Nova Prime Helmet WIP (pics!)

[KWMarvel]

Hey guys KWMarvel here. I have posted previously in the past about my iron man helmet progress, but I ended up restarting it. But before I try again for like the 4th time, I decided to try something a tad simpler in my book and try to tackle a Nova helmet. Nova is one of my favorite super heroes and I figured it would be fun to try and make his helmet. I want to make some other cosmic marvel props, and I see myself trying a starlord helmet in the near future. But here is some WIP pics.

Ok so I found a 3d model of Nova from the Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3. The 3d file had the helmet and star as separate objects that I was able to export for pepakura. Sorry no pics of this, but here is the helmet in Pep. I unfolded the best I could, but It could have probably been done better.


After lots of layers of bondo and sanding, I got something like this. The cheeks were a bit uneven and there was a weird bulge in the back of the head that needed fixing. I'm a little OCD about the roundness of this helmet and after looking at how Volpin uses plastic spines to create his curves, I was kicking myself for not doing it. So thus days of sanding and smoothing and priming occurred. The bottom flair came out a little weird, so i ended up smoothing it out a bit and making it more of a curved transition. You will see this in the later pics.


After even MORE sanding and priming, I bought some high fill spray paint from ACE hardware and I just absolutely love this stuff. Fills in all the little holes and mishaps from bondo. It also gives it a nice even and solid looking coat. Coated it a few layers and wet sanded after a day of setting. Finally got it to where I wanted to mold it.


Decided to try a 2 part mold. So I had some monster clay laying around and bought some marbles (lost my previous ones) and made a wall for the 2 part mold.


Layed down some brown paper and got my supplies ready for molding!


4 layer of silicone, not all layers pictured down below as it got dark and my phone sucks at taking pictures at night ( as you can see with the picture of the register keys.)


Sprayed with mold release and added some free form air as a mother mold. This is my current status in the mold making process. More pictures to come soon.




I'm working on the star now. Here is a pic of it i made using cardboard I got from a gift box. Its kind of like shoe box material. Also I was watching Pitch Perfect at the time... don't judge me lol

 

[Cosmic Ash]

awesome! i love and miss the REAL Nova

 

[KWMarvel]

Same here, but I'm giving this new one a chance too. Hopefully this new Nova will keep the hero as an A-lister rather than a C-lister like he was in new warriors. The new helmet design is okay, but I prefer the Richard Rider helmet overall.

 

[KWMarvel]

Okay update!!!

Okay I got the second half of the mold all done!

Here are some pics! Sorry its been so long, work has been killer and I had to help take down a shed in my backyard. Bleh.

Anyways...










Cant wait for the free form air to dry on the other side so I can get to popping out some casts. Star was made out of balsa wood and hot glue. Need to get some filler to fix some little marks on the wood.

 

[KWMarvel]

OK here is the first pull from the mold!


I think it came out pretty good! Just have to clean up the seam line and cut off all the excess!

One of the eye holes already popped out just by pressing on it.


I do have a question though, the bottom edges aren't as thick as I would like them and trying to slosh the plastic to get to that area was pretty hard. Does anyone have tips/tricks to get it a bit thicker? I was thinking of maybe brushing the plastic into that part of the mold after the first few coats of smoothcast have been sloshed in. But if anyone can help me out that would be great. Its the only thing concerning me right now. I should have thought ahead and made some extensions on the silicone so the excess can rest on it while it cures.

Here is the helmet side by side with the original

 

[Gibbtall]

This is looking fantastic! Maybe you'll be able to modify some of your sculpts to make a Black Nova helmet cast as well.

 

[KWMarvel]

Alright update!. Fiber glassed the inside of the helmet. its a tad bit messy so I will be taking a power sander to smooth out the inside and get rid of any spurs I find on the inside. Today has been rainy all day down here in key west, but eh, I got something done at least. Trimmed the majority of the excess off already. This thing feels really solid now. Can't wait to finish this bad mama jama.

 

[KWMarvel]

Ok update! After some hear warping and some small bondo work, I'm finally happy with the overall shape of the helmet. Here is some pics of it after a few coats of high build primer.


Ok I have a question about what paints to use the get the best results. I don't have a airbrush and I only got spray cans. Here are the paints that I am using.

Here is the primer that I use. I live in key west so there aren't that many options for paint places. This stuff seems to cover up a lot and sprays a good even coat.


