Iron Man MK42 helmet pep

Hey everyone! First time post, and first ever build.

This helmet (v2) is the second pep build I've ever done; the first being cammillo's MK3 helmet. Feeling confident in my abilities, I took on your pep file as a full build - pep, resin, fiberglass, bondo, paint.

I spent about 5 hours total building (cutting and glueing) the faceplate pep file over two nights. The rest I've been working on since yesterday at about 1 pm, short of the two 1 hour naps I snuck in while the resin cured lol

I gotta say, this was an awesome project to work on! I plan on building a full MK42 suit, hopefully in time for NY Comic Con, but since I've never done this before, figured I should learn a thing or two first. Thanks to youtube and this forum, I made it happen! I Love the detail of your file, but I did get frustrated with certain high detail areas (eyes, cheeks, and the back of the helmet). I assumed that I could fix those with either resin or bondo... it kind of worked out but not so much lol. At the moment, I'm still finishing up with what I assume will be the last remaining bondo coats, then I can begin final sanding and detailing. Should have it all finished up by Friday!

Thanks for the amazing file xevanx!


I was wondering, what modeling technique did you use to model the helmet? I'm familiar with 3dsmax but the last time I really modeled was back when game character models at 1200 poly's was pushing the limit - never learned the high poly modeling and mostly use 3dsmax these days for quick 'sketches'.

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Nice! I'm currently at the fiber glassing stage myself and my first time using resin.
Did you just use tape to hold it together? I'm using binder clips and don't know if it will warp once I take them out.

I didn't model the helmet, Gimpee did. I just reworked it to make it more accurate but usually if I model a character I would start with a plane and extrude the edges.
 
can't wait to see how your helmet turns out! I'd recommend mixing a small batch of resin first to get an idea of the curing time. Iit doesn't matter too much when your doing the first coat of resin on the outside, but it'll help you out when you start fiberglassing the inside, since you have to work relatively quickly. and yea, I had some painters tape within arms reach so that's what I used to hold it together for the first resin coat. I've seen most people either use tape or hot glue to hold it together.

I didn't use the support structures included with the pep file, but the only spots I really noticed warping was around the side of the head, above the ear section.

OK, so standard modeling practice lol. I had tried a few pieces this way, but since the plane I created had a thickness to it, the vertexes got out of hand and I had some crazy face turning situation. so for example, if I created a plane 50 units by 25 units (length x width), and left the height as 0, I should be all right working from there?
 
Plane primitives don't have height unless you started out with a box primitive with 0 height which would give you problems.

I started fiber glassing but it didn't turn out as I expected, the mat just kept sticking to the brush and I was worried about getting air bubbles so I just ripped most of it out again. My technique was probably wrong. Gonna try again tomorrow.
 
ahhh that might be my problem, I start off with box primitives.... I'll have to look for the plane primitives when I get home, although it's not ringing a bell right now.

[Edit] And there it was, both in gmax and 3dsmax... the plane button lol If you are ever in NY, I owe you a drink!

you worked with the fiberglass mat? I went with the cloth, heard better things about it. I would mix up a batch of resin, apply it to the area I want to fiberglass, lay the fiber down and pat it down with a brush with more resin on it and work it like that.
 
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Glad you found the button.

Yea all they had was mat so I used that. I tried to lay it all at once with spray adhesive but it didn't work, so I'm doing your method next time.
 
Because I found it a b*tch to work with fiberglass I tried rondo for the first time. It was so much easier and less messy. Just did my first coat waiting for it to dry.
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Well hopefully it shouldn't. It already has 2 coats of resin on the outside and 1 coat on the inside before I rondoed.
 
I rondo also. Miss to many bits with glass. Well in these helmets I do. Resin the inside first though. Or the paper doesnt soak it up. Then when you sand its a bitch if you hit the paper. I learned the hard way. Do the outside lightly then saturate the inside bit by bit so it doesnt warp. Then rondo.

J

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can you guys post the finish product of v2 of xevanx? is it really needed to rondo the mask as one then cut the it in 3 parts? tnx
 
Well I do it so everything is aligned when I cut it. Might get warping issues if you leave it separated.
 
Here's where I am with the helmet at the moment. Only have time during the weekends so progress is slow.
The temples warped a bit during the resin process so I had to build them up using body filler. So far only used 60 grit sandpaper.
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Hey everyone I dont mean to bother you but for about a month I have been attempting to build my iron man helmet and after several attempts I can never seam to get the size right. (I am using pepakura 3 btw) My head is fairly round so it is difficult to get the scale right. can anyone reply and tell me how I can scale just the helmet not the rest of the suit. I really need a fool proof idea:wacko
 
Hey everyone I dont mean to bother you but for about a month I have been attempting to build my iron man helmet and after several attempts I can never seam to get the size right. (I am using pepakura 3 btw) My head is fairly round so it is difficult to get the scale right. can anyone reply and tell me how I can scale just the helmet not the rest of the suit. I really need a fool proof idea:wacko
In designer just go to 2d menu and change scale by 10% up or down.
 
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