WIP - Rocketeer Helmet Sculpt and Cast

Keep going! This is going to look great! I really want to start working on one of my own, but have to get a few other props done first. Keep us updated.
 
Just an update to let you know this project is continuing - molding and casting supplies arrive this week. I could possibly be doing the silicone mold on Thursday or Friday. I'll post updates when I have them.

I hope this thread will inspire those people new to this process, and warn people away from the approaches I've tried and failed at!
 
Mold-making begins...

Got the materials all set up and ready to go. I got the silicone and additives from Monster Makers. Weirdly, they came with no data sheets. I had to look on their website to see how much thickener and fast catalyst to use. No data on curing time.
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Putting on the first thin coat of silicone:
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The print coat on and gelled, ready for the next (thickened) coats. Turns out it cures to the touch within an hour or so, even without fast catalyst.
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First thickened coat goes on:
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Last thickened coat smoothed on, letting it cure for an hour before the bandages:
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Mother mold bandages go on, and a coat of wax along the edge so the front half won't stick:
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Front of the mother mold applied.
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The next morning, pulled off the mother mold and carefully peeled off the silicone. The mold looks cool inside-out.
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Here's the finished silicone mold and mother mold parts.
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Here's what it looks like assembled, but we'll leave it apart until tomorrow, when we'll do the casting.
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This looks so incredibly awesome! And I really appreciate you showing each step of the process. Can't wait to see the finished helmet!
 
Nice, amazing how much you can forget when you haven't sculpted in awhile. I sculpted models for the taxidermy industry, toy industry, worked at a foundry wax chasing. Then stated working in the technology industry. After 10 years someone contacted me too do a commissioned piece. OMG, it isn't as easy as I remembered.. Lots of trial and error with frustration thrown in the mix. I feel better.. as I have spent hours, I could have sculpted 10 pieces in the time its taken me too do one
 
At last we're going to cast some resin. Here's the mold all assembled, and we're ready to mix the plastic. I ordered my resin and a bunch of other supplies from BITY Mold Supply. Unlike the Monster Makers stuff, theirs all came with data sheets.
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I elected to mix some black pigment into the resin, since I was expecting to have to do a lot of surface smoothing, and imperfections would be hard to see on the white resin. Here I am pouring the first batch into the mold, and slushing it around.
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WAY too much resin for a single go. It sets up in about 2.5 minutes, so I started to see a large lump forming, and had to do a mad dash to the trashcan and pull the lump out, just in time to save the day (probably $5 or more of wasted resin). It left the inside a little lumpy, but we pressed on.
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A second layer smoothed it out a bit, and I used a little less pigment so I could see what I'd covered. It turned out to be unnecessary, as the resin started off very black (black pigment in clear liquid) and turned gray as it cured (black pigment in white solid).
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And one final layer.
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With real trepidation, I pulled it from the mold (not having done this before, I was worried it would be a massive fail, especially with having yanked a big blob of resin out right at the beginning... but it came out great! Of course, we all had to try it on. That's my daughter modeling the latest in headgear for the aviator who doesn't actually need to see or breathe.
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A perfect copy of the clay original, including every little flaw (and I knew there would be plenty).
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Time to start refining the raw cast. It'll need holes cut out, imperfections filled or sanded down, and additional details added (rivets, mold lines, and of course the fin).

First, I cut out the eye holes by drilling a series of holes.
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Then I trimmed the edges of the holes. I had to do a lot of work inside the helmet thinning out the thick spots left over from the less-than-smooth slush casting process.
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Time to sand the surface. The gray plastic lets me see the high spots and low spots easily. Lots of smoothing will be needed here. I also noticed that I'd gotten the mouth a little off-center, so I filled in the existing mouth depressions with bondo.
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More Bondo to fill in the very thin plastic on the bottom edges, and a lot of sanding inside to get rid of as many bumps as possible.
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Then I cut the mouth out, and started opening up the mouths of the scoops. That's it for today.
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Been sanding and using Bondo spot putty on the thing, and took a good look at it from the bottom and discovered I had the back of it skewed to one side by about 3/8" off from the true centerline. Had to do some Bondo and carving and sanding to completely re-sculpt the back end.

I'd been thinking it might be a good idea to make a mold off this to capture all the work I've done to it, and I've decided that's exactly what I'm going to do. Especially since my girlfriend wants one now.

So, once I've got all the details done and I've constructed the fin, I'll be making molds and casting a final for me, my girlfriend, and my daughter has expressed an interest in one. :)

Oh, and I've figured out what to use for the simulated welds.

More pictures soon!
 
I fixed some of the low spots with Bondo and spot putty and sanded and scraped it a lot, eliminating all the finger marks reproduced from the clay.
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I also corrected the off-center back end. Notice the black line (the true centerline) and the filled-in red groove (the erroneous centerline). I couldn't believe I'd gotten it that far out of whack. It's not perfect, but I don't think anyone would notice unless it was pointed out to them, that anything had been wrong. I won't know for sure until I put a coat of primer on the darn thing. The multicolor look kind of camouflages it, makes it hard to see what the surface truly looks like.
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I set some furniture nails in around the eyes to act as the "rivets", and set the thing up to be painted.
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After a good coat of primer, it looks pretty good! There's a few rough spots and pinholes to be filled, but not bad.
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Now it's time to make the fin. I started off by cutting the rough shape out of 1/4" birch plywood.
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Then, to make sure the bottom edge fit the helmet exactly, I put some wax paer on the helmet, coated the bottom of the fin with Bondo, and pressed the two together.
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After sanding off the excess, the fit was very close.
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Then I shaped the front to the proper "knife edge" and mounted the fin on the helmet temporarily with three screws.
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Next up: a coat of primer on the fin, sanding and filling any surface defects on the fin and helmet, and applying the fake welds. I should start on that tomorrow...
 
Are you going to do a run of these? your work is amazing!

Well, thanks! It's a possibility, since I'm going to make molds of the helmet and fin after I've got them done, and cast my final from those. The helmet has had so many alterations to it (way too much of it is bondo right now!), I'll be happier to have a cast of it all in one piece.

Besides which, my girlfriend wants one, so I'd rather cast the finished one than have to go through all the work again of fixing one from the original mold. Making the fin wasn't really that difficult - if I was only making one, I might not even bother casting it.

It's not going to be perfect, but the defects will hopefully only be apparent on pretty close examination.
 
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