! very well done. Looking forward to seeing the final product

 

[Lancer942]

Alright, I know it's been awhile since I last updated, but here is some more progress. I've finished most of the bondo on the front of the helmet (still a few touch ups needed here and there), seated, shaped, and installed the visor, and trimmed up all the details around it. I'm currently working on the top visor attachment that I actually formed from clay. It seems to be working well, but I'm imagining that one crash on the floor would destroy all the clay parts! So without further adieu, the photos.

Light coat of paint to give the general idea:

More detailing:

Enjoy! More to come soon...

 

[MontrealTrooper]

Wow man, pretty awesome job. Only one thing: did you had to scale the helmet or you just print it directly ? cause i'm beggining Recon , and i didn't had ref pictures so i'm kinda afraid to get a too Small/Big helmet for my size ( 5'8 ) ... And also, how long the cutting took you ?

 

[Lancer942]

MontrealDropShockTrooper:

Wow man, pretty awesome job. Only one thing: did you had to scale the helmet or you just print it directly ? cause i'm beggining Recon , and i didn't had ref pictures so i'm kinda afraid to get a too Small/Big helmet for my size ( 5'8 ) ... And also, how long the cutting took you ?

Thank you for the kind words. On this one, I used the smoothed version, and I just used the stock size when I printed it, and it seems to fit me pretty well. Just as a reference, I am 5'11" 165lbs. You can find plenty of reference pictures online. The cutting took a little while, and like with most other builds, there are of course some difficult parts that are fairly tedious to cut out, but you'll be able to see them when resize and print. Hope this helps!

 

[wiyumishere]

very nice job with it so far.

 

[Lancer942]

very nice job with it so far.

Thank you!

 

[Lancer942]

UPDATE: Alright, so this experimentation with the clay seems to be going really well. It is very easy to work with, and for all intents and purposes, should work very well for molding. I know that I am not the only one to discover this method to adding general shape / detail to armor pieces, but it is working well indeed (in my opinion).

Question for those who have used clay in pervious builds: What is the average life to the clay? Meaning, how long will it stand before starting to crack? Or, will it be fine once a coat of paint goes on?

Here are the pictures as of about an hour ago:

More to come soon...

 

[sonic sod]

realy nice and smooth man what clay are you using

slightly off topic what do you use to cut pep's out i use scissors but evryone seems to use x acto

 

[Lancer942]

realy nice and smooth man what clay are you using

slightly off topic what do you use to cut pep's out i use scissors but evryone seems to use x acto

Thanks man. I use this stuff called DAS clay. Seems to be some sort of foreign make, but is readily accesible at most craft stores. Or ones I have visited anyway (Michael's, AC Moore, etc.)

As far as cutting out the pieces, I mainly use sharp haircutting scissors (Mom loves me for this heh) on the straight edges, and long curved edges, and a small utility knife, or Xacto for the more tedious cuts. When I get the pieces that look like catapillar legs, because they have so many friggin' tabs, I use the scissors, and go over the tops of all the tabs, and then go back and cut out the tabs with the knife. It's the easiest way I've found so far. Hope this helps.