Hi everyone. I have been a prop and armor maker for over 10 years now and been lurking on the RPF since around 2005. I have never posted here, but I have followed many of your posts and projects over the years and finally felt inspired to post something of my own; hopefully with more to follow as I document some of my past projects.
Sebastian Shaw Helmet: 6/16/12 – 8/26/12
Starting off, I made a frame of how big I wanted the helmet to be. To get the sizing, I was literally holding a pair of bow calipers to my head to get the measurements.
Filled in with Lowe’s insulation foam to fill it in. I prefer using Lowe’s blue foam as opposed to Home Depot pink foam because I find it’s slightly denser and better to carve. Basic shape drawn on for reference.
Rough cutout started using a fully extended box cutter.
Using screen captures from the movie, I got the face traced and roughly cut out.
Finally mounted the piece to a dowel so it would stay upright and ready for resin.
First coat of resin. I’m using Smooth Cast 300 with SoStrong grety tint.
Adding more coats of resin. All applied using chip brushes.
Resin is cured. Ready for sanding and Bondo.
Using some older Bondo I’ve had sitting around for a while. Filling in the 1” gaps around the sides and back. This was before I knew about Bondo Gold. Now I’ll never go back…
First time sanding I realized how thin my coat of resin was. I kept sanding through to the foam, which would require me to cut out a chunk, fill it with Bondo, then sand smooth again. This continued through the entire project…
Adding some extra mass to make it easier to sand without hitting foam.
Sandable primer applied. It’s a dark picture, so it looks smoother than it is.
Sandable primer is ... sanded.
Using the touch-test, I can feel some dents that need filling.
Switched to mass-building primer since it seems not to gum up my sandpaper as bad.
Adding some reference lines, I realized one side was lower than the other. At least I have Bondo Gold now!
Top of the helmet is finally even, I start using poster board cutouts to do mockups of the raised trim.
Doing another check with my reference pictures, I realized the “jaw” of the helmet was way too wide and needed to be ground down quite a bit to make it thinner at the bottom. Notice the difference between the above and below pics.
I used .1” styrene sheeting for the trim around the helmet. I then used a combination of Bondo and Glazing Spot Putty to fill in the gaps between the helmet and the trim before giving another coat of mass-building primer.
Side shot.
Side shot after sanding.
Switching back to sandable primer now that I’m moving up to some higher grit sandpaper.
Polished with fine steel wool.
Starting to see a bit of a glint, but not quite smooth enough.
Polished with automotive paste wax to help fill in some of the sanding swirls. I’m saving the wetsanding for the actual castings. It’s ready to mold!
Forgot to take a pic of the first two coats of Silicone… I’m using Rebound 25 as my mold medium. First two coats were applied with a chip brush. Here it’s running a bit since I’m applying more liberally now for the 3rd coat. This will be a 1-part glove mold.
4th coat. I’m using Thi-Vex II to thicken the silicone. Now being applied with a popsicle stick.
Even thicker coat.
Adding registration keys made from an ice-cube tray.
I am using Luan to create my 4-part dividing boards.
Luan applied, screwed together, and hotglued to the silicone to keep my jacket from sticking to itself. I went with a 4-part mold jacket since the shape of the helmet would create too much travel across the keys and the surface to easily get off. I’ll spare you the gruesome details of my first failed mold jacket I made for this…
Applying first coats of Plasti-Paste.
Since Plasti-Paste gets a bit sharp, I brushed on some isopropyl alcohol to help smooth out the finish.
Next quadrant.
Jacket cured, mold pealed back, reset and pulled the first casting! I used Onyx and brushed the inside of the mold with aluminum powder before slushing. This is a pic of the helmet before starting any post-production work.
Wetsanding lightly with 1000 grit.
Continued wetsanding with 2000 then 3000 grit and it was ready to tape off the trim and paint! I used Bulldog Adhesion Promoter before applying the actual paint. This is one of my favorite pics just because of how the aluminum looks…
Waited a few minutes after 3 coats of Bulldog and applied 3 coats of DupliColor automotive paint, then 3 coats of DupliColor clearcoat. Unfortunately, I don’t have an HPLV gun, so I had to go the rattlecan route…
I went ahead and pulled a few more helmets to attempt a few different techniques for different finishes.
The master in back. The painted and clearcoated on the left with the exposed coldcast aluminum. Fully covered in Rub ‘n Buff in the middle, then fully covered in paint on the right before doing Rub ‘n Buff on the trim only.
I ended up wearing the one on the far right at Dragon*Con this year. I liked the brightness of the Rub ‘n Buff trim as opposed to the cold cast version. This pic was taken at the GA Aquarium.
