I have sixteen cabinet doors and four drawers painted in gloss, sitting in the basement. Probably collecting a bonus coat of cat hair, but hey, they're painted. That was the job. In between coats, I decided to bite the bullet and go for the resin again. But this time, I was going to use a guinea pig.
This is the pep model I made to help build the RC bucket last project. I still like it, and decided to use it to try out the matting reinforcement. If it all went wrong, I'd be sad, but at least I wouldn't have sabotaged my latest project.
I cut the matting. No one mentioned that this produces mounds of hairs all over the place. Or that it would attract all the animals in the house who would come and risk horrible death by fiber glass fragments. Anyway, following advice, I glued the matting in place before mixing up the resin. AND I did that outside because my head was already hurting. (Beer induced ouch.)
I set up both helmets, because my intention was to use up any spare resin by putting a second coat on the outside of the TIE bucket. As it turned out, there was no spare - that matting soaked up the resin, glued itself to the foam brush, tore free of the glue.... It was chaos. For once, I didn't panic, and continued doggedly slopping resin into the bucket, flattening the matting by sheer force of will. Then, because I was on a roll, I mixed up another batch of resin and coated the TIE helmet, paying particular attention to the areas I missed in round one.
At that point I was seeing sparkly lights and hearing noises that weren't there, so I left the two helmets to set and wandered off to do something else. That turned out to be "Chase the new dog up and down the road until I catch her, then try and figure out how she escaped the garden". Responsibility sucks.
Anyway, an hour or so later and things are looking good. The matting is setting nicely, the TIE bucket is a little more solid, and I can see me having another bash at using the matting in the TIE bucket soon. I have another day off next week, and only one appointment. I do have a lot of writing work to catch up on though. Did I mention my feelings on responsibility?
(Side note: I was going to video this like Snow Builder did, but my video editing program died with the last PC and I haven't found a decent (free) replacement. Besides, I would hate to have my screw ups on a visible record. Unless they were particularly funny, of course....)
As for fiberglass tutorials, this isn't the greatest video, but he does reference using a spray adhesive to hold the fiberglass in place before adding the resin. I don't think I've seen that suggestion before. 
