The build looks great man, I have a question for you. At what point in the process did you cut out the visor from the helmet? I've applied resin to the outside and will fiberglass the inside, but I haven't started because I'm not sure if I should cut out the visor first or after the fiberglass.
Reach for the Front!
- Thread starter Katsu
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It is harder to cut the visor out after fiberglassing (or in my case rondo and then fiberglassing), but the problem with just resin alone is that it is not really strong enough to survive a lot of manhandling, and you risk breaking the helmet if you do it then. Any decent rotary tool (dremel etc) will be able to cut the visor out just finer with a layer or two of rondo and fiberglass. I play safe so I wanted to be sure the thing would not bend. Just be sure not to lay it too thick, if it gets thicker than half the diameter of the rotary tool's cutting wheel, you'll need to do some creative cutting since it won't be able to get through.
If you did it with just resin, you risk the helmet or visor bending/warping/etc when you go to apply the fiberglass, which can cause the visor to no longer fit inside the helmet.
Edit: I should add... I saved my visor for a vacuum forming. If you're going with a motorcycle visor, it's not as important to save the pepakura visor, but you still want to fiberglass the helmet at least one layer, so that it doesn't get ruined when you cut the visor out. The point of leaving the visor in is to add stability until you get the helmet fiberglassed.
If you did it with just resin, you risk the helmet or visor bending/warping/etc when you go to apply the fiberglass, which can cause the visor to no longer fit inside the helmet.
Edit: I should add... I saved my visor for a vacuum forming. If you're going with a motorcycle visor, it's not as important to save the pepakura visor, but you still want to fiberglass the helmet at least one layer, so that it doesn't get ruined when you cut the visor out. The point of leaving the visor in is to add stability until you get the helmet fiberglassed.
Annanymous
Well-Known Member
wow the details are great on the helmet! Overall it looks awesome, and super legit.
I am saving the visor for vacuum forming. I'm also toying with the idea of making the helmet in separate pieces to be assembled after casting. So naturally I want the helmet to be completed sanding/detail wise before I divide it up.
PlayByMyOwnRule
Active Member
Nice I love how its coming
Iron Monger
Member
Epic! Vacuum Forming, cool process!
Thanks guys. Finals be done now, giving me two days to get it cleaned up for conventions.
First thing I noticed was something I'd missed before. The right ear piece had sunken into the helmet while the bondo was curing, leaving it a millimeter in further than the left one. While it might not be noticeable, as Cereal says, "I'd know it was there". So this had to happen:
Cut that buster out, vacuum formed a new one, and glued it in correctly this time.
I am trying to color the visors, but it's not going well. I tried the method in the stickies, and it worked about as badly as I thought. It looked sort of cool, but the spray paint was not as metal as promised, as you can see, and visibility is miserable. This will be last ditch effort.
Looks sort of neat, but not the mirrored blue I wanted. Started cleaning up the 3d printed parts, but I also was trying out some things I learned from Cereal's videos with my first day of freedom. Still trying to find a way to clean up the dremeled line details. I could leave them as is, but I really want them to be clean and neat.
Good luck on your vacuum forming andrew!
First thing I noticed was something I'd missed before. The right ear piece had sunken into the helmet while the bondo was curing, leaving it a millimeter in further than the left one. While it might not be noticeable, as Cereal says, "I'd know it was there". So this had to happen:
Cut that buster out, vacuum formed a new one, and glued it in correctly this time.
I am trying to color the visors, but it's not going well. I tried the method in the stickies, and it worked about as badly as I thought. It looked sort of cool, but the spray paint was not as metal as promised, as you can see, and visibility is miserable. This will be last ditch effort.
Looks sort of neat, but not the mirrored blue I wanted. Started cleaning up the 3d printed parts, but I also was trying out some things I learned from Cereal's videos with my first day of freedom. Still trying to find a way to clean up the dremeled line details. I could leave them as is, but I really want them to be clean and neat.
Good luck on your vacuum forming andrew!
I half cheated, don't worry... I tried hand sanding those things and it went sooooooo badly, I figured it wasn't worth the time. The printed ones are not too hard to make though, if you live near a 3d printer... They're like 4 bucks each to make, and it took me a few minutes to model it in Inventor.
