HELP painting polyurethane helmet?

Frid4y said:

UPDATE:

i used light sandpaper to clean well all the surface, then the guy at the shop suggested me to use denatured alcohol first instead of antisiliconic solvent (which i'm gonna buy anyway this afternoon). since i already had my bottle of denatured alcohol at home i decided to give it a try and i cleaned all the helmet with it. then i used water and soap, let it dry, and i used the antistatic towel to finish the job.

i repeated the whole steps 2 times.

at the end i didn't notice much difference on the surface which is still smooth, is that ok?
i mean i know that paint needs to be sprayed on a rough surface (at least a lil bit) in order to get a good result. maybe it's rough at a microscopic level and i can't feel it lol.


if required im gonna use a lil bit of antisiliconic solvent and then primer, sandpaper, and primer again and finally paint. i think it'll work

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Dude, its ok. You did everything right. Now you will primer it, make light sanding as on previous step and paint it up with base color. Don't worry so much, it's gonna be ok.

UPDATE No.2:

yesterday i painted with 2-3 primer coats the helmet and today i wet sanded all the surface a little bit. i think it's ready for the final paint job isn't it?

you can see the rough surface in the zoomed pic ready for the red and gold style.

UPDATE No.3:

Guys i finally almost done the helmet, i painted it and i gave it a glossy effect and a gold matte effect on the faceplate. but im not so satisfied with the final glossy result, as you can see the surface is not so smooth and it looks like plastic than metal to me.. any idea on how to give it a metallic look? should i continue with the glossy coats?
thanks

Ok, mate, this is pretty good resuilt for now. But you need to practice. After some time of regular painting process you will understand how to paint a glossy look without laquer. There is a sharp line between nice glossy-shiny color and big inflow on your prop))
any way for now you have good start and you can add glossy, no probl. For this you need to wait few more days (your paint need it). after this you can use yellow scotchbrite to matte your helmet with a light sanding and make few coats of glossy laquer.(yellow - its about 1000 grid of regular sandpaper, but it works better). but be shure you take your laquer of that same company and that same base (acrilic as i understand).

So why did i use the glossy spray paint if now i need to use sandpaper on it? i assume that by using sandpaper it will be back to the matte look since i will erase the glossy paint from the surface isn't it? lol it looks like the glossy spray it's been useless now
i just hope not to erase the red paint...
tomorrow i'll start this process btw. and for the glossy laquer i never used it, can i find it inside a spray can or just a regular can?

Frid4y said:

So why did i use the glossy spray paint if now i need to use sandpaper on it? i assume that by using sandpaper it will be back to the matte look since i will erase the glossy paint from the surface isn't it? lol it looks like the glossy spray it's been useless now
i just hope not to erase the red paint...
tomorrow i'll start this process btw. and for the glossy laquer i never used it, can i find it inside a spray can or just a regular can?

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Heh, yes. But, no You need to use glossy laquer after glossy paint because you didnt use it on 100%. I mean you need to understand that little defference between wet coat and dry coat of that same spray paint) I dont know, how to explane it here, you just need to see it live somewhere, or try on some surface (not this helmet, please) professional painter can make any effect of any surface, even to paint a car with spray cans. But before it they spend many years for doing mistakes. I do some paint jobs for 4-5 years and only now i started understanding some little details.
Any way - here is the main thing - your glossy paint didnt work on 100% now, that why you need to use laquer. If your paint was acrilic, use acrilic laquer.
https://www.145.aero/krylon-1301-Acrylic-Crystal-Clear-p/k1301-11oz.htm
before it you need to make a light sanding, to prepare your surface. its ok. but you need to make it very light, that why i recommend scotchbrite.You dont need to do sanding - just light matting with water. Then let it dry and use glossy lacquer.Look at the difference here:
1. Main color
2. Shadows
3. Glossy coat
It was 2 years ago) but now it looks like this
My technique is that same, but practice do the job.

hahah thanks man for the clear explaination, i finally got it and i think i'll buy the product you linked me damn that motorbike is freaking dope tho.. amazing work! *O*

Frid4y said:

hahah thanks man for the clear explaination, i finally got it and i think i'll buy the product you linked me damn that motorbike is freaking dope tho.. amazing work! *O*

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i have my build of it and other on the predatorium.com
Its like therpf.com but for predators) Welcome https://www.predatorium.com/forums/...t-pmbp-updated-aug-24-20017-pics-video.20617/

i waited for 3 days to let the glossy paint dry and i applied paper scotch to the jaw part in order to paint the silver cheeks. today i removed the scotch and i found the helmet like this.. i really dont know what to do now, i tried to clean it with hot water but nothing..



UPDATE: ok fixed it, i used yellow scotchbrite to sand a lil bit the jaw surface and repainted it.

I dont actually understand, whats wrong on this picture, quality to low... But i will wait good pictures of your fully painted helmet.