CSMacLaren
Sr Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Wow, stunning. Will the lens be clear?
Wow, stunning. Will the lens be clear?
Custom Commissioned Helmets: Build (Finished PG 3) *TANK HELMET BOTTOM PG 3*
- Thread starter DtailedREPLICAS
- Start date
Athanasios
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Really looking fantastic!
Really looking fantastic!
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Hi MacLaren, the visor will be tinted black (as most visors are). Due to the nature of the soldiers in the film, there face's mustnt be visible through the visor.
Thanks Athanasios. I appreciate your appreciation.
Hi MacLaren, the visor will be tinted black (as most visors are). Due to the nature of the soldiers in the film, there face's mustnt be visible through the visor.
Thanks Athanasios. I appreciate your appreciation.
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Thanks dasAdam.
Ill go through the moulding tomorrow. Until then....
Thanks dasAdam.
Ill go through the moulding tomorrow. Until then....
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Haha. Nearly at the end now mate. Not long to go.
Haha. Nearly at the end now mate. Not long to go.
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
So on with the moulding.
First up the helmet was clayed with a divider down one half (not quite half) and around the base to make casting easier and give a thicker cast edge. The divider was supported on the other side with some supports. Acorn nuts were added as registration keys.
Then it was time for some silicone. The print coat for this half wasnt thinned at all as I havent had any trouble getting detail in the first coat with the silicone I use. The following coats were thickened increasingly to build up a decent mould depth. I also used some excess silicone to make some keys by pouring it into some ice cube trays. These were added while still tacky to a layer of slightly tacky silicone, with a little liquid silicone inbetween. Just to neaten everything up, I applied another unthickened coat over the keys and everything else to make everything smooth and even. And with that, the first half was done.
The helmet was flipped and the clay removed to start the other half. I had applied a layer of glad (cling) wrap over the clay and the underside of the helmet on the first half, to keep any drips at bay. This was removed also and any clay residue (which there was alot of ) was cleaned off. Then the process was repeated.
After this was done, the mould was tidied up and was ready for the next stage. Fibreglassing.
Fibreglassing can be a pain. But if you follow a few simple steps and remember a few tips, its actually not that bad.
First off, always wear eye and face protection. Most importantly a good quality mask. A respirator is almost a must, but if you dont have one, use the best dust mask you can find.
Wear long sleeves and pants. A rubber band around the end of your sleeves will help to keep those nasty fibres out. Some people experience almost no irritation from fibreglass, others want to die from the pain and itchiness. Do you really want to risk finding out which one you are the hard way?
Always wear gloves. For the same reasons as above. A bit of baby powder rubbed on the hands and arms also helps to keep the fibres from irritating you.
WORK CLEAN. Keep the matting in a tub or large plastic bag and CAREFULLY move it from one place to another. Dont get your gloves covered in resin and then go playing around in the matting. This is not going to end well.
Work in a well ventilated area. Direct a fan past you if you cant work outside (but make sure it doesnt blow all of your matting around the place).
Monitor the temperature and use the catalyst accordingly. You want plenty of time to work the resin into the fibres. At the same time, you dont want to add too little that it takes days to tack up.
Buy lots of disposable gloves, cups, mixing sticks and brushes.
The process is fairly simple. Mix up a cup of resin with the appropriate amount of catalyst (a few drops) and then brush a layer onto your mould. Then apply your PRE-CUT strips of matting one at a time and push it into the resin with the tip of your brush. This is called stippling. Work it down and then add more resin to saturate the cloth. Fibreglass is remarkable stuff. Its stiff and unworkable when dry and brilliantly malleable when soaked in resin. IF YOUR FIBREGLASS ISNT BEHAVING OR FORMING AROUND YOUR SHAPE, THEN YOU NEED MORE RESIN.
Keep adding pieces, overlapping slightly as you go until its fully covered. Allow it to get tacky and then repeat with another 1 or 2 layers of matting. On your last coat really lay the resin on thick to help seal any nasty sharp fibres protruding from the jacket. These are inevitable but it helps to minimise them.
Alternatively, if youre confident you can lay out all of your strips directly onto your mould and then pour over the resin and work it in all at once.
Make sure you practice before trying this or youll inevitably end up without enough resin sealing the matting.
This is what youll end up with. I decided to make a 4 part jacket mould to make removal really easy on the mould and casting. The sections were divided with aluminium foil. When the jacket was finished and BEFORE i took it apart, I added machine screws and nuts evenly around each edge to keep the mould jacket together during casting. Lots of people use wing-nuts here, but I use the drill to tighten the screws by holding the nuts with my fingers (not a tool) so they dont overtighten and crack the fibreglass. I find this much quicker than hand tightening wing-nuts.
