Pilotlicense complete MKVI build

[pilotlicense]

I really wanted to post this thread in the Elite forum, but I guess I haven't posted enough or been around for long enough to do that, so it's going here. This is my build process for my MK VI armor. My initial intent was to start this costume build for an annual Halloween contest at my friend's house. Every year, I win. This year I'm upping the bar again, and I'll likely retire afterwards. I don't think I'll be able to outdo a full Master Chief getup next year.

Anyway, before I get too far, I want to personally thank Cereal for his well written thread on his build, and especially for his YouTube videos. The information he provides is GOLD, and has saved me hours upon hours of work. Unfortunately it wasn't until halfway through my helmet build that I stumbled upon Cereal's build thread, so my work hasn't been without some headache, but alas, I do enjoying learning things the hard way.

Without further ado, I'll get right into things. I started with the MK VI high detail helmet Pepakura model. I put it all together with low temp hot glue. I used an exacto knife to cut out all of the pieces. I used my ruler to do the red lines over all of the valley folds.

One trick I learned really quick was how to make perfectly straight, tight folds. Instead of pressing hard with the pen on the backside of the fold, I used the exacto knife to carefully and gently score the paper with the ruler on the mountain side of each fold. This means that if there was a valley fold, I'd score the paper along that line on the back side of the sheet. I did this for every single fold on the whole model, and it made it very easy; especially for the tight, small folded areas where there was a lot of detail.

I used the ol' iPad running an RDC client to view the Pepakura application on my main PC, since the kitchen table was best suited for this project. :cool

 

[pilotlicense]

More pics of the build. When I was doing my research before building, I really liked to see a lot of pictures from different angles, so I could see the details in what people were doing. Here, you will be able to see the process I went through to build the helmet, and which pieces I assembled in the order they were assembled.

Below: I even brought it to work and did some work on my desk during downtime! Yes, it pays to have a cool job.

 

[pilotlicense]

Below: It's starting to take shape and look like a helmet!

Finally finished with the Pep work...

Any Captain Morgan fans out there?

This one looks a little stretched because I didn't have the supports in yet..

The inside...

 

[pilotlicense]

Here's the motorcycle helmet shield that I got. It's the HJC HJ-09 Gold shield, and I bought it off of Amazon for $46.39 shipped (USD). Yeah, I'm sure I could have found it for cheaper if I looked hard enough, but with the small amount of shopping I did (and the fact that I have Amazon Prime), I was swayed to use Amazon.

This is where I'd like some help from you guys, whoever has some words of advice. I put the helmet shield in temporarily, and I noticed there is a huge gap between it and the rest of the helmet. This is mostly due to the front lower jaw piece of the helmet that sticks inwards too much, and prevents the face shield from filling that round contour better. Any ideas for overcoming this are welcome!

 

[Andrew Lambright]

thats some pretty fiine pep work you got there! keep up the good work, im sure it'll look amazing!

 

[CoolC]

Welcome to 405th. No one can start a thread in the elite section. And it is not because of not posting enough. your work has to be completely outstanding to be nominated and move by the mods.

Good luck with your build.

 

[Omega Ravager]

As far as fitting the visor in mine was a pretty big pain in the butt, but I think it turned out well. I see you cut out the little flaps at the bottom edges of it, this may or may not make things easier...
For my visor, I ended up trimming out the section of the visor so it fit level with the flaps that you cut out. However, the way I trimmed it was measured by jamming the visor into place and tilting it back so it would be level. Don't be too afraid to stress your visor a little into place, they are made to take a beating and they bend around pretty with some force.. I advise you to be cautious, but see if you can't flex it into the shape/place it should be. Here's my thread with some pictures that might help a little more: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/27624-Omega-s-Halo-3-WIP-Pic-Heavy/page2

If you didn't understand that or want to see specific pictures of my visor fit I'd be happy to do anything else I could to help you out!
Welcome to the 405th! Your work looks great so far, Keep it up!

