Darth Stone
Well-Known Member
I know that some of you may have seen this before on another forum. But I just can't help myself and am going to share it here as well.
Last October for Halloween I went as Darth Vader to a party at a bar. Was having a great time and all was going well. I took the helmet off and sat it on a table while I went to go to the restroom, (Another story altogether). When I came out the whole place was quite. It seems that when I was doing my business my Brother was fooling around with the helmet and lightsaber. Well, the helmet was in about 7 pieces on top of the table, and my Brother was on his hands and knees looking for any missed pieces.
The tusks on the mask were both broken off and took some fiberglass with them. I managed to patch it back to health with some bondo and a bit of airbrush work. The helmet took the worst of it breaking the face mount right off, and a few cracks here and there.
What follows is the repair of the helmet.
This first shot was taken after I took a grinder and ground the cracks into a V shape.
Next I laid up two layers of 'glass in all of the areas.
The whole helmet was rather thin with only one layer of fiberglass for weight reasons. I went ahead and added another layer on the inside bfore I reatached the mount.
After the 'glass had set up overnight I then ground it down to match the conture. Then just smeared a thin coat of bondo on to fill any imperfections.
After prepping the whole thing with 320 grit sandpaper I hit it with 3 coats of epoxy primmer to sit over night.
The next day I sanded it again with 320, and then followed that with 600 before handing it to my painter.
And here it is back at home safe and sound far away from my Brother. At this point I still needed to color sand it with 8000 and buff it out. I hope that you liked reading my little book.
Last October for Halloween I went as Darth Vader to a party at a bar. Was having a great time and all was going well. I took the helmet off and sat it on a table while I went to go to the restroom, (Another story altogether). When I came out the whole place was quite. It seems that when I was doing my business my Brother was fooling around with the helmet and lightsaber. Well, the helmet was in about 7 pieces on top of the table, and my Brother was on his hands and knees looking for any missed pieces.
The tusks on the mask were both broken off and took some fiberglass with them. I managed to patch it back to health with some bondo and a bit of airbrush work. The helmet took the worst of it breaking the face mount right off, and a few cracks here and there.
What follows is the repair of the helmet.
This first shot was taken after I took a grinder and ground the cracks into a V shape.
Next I laid up two layers of 'glass in all of the areas.
The whole helmet was rather thin with only one layer of fiberglass for weight reasons. I went ahead and added another layer on the inside bfore I reatached the mount.
After the 'glass had set up overnight I then ground it down to match the conture. Then just smeared a thin coat of bondo on to fill any imperfections.
After prepping the whole thing with 320 grit sandpaper I hit it with 3 coats of epoxy primmer to sit over night.
The next day I sanded it again with 320, and then followed that with 600 before handing it to my painter.
And here it is back at home safe and sound far away from my Brother. At this point I still needed to color sand it with 8000 and buff it out. I hope that you liked reading my little book.
