So many helmets... WIP 10/22

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Ruze789

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Ok, I've got a bunch of pep helmet projects. 2 of them are for my wife and I for a Halloween party, which I must finish by next Friday. The ODST helmet is for my brother-in-law, which he needs by Haloween. The other two were mis-scaled extras.

My projects will be paper mached. I am extremely allergic to fiberglass and completely unable to work with it. And I don't need suggestions about wearing Tyvek suits and gloves to avoid it, they don't work when you are allergic to fiberglass. I know, I worked in construction for the last 8 years. And since I decided to go with mache, I also decided to keep the whole process non-toxic until the final clear coat.

I'll be working on them all weekend, I'll have an update Monday. I may also do a paper mache tut if anyone declares interest. And now, pics.

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EDIT: Update 10/22/07
New pictures from the weekend. ODST is nearly done, painted it and put on a clearcoat. All it needs is a headliner and visor. Not entirely happy with the finish on that one, the air bubbles and paper strips didn't smooth down quite as I was hoping. I'll be trying paper pulp or celluclay on the MC helmets, which should provide a smooth finish.

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The clone war begins!

Very nice helmets, how did you get the news paper onto your helmet? Glue? Mache?
 
AoBfrost said:
Very nice helmets, how did you get the news paper onto your helmet? Glue? Mache?

Thanks! I'm using just slightly diluted elmer's glue and newspaper. And taking a lot of care placing the newspaper, so I don't end up with a lumpy helmet.
 
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Does adding newspaper harden the helmet? it looks soo much smoother than resin.

Did you soak the peice in glue water or did you brudh the peice with glue water?
 
Yeah, the newspaper is what the strengthening part of paper mache, it replaces the resin and fiberglass part of the 'normal' pep process. It isn't nearly as strong though, and I've got 2 1/2 layers of glued newspaper on the outside and 1 on the inside. It's fairly smooth if you lay it on smoothly, and sandpaper takes out most of the creases. Hopefully by Monday the ODST will be primed and painted and I'll have pics for how it came out.
 
Hmmm...this makes me want to do this but then resin the inside for a tiny bit for strength...so many choices...

Tell me, how do you do paper mache? I've never done it before.
 
I can't imagine having to do that many helmets in a week... and that crazy winking mannequin in the background freaks me out... I want one.... Good luck with your helms, is it the resin or glass you are allergic to? I assume the resin...
 
I dont think anyone can be allergic to glass strips woven, so I agree about it being resin, but then again you never know, I might do this paper mache technique for myself on my helmet, havent go it resin or glassed yet.
 
I'm not allergic to the woven strips, but I am allergic to the individual fiberglass strands and dust. So even cutting the fiberglass cloth or mat could lead to problems. I could cut and lay it if I were extremely careful, but I would have big problems after it dries if I had to deal with cutting loose strands or sanding the helmet.

And AoBfrost, I'll probably make a full paper mache photo tutorial this weekend with my spartan helmets, in the meantime I'll find and PM you the links I found to be most helpful.
 
Ruze789 said:
I'm not allergic to the woven strips, but I am allergic to the individual fiberglass strands and dust. So even cutting the fiberglass cloth or mat could lead to problems. I could cut and lay it if I were extremely careful, but I would have big problems after it dries if I had to deal with cutting loose strands or sanding the helmet.

And AoBfrost, I'll probably make a full paper mache photo tutorial this weekend with my spartan helmets, in the meantime I'll find and PM you the links I found to be most helpful.

I work in a kitchen, and if it's that your skin gets irritated, you can wear a long sleeve shirt and there are special cut-gloves that you can put on under some plastic gloves that will prevent small/sharp objects from irritating your skin. If it's a breathing thing, you can wear a respirator or even a dust mask (which you should be wearing anyways because of the resin). It'll just keep the stray particles out. This site almost makes me wonder if some people making these helmets are going to be brain damaged later because of not using proper ventilation.
 
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20 years from now...

Tonight on Chanel 14056 Evening news... 20 years ago this year, a group of video game fanatics took their obsession to the next level by creating real life sets of their video game armor... there were warning signs then that were not taken into account, but this has led sudden rise in lung cancer related illnesses and deaths in X-Generation and is prompting legislation from the 4 party congress to ban the sale of fiberglass resin and related without a proper respirator operators license... more to follow after this 4 hour commercial break...
 
tsau-mia said:
I work in a kitchen, and if it's that your skin gets irritated, you can wear a long sleeve shirt and there are special cut-gloves that you can put on under some plastic gloves that will prevent small/sharp objects from irritating your skin. If it's a breathing thing, you can wear a respirator or even a dust mask (which you should be wearing anyways because of the resin). It'll just keep the stray particles out. This site almost makes me wonder if some people making these helmets are going to be brain damaged later because of not using proper ventilation.

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it, but those things won't help me much. I worked in construction for quite some time, which meant crawling around in fiberglass insulated ceilings and the like. I used to wear full Tyvek suits with a hood, gloves, and a respirator. The problem is when you take that stuff off, the fiberglass gets kicked into the air and clings to all the clothes that you have on underneath. I've tried so many different ways of removing layers, but it's impossible to keep fiberglass out of the air. It's skin and respiratory for me, if it gets on my skin I blow up with something that looks like poison ivy... painful. And if it gets in my lungs they swell up.

So I'm just gonna stay away from it entirely and not have to deal with it. But, if it turns out well perhaps some of the kids on here whose parents don't want them dealing with toxic stuff will have a nice looking alternative.
 
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If its the cloth itself thats making you irritated couldnt you just use the resin over the paper and use the paper instead of the fiber or use an old thin tshirt thats cut up.
 
People that work inside may get lung cancer or some infection....those who work outside in the great massive outdoors...should be ok.
 
Lovin' the papier mache ODST!
Really smooth, really nice. I've worked with papier mache for random theatre props before, and I know how hard it is to get it nice and smooth, so I'm really impressed with how well you've done. Can't wait to see more! :D
 
Here's another idea for 'glassing your armor if you can't deal with fiberglass, try light canvas, like the type artists use when they want to custom size pieces. coated with resin it should be pretty strong and you could cut into any shape you need, unlike fiberglass, which don't like being cut in anything not square or rectangle (unless you get the rc model grade, which is fine grade that can be cut in a circle in needed)
Or use something like muslin, which is real inexpensive way of strenghting the armor. Check here for prices and weights.

Btw, All aircraft were covered in coated canvas before the all metal bodied airplane was developed, so if they can throw canvas covered planes all over the sky, why not us a similar idea to harden cardstock armor?

edit, how's this for low cost, one yard of this will do you for quite a bit, it's 7.5 feet wide!, get two yards and you have a piece 6x7.5 feet, do your whole armor out that one piece :)
 
DemonSandWizard said:
your first link is pretty expensive. if your going to use the muslin, use teh second link and itl save you like 100 dollars
(y) Yep, I kinda noticed that a bit after the fact. (need an 'oops' smilie)
 
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