Omega

 

[pilotlicense]

Welcome to 405th. No one can start a thread in the elite section. And it is not because of not posting enough. your work has to be completely outstanding to be nominated and move by the mods.

Understood. Thanks for the info.

 

[pilotlicense]

Here is some shots of the inside fiberglass work. This was before I had learned the rondo method (50% bondo 50% resin mix) from Cereal Killer's build. I have never touched fiberglass or resin before so it's a little messy, but you'll see below that doing the rondo coating over this stuff really cleaned it all up and probably made it holy-****-strong, which is what I'm after anyway.

 

[pilotlicense]

Since I hadn't ever worked with bondo before, I just kinda winged it in the beginning here. I was using my painter's knife from my Bob Ross painting set to apply the bondo, and I found it to be too firm; It wouldn't contour to the shape of the helmet. I eventually cut up a plastic bottle and used my table paper cutter to make some spreaders out of it.

I then made what I feel now to be a dumb decision in priming the helmet. My original intention was to see just how rough the surface still was, but it obviously needed to be Dremel'ed, filed, sanded, and worked a lot more before this step. I also was curious how it would look all as one even color. What can I say, I'm impatient!

By the way, if anyone wondered, all of the pictures of this build are shot with my iPhone 4S.

Above: Daylight shows that I have a LOT of work to do with regard to smoothing things out. As I said, I was using my Dremel to do a lot of smoothing out, and although this is great for removing a lot of material and shaping areas, it is not good for getting an overall smooth surface. My beginner bondo job was showing up in the daylight. I wanted this thing to be as close to perfect as possible, and I knew my work was cut out for me.

 

[pilotlicense]

So at this point, I finally had watched all of Cereal Killer's Youtube videos (Here is his channel) and learned a ton about what I'm doing wrong with the bondo. I also went ahead with the rondo job. Being in one of the hottest places possible, Phoenix AZ, this project has also tried my patience with regards to the drying time. It's getting into summer time, and we regularly have 110 degree days. This means both great things and bad things. The good part of it is that the bondo, resin, and paint dries immediately. The bad part is that the bondo and resin dry immediately! Although I am supposed to have about 10 minutes working time with the bondo, it usually starts to set up in less than half the time. I'm finding myself using far less of the hardener than is called for just so I can get a reasonable amount of working time with it. As for the rondo, I mixed it up, using only resin hardener (about 20 liquid drops) and none of the bondo paste hardener. I mixed it well and dumped it all inside the helmet and worked as fast as I could to just coat the inside. I did this in 3 steps. Luckily, it worked great! And when it starts to harden and pool a little, it's really no big deal, since it'll just be a little thicker and stronger in the pooled areas.

 

[pilotlicense]

Now that I know what I should be doing with the bondo work, I've gone back and started working all of the rough areas.

And that's where I'm at today. I'll post pictures of all of my tools, chemicals, etc also. I've noticed that often, people don't do this and I think it would help those of you who are more visual (like me) for identifying what you should use.

 

[Omega Ravager]

Looking Good! If you're getting impatient with the bondo/sand/rinse/repeat process the rondo you use on the inside can also be used on the outside, with some practice anyways... I wouldn't advise trying it on the helmet now, only because you've already started using the bondo, and you don't want to mix methods. However with the rest of the parts, this could save you time, though there is a cost increase if you choose to do this because resin runs higher than bondo.

Be patient! I know you're excited about building this suit and you want to get it painted and looking good, but keep a good pace and make everything look perfect. If you rush through something and get it put up, initially it'll be awesome but all the tiny mistakes you could've fixed will always be there. I know from experience!

Looking forward to seeing more! And I'll be happy to offer any advice I can!

