Duke's Halo 4 Venator Helmet Pep *COMPLETE* (with Step-by-Step)

[Straton JD]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

hey duke, im jumping in a little late here, but your problem is your clear as you have suggested. enamel is an unforgiving "£$%-head, unfortunately you're gonna have to sand it off and redo that spot, normaly for enamels you want an oilbased clear, tremclad has one that has worked for me in the past, but as you have other paints on there the best suggestion i would have would be to use a polyurethane clear or a 2k urathane, these are fairly hard to find in rattle can, the other option would be to remove all traces of the enamel and use a paint that works with your clear, such as an acrylic or waterbased

hope this helps

 

[hopkins77]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Oops! Ya, unfortunately you can mix the two, unless you want the cracked look. But hey, it is looking really good. And don't stress about the small blemishes, we are our own worst critic. Everyone who sees the helmet I did for my son is like, WOW that is so perfect. Ya well its far from it in my eyes. So keep up the good work, it's looking great!

 

[kaween]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

I would like to agree on the "everybodies' his own worst critic", but in all honesty, if that would happen to me (and it has happened in the past), no way I would let that slide. Not if it was for myself, and certainly not if it was made for somebody else.

I'm REALLY bad at painting, screwing up more than I care to admit. I use this matrix and so far, it hasn't put me down. Honesty dictates that I'll try to stick to Acrylics as much as possible throughout the process.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

I would like to agree on the "everybodies' his own worst critic", but in all honesty, if that would happen to me (and it has happened in the past), no way I would let that slide. Not if it was for myself, and certainly not if it was made for somebody else.

I'm REALLY bad at painting, screwing up more than I care to admit. I use this matrix and so far, it hasn't put me down. Honesty dictates that I'll try to stick to Acrylics as much as possible throughout the process.

View attachment 22768

I'd probably try to make it look intentional if it was for my own use, but that won't even work now. After about an hour it ate away the black and is now a whitish/grey :wacko
Neat chart although it classifies what I did as a YEAH! ? Enamel Base and Acrylic Topcoat = YIKES!
Definitely sticking with 100% Acrylic from now on.

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'm going to sand it down and repaint the black with acrylic this time.

 

[kaween]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Yeah, I noticed that too (the matrix thing). It's either an error in the matrix, or it's brand-dependant (though I highly doubt that last possbility).
I stick to acrylic because I just suck at other stuff and even more so when using enamel. Bah. Painting. Bloody hate it, always have.
Worst part of a build for me, and I freely admit being extremly jealous at people who have a knack for it.
My saving grace is called my daughter : she's quite handy with paints and stuff, and she's helped me out more than once.

Anyhow, sorry to hear you couldn't save the situation but on the other hand you'll be double pleased with the result when it's done I've no doubt. :thumbsup

 

[Straton JD]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

droppin in a bit late again, but in the interest of learning, the matrix is not wrong, it is just very deceiving. The issue here is time lapse, most enamels (eg. industrial and marine) have a 15 or 15 rule of thumb, meaning that they can be topcoated (depending on secondary product) within 15 minutes or after 15 days. Enamels (again most not all) dry within a reasonable amount of time, but take many days to cure (or to release all solvent from solid). Meaning that they can be topcoated with other products, but there is time restraint. As far as my experience goes, you cannot "wet on wet" enamel with anything other than enamel, but you can topcoat enamel with certain solvent based clears prior to cure

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

droppin in a bit late again, but in the interest of learning...

You haven't been late either time and your comments both times have been very helpful. Thanks for the info! I never would have thought to let it sit for 15 days!!! :wacko

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

It seems I should have just kept posting updates. Ever since I've stopped I just keep running into more problems finishing this thing. Everyone's encouragement and advise really does help!

The painting ended up alright, after some fixes anyways. Here a picture to show how I did the detailing. Nice fancy painter's tape along the edges needing to be painted and cheap masking tape with a cut up (clean) trash bag everywhere else.




With it completely painted I was able to move onto the electronics. No advice here. Maybe just patience. Lots of soldering, looking good, installing, doesn't work. Redo, looks great, installed, looks like I superglued the switch off.. I lost some hair on this stage. But the end result turned out! Two LEDs in both light chambers on the left and right hooked up to one 9V battery. A small CPU fan connected to a single LED on the back of the helmet (as a fan indicator) wired up to another 9V. Plus the army pads with velcro mentioned earlier to hold all the wires down. Google+YouTube are your best friends here. Plenty of instructions on how to wire electronics out there. I did a test run on the CPU fan and it ran for 3 1/2 hours before shutting off and it even started back up again once I giggled it.