Picture by Eurobeat Kasumi
Thanks for reading!
Bill
Sebastian Shaw Helmet: 6/16/12 – 8/26/12
Starting off, I made a frame of how big I wanted the helmet to be. To get the sizing, I was literally holding a pair of bow calipers to my head to get the measurements.
Filled in with Lowe’s insulation foam to fill it in. I prefer using Lowe’s blue foam as opposed to Home Depot pink foam because I find it’s slightly denser and better to carve. Basic shape drawn on for reference.
Rough cutout started using a fully extended box cutter.
Using screen captures from the movie, I got the face traced and roughly cut out.
Finally mounted the piece to a dowel so it would stay upright and ready for resin.
First coat of resin. I’m using Smooth Cast 300 with SoStrong grety tint.
Adding more coats of resin. All applied using chip brushes.
Resin is cured. Ready for sanding and Bondo.
Using some older Bondo I’ve had sitting around for a while. Filling in the 1” gaps around the sides and back. This was before I knew about Bondo Gold. Now I’ll never go back…
First time sanding I realized how thin my coat of resin was. I kept sanding through to the foam, which would require me to cut out a chunk, fill it with Bondo, then sand smooth again. This continued through the entire project…
Adding some extra mass to make it easier to sand without hitting foam.
Sandable primer applied. It’s a dark picture, so it looks smoother than it is.
Sandable primer is ... sanded.
Using the touch-test, I can feel some dents that need filling.
Switched to mass-building primer since it seems not to gum up my sandpaper as bad.
Adding some reference lines, I realized one side was lower than the other. At least I have Bondo Gold now!
Top of the helmet is finally even, I start using poster board cutouts to do mockups of the raised trim.
Doing another check with my reference pictures, I realized the “jaw” of the helmet was way too wide and needed to be ground down quite a bit to make it thinner at the bottom. Notice the difference between the above and below pics.
I used .1” styrene sheeting for the trim around the helmet. I then used a combination of Bondo and Glazing Spot Putty to fill in the gaps between the helmet and the trim before giving another coat of mass-building primer.
Side shot.
Side shot after sanding.
Switching back to sandable primer now that I’m moving up to some higher grit sandpaper.
Polished with fine steel wool.
Starting to see a bit of a glint, but not quite smooth enough.
Polished with automotive paste wax to help fill in some of the sanding swirls. I’m saving the wetsanding for the actual castings. It’s ready to mold!
Forgot to take a pic of the first two coats of Silicone… I’m using Rebound 25 as my mold medium. First two coats were applied with a chip brush. Here it’s running a bit since I’m applying more liberally now for the 3rd coat. This will be a 1-part glove mold.
4th coat. I’m using Thi-Vex II to thicken the silicone. Now being applied with a popsicle stick.
Even thicker coat.
Adding registration keys made from an ice-cube tray.
I am using Luan to create my 4-part dividing boards.
Luan applied, screwed together, and hotglued to the silicone to keep my jacket from sticking to itself. I went with a 4-part mold jacket since the shape of the helmet would create too much travel across the keys and the surface to easily get off. I’ll spare you the gruesome details of my first failed mold jacket I made for this…
Applying first coats of Plasti-Paste.
Since Plasti-Paste gets a bit sharp, I brushed on some isopropyl alcohol to help smooth out the finish.
Next quadrant.
Jacket cured, mold pealed back, reset and pulled the first casting! I used Onyx and brushed the inside of the mold with aluminum powder before slushing. This is a pic of the helmet before starting any post-production work.
Wetsanding lightly with 1000 grit.
Continued wetsanding with 2000 then 3000 grit and it was ready to tape off the trim and paint! I used Bulldog Adhesion Promoter before applying the actual paint. This is one of my favorite pics just because of how the aluminum looks…
Waited a few minutes after 3 coats of Bulldog and applied 3 coats of DupliColor automotive paint, then 3 coats of DupliColor clearcoat. Unfortunately, I don’t have an HPLV gun, so I had to go the rattlecan route…
I went ahead and pulled a few more helmets to attempt a few different techniques for different finishes.
The master in back. The painted and clearcoated on the left with the exposed coldcast aluminum. Fully covered in Rub ‘n Buff in the middle, then fully covered in paint on the right before doing Rub ‘n Buff on the trim only.
I ended up wearing the one on the far right at Dragon*Con this year. I liked the brightness of the Rub ‘n Buff trim as opposed to the cold cast version. This pic was taken at the GA Aquarium.
Picture by Eurobeat Kasumi
Thanks for reading!
Bill