Below is the silicone inner mould, the inner mould sitting in the jacket and the mould with jacket ready for casting, sitting next to the master.
The first casting was of the visor area. This will be used later on as the buck for vacuumfoming the visors.
Next time....some full helmet castings.
Until then.
So on with the moulding.
First up the helmet was clayed with a divider down one half (not quite half) and around the base to make casting easier and give a thicker cast edge. The divider was supported on the other side with some supports. Acorn nuts were added as registration keys.
Then it was time for some silicone. The print coat for this half wasnt thinned at all as I havent had any trouble getting detail in the first coat with the silicone I use. The following coats were thickened increasingly to build up a decent mould depth. I also used some excess silicone to make some keys by pouring it into some ice cube trays. These were added while still tacky to a layer of slightly tacky silicone, with a little liquid silicone inbetween. Just to neaten everything up, I applied another unthickened coat over the keys and everything else to make everything smooth and even. And with that, the first half was done.
The helmet was flipped and the clay removed to start the other half. I had applied a layer of glad (cling) wrap over the clay and the underside of the helmet on the first half, to keep any drips at bay. This was removed also and any clay residue (which there was alot of ) was cleaned off. Then the process was repeated.
After this was done, the mould was tidied up and was ready for the next stage. Fibreglassing.
Fibreglassing can be a pain. But if you follow a few simple steps and remember a few tips, its actually not that bad.
First off, always wear eye and face protection. Most importantly a good quality mask. A respirator is almost a must, but if you dont have one, use the best dust mask you can find.
Wear long sleeves and pants. A rubber band around the end of your sleeves will help to keep those nasty fibres out. Some people experience almost no irritation from fibreglass, others want to die from the pain and itchiness. Do you really want to risk finding out which one you are the hard way?
Always wear gloves. For the same reasons as above. A bit of baby powder rubbed on the hands and arms also helps to keep the fibres from irritating you.
WORK CLEAN. Keep the matting in a tub or large plastic bag and CAREFULLY move it from one place to another. Dont get your gloves covered in resin and then go playing around in the matting. This is not going to end well.
Work in a well ventilated area. Direct a fan past you if you cant work outside (but make sure it doesnt blow all of your matting around the place).
Monitor the temperature and use the catalyst accordingly. You want plenty of time to work the resin into the fibres. At the same time, you dont want to add too little that it takes days to tack up.
Buy lots of disposable gloves, cups, mixing sticks and brushes.
The process is fairly simple. Mix up a cup of resin with the appropriate amount of catalyst (a few drops) and then brush a layer onto your mould. Then apply your PRE-CUT strips of matting one at a time and push it into the resin with the tip of your brush. This is called stippling. Work it down and then add more resin to saturate the cloth. Fibreglass is remarkable stuff. Its stiff and unworkable when dry and brilliantly malleable when soaked in resin. IF YOUR FIBREGLASS ISNT BEHAVING OR FORMING AROUND YOUR SHAPE, THEN YOU NEED MORE RESIN.
Keep adding pieces, overlapping slightly as you go until its fully covered. Allow it to get tacky and then repeat with another 1 or 2 layers of matting. On your last coat really lay the resin on thick to help seal any nasty sharp fibres protruding from the jacket. These are inevitable but it helps to minimise them.
Alternatively, if youre confident you can lay out all of your strips directly onto your mould and then pour over the resin and work it in all at once.
Make sure you practice before trying this or youll inevitably end up without enough resin sealing the matting.
This is what youll end up with. I decided to make a 4 part jacket mould to make removal really easy on the mould and casting. The sections were divided with aluminium foil. When the jacket was finished and BEFORE i took it apart, I added machine screws and nuts evenly around each edge to keep the mould jacket together during casting. Lots of people use wing-nuts here, but I use the drill to tighten the screws by holding the nuts with my fingers (not a tool) so they dont overtighten and crack the fibreglass. I find this much quicker than hand tightening wing-nuts.
Below is the silicone inner mould, the inner mould sitting in the jacket and the mould with jacket ready for casting, sitting next to the master.
The first casting was of the visor area. This will be used later on as the buck for vacuumfoming the visors.
Next time....some full helmet castings.
Until then.
drjag
Well-Known Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Awesome moulding process, and well detailed. I have a question though, why didn't you do a glove mould? To me at least, it makes sense because the silicone would be one piece and it'll pull off from the master really easily because of it's shape, plus, no seam lines!
Awesome moulding process, and well detailed. I have a question though, why didn't you do a glove mould? To me at least, it makes sense because the silicone would be one piece and it'll pull off from the master really easily because of it's shape, plus, no seam lines!
