Revolutionary New Way To Finish Pep Pieces
- Thread starter Tandhem
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XxCALIBERxX
Member
One thing to say.... GENIUS... 
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Cheers, Dave.
.Cheers, Dave.
Xtreme TACTICS 101
Well-Known Member
Mods arn't adding stickies to anything until all of the stickies are cleaned up (Links re done, images re done. The forum update destroyed all of the links and images). I have been waiting for my scaling tutorial thread to be stickied for some time. Don't count on anything to happen any time soon.
Scad
New Member
Long time reader, first time poster - mostly because this method really excited and inspired me to get back to making my armor. I'd had this pepped helmet sitting around for about a year now, but only just resined and fiberglassed it this past week, and hopefully I'm going to get it finished (minus led's) this week. Thanks for the tut and inspiration Tandhem!
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mooseguy04
Well-Known Member
Scad said:
quick question, did you resin the whole thing before you 'mudded' it up? im about to finish piecing my Dutch helm and want to try this
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Xtreme TACTICS 101
Well-Known Member
I didn't resin before mudding it up. For me, I have no clue, im just lucky. Nothing ever warps.
SaintlyGecko
Jr Member
my brother told me to do this but I was stupid and foregot thank you so much for reminding me.
Trinity Blue
New Member
K I messed up a bit. I wanted to do the HD peps for this method but my dumb self printed off the wrong files (I downloaded every thing I could after reading some ones file was deleted) so now im stuck with a more low def suit than I wanted . . . again , because i didnt notice till it was to late. but the helm is hd and I love the way Scad's helm came out (nice work dude) and will still be using the rondo. Pics will come up when I get a chance. . . might be a while.
, because i didnt notice till it was to late. but the helm is hd and I love the way Scad's helm came out (nice work dude) and will still be using the rondo. Pics will come up when I get a chance. . . might be a while.
Scad
New Member
Trinityblue said:K I messed up a bit. I wanted to do the HD peps for this method but my dumb self printed off the wrong files (I downloaded every thing I could after reading some ones file was deleted) so now im stuck with a more low def suit than I wanted . . . again
Thanks! It warped a little (the top is leaning to the right a bit), and I have a dent or two, but I'm just going to weather those spots after painting to look like damage - just happy accidents. I think I may apply a *little* bondo to the outside as well, just to cover up some glaring seams and smooth some areas out. But overall, those errors you can chalk up to my inexperience. Tandhem's method is awesome.
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not to burst any bubbles here or anything but this type of procedure isn't really new.
Working on my Boba Fett suit I stumbled accross it for reinforcing the guantlets.
Oh and about "parts too small to get fiberglass mat into" the way to solve this is using a paintbrush, or sponge brush, and very tiny pieces cut up prior to adding the resin you wet the part, put the mat down, then wet the brush and dab the top into those tiny spots, although this has very limited fuction for sizes smaller then a quarter due to how thick the mat is itself. Using a literal Puzzle Piece method to slowly resin the inside has the best results - typically only working on a "flat" area no bigger then 4x4 inches and complex areas of 2x2inches, this way you mix a very small amount at a time, give yourself plenty of time to work it flat (to avoid having to sand a ton) and paint/spongebrush the top to aide in further reinforcement, smoothing, and pushing the mat down into smaller spots and corners your finger may not want to fit.
Bondo was meant for auto-body filler, and thus works well on large, semi-flat or easily curved areas, anything small/tight (like most the things we wear) it destroys the detail due to it's very sloppy slimey sticky properties, and always, no matter what you use, it will require sanding, if only just a bit to get it to hold paint better, up to days of sanding all the cuts out.
Although points for creativity on this I guess. Reinforcing parts with mixes like these has been around since before a lot of you were born.
Working on my Boba Fett suit I stumbled accross it for reinforcing the guantlets.
Oh and about "parts too small to get fiberglass mat into" the way to solve this is using a paintbrush, or sponge brush, and very tiny pieces cut up prior to adding the resin you wet the part, put the mat down, then wet the brush and dab the top into those tiny spots, although this has very limited fuction for sizes smaller then a quarter due to how thick the mat is itself. Using a literal Puzzle Piece method to slowly resin the inside has the best results - typically only working on a "flat" area no bigger then 4x4 inches and complex areas of 2x2inches, this way you mix a very small amount at a time, give yourself plenty of time to work it flat (to avoid having to sand a ton) and paint/spongebrush the top to aide in further reinforcement, smoothing, and pushing the mat down into smaller spots and corners your finger may not want to fit.
