Thanks for the comments!
I’ve always liked the look of the painted HDPE helmets too. They do have a ‘heavier’ look, maybe because of the thick layer of paint makes it appear that way? They’re very bumpy to varying degrees too.
I originally wanted to go full mess on this one, with a lot of drips, etc; but as usual, once things got going, I ended up with a more conservative finish. Although, I did allow for some unevenness in the finish and added a bit of the light weathering (hard to capture in photos).
I didn’t go to crazy with the prep on this one. I was a bit scared to paint it too—had thought to just leave it unpainted—but then decided to just go for it. I first lightly sanded the surface and then cleaned it with rubbing alcohol, then sprayed on an oxide red primer. Honestly though, even the primer didnt really want to stick too well. I used the standard Rustoleum gloss white (#7592, found @Lowes) that I had used on my abs RS helmet. It’s more of a ’cool’ white, and I was thinking about using an off white this time, but the stuff has been reliable in the past and I didn’t want to experiment too much here. It worked well, but only after spraying on quite a thick coat of paint. I started with thin coats before spraying on thicker. The thicker coat of paint does make the whole thing a bit more durable, but I’m sure it would crack easily if the helmet was tossed around. So far, with normal handling, the finish feels solid. One reason I decided against deliberately chipping into the paint is that chipped areas tend to become a weak spot, and the paint can keep chipping away from there—much like what has already happened on a lot of the original hdpe helmets!
It was a fun one to work on...hoping someday RS will decide to offer up more hdpe options, but until then, I think this Anon helmet is an interesting piece. It does seem a hair smaller than my old abs RS helmet, at least around the opening.
