Non stick spray on inside of the helm....???

[MoHawkMarine]

So I have a good friend that has worked with fiberglass for years and I took my pep helm over to him to just get his overall opinion about doing the glass work. He sat there and stared at it for a bit a an idea just kinda fell out of his mouth.

Resin the inside of it to stiffen it up, just nice thin coat. Then spray it with non stick spray (he said PAM) and then do the fiberglass then peel the paper off so you don't have to worry about sanding into the paper at all.

I have never worked with fiberglass and I'm not sure how much of a pain sanding through paper can be. But out of all the threads I have read through, I have never seen or heard of this kind of thing being done.

What is everyone's thoughts on this? I might try it just to see if it's worth doing. Like maybe doing a foldable form out of wood or metal that can be used over and over but not cost as much as the dragon skin.

 

[HaloGoddess]

Sanding through paper is NOT hard at all. Also, it's good to do bondo work on the outside of the helmet to help clean the shape up so it doesn't look "blocky". The paper will hardly be in the way if you do that. Trying to sand fiberglass will be even harder AND you loose detail. This is why A LOT of people stress to NEVER put fiberglass on the outside because it can be very difficult to keep the tiny and fine detail.

I would just resin the outside, fiberglass the inside and do your bondo work on the outside to make it pretty.

 

[MoHawkMarine]

I'm planning on doing it the same as everyone seems to on here with a slight add on/twist. I'll resin the outside then put a layer of rondo on the inside then reinforce that with a fiberglass layer or two on the inside.

I was explaining how these builds go to my friend so he understood the steps and all. But his idea struck me as oddly brilliant. Maybe not for a helm but maybe for other things that are easier to pep out and need to make a lot of. If I end up doing this on something I will post it up.

 

[Demogorgon]

The only issue I could see popping up with the whole "fiberglass the inside and peel the pep away" would be getting air bubbles between the fiberglass and pep, causing the shape to become distorted and possibly leaving out smaller details. It's a great idea but you might have to play around with the process a couple of times to get it right.

 

[SirPalesAlot]

I actually did something similar to what you're describing in my own build thread. Instead of using any fiberglass I went straight to slush casting plastic on the inside. Build your Pepakura part with flaps on the outside. Resin the outside with enough coats that the piece doesn't warp during the slush casting process. Seal the inside of the Pep model with Ease Release 2831 (throughly). Then wait till the release agent is dry then you're ready to go. I also like to dust the inside of my parts with some talc so the amount of surface bubbles decreases. It also helps the plastic flow into the smaller areas.

Using this method isn't recommended for all Pep models, but there are some that make this method worth it. If the base model is really smooth and would only need a slight amount of body filler work to make it smooth then this method is ideal. If the base Pep model is jagged/rough then you would be better off going the standard fiberglass/rondo route.

You can check out what some of my parts looked like when they were made this way in my build thread here. It's a long read at first, but eventually you will get to the part where I go into detail about how I went about testing products till I found something that worked. You can also see what a part looks like when you make a Pep model in the standard way (flaps on the inside).