Bondo was meant for auto-body filler, and thus works well on large, semi-flat or easily curved areas, anything small/tight (like most the things we wear) it destroys the detail due to it's very sloppy slimey sticky properties, and always, no matter what you use, it will require sanding, if only just a bit to get it to hold paint better, up to days of sanding all the cuts out.
Although points for creativity on this I guess. Reinforcing parts with mixes like these has been around since before a lot of you were born.
This is turning into the Newton/Leibniz argument. I think this method is awesome and I can't wait to try it out. Mega points for seemingly coming up with it on your own and sharing it with everyone. Other people may have come up with it but you chose to make a tut on it when you discovered it for yourself and for this we thank you... those of us that can read that is (gaaaahhh, wut r rezin and paper? kthxbye)
This doesn't go to say that the seasoned vets who knew about this are... "bad" ? Its just their prerogative to keep it to themselves and like they said, I believe they would have been more than happy to enlighten people had they been asked. I had wondered about doing something along these lines myself but I'm a creature of habit and was afraid to veer away from glassing.
I'll show my results in my thread once I get time to get back to armor building.
Kudos and cheers
(gaaaahhh, wut r rezin and paper? kthxbye)This doesn't go to say that the seasoned vets who knew about this are... "bad" ? Its just their prerogative to keep it to themselves and like they said, I believe they would have been more than happy to enlighten people had they been asked. I had wondered about doing something along these lines myself but I'm a creature of habit and was afraid to veer away from glassing.
I'll show my results in my thread once I get time to get back to armor building.
Kudos and cheers
So I finally got around to trying this out on my forearm piece and I didn't have very good results. I covered the entire inside in one go, so the mud was pretty thin, but what really went wrong was that the fiberglass didn't even stick to the mud. I let it all harden and then pulled up a corner of a piece of fiberglass to check how well it was bonded and it just peeled right off with no effort whatsoever. So now I've got a piece with the inside covered in checker patterned mud and it's still completely flexible. Any tips? Also, when I attempt a second pour to make the mud thicker and try again, do I have to sand the whole layer that's already in there first to make it all hold together well, or can I just pour away?
Underdogg13
Well-Known Member
Risu said:
Did you press down on it? You can't just rest it on top. If you did, I'm stumped.
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I did, but the mud was really thin, so I didn't get any seeping out. I actually found the consistency of the mud to be virtually the same as that of resin, it flowed just about as fast anyways. Should I use more than half bondo if it's flowing too fast? How thick should it be?
EDIT: I went ahead and sanded it just to be safe, then poured a small section much thicker than the first time. hen I put a piece of fiberglass in and pressed it down really good, it seeped in really nicely, but just in case I poured another layer of mud over the top of it. It was all looking good until I checked on it a couple hours later and just like every other piece I've gotten near to finishing, it warped. The jury is still out on whether or not the piece can be salvaged, but experience tells me "no".
EDIT: I went ahead and sanded it just to be safe, then poured a small section much thicker than the first time. hen I put a piece of fiberglass in and pressed it down really good, it seeped in really nicely, but just in case I poured another layer of mud over the top of it. It was all looking good until I checked on it a couple hours later and just like every other piece I've gotten near to finishing, it warped. The jury is still out on whether or not the piece can be salvaged, but experience tells me "no".
Mereel Skirata
New Member
That is a great Idea Tandhem! I can't wait to try it, it looks real easy! I hate Sanding Bondo too, so this is gonna be sweet to use.
unit450
New Member
Hope you clear some confusion for me!
Walked into a Canadian Tire to pick up the materials for your method, and close to them noticed a canister of stuff called Bondo-Glass(in short or long strand fiberglass.) Is this stuff what your method makes, helping me avoid mixing the two parts in your tutorial? Just asking because while this method would GREATLY speed the work, I'd like to avoid the mixing part since I'm pretty bad at getting the mix ratios right...
What resin did you use for the exterior of the armor, or was it just the fiberglass resin in your video?
Walked into a Canadian Tire to pick up the materials for your method, and close to them noticed a canister of stuff called Bondo-Glass(in short or long strand fiberglass.) Is this stuff what your method makes, helping me avoid mixing the two parts in your tutorial? Just asking because while this method would GREATLY speed the work, I'd like to avoid the mixing part since I'm pretty bad at getting the mix ratios right...
What resin did you use for the exterior of the armor, or was it just the fiberglass resin in your video?
I cant wait to try this method on my Mark VI helmet, I have been reading countless number of threads to find great ways to strengthen the helmet and this looks to be bar none the best! I have all the materials already purchased and waiting for my resin to dry before I start glassing. Only that has got me a bit nervous is trying to fiberglass cloth the tight spaces in the helmet =( but for being my first build I am considering this my practice helmet. Thanks again for this awesome how-to!
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