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[Yodamann]

Here we go!

Last summer, I started work on my kit, and it kind of went to the wayside once the school year started up again. During that time, I bought a helmet, it was shipped, it arrived, I cut off the extra resin around the bottom. Things were looking great! I was ready to try it on... and then... it didn't fit. The cheeks were just a tiny bit too far in. I found this guide to reshaping, but never got around to following through until now.


The tools I had to work with. The large pot was where the magic happened. The smaller pot was for boiling so that the large pot would have minimal contact with the stovetop. I used the kettle for similar purposes. The plan was to boil up some water, do the ol' dip and press, and finally have a wearable helmet, about 11 months down the line.

All went according to plan.


It fits now! Sorry about the blur... it's a little hard to take a picture when you can't see yourself.


Sitting pretty.

How's it look? Are the cheeks even? I also plan to fill in the three slots under the visor. But that's work for another day.

[Bowfanny]

Looking good Vod. Cheeks appear to be even.

[Yodamann]

Thanks! Do you have any tips on cutting out the T? The large cuts shouldn't be too much trouble, but the tiny edges along the top part are smaller than my rotary cutter, and the resin seems too thick for x-acto.

[Bowfanny]

Honestly I use an Xacto knife to cut my T-visors out. They take a bit of time but the cuts are clean.

[Yodamann]

How many blades?

[Karl Dha'Werda]

All went according to plan.


It fits now! Sorry about the blur... it's a little hard to take a picture when you can't see yourself.

Sweet it worked!

Thanks! Do you have any tips on cutting out the T? The large cuts shouldn't be too much trouble, but the tiny edges along the top part are smaller than my rotary cutter, and the resin seems too thick for x-acto.

I used a dremel cutting wheel to cut out my visor area on my bucket, it didn't take too long.  I used velcro to keep my visor in there instead of hot glue.

[Bowfanny]

One blade generally does the trick unless you break one. Then the whole container!

[Yodamann]

Sweet it worked!

I used a dremel cutting wheel to cut out my visor area on my bucket, it didn't take too long.  I used velcro to keep my visor in there instead of hot glue.

I was super excited to be able to wear the darn thing 11 months after purchase. And thanks for the tip. Where's the preferred visor seller?

[Tal Akaan]

On mine I drilled "relief holes" close to all the corners, used my dremel with cut off wheel to cut up to the holes, and finally used a needle file to finish out the corners of the "T". As far as a visor, I cut mine out of a tinted grinding shield that I bought for around $8

[Bowfanny]

On mine I drilled "relief holes" close to all the corners, used my dremel with cut off wheel to cut up to the holes, and finally used a needle file to finish out the corners of the "T". As far as a visor, I cut mine out of a tinted grinding shield that I bought for around $8

^^^this^^^^ Amazon or your local welding supply.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

On mine I drilled "relief holes" close to all the corners, used my dremel with cut off wheel to cut up to the holes, and finally used a needle file to finish out the corners of the "T". As far as a visor, I cut mine out of a tinted grinding shield that I bought for around $8

^^^this^^^^ Amazon or your local welding supply.

Ya, pretty much it is going to be around $10 for a visor.  I got a couple of mine off Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hobart-770580-Shield-Replacement-Shaded/dp/B002VECKRO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1467983596&sr=8-2&keywords=tinted+visor

The only thing to think about it getting one that may be too much of a green and it will distort everything you see.  For example a green Furry at one of the cons I went to I kept referring to as the blue one.

[Tal Akaan]

The Hobart in the picture above is a smoke/gray tint, just like wearing a big, heavy, hot pair of sunglasses! 

[Yodamann]

I had some excellent luck at a garage sale yesterday, and I picked up an rotary tool for $5! So I immediately put it to work grinding down the flash on my helmet ear caps/antenna.


One piece in the vice grips while I got the shape roughly where I wanted it


The antenna. THis is the side that will be against the helmet.


All the other pieces. I need some filler on top of the rangefinder bit, and the other ones will be against the helmet, so I was planning on filling in the gaps once they were stuck onto the helmet. What is the best time to attach them, before or after painting the main helmet?

[Yodamann]

Check it out, I've made some slight progress!

After a grand ol time grinding down bits, I've now done some filling/JB welding.


Ear cap top has been affixed. There's gonna be some grinding to fix that goop in the rotate-y hole.


And here we have the antenna and rangefinder with my trusty heat gun which was used in the other progress I made tonight, see my sintra WIP thread for more details.

So after these finish curing, it's back to sanding and hoping that I don't need to do more filling. Then cleaning up the main helmet.

[Yodamann]

I've done some filling work on the earcap bits and bobs.


I think this one could use another round of filler, but it is coming pretty well.


Added some filler to this bit. The bottom scootched a bit while it was curing, but a little filler fixed that all up.



Just look at that plane!

Also, my visor came in the mail!



Time for some more shameless self promotion, there's a bit of progress over at my plates thread too!

[Yodamann]

I did some sanding on the bottom of the helmet, just getting the last of the flash off. Now I've got a nice smooth bottom edge. But don't just take my word for it, check out some pictures!


No sharp edges inside


I used a sanding block to help with the straight edge.

