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

Here's Friday, one of my rare days off. The major components of the fence have been delivered, the dog has been to the vet, and I've primed the backs of at least a third of the kitchen cabinet doors. I even snuck in some lunch, and then I went outside into the Autumn sunshine to do some helmet work.
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There used to be a UK quizshow catchphrase that went "I've started so I'll finish." and now I've started fiber-glassing the RC bucket, I can't just leave it. This increases the chance of screwing up both helmets, as I try to do twice as much in the short time I don't have. Ah well. In today's case, that meant gluing some matting on the inside of the TIE bucket, then splodging on the resin, followed by adding more matting to the cheek insides of the RC bucket and finishing up the resin on that.
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Two things have become clear to me during this process. One, the RC bucket is out of kilter in terms of symmetry, but we all know how much that means to me, right? Two, the Tie Bucket has a lot of gaps in the structure which are not magically filling themselves in. Worse, dribbles of resin are drying in streaks or drops and they're going to have to be filed off/down before I start in on the bondo.

Luckily there'll be at least two more sessions of matting on the TIE bucket before I dare to start bondo madness, and I'm fully expecting the RC bucket to fold up into a messy heap. I'd be sorry about that, because it's very interesting to compare the pep build with my own kluge (currently gathering dust on the wardrobe in my study). (Yes, I have a wardrobe in my study. That's completely normal. Isn't it? Well, where do you keep YOUR ironing board?)
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Yeesh. All the cabinet doors are back on, and the new cabinet is built, painted and up on the wall. All I have to do now is the flooring, and I can start rebuilding the fence. Doesn't seem like a long sentence, but I reckon it covers about a month.
Anyway, in five minutes while I was waiting for the last coat of gloss to dry, I prepped the TIE bucket with matting. No chance of resin today, but maybe tomorrow, and more chance with the matting already cut and glued in place. If I get this lot resined nicely, then the next step is kicking off the bondo layers. My sinuses may never recover.
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What this photo doesn't show is all the strands of fiber glass that have stuck to the outside of the helmet. I may have to shave it before the bondo goes on.
 
I was taking no chances with the goop setting off another monster headache, so I filled the gaps on both helmets out in the gazebo and left them there all afternoon. Back in work from tomorrow, so no idea when I'll get to the bondo. But it is the next thing.
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- - - Updated - - -

Really insanely worried they will worm their way in through my skin and kill me. But not worried enough to wear gloves, it seems....
 
Brought both helmets back into the workshop after leaving them in the shed overnight. The TIE bucket is definitely more substantial now, though the RC one will need some heavy re-shaping around the T-slit. As always, I don't see any time soon that will allow for the bondo, but I didn't think I'd get any more matting put in and look what happened there. My guess is things will keep moving slowly forward on this, and my goal time of November might turn out to be right. For once.
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To be honest, I'm cross it's taken me this long to get around to this method, but I really feel I had to work my way through the other options. The big question is whether this longer, more involved process will turn out something as good as or better than the Atlanthia-build Stormtrooper bucket. Of all the helmets I've made, that's been the best, I think, and even then it has serious issues. That's the benchmark to beat.
 
The world has gone insane again, so I just put my head down and finished the kitchen floor. Well, not FINISHED, obviously, because I have to put the skirting boards back on, but I only have half of my day off left, and I'm damned if I'm going to spend it cutting more bloody tile and stuff. I have limits.
So, I called a break and went and got my bondo. I tried to take the helmet, the bondo tin, the spreaders and the pot of screws I was balancing the helmet on, all out to the gazebo at once. Naturally I dropped the pot and had to pause to pick up a billion assorted screws. Ten minutes later I was mixing up waaaaay too much bondo and chanting to myself "Thin layers, thin layers, thin layers..." All the while scooping up enough bondo to coat my house. Here's the result:
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Q1: Are the layers thin?
No. No they are not.
Q2: What? Weren't you listening to yourself?
Yes, but I also panicked about the bondo hardening before I got it all on the helmet.
Q3: You are going to sand this lot down before putting more on, aren't you?
You really want me to say yes, don't you? Well, then sure. Doing anything else would be stupidly irresponsible.

For the reasons stated above, I didn't bondo the RC bucket. I'm happy with it the way it is for now, and when I've made more progress on the TIE, I'll go back to it and document the progress properly. Well, as properly as I do anything. And if you guys think this is bad, remember my wife lets me do our renovation work. Think how bad the house must be to begin with.
 
Thin layers per sections and try to cover the section completely instead of having paper showing.

Wasting bondo will happen BUT it won't if you go section by section! So much easier to work and not lose any important lines!

Keep at it!

PS you should start a thread about your house! :)
 
Thanks Snowbuilder, Bigturc - always appreciated.

