Mikki429's Spartan 3 helm

[mikki429]

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.

 

[mikki429]

My idea for making the small indents worked out great! Since it's a complete pain to pull paper out of little slots like in the top of this helmet, I simply cut a couple of foamies to the desired dimensions and glued them to the inside of the pep build. They pull right out!


Sadly, I also learned a hard lesson about getting ahead of myself. I knew I needed more pure plastic before I started glassing, and this is what happened when I jumped the gun:



I eventually managed to fill in the gaps, but it took almost a full day's worth of progress.

I am currently setting the visor in, after having thoroughly painted both the helmet and my hands. Pictures soonish.

 

[shawn858]

wow man this is looking REALLY nice! good job and keep up the good work!

 

[adam4472]

why does everyone do this helmet

 

[mikki429]

why does everyone do this helmet

I picked this helmet before I even saw any screenshots from the game. I think it looks most recognizable as being from HALO, and it doesn't have the Mk. VI's problem of the breathing tubes being difficult to put in.

Anyway, here's my visor clamping setup:

It's held in against two blocks of wood, with no glue whatsoever on the visor. Amazingly, it worked!


So now all I have left to do is fill some gaps, touch-up paint, glue on my faux lights and pad the interior. It'll be done by my first HALOween party wednesday night!