new to RPF first build

[scottish jester]

So yeh of course another iron man. New to the forums but been watching for a while and some of the work on here is nothing short of amazing. Few photos below of progress and just trying out different things as I didnt really wanna go down the fibreglass route never used it before and I dont really have anywhere outside to use it safely. So anyways first photo was terrible proportions were wrong and well you can see the rest.

Another shot of the same helmet with the body pieces coated with pollyfilla as i thought it would be hard enough to sand and get a smooth strong bond but it never worked properly and when dried it was really too heavy to be comfortably worn on my head.

Back to sqaure one again made another helmet gave it a few coats of PVA glue and still not happy with the overall shape of the helmet i just decided to paint it with what spray pait i had lying around the house to see how good a finish i could get with just the PVA underneath.

Final version of the helmet was happy with this one apart from the jaw area and carried on to make the rest of the body and arms.

Some of the parts on the arms i will probably do again as my knife blade was kinda blunt and awaiting new blades so thats pretty much it for now will get back to you with rest of the progress. as i said completely new to foam building etc so any pointers would go good. thanks for an awesome site.

 

[ironmaided]

lookin good. . i love the helmet by the way :thumbsup

 

[scottish jester]

lookin good. . i love the helmet by the way :thumbsup

just checked out some of your work mate nice work i think i need to work on spending more time on cutting my shapes and sharp blades your lines are way cleaner.

 

[Murdoch]

Well that's pretty good start. Welcome to the RPF man...GM

 

[Propsjonnyb]

Agree with the other nice work , good first time, but always use a 'new ' set of blades , go scalpel + blades - if you can afford it , never use pollyfilla ever!! p38 car body filler is your best bet , , also get some two part fastcast poly resin, make a small batch and using a disposable brush gloves and old clothes, paint coats of resin over the PVA glue (three coats) you can also use plain tissues (just like fibreglass) to thicken areas around the helmet, fill any pin holes defects etc with filler and sand coarse , medium and fine sandpaper till smooth. Prime and Paint .

 

[scottish jester]

Agree with the other nice work , good first time, but always use a 'new ' set of blades , go scalpel + blades - if you can afford it , never use pollyfilla ever!! p38 car body filler is your best bet , , also get some two part fastcast poly resin, make a small batch and using a disposable brush gloves and old clothes, paint coats of resin over the PVA glue (three coats) you can also use plain tissues (just like fibreglass) to thicken areas around the helmet, fill any pin holes defects etc with filler and sand coarse , medium and fine sandpaper till smooth. Prime and Paint .

thanks man, yeh awaiting blades in the mail just now there isnt a lot of arts and crafts shops where i live unfortunatly. so as far as the poly resin goes how safe is it to use around the house you know? am i gonna need a respirator etc. as for my next build i would really like to have it rock solid especially for the helmet cause with just the foam i cant find any way to make the faceplate open and close and still be flush to the surrounding head area even with magnets its just not going to be sturdy enough and thats without adding servos etc.

 

[Propsjonnyb]

That's almost exactly what I'm currently doing with my Mk7 , if you get a good quality poly resin, you will not need a respirator and you can do it in the garden or garage, it can be messy and it cures by generating a lot of heat... oh I mean a lot!! so gloves , old clothes , paper down to protect tables ,things etc , just common sense and keep thing's tidy , Tiranti's mail order is the one I use the most as its very good quality and I have never had a single problem heres a link Tiranti - Product Details - Biresin G26 Urethane Resin 2kg

mix it in small quantities , I use plastic disposable cups, and paint it on using disposable brushes ( you can clean them with acetone ) I usually buy them in bulk let each coat dry and add plain tissues , soaking the resin in to each to add thickness , this also make it easier to decide which bit's to make thicker, for mounting etc

 

[scottish jester]

That's almost exactly what I'm currently doing with my Mk7 , if you get a good quality poly resin, you will not need a respirator and you can do it in the garden or garage, it can be messy and it cures by generating a lot of heat... oh I mean a lot!! so gloves , old clothes , paper down to protect tables ,things etc , just common sense and keep thing's tidy , Tiranti's mail order is the one I use the most as its very good quality and I have never had a single problem heres a link Tiranti - Product Details - Biresin G26 Urethane Resin 2kg

mix it in small quantities , I use plastic disposable cups, and paint it on using disposable brushes ( you can clean them with acetone ) I usually buy them in bulk let each coat dry and add plain tissues , soaking the resin in to each to add thickness , this also make it easier to decide which bit's to make thicker, for mounting etc

thanks man just the kind of advice im looking for. So 30 quid is a bit expensive for me just now but definetly picking up some for next build how much of the suit did u manage to cover with just the one tin of resin? and also when i tryed to mould before with the pollyfilla when i was sanding it down the tissues were coming through and not giving me that smooth finish is that just me not having enough layers over the tissue ? or does the resin react differently to the tissue underneath.

 

[Propsjonnyb]

The pack is two kilos of resin, which is quite a lot , depending on how many layers and how quickly you work , but there should be enough to do half the suit or the whole suit one layer , reason being you have a limited 'pot' life once you mix the two parts the reaction starts and cannot be stopped so depending on a couple of variables , temperature & moisture content , if you aren't quick enough you entire pot can go solid on you quite easily, and all you can do is throw it away, you have build a rhythm . pollyfilla is not a recommended modelling media you should never use it. when coating with resin , lay the tissue over the wet resin ,and use the brush to add more resin so the tissue gets soaked ,once dry this will set hard and solid and will sand easily ,if tissue was coming through when you sand you did not get the tissue covered in enough resin .

 

[scottish jester]

The pack is two kilos of resin, which is quite a lot , depending on how many layers and how quickly you work , but there should be enough to do half the suit or the whole suit one layer , reason being you have a limited 'pot' life once you mix the two parts the reaction starts and cannot be stopped so depending on a couple of variables , temperature & moisture content , if you aren't quick enough you entire pot can go solid on you quite easily, and all you can do is throw it away, you have build a rhythm . pollyfilla is not a recommended modelling media you should never use it. when coating with resin , lay the tissue over the wet resin ,and use the brush to add more resin so the tissue gets soaked ,once dry this will set hard and solid and will sand easily ,if tissue was coming through when you sand you did not get the tissue covered in enough resin .

thanks a lot man will defos be trying that on my next build looked up a few examples with the resin and the detail and precision is just perfect (obviously takes time to master it) will get back to you with progress lol cheers

 

[scottish jester]

little update started with painting the finish is nowhere near the quality i wanted and after reading up on casting resins etc its making me want to scrap the full thing and start again to be honest but either way heres a photo of where im at so far.

 

[Shelfside]

Welcome to the RPF fella, you've made loads of progress from the first to the latest helmet so keep it up mate:thumbsup regarding finishing check out Docs foam painting thread for excellent results or maybe consider plastic coating?