"Help!" for: Fiberglassing, Resin, & Bondo

[JayOneSeven]

I sometimes run into this problem as well with polyester resin (the resin cures on the outside or inside without soaking into the paper fibers). I've not had many problems because of this, however. Sometimes, as you are worried about, I sand down to "dry" paper. This can be resolved by putting a few drops of crazy glue onto the paper fibers that are showing through, and a light sand when the glue cures to smooth it out. If it still shows through after you put a coat of primer on, let the primer dry overnight, sand it out a bit and apply another coat of primer. That should alleviate that problem (at least it has for me in the past).

Edit: If you take a look at my Carter helmet (from way back when), you can see on the upper right portion, some paper has been sanded through and is showing pretty badly through the primer...

For that, I ended up doing what I suggested to you; I let the primer dry overnight, then sanded those exposed fibers (which were saturated with primer). The result (after another coat of primer and black paint) was this...

You can see that the paper fibers are completely gone.

So, moral of the story, it's not a huge deal if the resin/smoothcast does not saturate the paper.

Can't help but be entirely distracted by your movie collection. Battlestar... SWEET! Aliens... SWEET! Bambi... SW... wait, what!?

 

[Carpathia]

Can't help but be entirely distracted by your movie collection. Battlestar... SWEET! Aliens... SWEET! Bambi... SW... wait, what!?

I'm a husband and a father, and our DVD/Blue-Ray collection is nearing 900+ (and we keep them all together), so the variety is pretty wide. That number would be a lot higher if not for Netflix.

 

[JayOneSeven]

Whoa, I always wondered who it is that's keeping the movie industry afloat. Kudos sir!! I own like 20 DVD's which are mostly just my wife's Disney movies.

 

[Dorvack]

...and our DVD/Blue-Ray collection is nearing 900+ (and we keep them all together), so the variety is pretty wide.

You organize them alphabetically? Oh lordy, what would Dick say...?

Back on topic, nice Carter helmet, and nice invisible mending.

 

[Carpathia]

You organize them alphabetically? Oh lordy, what would Dick say...?

Back on topic, nice Carter helmet, and nice invisible mending.

900 DVDs? Of course I organize them alphabetically. How on Earth would I find anything otherwise? My wife even created a database to keep track of them all in case we loan any out.

And thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately, that helmet is long gone. When I determined that I could do much better, I drop-tested it. A little hint, a helmet that is only rondoed on the inside (no fiberglass cloth) will shatter if dropped from a height of 4 feet.

 

[Runemaster117]

Hey I was wondering if it was safe to bake bon do in a toaster oven or conventional oven to speed up the curing speed? I'm working on my locus helmet and was wondering if me sticking the cut off visor in the toaster oven 5 minutes ago was a bad idea

Edit:IT WAS A BAD IDEA!!!

I started smelling smoke and looked over from my workspace to find my helmet smoking. No fire, just burning hot bondo.

 

[Carpathia]

Bondo has a pretty quick cure time as it is. I can apply a layer of bondo and be sanding it in less than 20 minutes. If that's too much time for you, then maybe you should rethink using bondo. I, personally, wouldn't put bondo into anything I might use to cook food later on.

 

[Runemaster117]

We don't use it for food anyways, it had been sitting in the garage for a year or so. But thanks for the quick reply

 

[xdepredatex]

So I'm in the process of my first build which is a CQB helmet edited by MissingSpartan , unfolded by fat-hi555. There's no pep visor, or supports and I know when going through the hardening process without those it can warp the helmet. So my first question is;
1. How should I go about creating a support structure?
2. For a helmet would it be best to just rondo, or just use fiberglass cloth?
Thanks in advanced

 

[Katsu]

1) You can support it with chopsticks if you want, or.. if you don't mind unfolding it, I can quickly bash in a support cover for the visor for you, though I won't be able to unfold it. The first method is fairly easy to do. But the second I guess is better overall. If you go with chopsticks (or popsicle sticks) you glue them in as support, slush in the rondo and then cut the sticks out carefully.

