making a nice mold

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drgon47

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I have a few quick questions.

My dad and I are going to build a mold, and we'd like it to be high quality. He knows how to do that, and has done it on many occasions. What I need to know is this. I have my 110lbs cardstock master chief helmet right now. Im going to put a coat of resin on it when I get home from work today to make it rigid enough to handle without it falling apart.

Now if Im going to go to the trouble of making a mold, should I use resin to harden it and sand it to the general shape I want, and then use bondo to make the finer details and sand that smooth and what not and then use that to make the mold out of instead of:

Cardstock>Resin>Fiberglass>Bondo>Mold

or

Cardstock>Resin>Bondo>Mold.
 
So what you're really asking is whether to fiberglass the helmet before making the mold... being that you'll end up casting it.. right?

Well, the fiberglass is a good idea in this instance because it will make the helmet strong, and you'll need that strength in the moldmaking process. If you just have a coat or two of resin on the helmet, then try to make a mold of it. there a good chance that the unreinforced resin will crack and your helmet will get crushed in the middle of moldmaking.. which is very bad.

My advice to you is to fully complete your first helmet (with fiberglass reinforcement) first, then make the mold after you have that helmet exactly like you want the copies to look.

Be sure to follow the fiberglassing tutorial found in the Pepakura forum when you put on that first coat of resin... theres lots of good advice there.

Good luck,

-Sean
 
what id do is fiber it then make a thick layer of bodyfiller on the inside, cast the mold. then make a helm using the mold. detail the new helm. cast a second mold. and finaly make the third helm. :eek
 
Erk... that alot of molds for the finished product... but I have had to resort to that process on some of my weapons....
 
Gotcha, thanks.

I just didnt know if having a few coats of resin and then the bondo for the details would be enough to make the initial mold. I guess not. Thought I'd ask first.

I have been reading up on the tutorials here, which are very nice btw, and have also been doing some of my own research using the google machine, and my dad has done a lot of fiberglassing for airplanes and such, so between all that Im sure we can get something worked out. I just have this desire not to have to do sanding with fiber for fear or getting glass shards in my lungs, even though my dad has a full face mask and all. I guess its a phobia of sorts....
 
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