TerranCmdr - good to meet you, and yes, I will be using a power sander. Probably. And the rotary sanding attachment on my Dremel. And some hand sanding. There will also be tears of regret and recrimination.

Also, I have to confess that after these photos were taken, I put more bondo on. But one day I will learn.
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Haha! Best of luck. I just finished my first Pep helmet and hand sanded it the whole way. Man, we're my arms tired! Looking forward to seeing your progress.
 
Really wanted to get to sanding this weekend, but instead opted for sweating, shivering and leaking from my nose. Luckily, it turned out to be flu.
 
I love Saturdays! I got a lie in, and then the only household responsibility was the grocery shopping. I actually remembered to wear my respirator too...
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I used the orbital sander at first.
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That was good for the more open areas, but there's lots of awkward details on this bucket. I put the little rotary drum on the dremel next. I discovered it's useful to have something to brace the helmet against (I discovered this by not having anything to brace the helmet against.) The drum, being fresh, wears away more material than the orbital sander, which has old sandpaper on it. Unfortunately, it's harder to get a flat surface with the drum, so I was mostly using it to define edges and remove blobs. Oddly, there are a lot of blobs on this helmet...
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So next is the illogical step of putting more bondo back on. There are some real problem areas that didn't get touched in the first round, and some areas that I'm not sure how to tackle. I need to cut one of my spreaders right down so I can get the bondo into the tighter areas. At least, I think I do. As usual, I'll appeal for advice, then go ahead and do something stupidly impulsive....
 
Popsicle stick with sand paper over it to get into the sharp corners!

As for the spreading, use smaller batches and spread thin, you don’t want to create more blobs, you just want to patch holes and uniformize the surfaces.

:thumbsup
 
So the skirting board is done. Well, nearly done. Ok, I'm done with the skirting board, put it that way. Before there were more tedious demands on my time, I stepped out to the gazebo again. First I added the small square to the back of the helmet - after watching the Nerdist video about making the Iden Versio prop, I know it's called "The Pillbox".
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I was determined to take Bigturc's advice, so I mixed up small batches, applying each carefully. Well, carefully at first. As I got to the third and fourth batches, I kept sticking my fingers in the stuff I'd already applied.
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Yes, I did get a bit slapdash, but more paper got covered, more holes were filled, and some of the crappier areas were fixed up a little. The big test will be the next round of sanding, where I have to keep things on track and get serious about smoothing. The great thing is, this is all going so much better than my previous, tentative experiments with bondo. Putting it on outside, I'm not rushing so much. I have decent spreaders, and the surface of the helmet was prepared for this. Plus, I'm ready to cover the whole helmet, not just use the bondo as a second-thought band-aid on a crappy surface.
(The video I mentioned is here: http://nerdist.com/watch-tested-create-iden-versios-helmet-from-star-wars-battlefront-ii/ , though I think they cheat 'cos they start with a cast of a regular TIE Helmet, not build from scratch. Amateurs.)
 
If I were you, I'd remove the pill box right now before spending anymore time with bondo. It's just gonna get in the way for no reason while you''ll try to smooth the mohawk line. Smooth it all up, then build your pill box on the side, NOT on the helmet .. then, once both are smooth, put it back on.

You don't want to give yourself more trouble than needed. Get that box off now! :)
 
I actually slept on this and ... now, I'm forcing you to remove that pillbox from the mohawk .. for your own good of course! :)
Don't skip ahead .. you're doing good on this!

We're watching you!
 
Did I ever mention my lack of patience? It's a good job I have power sanders, because I tried a bit of hand-sanding and nearly expired of boredom. Even with the electric attachments, it's not going fast enough for me. I can see, in some of the areas, how smooth the bondo surface can be. That's great, but other places are going to need another coat of bondo and more sanding to reach the same standard. One half of my brain is shouting "Be PATIENT! DO THE JOB!". One quarter is yelling "RUSH IT! SPRAY IT WITH PAINT AND GET IT OVER WITH!" and one quarter is humming the theme tune to "Friends" and wondering if the beer shop is open. It's hell in there, I tell you.....
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So progress today has been minimal, but good. I've smoothed out some problem areas, carved others into a better shape, and I filled in some of the more egregious areas with modelling clay, to save hurling bondo into awkward crevices that would then be impossible to sand.
Then, of course, I cracked and sprayed it with paint, but that may help in the long run - it shows up the imperfections better, and will help even more when I add the next layers of bondo.
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I don't want to jinx it, but it looks really good. You're doing a great job.

Patience is the worst. I've tried cramming 2 hours of work into 1 and ended up creating 4 hours of work just to fix my mistakes.

You're starting to convince me that I need to switch to bondo. Like you, I hate sanding, but it looks like it dries harder than anything I've used before and one day I would really like to make something with a smooth surface.
 

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