Hello all!
Thanks to everyone's help and great advice, I have a nearly complete suit of Mark VI armor. However, the helmet (my first piece, as seen in my avatar) is falling apart because I built it poorly. Not wanting to make another Mk VI helmet due to issues with the vent tubes, I looked around and settled on the standard Spartan 3 helm by Rundown unfolded by Brandon McClain.
Although most of my armor is pepakura coated inside with fiberglass and outside with resin/bondo, I really hate how hard it is to sand resin and get a decent paint job with this technique. Someone mentioned that they build the pep model with the tabs to the outside, pour plastic to the inside, and then remove the paper. I tried this technique on a small piece, and added one more step: Mold release! I highly recommend the use of mold release with this process. The paper comes off a lot cleaner. I'm using Polytek Poly 15-6 liquid plastic, reinforced with fiberglass cloth. This combination is pretty light, fairly strong, but scratches easily and won't hold any paint except lacquer.
On to pictures: I will attempt to keep at least one of my most recent progress pictures in this post.
Pepped, one layer of plastic poured.
Visor portion removed. I still need to add more plastic around the rim before test-fitting my fancy gold-chrome motorcycle visor.
Thanks to everyone's help and great advice, I have a nearly complete suit of Mark VI armor. However, the helmet (my first piece, as seen in my avatar) is falling apart because I built it poorly. Not wanting to make another Mk VI helmet due to issues with the vent tubes, I looked around and settled on the standard Spartan 3 helm by Rundown unfolded by Brandon McClain.
Although most of my armor is pepakura coated inside with fiberglass and outside with resin/bondo, I really hate how hard it is to sand resin and get a decent paint job with this technique. Someone mentioned that they build the pep model with the tabs to the outside, pour plastic to the inside, and then remove the paper. I tried this technique on a small piece, and added one more step: Mold release! I highly recommend the use of mold release with this process. The paper comes off a lot cleaner. I'm using Polytek Poly 15-6 liquid plastic, reinforced with fiberglass cloth. This combination is pretty light, fairly strong, but scratches easily and won't hold any paint except lacquer.
On to pictures: I will attempt to keep at least one of my most recent progress pictures in this post.
Pepped, one layer of plastic poured.
Visor portion removed. I still need to add more plastic around the rim before test-fitting my fancy gold-chrome motorcycle visor.