minsm001
New Member
Hello 405th,
After spending a lot of time on the forums, and only having made individual test pieces, I've decided to build a full ODST uniform as my first big project. In November I was privileged enough to meet BishopX, who has been acting as my pseudo-mentor, and he gave me a couple of molded helmets to start with. Unfortunately BishopX did not make these and he was unable to recall who had; please, if you recognize the helmet as your art PM me so I can thank you properly.
The day I received my helmets!
I should, at this point, mention that I am not building alone. I've given halorookie, a classmate of mine, the second helmet for her ODST build for Comic-con. All work in this thread is done as a team effort, and though she is not in all the pics she deserves equal credit.
First thing I had to do was smooth out the interior of the helmet by hand using 60 & 100 grain sand paper. There were places where the material had pooled before hardening, and would have kept me from being able to install the PETG vacu-formed faceplate. Then I removed the faceplate and rebreather vents from the molded helm using a Dremmel with the reinforced cutting head, and the grinding tip.
You can see I used all of my safety gear. As I worked the helmet, there was a lot of powdery debris everywhere. Never wise to breathe it in, in my opinion.
Next, I primed and painted the helmet using Rust-oleum brand spray paints. They have a nice color palette, and an entire line designed for vinyl and plastic. Also, they're prices are very reasonable at less than ten dollars a can, even for metallics. My helmet is a solid drab green around, squad color on the "forehead" and moderate battle damage.
halorookie and I using painter's tape to mask a section of the second helmet for painting. Her helmet's color scheme varies from mine by integrating a tan camo stripe down the center, and she has only minor battle damage.
Once primed and based, we sprayed pre-designated areas in a silver metallic, then we placed torn strips of painter's tape over the areas when dried.
Two light coats of the green covered the excess silver. After drying, the tape was removed and torn into yet smaller pieces. Once again we covered the silver, but this time only applied a single, light coat of green.
The final effect is quite impressive. The burn scarring around the areas was done by hand.
Next up was the rebreather vents. My intention is to use the top, smaller, vents for the cooling system I'm designing; and the lower, larger, vents will have speakers installed so people can hear me clearly while wearing the helmet.
I used screening for windows (purchased at Home Depot at $4.45 for a 48"x56" roll) in two layers to cover the vents. The spacing is enough to allow airflow, but when worn cannot be seen through.
Now here I am with a nearly finished helmet.
Can anyone give me ideas on how to attach the visor? I've already tried Dap brand adhesive sealant, but it takes too long to cure and ends up all over the place. Luckily, once cured, the Dap sealant just peels right off, so no damage to the visor, yet.
After spending a lot of time on the forums, and only having made individual test pieces, I've decided to build a full ODST uniform as my first big project. In November I was privileged enough to meet BishopX, who has been acting as my pseudo-mentor, and he gave me a couple of molded helmets to start with. Unfortunately BishopX did not make these and he was unable to recall who had; please, if you recognize the helmet as your art PM me so I can thank you properly.
The day I received my helmets!
I should, at this point, mention that I am not building alone. I've given halorookie, a classmate of mine, the second helmet for her ODST build for Comic-con. All work in this thread is done as a team effort, and though she is not in all the pics she deserves equal credit.
First thing I had to do was smooth out the interior of the helmet by hand using 60 & 100 grain sand paper. There were places where the material had pooled before hardening, and would have kept me from being able to install the PETG vacu-formed faceplate. Then I removed the faceplate and rebreather vents from the molded helm using a Dremmel with the reinforced cutting head, and the grinding tip.
You can see I used all of my safety gear. As I worked the helmet, there was a lot of powdery debris everywhere. Never wise to breathe it in, in my opinion.
Next, I primed and painted the helmet using Rust-oleum brand spray paints. They have a nice color palette, and an entire line designed for vinyl and plastic. Also, they're prices are very reasonable at less than ten dollars a can, even for metallics. My helmet is a solid drab green around, squad color on the "forehead" and moderate battle damage.
halorookie and I using painter's tape to mask a section of the second helmet for painting. Her helmet's color scheme varies from mine by integrating a tan camo stripe down the center, and she has only minor battle damage.
Once primed and based, we sprayed pre-designated areas in a silver metallic, then we placed torn strips of painter's tape over the areas when dried.
Two light coats of the green covered the excess silver. After drying, the tape was removed and torn into yet smaller pieces. Once again we covered the silver, but this time only applied a single, light coat of green.
The final effect is quite impressive. The burn scarring around the areas was done by hand.
Next up was the rebreather vents. My intention is to use the top, smaller, vents for the cooling system I'm designing; and the lower, larger, vents will have speakers installed so people can hear me clearly while wearing the helmet.
I used screening for windows (purchased at Home Depot at $4.45 for a 48"x56" roll) in two layers to cover the vents. The spacing is enough to allow airflow, but when worn cannot be seen through.
Now here I am with a nearly finished helmet.
Can anyone give me ideas on how to attach the visor? I've already tried Dap brand adhesive sealant, but it takes too long to cure and ends up all over the place. Luckily, once cured, the Dap sealant just peels right off, so no damage to the visor, yet.