 

[pilotlicense]

Looking Good! If you're getting impatient with the bondo/sand/rinse/repeat process the rondo you use on the inside can also be used on the outside, with some practice anyways... I wouldn't advise trying it on the helmet now, only because you've already started using the bondo, and you don't want to mix methods. However with the rest of the parts, this could save you time, though there is a cost increase if you choose to do this because resin runs higher than bondo.

Be patient! I know you're excited about building this suit and you want to get it painted and looking good, but keep a good pace and make everything look perfect. If you rush through something and get it put up, initially it'll be awesome but all the tiny mistakes you could've fixed will always be there. I know from experience!

Looking forward to seeing more! And I'll be happy to offer any advice I can!

Thanks for the tips! I probably mostly decided not to do rondo on the outside of it because I wasn't sure how tough it would be to file and sand down resin infused bondo. I know the resin tends to be super hard after it dries; much harder than the bondo. I'm looking for a satin / non-shiny appearance when it's primed and ready to paint, so that's another point I considered.

 

[pilotlicense]

Here are more pics of the helmet. I found that spackle works pretty well for filling in the little pits and holes in the bondo. If you're going to use this stuff, make sure it's only for the tiny holes and nothing major since it is NOT strong at all, and not at all waterproof. I've found that using bondo with my fingers is the best way to fill in tiny crevices and holes. Always wear gloves when doing this, though. Don't get bondo on your bare hands.

Some symmetry issues still exist, and they take forever to resolve. Eventually I'm going to have to call it good enough, but I'm not quite there yet.

 

[pilotlicense]

And here are the tools I am using.

This is what I use to apply the resin in the beginning as well as apply the rondo to the inside. I do not recommend the foam painter brushes. They fall apart with the chemicals, and don't handle the chemically created heat very well either. Plus, when you try to wash them in acetone, it's all over.

Most important..

 

[Omega Ravager]

Looking Good!!!! Glad to see you're using good safety gear and staying healthy too!

I know this stage is a pain in the butt and it sucks, but the end result is so worth it. Stick with it!

As far as rondo-ing the outside it does leave a bit more of a shiny appearance and I can see where you might want to avoid that. Unsanded rondo looks like this:

As you can see it is a little shiny. As far as difficulty in sanding and it's hardness if you are initially quick there are a few minutes where it is soft and pliable (almost like a thick putty) and then about ten minutes after that where it is semi solid but still fairly easy to scrape away at (with a sharp knife) and get the details shaped in. Sanding does tend to be more difficult after this, but at the same time it leaves an almost completely smooth surface so there is MUCH less sanding that needs to be done, you might wanna try using some rondo on a scrap something to see how it works for you, I love the stuff!

Looking forward to more!

Omega

(Also if you gotta sec, drop by my thread and see what you think of my work! I'd appreciate it a lot!)

 

[Pyronari]

if you don't want to use spackle, Bondo glazing and spot putty fills in the little areas great. Also if you have a symatry issue, you can use magic sculpt, it works great, I also used it to fill the gap between the helmet and the visor it sands up and looks great.

 

[pilotlicense]

Looking Good!!!! Glad to see you're using good safety gear and staying healthy too!

Thanks for the tips. I have a career, kids, and a girlfriend (might as well be wife), so I can't afford to not be safe with this stuff. Not using a respirator wasn't even an option for me. I think everyone should have that attitude.

I may try your rondo technique on one of my forearm pieces I'm working on, and post the results. I will also stop by your thread and take a look.

 

[pilotlicense]

if you don't want to use spackle, Bondo glazing and spot putty fills in the little areas great. Also if you have a symatry issue, you can use magic sculpt, it works great, I also used it to fill the gap between the helmet and the visor it sands up and looks great.

Thanks for the ideas! I actually ended up finding the Bondo spot putty yesterday at Auto Zone. Home Depot doesn't carry it. I'm only running into the problem of it drying too fast while I apply it. I'm working out on the back patio in Arizona summer heat, so everything dries SO quick. I'm learning to adapt, though. Thanks again.