What kind of visor is best and where to get one?

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ButterBacon3000

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I'm a noob at cosplay and I'm making noble six default armor. I don't know where to get a visor or what kind of visor to get. Even how to make one myself would be great. I need it to be shiny silver in color and wide enough to fit a halo helmet. Any suggestions?
 
A lot of people use motorcycle visors because you can get them in a lot of different colors and you don't have to worry about coating them. Depending on the shape and size you need, it might be difficult to find one that fits though. You can also vacuum form one out of PETG, but that requires more tools, but it also results in a more accurate visor. If the shape is simple but you can't find a visor the right size, you can also just bend one from PETG with a Heat gun. You could also use plexiglass, but that can shatter relatively which is not very safe. To make the visor mirrored, you can either use some window tint or, if you have an airbrush, you could use a paint called alclad II, but I dont know how well you can see out of that. In theory you could also sputter or vapor deposit some metal onto the visor, but that requires a quite complicated setup to do. You could also look on etsy for a visor that would fit your helmet or some flexible mirrored visor material.
 
I also currently have a clear visor that I have to chrome. Some people use just chrome spray paint, but I haven't gotten that to work, since the drops were too big. An easy way would be to apply some chrome window tint to the visor. If you want, you could also use an airbrush to apply some chrome paint. You need more equipment for this, but you can chrome more complicated shapes as well. You could also look around if there is some kind of place near you that could do that, motorcycle/car bodyshops for example might have the right equipment.
 
There are many different methods to doing this, and it really all depends on the shape of your visor. If it is a flat or not very complex shape, window tint and plexiglass is your friend. If you need a curve, picking up a cheap motercycle visor from a thrift store is a great idea. If it is something with a really complex shape, you pretty much have to vacuum form it. There are many tutorials on how to dye your visors and tint them on YouTube or the forums, and I think coreforge summed most of it up.
 
I used a motorcycle visor as well but I regretted it. A motorcycle visor is designed to protect the wearer with the highest impact breaking point possible. I had a hard time cutting and trimming mine down. Next time I'm going w/ something w/ a bit more flex and give. Harbor Freight has a full coverage face shield for $13USD. Bonus: it has holes cut already to attach in to the helmet!!!

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As far as the coloring goes, I've used car tint to much susses. Best of all, you don't have to use any adhesive. A bit of Windex to move things about and a squeegee to remove the excess and presto!!! Tinted visor.
 
perfect timing, I just bought 1.5 mm acrylic awhile ago. Would anyone here know if what I will work well if vacuum formed? also can anyone suggest dyes that would work well for tinting? thanks!
 
perfect timing, I just bought 1.5 mm acrylic awhile ago. Would anyone here know if what I will work well if vacuum formed? also can anyone suggest dyes that would work well for tinting? thanks!
Jacquard's iDye Poly for synthetics is what I use for my vacuum formed visors. There's quite a few colours that can be mixed to hit almost any tone that you're after.

When diving into the depths of the internet looking at different mirror chrome paints I came across a forum post that mentioned using dryer sheets and a heat gun to shape mirror tint into complex curves to reduce the wrinkles, has anyone here tried that? I think the concept is use the dryer sheet as a non-stick and relatively heat resistant material that will break the direct stream of hot forced air onto the visor and film to limit the chance of melting anything but still get it warm enough to make it malleable.
 
I would be hesitant to try that one TurboCharizard. True, dryer sheets go into the dryer but they don't get hit w/ direct hot air nor is it as hot as a heat gun. Average clothing dryers heat between 120 and 135 degrees. A heat gun can reach temperatures in excess of 400 degrees. You might just end up burning the dryer sheet.
 
perfect timing, I just bought 1.5 mm acrylic awhile ago. Would anyone here know if what I will work well if vacuum formed? also can anyone suggest dyes that would work well for tinting? thanks!
I doubt acrylic would work. I tried it with 2mm acrylic and it somewhat worked, but acrylic absorbes water pretty well, so it creates bubbles if you heat it up too far, which you have to do to get it soft enough. 1.5mm might work if you only have a simple shape and you don't need it to strech a lot, which could happen at the edges of the visor buck. PETG should work better because it absorbs less water, but I haven't tried that.
 
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