ODST Stryder
Member
Hello all again,
Here, you'll see my version of redoing Hasbro's, Star Wars The Force Awakens, "Black Series" Kylo Ren helmet. (Yes, It's a Helmet, not a mask.)
Overall first impressions was, meh. Disney promoted this to be a premium collectors item but the first thing I noticed was the ****-poor paint job. The "chrome" visor was dotted with black over-spray and the "exposed metal" scratches where carelessly brushed on. For a $140 AUD item, I was expecting more. I always knew I was going to strip it and redo this, but perhaps drop the price to reflect on the quality, yeah?
|| Review over ||
So, first things were to disassemble it. The helmet is comprised of six parts, Front plate, back plate, chrome visor, black backing visor, tinted visor and the internal head block (it houses the electronics).
I gave everything a good wet sanding with 220 grit. The paint came off pretty easily. I took out my razor blade and did a very large clean up of mold lines and plastic injection points. Spot putty didn't touch this project as the entire helmet is covered in indentations to replicate a stone / raw iron look.
Then everything was primed with two coats of a standard grey automotive primer. While this was drying, I took to the visor. In the glorious reference photos and the movie, the visor is a black cloth / fine mesh - not a shiny tinted plastic as we have here. I pulled off my black pantyhose and cut a strip to fit the plastic visor insert and 'tack' welded it in palace with super glue, being careful not to let the fumes reach the visible portion of the visor. (Causes a white smoke stain). This came out pretty well with no folds of creases.
After the second coat of primer, I let it sit for 24hours before the color coat. For this, I used a Rust-Oleum Black Satin and Rust-Oleum Chrome. The black went on without any trouble, but the chrome had some curing problems. After 48hours, it was still tacky! It was only a dusting first coat. I decided to remove it and start again. The second time I found that the temperature was more cooler than before and it stuck pretty well.
I left everything for a day to cure and harden before reassembly.
When assembled, the only hand painting to do was the black lines on the chrome visor and the distressing. I am not overly convinced with my black lines. I may revisit this in the future.
I looked at many reference shots for the distressing. Overall, there is hardly any exposed metal (silver) areas - just dents, which were already on the helmet.
And, presto. I kept the electronics (voice changer) but removed the parabolic dish to reduce the feedback. Here's a YouTube video.
Again, I love to hear feedback and suggestions.
Finals:
Progress:
View attachment WP_20160105_21_17_40_Raw__highres.jpegView attachment WP_20160107_20_23_22_Raw__highres.jpeg
Oh, and there may or may not be a costume to go with this...
Here, you'll see my version of redoing Hasbro's, Star Wars The Force Awakens, "Black Series" Kylo Ren helmet. (Yes, It's a Helmet, not a mask.)
Overall first impressions was, meh. Disney promoted this to be a premium collectors item but the first thing I noticed was the ****-poor paint job. The "chrome" visor was dotted with black over-spray and the "exposed metal" scratches where carelessly brushed on. For a $140 AUD item, I was expecting more. I always knew I was going to strip it and redo this, but perhaps drop the price to reflect on the quality, yeah?
|| Review over ||
So, first things were to disassemble it. The helmet is comprised of six parts, Front plate, back plate, chrome visor, black backing visor, tinted visor and the internal head block (it houses the electronics).
I gave everything a good wet sanding with 220 grit. The paint came off pretty easily. I took out my razor blade and did a very large clean up of mold lines and plastic injection points. Spot putty didn't touch this project as the entire helmet is covered in indentations to replicate a stone / raw iron look.
Then everything was primed with two coats of a standard grey automotive primer. While this was drying, I took to the visor. In the glorious reference photos and the movie, the visor is a black cloth / fine mesh - not a shiny tinted plastic as we have here. I pulled off my black pantyhose and cut a strip to fit the plastic visor insert and 'tack' welded it in palace with super glue, being careful not to let the fumes reach the visible portion of the visor. (Causes a white smoke stain). This came out pretty well with no folds of creases.
After the second coat of primer, I let it sit for 24hours before the color coat. For this, I used a Rust-Oleum Black Satin and Rust-Oleum Chrome. The black went on without any trouble, but the chrome had some curing problems. After 48hours, it was still tacky! It was only a dusting first coat. I decided to remove it and start again. The second time I found that the temperature was more cooler than before and it stuck pretty well.
I left everything for a day to cure and harden before reassembly.
When assembled, the only hand painting to do was the black lines on the chrome visor and the distressing. I am not overly convinced with my black lines. I may revisit this in the future.
I looked at many reference shots for the distressing. Overall, there is hardly any exposed metal (silver) areas - just dents, which were already on the helmet.
And, presto. I kept the electronics (voice changer) but removed the parabolic dish to reduce the feedback. Here's a YouTube video.
Again, I love to hear feedback and suggestions.
Finals:
Progress:
View attachment WP_20160105_21_17_40_Raw__highres.jpegView attachment WP_20160107_20_23_22_Raw__highres.jpeg
Oh, and there may or may not be a costume to go with this...
