Newbie with a Iron Man MK. III Pep Helmet

**Ironpredator** · Jun 6, 2011

Hi all

What has me here in the first place was looking around on the RPF fourms looking for a replica resin Iron Man Helmet. Someone had mentioned it to me that it was possible to make your using pepakura and file etc (never heard of until over one week ago) anyway it led me to here and after a week of looking around and pesturing people I decided to try give it a go myself. my experiance is minimal and have never used fiberglass or bondo so im literally going step by step. Only experiance I have is doing model building and some airbrushing.

Anyway here is were I am. Please what I would like more is for people to tell me were I am going wrong or what else I could be doing. indiefilmgeek suggested to me to do a WIP to get people advise and opinions and im greatful to him and stealth(cultcollectables on youtube) who I have been pesturing the last few days.

I have never used a glue gun before or worked with cardstock so the first thing I noticed was a few bumps and lumps as I was gluing, Im sure its one of them things with practice you get better at. its only at this point that im getting the grips with the glue gun as most people have suggested its the best glue to use. I have no idea how far Im going to go with this but it would be really really fantastic if I could get as far as the torso even to display. (arc reactor, and repulsor's im worrying about achieving this) one step at a time.

I have just done my very first fiberglass today so im hopin to do the inside tomorrow with the cloth.

Anyway thanks for looking!! and thank you for any advise and for having me here on rpf:-)

David

Fiberglassing stage

**RPF Support**

**Surreal Studios** · Jun 6, 2011

looks like your off to a fine start, keep up the good work

**Ironpredator** · Jun 7, 2011

cheer my friend , fingers crossed!!

**clancampbell** · Jun 7, 2011

Excellent looking so far!

Rich

**Ironpredator** · Jun 7, 2011

Just seen your work Surreal, absolutely fantasic!

Surreal Studios said:

looks like your off to a fine start, keep up the good work

**Ironpredator** · Jun 7, 2011

Thank you Rich, im sure im going to need lots of help along the way :-)

clancampbell said:

Excellent looking so far!

Rich

**AdamJ** · Jun 7, 2011

Hi

Great work... like you, i'm also a newbie to this and have a couple of questions if you don't mind:

1) The helmet is made out of cardstock ?
2) Glued together with a heat glue gun ?
3) What have you sprayed it with to strengthen it ?
4) whats the next step ?

Appreciate any response.

Thanks
Adam

**AdamJ** · Jun 7, 2011

Sorry, also which pdo did you use for the helmet ?

**Ironpredator** · Jun 7, 2011

Hey Adam

yoru dead right its made from cardstock, im using 200 gsm and maybe I could go abit stronger with it to 220. Im using a glue gun aswell and im only getting used to the right amounts used per tab. I used fiberglass resin on the outside and spray adhesive on the inside and lay some fiberglass cloth down and then resin over it all. after that its the bondo car filler polyester, im not that far yet so keep checking here my friend.

david

AdamJ said:

Hi

Great work... like you, i'm also a newbie to this and have a couple of questions if you don't mind:

1) The helmet is made out of cardstock ?
2) Glued together with a heat glue gun ?
3) What have you sprayed it with to strengthen it ?
4) whats the next step ?

Appreciate any response.

Thanks
Adam

**Isamu** · Jun 7, 2011

great work

**Ironpredator** · Jun 7, 2011

HI all

Im just wondering how you all keep the face plate dead centred with the jaw before fiberglassing?

many thanks

**dreaminspired** · Jun 7, 2011

i believe that they are fiberglassed separately. i've never built one, but i think that's how it's done.

*edit* i meant that the faceplate and the helmet are fiberglassed as two separate pieces and then when the helmet is done you use magnets to hold the faceplate in place.( or whatever type of hinge design people use to make the face plate open and close)

**Isamu** · Jun 7, 2011

it depends on wich helmet you have made, mine have a piece that lock the face place at the right place. well it might

**erictank** · Jun 7, 2011

dreaminspired said:

i believe that they are fiberglassed separately. i've never built one, but i think that's how it's done.

*edit* i meant that the faceplate and the helmet are fiberglassed as two separate pieces and then when the helmet is done you use magnets to hold the faceplate in place.( or whatever type of hinge design people use to make the face plate open and close)

Did my first attempt with the (three) pieces separated. The faceplate and jaw were adjustable back to true with a few hours heating and bending, but the main helmet body was warped in three dimensions as it cured, and was irreparable. I'm now doing a 4-piece version, and plan to resin and 'glass it as one piece, and cut it apart afterward. The back-of-the-neck piece doesn't seem to want to fit in with the rest of the helmet, though, which puzzles me - they were all printed at the same scale, so it ought to all fit together, and it... doesn't.