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Great question. On another helmet I might have gone that way but the detail of the vents on this one left me feeling a little cautious. I need to cast dozens of helmets from this mould and didnt want to risk any damage to the vent areas. Despite my best attemps, there were still small spots inside the vent cuts that werent fully sealed. These tore off easily when I removed the master, but these edges are prone to damage in the future (even though I trimmed the edges to neaten them up). With a two part I can ease the silicone off more delicately.
If I was casting one or two helmets I might have gone with a one-piece. Half of the helmet seam line is visor that gets trimmed out anyway and the other half isnt that bad. I spend alot of time with the clay to minimise seams on my moulds. So all in all, I erred on the side of caution. More time on the initial mould means I shouldnt have to make another.
Great question. On another helmet I might have gone that way but the detail of the vents on this one left me feeling a little cautious. I need to cast dozens of helmets from this mould and didnt want to risk any damage to the vent areas. Despite my best attemps, there were still small spots inside the vent cuts that werent fully sealed. These tore off easily when I removed the master, but these edges are prone to damage in the future (even though I trimmed the edges to neaten them up). With a two part I can ease the silicone off more delicately.
If I was casting one or two helmets I might have gone with a one-piece. Half of the helmet seam line is visor that gets trimmed out anyway and the other half isnt that bad. I spend alot of time with the clay to minimise seams on my moulds. So all in all, I erred on the side of caution. More time on the initial mould means I shouldnt have to make another.
Athanasios
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Quite a complex process, it seems.
Quite a complex process, it seems.
BRDencklau
Well-Known Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
My brain is full after speed reading this thread. Looking good, Bro. Those lattice vents are killer.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
My brain is full after speed reading this thread. Looking good, Bro. Those lattice vents are killer.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Awesome! Worth waiting for. You are 100% right about those fibreglass tips, I've done that pretty much the last 3-4 years on my pep projects and it works like a treat. One thing I would also recommend if you use a paint brush like I do, have three jars for cleaning. Two with acetone for two rinses and one with soapy water for rinse. Gets you a lot of life from one brush. Good painters trick that
Anywho, looking sweet!
Awesome! Worth waiting for. You are 100% right about those fibreglass tips, I've done that pretty much the last 3-4 years on my pep projects and it works like a treat. One thing I would also recommend if you use a paint brush like I do, have three jars for cleaning. Two with acetone for two rinses and one with soapy water for rinse. Gets you a lot of life from one brush. Good painters trick that
Anywho, looking sweet!
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Thanks guys.
Good to see you found me Brian. Haha.
And thats a good tip Killtime. For sure. Ive found that soft bristled brushes are far better than the cheap, firm black bristle brushes, as these tend to move the glass around when youre smoothing everything out. Would you agree Killtime?
Thanks guys.
Good to see you found me Brian. Haha.
And thats a good tip Killtime. For sure. Ive found that soft bristled brushes are far better than the cheap, firm black bristle brushes, as these tend to move the glass around when youre smoothing everything out. Would you agree Killtime?
BRDencklau
Well-Known Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Are you talking standard horse hair vs. China black?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
Are you talking standard horse hair vs. China black?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Basically mate. I find that the ends of the black bristles have an edge, where theyve been cut, that grabs at the cloth. I can imagine someone trying firbreglassing for the first time and using these brushes and throwing something, or everything at the wall.
Basically mate. I find that the ends of the black bristles have an edge, where theyve been cut, that grabs at the cloth. I can imagine someone trying firbreglassing for the first time and using these brushes and throwing something, or everything at the wall.
BRDencklau
Well-Known Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Ha hahaha... Yeah, frustration can get the best of us.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
Ha hahaha... Yeah, frustration can get the best of us.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
drjag
Well-Known Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
I prefer to use silicone brushes, like the ones you use in the kitchen. Mix your resin, let the brush cure then just pull off the cured resin and BOOM! Use it again and again. Their super cheap and can outlast atleast 40 chip brushes.
I prefer to use silicone brushes, like the ones you use in the kitchen. Mix your resin, let the brush cure then just pull off the cured resin and BOOM! Use it again and again. Their super cheap and can outlast atleast 40 chip brushes.
DtailedREPLICAS
Active Member
Re: Custom Commissioned Helmet: Scratch Build (LOTS OF PICS)
Haha. Sure can brian.
Thats a great idea drjag. We were mainly talking about fibreglass resin there and a silicone brush wouldnt have the stiffness (in my opinion, let me know if im wrong) to force the matting down around complex shapes and saturate it. But for polyurethane resin, etc its great for sure!
Haha. Sure can brian.
Thats a great idea drjag. We were mainly talking about fibreglass resin there and a silicone brush wouldnt have the stiffness (in my opinion, let me know if im wrong) to force the matting down around complex shapes and saturate it. But for polyurethane resin, etc its great for sure!
