Hi guys and gals
Inspired by Quest and his awesome Nerf PR build, I thought I'd give it a crack, but not satisfied to just making a PR, I thought I'd have a go at making a marine helmet to go with it.
Both items are surprise birthday presents for my brother who is a massive aliens fan, and wanted to do something special for him this year.
So, started by tracking down a decent donor helmet on eBay. I was contemplating using a plastic one, but found a metel one for £16, so I was off to a good start
Next was tracking down the periferals. After an extensive search, I came across Mooncrest models here in the uk that sold them (I did consider spat, but time constraints and shipping costs played a key factor).
They looked good quality with nice crisp lines so ordered the earpiece kit, and helm cam (still waiting for neck flaps to be back in stock though).
I wasn't dissapointed, very nice work from Mooncrest, I highly recommend them :thumbsup
So after aquiring some proper cutting discs for my dremel, I set about marking and cutting out the section for the earpiece:
Being as it's a metel helmet, I decided rivets were the way to go. I drilled the holes in the cam, marked them on the helmet, and set about making the holes. It's at that point I ran into problems:
Yep, hartfield steel is not fun to play with, and none of my bits would cut further than the base of the cutting head. The other problem is bit wandering, you can see from the score mark in the pic :/
So it was time for a bit of research, and an engineering forum provided me with the solution. It turns out that quite a few members of said forum use tungsten carbide masonry bits and cutting oil for reinforced steel/armour plating with much success.
They were right, in less time than it took to mark it with my other drill bits, I had a hole:
I used a bit sharpener after every two holes till the cutting head wore out on hole five:
It was then that it became apparent that bit wandering had kicked in at some point, and the cam was now pointing upward :facepalm
Ah well, a few holes to fill, should be able to sort it out.
One thing I couldn't find for sale is a lobe plate, but after a quick query over at the aliens lagecy forum (seemed the best place to ask), I found out most folks just wing it (exept the lucky few that get one with spats kit), so for me, winging it it is.
Started by deciding what I was going to make it out of, there were a few good suggestions, but settled for using foam as I like the thicker looking plates (using 1mm and 10mm foam), and going with Xrobots technique for coating foam with resin.
First I gathered some small pieces of foam that I got from work (they looked about the right size), and cut out shapes till I was happy:
I then took a thinner piece of foam and skinned the helmet:
This was just a test piece of foam as its too soft, but the effect is right. I have a piece of 1mm craft foam I'm going to heat shape/glue over it instead.
I finally got my drill press in the mail so set it up, drilled the rest of the holes in the earpiece so I could assemble it:
Unfortunatey, the lower hinge piece wasn't quite aligned properly on one side, and the drill bit came through the outer wall, another job for the filler :rolleyes
The last of todays antics was drilling the two holes to attach the earpiece to the helmet (ignore the strap):
I'll be cleaning up and filling/sanding the parts next, then sorting the new lobe plate skin after.
Thanks for looking, catch you later
Inspired by Quest and his awesome Nerf PR build, I thought I'd give it a crack, but not satisfied to just making a PR, I thought I'd have a go at making a marine helmet to go with it.
Both items are surprise birthday presents for my brother who is a massive aliens fan, and wanted to do something special for him this year.
So, started by tracking down a decent donor helmet on eBay. I was contemplating using a plastic one, but found a metel one for £16, so I was off to a good start
Next was tracking down the periferals. After an extensive search, I came across Mooncrest models here in the uk that sold them (I did consider spat, but time constraints and shipping costs played a key factor).
They looked good quality with nice crisp lines so ordered the earpiece kit, and helm cam (still waiting for neck flaps to be back in stock though).
I wasn't dissapointed, very nice work from Mooncrest, I highly recommend them :thumbsup
So after aquiring some proper cutting discs for my dremel, I set about marking and cutting out the section for the earpiece:
Being as it's a metel helmet, I decided rivets were the way to go. I drilled the holes in the cam, marked them on the helmet, and set about making the holes. It's at that point I ran into problems:
Yep, hartfield steel is not fun to play with, and none of my bits would cut further than the base of the cutting head. The other problem is bit wandering, you can see from the score mark in the pic :/
So it was time for a bit of research, and an engineering forum provided me with the solution. It turns out that quite a few members of said forum use tungsten carbide masonry bits and cutting oil for reinforced steel/armour plating with much success.
They were right, in less time than it took to mark it with my other drill bits, I had a hole:
I used a bit sharpener after every two holes till the cutting head wore out on hole five:
It was then that it became apparent that bit wandering had kicked in at some point, and the cam was now pointing upward :facepalm
Ah well, a few holes to fill, should be able to sort it out.
One thing I couldn't find for sale is a lobe plate, but after a quick query over at the aliens lagecy forum (seemed the best place to ask), I found out most folks just wing it (exept the lucky few that get one with spats kit), so for me, winging it it is.
Started by deciding what I was going to make it out of, there were a few good suggestions, but settled for using foam as I like the thicker looking plates (using 1mm and 10mm foam), and going with Xrobots technique for coating foam with resin.
First I gathered some small pieces of foam that I got from work (they looked about the right size), and cut out shapes till I was happy:
I then took a thinner piece of foam and skinned the helmet:
This was just a test piece of foam as its too soft, but the effect is right. I have a piece of 1mm craft foam I'm going to heat shape/glue over it instead.
I finally got my drill press in the mail so set it up, drilled the rest of the holes in the earpiece so I could assemble it:
Unfortunatey, the lower hinge piece wasn't quite aligned properly on one side, and the drill bit came through the outer wall, another job for the filler :rolleyes
The last of todays antics was drilling the two holes to attach the earpiece to the helmet (ignore the strap):
I'll be cleaning up and filling/sanding the parts next, then sorting the new lobe plate skin after.
Thanks for looking, catch you later
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