ETA: first helmet was SharkMark's, which was a really-detailed 3-pc model (faceplate, jaw, and rest of helmet); second was one of Robo's IIRC, and was a slightly-less-detailed (but therefore a little easier) 4-pc - faceplate, jaw, back-of-neck wraparound "earmuffs", and rest of helmet.

**Leander** · Jun 7, 2011

yeah I resined , fiberglassed and Bondo'ed them as 1 piece so when I cut them with my dremel I am sure they will fit together nicely

my first try I resined the faceplate separate from the rest and it did not fit anymore..
so in my opinion making it as 1 helmet and then cut it in pieces is the best option

**AdamJ** · Jun 7, 2011

Thanks Ironpredator

Does you head fit in it ?

Which plans did you work off ?

**Ironpredator** · Jun 7, 2011

I got them from stealth's you tube tutorials, he has them listed under the description.

it does fit over your head but when you harden its really difficult, so people here i think cut a piece of the back of the helmet to make room.

AdamJ said:

Thanks Ironpredator

Does you head fit in it ?

Which plans did you work off ?

**Surreal Studios** · Jun 7, 2011

Ironpredator said:

HI all

Im just wondering how you all keep the face plate dead centred with the jaw before fiberglassing?

many thanks

Attach the face plate with some small clips on the inside of the helmet, and run a light coat of vasoline along the inside of the seam , then do a few coats of fiberglass resin on the outside of the helmet, trying not to get too much around where the faceplate and helmet meet up, once cured then seperate the two and use the fiberglass cloth and resin on the inside of the helmet and faceplate, then you can reattach the faceplate to the helmet with the clips on the inside again to let them cure together to hold their shape

**Ironpredator** · Jun 7, 2011

ahh I think I know what you mean Surreal, is it them stationary bull clips? the mini ones?

just attach them on the inside were the faceplate meets the helmet and on that seam you run vasoline? never heard of that one, is it just one side you vasoline and what does the vasoline do ?

again thank you

Surreal Studios said:

Attach the face plate with some small clips on the inside of the helmet, and run a light coat of vasoline along the inside of the seam , then do a few coats of fiberglass resin on the outside of the helmet, trying not to get too much around where the faceplate and helmet meet up, once cured then seperate the two and use the fiberglass cloth and resin on the inside of the helmet and faceplate, then you can reattach the faceplate to the helmet with the clips on the inside again to let them cure together to hold their shape

**Surreal Studios** · Jun 7, 2011

Ironpredator said:

ahh I think I know what you mean Surreal, is it them stationary bull clips? the mini ones?

just attach them on the inside were the faceplate meets the helmet and on that seam you run vasoline? never heard of that one, is it just one side you vasoline and what does the vasoline do ?

again thank you

Ya run the vasoline along the seams of the face plate and the helmet where they meet when put together, this will stop any resin that gets in the seam from bonding the two parts, then just use the small bull clips on the same seam but from inside the helmet, to keep the face plate and helmet together while resining

**MightyJohn** · Jun 7, 2011

Surreal Studios said:

just use the small bull clips on the same seam but from inside the helmet, to keep the face plate and helmet together while resining

Also, you might want to fiberglass as much as possible (then let cure) before removing the clips. It gives a better chance of a snug fit.

**thorn13** · Jun 7, 2011

instead of vaseline i folded strips of aluminum foil between the pieces before i resined them attached with clips on the inside. then fiberglassed and they came apart easily and are very well fit

**dreaminspired** · Jun 7, 2011

Leander said:

yeah I resined , fiberglassed and Bondo'ed them as 1 piece so when I cut them with my dremel I am sure they will fit together nicely

my first try I resined the faceplate separate from the rest and it did not fit anymore..
so in my opinion making it as 1 helmet and then cut it in pieces is the best option

ah... that sounds like the correct way to go about it. i didn't really think about warping, but i know what you guys mean.

**Ironpredator** · Jun 8, 2011

this are great tips and advise I cant thank you all enough, the helmet above in the picture I reckon now I will use for a test helmet and ive already started cutting out two more and giong to use all the advise mentioned in this thread.

Im going to proceed with teh helmet and just see what comes of it :-)

keep the advise coming also :-)

**Ironpredator** · Jun 9, 2011

well I invested a few euro/dollars and decided to get a few bits today, Stealth uses smooth-cast 321 in his videos for hardening because of its low fumes etc so I could not get the 5 litre one so I had to get the trial version, hopefully ill get a helmet or two out of it.

No bondo in Ireland here im afreaid so ive read alot about U-POL and how good a finish it leave so again this is all trial and error so lots of luck needed ha!!

just a quick question, on the U-POL it says mix 100 ratio filler to 2 ratio hardener, how would people manage to do this correctly?

cheers

Newbie with a Iron Man MK. III Pep Helmet

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