Rubies Supreme Vader neck warping

[pisani]

I was wondering how you would fix the warping on the neck of the rubies supreme vader helmet. Would it be better to boil water and dip it in or use a heatgun?

Thanks,
Gordon

 

[Lan-Ed-Tul]

both methods work, some do it either way. heat guns tho, you goot watch out it doesnt blister on ya, the boil method, ya gotta strip the innards out before you attempt it. if it were me, i would try the gun method, but watch carefully as you do it, and remember you have to hold it in the position you want till it cools off or it will just return to where it was. and wear gloves, plastic will be too hot to touch.

 

[Mados]

And don't expect it to be easy. I tried modding a Rubies Supreme a while back, expecting it to be as easy to do as the Don Post CA. Wrong! Have patience. If you do decide to boil, IIRC the foam is held on with a tacky glue, will leave your hands sticky. I'd go with a heat gun.

 

[darthgordon]

Okay, I'll tell you what I did, but have little to compare it to. I removed the foam padding using Goo Gone, then took a butane lighter to the inside of the neck. Using a towel to protect myself from the heat I pushed the neck in, and then ran it under cold water after flexing it each time. It took a few tries. It worked quite well and made the neck pliable... the hard part of course was getting the padding out. That causes a mess. Afterward the neck stayed permanently fixed, retaining it's shape.

There were several things I did to my mask, but going for a RotS look, I will never be happy with it.

 

[Tetmatek]

There were several things I did to my mask, but going for a RotS look, I will never be happy with it.

I started modding the rubies too and shelfed it do to the amount of work it needs. I bought slightly damaged Fiberglass helmet that was way less work to fix. I figured I would save time and money going that way and eneded up with a fantastic helmet i am happy with.

 

[CSMacLaren]

If you use a heat gun, have patience. Don't focus the heat gun on one particular area and just use high heat, otherwise the surface will start to melt. You want to heat both inside and out. The most non-invasive way will probably be boiling hot water. The idea is to not just cool in water but to find a means to allow it to cool slowly while being held in its desired new position and shape.

As it's setting and semi-hardened, if you use vice grips to where you can let it sag under its own weight, then you can walk away until all the plastic returns to room temperature. If you have some thick leather you can place on either side and then use vice grips, that spreads the grip so as to not concentrate force on one particular area. You simply need that neck corner to curve back inwards.