2) If you go with chopsticks, well under any circumstance I still think it's best to do a layer of rondo first, and then two layers of fiberglass. When you slush it, you need to be careful about it dripping out the open visor obviously, but it's not too hard. I say just work in small batches at a time.

 

[xdepredatex]

Thanks for the quick reply Katsu, I'll probably just use some chop sticks since I have plenty of those!

 

[Rb5black]

Hey guy's

looking for a little advice on the resin stage.

I'm new to this and have kicked off building the Mk Vi HD armour parts. I peped the handplates without much trouble and swiftly moved on to resin them. I've found that even after a week that my resin is still slightly tacky. I'm using the correct mixture of hardener whilst using what I've read to be good practice in mixing ( round container , mixing stick ) the ambient temperature during application is only around 14°C and then I bring them inside the house when the fumes won't kill me

So any advice on why I'm getting this poor resin ?

 

[Katsu]

There is no single "correct" amount of hardener to use, it depends a lot on temperature.

14C is getting closer to the lower end of what will successfully cure resin. You can do it, but you will need to mix in a bit more hardener than usual. If you're using MEKP, you would add 1-5 more drops of hardener. It will mean less time to work with it before it hardens, but it will have a better chance of hardening completely.

For the existing pieces, I've heard of a few techniques to finish curing them (when they're tacky). You can brush on a bit more hardener over it. Do another layer of resin with more hardener mixed in. Or I've HEARD of people using baby powder though I can't personally speak for how well that works. And lastly, you can create a hot box but putting the piece and a small hair dryer under a large box (this method means you need to check in on it)

 

[entekoh1]

Try these two things. First mix more resin with more hardener and put another layer of resin on the parts. If that doesn't work, try brushing baby powder onto the part. Hope this helps.

 

[Rb5black]

Thanks guys .... it's a huge learning curve !

 

[DBolte]

I'm making my first piece of armor ever, I printed out the blueprints for the MJOLNIR Mk.VI Helmet...I have lots of questions. 1. People say their helmets become "warped" quite often, How do I prevent this? 2. How much bondo do you use? I'm afraid my helmet is not going to be anywhere near symmetrical. 3. Do you use bondo over the whole helmet? Sorry for all the questions but i'm the definition of armor noob....prob lots of questions to come. Thanks!

 

[Carpathia]

I'm making my first piece of armor ever, I printed out the blueprints for the MJOLNIR Mk.VI Helmet...I have lots of questions. 1. People say their helmets become "warped" quite often, How do I prevent this? 2. How much bondo do you use? I'm afraid my helmet is not going to be anywhere near symmetrical. 3. Do you use bondo over the whole helmet? Sorry for all the questions but i'm the definition of armor noob....prob lots of questions to come. Thanks!

1. If the helmet includes built-in supports and/or a visor, use them. If not, then you can use a number of things to support your helmet while you resin it (dowel rods, chop sticks/skewers, foam core, etc). Just temporarily glue them into place on the inside of the helmet so they aid in keeping the correct shape, then remove them once you have two or three layers of resin on the exterior. Above all, patience is important during the pep process. Putting the model together correctly in the first place is key.

2 & 3. You only use as much bondo as is necessary to hide imperfections or to smooth out sharp geometry. It's almost never a good idea to slop bondo over the whole helmet and hope to be able to sand the detail back in later. You may find that you don't need to add bondo to certain areas because the pep detail is good enough, that's fine.

In the end, it all comes down to a series of judgment calls. You learn a lot from these decisions.

 

[Renton117]

Howdy everyone I was wondering if any one has used metal reinforced filler before? If so is it better than other things and is it way harder to work with

 

[Katsu]

It is way harder to work with.

I've used fiberglass reinforced filler and it's a nightmare to sand, to mold, and to mix... A metal based would be even worse.

You're welcome to try it, but I think it will be way too expensive and too difficult to work with.

 

[DBolte]

Helps alot! Thanks!