My Early Disasters pt 2 - A Biker Scout Helmet - How hard can it be?

I think this is the most dangerous part of the job. I'm really, really, really bored of sanding. And yet there are so many areas that still look like I dropped chocolate pudding on the damn thing:
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I'm hoping the fact that I have a day off tomorrow will translate into some sanding time, but I also have a lot of writing work backing up. Lucky for me, Mrs Dim didn't get her new sink for Christmas, so there's no DIY on the horizon (as far as I'm concerned, but I'm often the last to know about these things.)
Two things I'm gonna need that I don't think I have. The tubes for the mouth. I was going to use those foams strips you used for plugging gaps in window frames. Might have to actually BUY some. Urgh.
Eyepieces. Where do you get sheets of plastic that you can heat-mould? I need red, I think. Ordering online is ok, but travelling is not. I am now very lazy, because outside is cold.
 
Thanks Gibslayer! I am often amazed when I look back through it. Well, surprised. Slackjawed. Perturbed. Let's stick with "Amazed", shall we? I'm sure the Shoretrooper build will be a piece of cake.
 
This is an unfair shot because the paint has only just gone on, so it looks nice. The problem areas are shrinking as I apply wet'n'dry and elbow grease. I found some perspex in the workshop that might be thin enough to heat-form, and then I just have to dye it the right colour. Shoretrooper is a step closer.
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Just for a change, here's a couple of detail shots to show what's slowing the work up.
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I'm trying to sharpen edges, fill in holes, sand out bumps and lumps...And each time I step back, I see more. But yesterday we went to buy a new sink (you know, for the DIY we're not doing anymore...) and I dropped a can of gloss black into the cart. That's my statement of intent, RPF. I will be putting the finishing three coats on this ******* of a build some time in the next month. Fair's fair, I started back at the end of July 2017, and I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've tarried over a build. I know how I'm doing the mouthpiece tubes (and boy, that's going to be a flustercluck if I'm not careful!) and making the eyepieces will involve much hilarity and probably third-degree burns, so the end is in sight. Will I add the Inferno Squad decals that I don't have? Maybe not. I can't do the alterations that make it a genuine Special Forces bucket, so maybe I shouldn't pretend it is... Like accuracy has much to do with my builds. Huh.
 
Three coats in, and I'm having to wait and sand between spraying - there're weird bobbles appearing in the paint. Obviously, the gods of cosplay hate me. It's the only rational explanation. Still, it's looking better than I would have believed, and I'm thinking hard about eyepiece possibilities.20180117_073617.jpg
 
Three coats in, and I'm having to wait and sand between spraying - there're weird bobbles appearing in the paint. Obviously, the gods of cosplay hate me. It's the only rational explanation. Still, it's looking better than I would have believed, and I'm thinking hard about eyepiece possibilities.View attachment 787993


Really coming along nicely -how far you've come grasshopper.
 
Thanks, as ever, for the kind words and encouragement Snow Builder and Roughneckone.
From time to time, I get distracted. Sometimes I'm distracted away from my project, sometimes I'm distracted within my project. Right now, I should be concentrating on finding a way to get the eyepieces in. Once I've found the right eyepieces, that is. Unfortunately, this picture came round the other day:
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And it occurred to me that the discs stacked on each other on the earpiece look very much like the part on my kid's Imperial cap:
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Theoretically, someone could take a cast of that bit (twice) and the job's done.
Now casting is something I haven't done. At all. You need decent latex, I believe. Not (and I repeat NOT) plasticine.
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If you do use plasticine (and you shouldn't) your first attempt at a mould will come out like this:
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Your second attempt may be slightly better, but by this point we are talking EXTREMELY comparatively. I mean, this mould is only "good" compared to how screamingly awful the first one was. "Better than crap" is not a ringing endorsement.
Choosing to then fill both moulds with fibre-glass resin at this point is madness. I did it anyway.
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That was the moment I remembered I was going to spray them with WD40 to ease the removal later. A lot later, I guess. Maybe tomorrow. Going to go out and fly kites now.
 
Those of you following this in real time will know it is not yet tomorrow. However, when I got in from Kite-flying (we actually ended up leaving the kites in the car and just walked a sod of a long way, but who cares about that?) I couldn't resist taking a peek at the moulds. Amazingly, the resin had gone off (we're talking a couple of hours, after all). The better mould released the resin very neatly.
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The second one was more of a struggle (the resin had overflowed and coated the whole thing. I had to crack it open to get at the plasticine to release the model. Anyway.
I have two decent shapes to clean up and paint and glue into place. Then I can get back to the stuff I should have been doing....
Hey, one more mysterious process trialled (and errored)
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A little cleanup and those should work nicely. I give you credit for even trying a mold. I would have just done a couple of discs out of cardboard and called it good.
 
A little cleanup and those should work nicely. I give you credit for even trying a mold. I would have just done a couple of discs out of cardboard and called it good.

"Calling it good" is always the point I get stuck on. "Calling it adequate" is about my limit....
 
Finally, the Saturday of my dreams! A long lie in, followed by breakfast and ludicrous house-maintainance projects (in this case, hanging out the upstairs bathroom window and using a garden hose to try and jetwash the gutters clear of leaves and debris before tomorrow's predicted rainstorm...) Anyway, here and there amidst the fun and games, I got time to source a couple of greeblies that go in the housing at the front of the mohawk:
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They're not exact matches - they're the screw caps from self-assembly furniture, but they're as close as anything else on this build. Spray black, insert up nostrils! I mean, into housing.*
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This angle shows I haven't done a thorough job with the painting. Huh.
I also put the teeth in.
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Really pleased with this, despite the lopsided look. Next I'll glue on the pieces I cast, and for the buttons underneath there, I'm going to use the spare ear-bud covers you get with new sets of earbuds. As I have teenage daughters, we buy three sets of earbuds a week. No, I don't know what they do with all of them, but I steal the spare covers and chuck them in my greeblies bin. Last time I used them was making a brow-cam for my Commando bucket.

I can't do the eyepieces until I can finagle some cash and buy some outsize sunglasses to cut down and glue in, but then it's just making the cog designs for the dome and I'm done. Ooh, that sounds good...
I borrowed the Rogue One Ultimate visual guide from my library and have been photographing reference pics of Shoretroopers, but also Krennic's outfit for FanExpo this November. There's no helmet, but I rather fancy swishing about in a cloak again.


*Do not insert anything into your nostrils. I shouldn't have to say this, but I hear some Americans are eating soap. I make no assumptions.
 
Ignore the dusty fingerprints. This was a test shot to confirm that I need to find a big pair of sunglasses to use for the eye pieces.
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I'm all ready to put the imperial insignia on the dome, except I messed up - printed off a black version on a white background. Rookie mistake. Still the earpieces are working out.
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Got to the dollar store and lashed out a huge $1.25 on some wide sunglasses. Threw the frames out immediately, and wedged the lenses in the eyeholes, then unloaded my glue gun on 'em. Ah, the delicate touch of the pro....
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So a big disadvantage to the presentation of this helmet has been the terrible lighting in my workshop. And my terribly slapdash approach to the build, obviously. Still, dragging the helm out into the basement and taking photos is a much better idea. The insignia have been printed off in the right colour combination, and will be added soon. Then I just have to lacquer the whole thing again. That might be after I write the outdoor D&D campaign for my youngest's birthday and build the viking props we need to go with it.
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