Now to pulling hair out again... I cannot for the life of me install this visor. The area to work in is too small! I can only get one hand in there at a time, but I need two. :/

I purchased the visor material from Icon Props and have screwed up every piece that I've cut out. First I tried hot glue, but that slipped around a lot and was very messy, getting glue on the front of the visor and no clean way to get it off. The second try was almost a success. I used an epoxy letting it almost harden to be tackier while I pressed in the plastic. It left a few spots where the epoxy oozed out. I took Acetone (used to clean my hands of the stuff) applying with a q-tip I wiped it along the visor with much success. Turns out more than 2-3 passes of the acetone on the q-tip results in rubbing the silver mirror off of the plastic..

Now I'm out $21 and have nothing to show for it. I think for the next attempt I will use Silvabullet 's method recently mentioned. It will at least give me room for more attempts. Also thanks to Dirtdives for finding a good source for an in state alternative NUSOLIS

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Here is another source. Its AliExpress. Its an overseas distributor. It seem cheap enough if you have to order something. 3m x 50 mm, per sheet. It says free shipping in the US.....but that could just be for bulk orders.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Here is another source. Its AliExpress. Its an overseas distributor. It seem cheap enough if you have to order something. 3m x 50 mm, per sheet. It says free shipping in the US.....but that could just be for bulk orders.

No I believe it. I bought a hoodie from China for $36 with free shipping, to ship it back because I ordered the wrong size it was $28!! I think their government is maybe subsidizing their shipping to help improve their exporting?? possible. I already ordered one of the NuSolis, I'll let you know how it goes. (I'm usually okay with ordering from China, but I don't want to wait 3 weeks for it to get here. Their site says "guaranteed delivery... 50 days" lol)

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

I got an old motorcycle visor (dark tint) from a friend and it kind of fit when I was in the middle of assembling my son;s helmet. Going to go w/ that. I have another clear one that I my use for mine (when I get started on it that is>.....UUUGGGG). But like you said, Silvabullet 's method is very interesting and very do-able. I can't wait to see how his turns out. Speaking of motorcycle visors, there is a place around my way that deals w/ motorcycles. I wounder if they have used/slightly damaged ones that could be used? Have to check that out.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Inching along here in the final steps...

I've stopped keeping track of my time. I don't like to include time where I'm just fixing mistakes and it seems like all I've been doing is fixing mistakes!!??!! This update may not be photo worthy, but every little thing right now is like a mountain. :angry

I've finally had a breakthrough on the visor situation and will finish it once I get the window tint in the mail. The problem I was running into is that I was cutting out the visor material using a printout of the pepakura model (scaled the same way I originally printed) when the actual helmet is not "exactly" the same size or shape as the model anymore. So to account for this I had to cut each of the wings on the V shaped visor separately, tape them in and then mark/cut until it was good enough for me.



I am learning though, which is the whole point of trying to build this suit in the first place. I've learned that I need to get into the habit of finding a substitute to do test runs instead of jumping straight into using my more expensive materials. In the picture above, the upper (clear) visor piece is from a tote, or as they are called around here, a clear plastic storage bin. I was able to glue the V together in a way that I thought worked. It was messy though, it got scratched a lot and smeared with my epoxy-covered fingers, but there's plenty more tote! The second thing I've learned is that when working with things that need to be clear, cover them in tape. On the lower visor pictured, before I even cut out the visor shape I covered the whole piece of plastic in painter's tape front and back and it won't come off until the very last possible moment.

Feeling much better after this little hurtle.

 

[hopkins77]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

:thumbsup one step closer to success!

 

[PerniciousDuke]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Success! :thumbsup

After much trial and error, and tears.. The visor is in! The only complaint I have is that it is a tad dark. Next time I would go with 5% or 15% dark instead of 20%, since it has the mirror already to keep onlookers from seeing in. All in all, I am very glad to be past what I think is the biggest hurtle of the suit. Here it is:

Thank you everyone for your encouragement and advice!!! I hope to be starting on the rest of the suit very soon.

 

[Saeka]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Aaaaaaaaaaawww yeah! That helmet looks fantastic!

 

[Chernobyl]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

That's truly amazing work. I'm very impressed.

 

[Fallen]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Love it! Can't wait for the rest of it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[soldier466]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

That is so sick! I love the mirrored visor. I'm excited to see the rest!

 

[hopkins77]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep Build *WIP (1st suit Step-by-Step) +photos!

Yaaaaa!! Success :thumbsup!! Looks great, visor looks great, lights look great, nice job! Can't wait to see the suit.

 

[Tigrera]

Re: Duke's Halo 4 Venator Pep *WIP (1st Suit with Step-by-Step)

The helmet looks great! All that hard work really paid off.