Godzilla - Jet Jaguar Mask. Working with Fiberglass - HELP!

[Jet Beetle]

I have wanted one of these for a long time and finally after years of looking I found one. A Jet Jaguar mask - only 300 of these were made available in Tokyo during the Godzilla Birthday Jubilee held 6 years ago and needless to say, they are very very rare. I was thrilled to see it had arrived when I got home today and picked up all my ON HOLD mail, but once I got it open it became painfully obvious there was lots of work to be done.

It's constructed out of fiberglass and I have no idea where to begin. As some of my closer friends here know - I can barely put together a snap-on kit much less perform fiberglass clean up - but I am willing to try provided I the advice I (hopefully) gather from my brothers and sisters here.

I will be posting some screen caps as soon as I get all unpacked and find my Godzilla Vs Megalon dvd - but his painting shouldn't be a problem - a flat silver, nothing facy. The eyes I hope to cut some dark plastic lenses to fit in over the sockets which will be painted red (just to give the mask some life).

What I want to know is - where do I begin? Wash it, sand, primer? I am clueless and I prefer not to make a mistake because I have no idea when I will be able to get another one of these.

Any and all advice and help is deeply appreciated. Thank you for looking.

 

[mez7]

looks like alot of work

but a quick rundown.

first step would be to wash it, get any mold release material that may be on it still out of the way, let it dry,

get some bondo, and fill in all those bubbles, fix up any warped lines, do a general clean up of the helmet.

if it was me doing it, i would remake some of those problem areas from scratch, but that may be a bit much if you dont really do this that often,

get it as close as youd want with files, sandpaper, and bondo.

pesonally i primer it as i go, as it shows off things you may not see on the raw cast...the sand, then bondo, then primer ect....

once you are happy with how its looking, then do an even coat of primer. make sure its as good as you want (or can get it to be)

then paint...

 

[GuntahKela]

I have got my share of poorly cast and recast helmets from Japan. I think you might be over your head, with this, and might be better off to hire someone to do this.

If you think this looks bad, now, you should wash it and prime it. After the primer cures, wet-sand the primer away and you will find a whole new world of flaws and mistakes brought to light by the remaining primer.

Here's a toturial I blogged, which can give you a clue about wet-sanding, flaws and bondo filling:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=188859540&blogId=439607534

 

[Jet Beetle]

Yeah - I'm way over my head. Darn it. I know I'm going to mess this thing up.

 

[Houston Robocop]

Paul, PM ya!

Nick

 

[Spylocke]

Hello,

I LOVE Jet Jaguar! Please give us an update about how this ever turned out?!

Spylocke

 

[MrGzilla]

this is awesome!! ive never seen a godzilla based build on here before so im super excited to see how it turns out. if your worried about messing it up i might make a mold of it, cast one and practice on that. that way you could refine your skills enough to do the real thing. and unless you start selling the casts from your mold then i dont think theres any problem related to recasting.

 

[Vaderman]

Oh yeah, I love Godzilla!
What happened with this?

I hope you got some help and cleaned this up. If you haven't done anything yet with it, it might be prudent to make a casting of it, then strt the work. That way, if you mess it up, you can pull another and start over.

 

[SgtFang]

Cool acquisition, but dang'it, now I'm going to have that damned song playing in my head all night! :lol

-Sarge

 

[Rylo]

Sent you a PM, bro.

-Rylo

 

[Bizarro Lois]

Looks cool. I hope you find a way to fix this up.

 

[Spylocke]

Sarge, I think you mean this one?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69lc...y&list=PLF1F4C1C28DFF8289&index=90&playnext=1

Spylocke

 

[weaselflinger]

I would recommend apoxie sculpt to fill in voids and strighten out that grill only because it will be much easier for a novice to work with than bondo.

 

[Zaphod]

Plan on adding light up eyes on this?

 

[Spylocke]

Whatever happened with this?!