I also adjusted the cheeks a bit with my trusty heat gun, as I found some irregularities in the time since I did the initial push.

Next steps here are to fill in the detail slots under the left part of the visor and cut out and sand the visor gap. Then it's on to attaching ear caps, filling, more sanding, and finally painting! Then I add the visor.

[Bowfanny]

Lots of progress between this and your armor this week Vod! Great progress and I agree the base of your helmet looks mighty smooth.

[Ruus bal'Neta]

Have you considered leaving the vent holes below the visor? Might help with ventilation and keeping your visor from fogging up. Just throw some screen behind it and you should be good to go.

[Yodamann]

Have you considered leaving the vent holes below the visor? Might help with ventilation and keeping your visor from fogging up. Just throw some screen behind it and you should be good to go.

I hadn't considered that, and I like the idea of extra ventilation. I'm not sure how I would go about clearing the resin out of the vents. I tried (half-heartedly, I admit) to drill the excess down with my dremel, the plan being to have them be cosmetic vents, but the bit I was using didn't really make much of a dent in the resin. Would just a drill bit be what I need?

[Ruus bal'Neta]

I hadn't considered that, and I like the idea of extra ventilation. I'm not sure how I would go about clearing the resin out of the vents. I tried (half-heartedly, I admit) to drill the excess down with my dremel, the plan being to have them be cosmetic vents, but the bit I was using didn't really make much of a dent in the resin. Would just a drill bit be what I need?

Should be all you need. Just take your time and go slow. Then use a file to smooth it out.

[Yodamann]

Finally, I can see out of the helmet! (kind of)

So I got the visor cut out and sanded, I also drilled out the 3 holes, as per Mysterious Stranger's suggestion. Even if they don't add much ventilation, I can kinda see out of the holes, so that's a plus too.

Next steps are attaching the ear caps and painting.

I do have a question about attaching the visor though:

There is a bunch of resin at the bottom of the helmet. Should I cut it out before attaching the visor?

Also the order for building I'm considering is:

Attach rangefinder to antenna
paint rangefinder/antenna
Attach ear caps (and antenna) to helmet
paint entire helmet
attach visor

Is that about right?

[Yodamann]

I did some reading, and found that my plan for attaching the rangefinder was flawed, but I was able to go ahead and put on the lower part of it and also the left ear cap. I also got them all filled in and sanded. Check it:


Lookin' pretty good, if I do say so myself


Left side

And the right.

I think it's looking pretty good. Next step is to get a template for the visor, then the helmet gets some paint while I cut out the visor. I don't think it will be 100% by comic con, but it might well be wearable.

Also I guess I need some padding too.

[Yodamann]

Comic Con is this weekend, so I wanted to get this thing at least wearable for Saturday. First step was making a template for the visor. (No pics of that, sorry) Step 2 was getting a base coat down on this guy.

Check it out:




It's not perfect, but with the visor in there, it should look decent. After the con, I'll have to go in and fix things up. Get my colour scheme on there and finish the rangefinder.

[Yodamann]

Well, it's been a while, but I'm back at it. This weekend, I sanded down some bumps on the helmet, and and I'm pretty sure I improved the on the inner edge of the T-visor gap. I did notice that the cheeks aren't quite flat, so I think I'll try and smooth those out.



This is where I'm at right now. I'm thinking I may want to print a new rangefinder/antenna/mount on a 3D printer when I get it, so that portion of the helmet will be left alone for now.

[Yodamann]

Made some progress on the ol' Bucket today, more specifically, I got the ear cap attached.



Where I started. The plan was to grind out three holes in the ear cap, place a nut in each hole, and epoxy it in place. Then I drill out matching holes in the helmet and use the bolts to attach everything. The threading in the nut should be enough to hold everything together.


The plan went off without a hitch, more or less.

As luck would have it, I had a bit for my rotary tool that was the perfect size to grind out a hole for the nut.


I traced out the outline of the ear cap onto this piece of cardboard. Then to transfer the hole locations, I rubbed a pencil around the holes in the ear cap. Next, I pressed the cardboard to the ear cap, applying extra pressure at the locations of the holes. This got a faint outline transferred, and from that I got a centre.


I drilled out the holes, gradually increasing the drill bit size until I could get a bolt in. I then taped off the bottom of three nuts, and screwed a bolt into each. It was the moment of truth! Would the ear cap fit?

It didn't. The top hole was misaligned, so I drilled out a bigger hole in both the helmet and ear cap. This gave me enough wiggle room to attach things.


I put some painter's tape down on the helmet around where the ear cap would attach and put one bolt in each hole and place the nuts on the outside. I then put some epoxy in each ear cap hole and pressed it into place. Once the epoxy had cured, I was left with a properly positioned ear cap.


One thing I noticed was that there was a sizable air gap between the helmet and the cap. So I applied some more painter's tape, put the ear cap in position, and scooped on a generous amount of filler.


Once the filler had cured, I peeled it off the tape and had a very nice result.

Now comes the snag. The tape had left some residue on the helmet, and so I thought I would wash it off with some nice hot water. It seems the water was a tad too hot, since the helmet deformed a bit. Looks like I know what I'm doing tomorrow.