Hello friends. I made a Pep Halo Master Chief cos. for my son a few years back and have been interested in cos. building, not necessarily wearing ever since. I previously worked on fiberglass speaker boxes so I can bring those skills over to cos construction. Anyway, I followed Terra's build based on SpaceCowboy's pep work http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=157465 and I decided to tackle that project for myself.
Started the pep construction:
View attachment 513973
Finished pep work. Oh, some of the super glue had not fully cured and a good wad of my hair got stuck to the inside of the helm after taking this pic. I almost had to cut away some of the helm to get my head out, lol.
After the bucket was finished I slushed in "Rondo" a 1:1 Bondo to Fiberglass resin mixture with proper amounts of catalyst in each portion. I used a small electric scale to measure the parts. It firmed up the paper nicely and gave me a thick under layer allowing me to sand off the paper facets or high spots.
Unfortunately for me I left it outside in the heat to finish off-gassing fumes and it leaned over and came to rest on the resin can, giving the helm a warped shape. The right side cheek was pushed in and there was a pronounced bulge in the rear of the bucket. I heated it with a hot air gun and was able to get the majority of the warpage out, but it cracked and the cheek never got back to original shape. I will build it back up and sand to match the desired shape.
I searched around town for some milliput to fill in low spots and could not find it locally, so I purchased some air drying sculpting clay and I am very pleased with it. I have a good hour or more of high workability and it sands easily, AND it is stiff yet semi flexible so it doesn't seem prone to cracking. I recommend it. It does take almost a day to dry fully, but that isn't tool bad of a compromise.
Here it is after two layers of bondo and I am starting to layer up some of the clay. I have mostly built up the right cheek to fix the warping and I will keep working at the rear of the helm, but I'm off to a pretty good start.
The clay is the lighter tan color which can be seen around the brow and on the lower left "jaw" behind the mic tip location. I cut out the mouth to build it up with clay since that seemed to work so well for Terra.
You will notice I am building up the lip around the rear of the bucket. I will straighten out the lip in the next layer, this first layer was just for some "meat" or thickness. You can also see the cracks from straightening
I may have to cut that part out and build it up from scratch. Any hints on how to remove the warp other than cutting it out?
Not sure if I will wear this actual bucket or if I will mold and cast it.....we'll see.
Stay tuned and I'm open to comments and suggestions.
Started the pep construction:
View attachment 513973
Finished pep work. Oh, some of the super glue had not fully cured and a good wad of my hair got stuck to the inside of the helm after taking this pic. I almost had to cut away some of the helm to get my head out, lol.
After the bucket was finished I slushed in "Rondo" a 1:1 Bondo to Fiberglass resin mixture with proper amounts of catalyst in each portion. I used a small electric scale to measure the parts. It firmed up the paper nicely and gave me a thick under layer allowing me to sand off the paper facets or high spots.
Unfortunately for me I left it outside in the heat to finish off-gassing fumes and it leaned over and came to rest on the resin can, giving the helm a warped shape. The right side cheek was pushed in and there was a pronounced bulge in the rear of the bucket. I heated it with a hot air gun and was able to get the majority of the warpage out, but it cracked and the cheek never got back to original shape. I will build it back up and sand to match the desired shape.
I searched around town for some milliput to fill in low spots and could not find it locally, so I purchased some air drying sculpting clay and I am very pleased with it. I have a good hour or more of high workability and it sands easily, AND it is stiff yet semi flexible so it doesn't seem prone to cracking. I recommend it. It does take almost a day to dry fully, but that isn't tool bad of a compromise.
Here it is after two layers of bondo and I am starting to layer up some of the clay. I have mostly built up the right cheek to fix the warping and I will keep working at the rear of the helm, but I'm off to a pretty good start.
The clay is the lighter tan color which can be seen around the brow and on the lower left "jaw" behind the mic tip location. I cut out the mouth to build it up with clay since that seemed to work so well for Terra.
You will notice I am building up the lip around the rear of the bucket. I will straighten out the lip in the next layer, this first layer was just for some "meat" or thickness. You can also see the cracks from straightening
I may have to cut that part out and build it up from scratch. Any hints on how to remove the warp other than cutting it out?Not sure if I will wear this actual bucket or if I will mold and cast it.....we'll see.
Stay tuned and I'm open to comments and suggestions.