Here is the black gloss that I am going to lay down once the primer is super smooth. It's a black good enamel that to my understanding will help the look of the metallic gold paint that will go on top. I may be right wrong about that, but if anyone knows anything about this let me know before I go and mess up the paint job on this thing lol


Okay here I go 2 gold paints that I'm trying to figure out to use. The car paint is from a previous iron man build that never ended up being finished, but the gold came out great. The other stuff is some really shiny gold spray paint I found at ace hardware. It says it doesn't recommend a clear coat, but I plan two make this wearable, so I want to make sure this thing is protected well. So if anyone has any ideas on what to do please let me know, I'm kind of stuck at this stage of the prop :/


Here is the clear coat that I got. I made Bauer it was glossy to help keep the shine of the metallic paint. Previously on my ironman mask, when I stayed clear coat in the faceplate, the shine dulled a bit. I'm not sure if this will work, but if anyone else has any better solutions on how to protect I and keep the shiny finish, please let me know.


Here is the star with a few coats of primer on it. I wanted to see what the balsa texture was like. I'm contemplating heating up some clay and pressing the star into it. Then pouting some resin or smooth cast into it and then fixing it up from there. It's a little off, so I might have to tweak it a bit before doing anything to it,

More to come later on in the week.




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[KWMarvel]

Ok update! Wet sanded the helmet and got it pretty smooth. The dome isn't perfect but it's damn near close so I'm just going to leave it as is. Here are some pics of the helmet before layers of primer.



I ended up putting bondo to smooth out the dome due to it looking a bit lopsided, but I also had to cover up some pinholes and marks too.


Here it in its current form. It just needs a smooth sanding and it's ready for the black gloss.


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[KWMarvel]

Ok update! I applied the black enamel and did a few more touch ups. Went to home depot and got some hobby files. 17 bucks for 6 files...you serious??? Anyways, spot putty a bit and got it really smooth and added a few more layers of black paint. Some wet sanding and a fresh coat got me this:


I really like it in black, but we are going for the gold here. So I applied the gold metallic spray paint and got a good result. But sealing this bad boy is going to be tricky because I don't want to lose that metallic element. I'm going to apply a few more coats of the gold in the morning, but this is the current status of the helmet:


Sorry for the crappy quality, but my phone takes horrible pictures at night. I will post some more pics when it's morning.

Im going to be adding some foam on the inside trim and find some good bike pads so the helmet sits nice snug. Im now going to start focusing my attention on the star emblem now.

Guardians of the galaxy movie props pics just got released at SDCC and they look pretty slick. Especially the star lord helmet. I still prefer the comic Nova helmet, but maybe it will grow on me.

 

[MaddMaxx82]

This is looking awesome!

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[KWMarvel]

Update! Here are the pics of the helmet after another layer of gold paint and in good daylight.


Working on the star now once the primer dries. Hopefully it comes out half decent as the helmet lol

 

[MAAZ]

Great job on this!!

 

[Cosmic Ash]

this is looking VERY good


id say youre giving racermachX a run haha

 

[KWMarvel]

Ok update! Got the star in good enough shape or me to cast. Built up a lay wall and poured in some silicone. Made sure to cover up all the gaps between the star and the paper.

Also thanks for the compliments








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[medleyr]

Do not clear coat it! Any clear coat I've ever seen will dull any metallic or gloss paint from a spray can. Try several more light coats of gold with plenty of drying time in between.

 

[KWMarvel]

Do not clear coat it! Any clear coat I've ever seen will dull any metallic or gloss paint from a spray can. Try several more light coats of gold with plenty of drying time in between.

That's what I have been doing, but will it ever not smudge? I'm considering gold leafing a test helmet to see how that goes. Thanks for the heads up

 

[transceiverfreq]

Ambitious and impressive. Certainly that gold leaf idea is. Keep it up. My first run in with Nova was Amazing Spiderman #354 when Midnight was sent to kidnap him and bring him to the Secret Empire side. This was just as the New Warriors were getting their footing.

This Prime looks great. Have you considered vacuum metallization? It does a consistent coverage of aluminum that can then be lacquered to gold. Check it out. I've linked a photo of outcomes I found through Google.

 

[KWMarvel]

Ambitious and impressive. Certainly that gold leaf idea is. Keep it up. My first run in with Nova was Amazing Spiderman #354 when Midnight was sent to kidnap him and bring him to the Secret Empire side. This was just as the New Warriors were getting their footing.

This Prime looks great. Have you considered vacuum metallization? It does a consistent coverage of aluminum that can then be lacquered to gold. Check it out. I've linked a photo of outcomes I found through Google.

I don't even know where to start with vacuum metallization, but the results looks quite amazing. I dont think there is anyone down here that does that sadly :/

 

[transceiverfreq]

Perhaps a gold Rub 'n' Buff?