I am ashamed i have not responded to this thread yet. This looks really well done katsu, great job so far
Sorry that the visor isnt working out as you planned, it looks cool though
Thanks! The visor I dunno what I'm going to do, I tried a motorcycle visor and it was too wide to fit in. When I tried to heat form it it started turning white. We'll see what happens. I'm getting done with school and all, and preparing to move, but still gonna get as much done as I can by wednesday. I move slowly but I want to finish the helmet by then, and then worry about the visor later.
Sangheilioz
Jr Member
Can't wait to see what you come up with for the visor. I'm also going to be going for a mirrored blue visor, so if you can find a good solution I'll be thrilled! As for the rest of the helmet, it looks great! for cleaning the details, you could try attaching a sanding dremel bit to a screwdriver or something and hand-sand it that way. That's one of the techniques I'm planning to use when I get down to the small details on my build.
Brandon McClain
Well-Known Member
You had mentioned wanting to clean up the Dremel cut lines, I use a jigsaw blade on my cut lines. I lay down a piece of double sided tape on either side of the line as a guide, and then it is just a question of maintaining depth. It's a technique I picked up from jedistumpy.
Cereal Killl3r
Well-Known Member
As far as the visor goes, have you considered wet sanding the outside (1000grit, 2000grit) and using mirror tint on the inside??
Yeah, that works for getting clean lines before, the detail lines aren't as big a problem for me as the detailed recesses.
The notches on the top of the helmet, and the cheek, nose, and chin dimples are all pains to clean up once they're cut out, because they're surrounded on 3-4 sides by walls, with a sloped floor.
I'm going to try some things for post production clean-up, to make the lines as nice as possible
Thank you! I hope mine looks as awesome as yours sometime soon.
That's an interesting idea, I'll have to see if I have any good bits to do that, since this is on a borrowed dremel.
Do you mean the stick-on mirror tint? I have tried it with pretty bad results. The problem is that the tint needs to curve in two directions (across the face vertically and horizontally). I tried heat-gunning it, vacuum forming it, and squeegeeing it, all without success. If you know of any good tints I can use on acrylic, it'd be awesome.
I tried using a motorcycle visor, but the problem is that the mk5b model I'm using is narrow, so the visor doesn't go in without bending it pretty deeply. I don't know if this is a normal problem, and when I took a heatgun to it (knowing it was going to be the end of the visor), it whitened and cracked before it started to be pliable.
Does everyone else just force the visor in at a steeper angle than it's intended to, or is my helmet just a lot narrower?
Macattack64
Well-Known Member
If you forced that in, it would for sure break. Are you applying the heat too quickly?
Edit: You may be able to try something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-ROLL-CHRO...es&hash=item2ebcf5dd71&vxp=mtr#ht_1390wt_1396
Generally with back window tinting on cars, they heat shrink it. So you may be able to do that?
Edit2: Or something like this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-Mirror...Parts_Accessories&hash=item19ca893ca6&vxp=mtr
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Mirror...Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e684a579d&vxp=mtr
Edit: You may be able to try something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-ROLL-CHRO...es&hash=item2ebcf5dd71&vxp=mtr#ht_1390wt_1396
Generally with back window tinting on cars, they heat shrink it. So you may be able to do that?
Edit2: Or something like this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-Mirror...Parts_Accessories&hash=item19ca893ca6&vxp=mtr
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Mirror...Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e684a579d&vxp=mtr
Carpathia
Sr Member
When I put a motorcycle helmet visor into my MkVI helmet, I had to force it into place pretty drastically (nearly had to fold it in half just to get it into the helmet in the first place). From what I've experienced, they do have quite a bit of flex (they kind of need to since they were designed to take an impact without cracking and slicing up the wearer's face). However, I have not worked with the file you are working with and do not know the extent of the depth of the curve, so I may be completely wrong.
Your work is great! You are pretty lucky to have a 3D printer at your disposal. I recently graduated from college and now have to do without a laser cutter, so enjoy it while it's around. Keep up the good work!
Your work is great! You are pretty lucky to have a 3D printer at your disposal. I recently graduated from college and now have to do without a laser cutter, so enjoy it while it's around. Keep up the good work!
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