okay, starting off with the old Mk VI...
looks good, right? yeah, from the side.
You can kinda see some warpage from this view
And heres where it becomes obvious.
also visible from the top
I can fix alot of this, but not all of it, without seriously changing the proportions of the helmet, and piling on the bondo, which is a big no-no in my book. The problem is, I left it in the sun over the weekend, sitting in a weird position. In the middle of August, in Arizona. Heat makes fiberglass do some weird things. And I didnt notice until after I had started on the other side. Thats what I get for paying attention. Soooo, basically, at this point, I'm gonna use it for reference, and start the metal MkVI. I'll redo it with FS's most recent helmet model after I get done with my current projects.
But all of that is after I finish this.
So, to start with, i had picked up the book 'DC Masks' (see my previous post for link to amazon. Yes, its amazon UK. first one that popped up in google) several years ago, for 3 bucks, on amazon. After building several of them, I had an apartment fire, and lost all of em. So i re-bought the book, and got about halfway into making the batman mask, and got to thinking (which never ends well). So, starting with the doomsday mask from the book, I cut apart and modified it to get something I liked, then redid the patterns, which look like this:
However, there is a problem. Since I did all this several years ago, I forgot how everything went together. So, I cut everything a little oversized and ran with it. heres some parts in comparison to the templates:
I'm about halfway done, as I'm fighting this alot more than I expected. the individual pieces are coming together pretty quickly, but the problem lies in getting them to fit together correctly. theres alot of cleanup work left to do on what I have done, and these inside shots show it:
top, notice the extra metal around the cheek and brow sections,
And the bottom. little easier time making these parts fit. Little easier to see the extra metal around the cheek, and theres some around the bottom of the nose as well.
So what the hell does the whole thing look like?
Originally, the pattern I made fit together at the middle, but I'm going to have to add a section in the middleof the forehead where the two halves meet, as well as some filler bits in and around the nose. I think I'm gonna add some crease lines around the mouth though, as the area is a little bland. Also considering reshaping the eye opening, and adding a crease line coming from the corner of the nose down around the mouth. all the parts for the other side are cut out, I just need a few hours to shape em and weld em together.
SO what does this have to do with making a steel MkVI? alot, actually. since the parts are cut and shaped similarly to the .pdo I have, its like a test run on making some of the smoother parts on the helmet, like the top, cheeks, and back. Also, it gave me a better feel for how to cut all the parts out, and what I needed to do to get better fitment, and most importantly, whether or not using the PDO's was even possible.
MkVI is a go, probably about a week or two.
Opinions? dont be afraid to hurt me feelers.
Edit: I am the Master of run-on sentences.
the feasibility of using pep (well, pep-like files) to make something out of steel. I'm only halfway done, and things are... interesting. You'll see. I was gonna post pics today, but I forgot my camera.
