Trial By Fire - Sangheilioz's Custom Reach Build

[Cereal Killl3r]

Well pepped!
There is nothing wrong with the approach you took with the resin. I have used that method myself in areas where there are many folds and bends, just to ensure that there is a coat of resin. So if there ends up being a void (which there will be when using fiber) there will at least be some underlying structural reinforcement.

Cereal.

 

[Sangheilioz]

Yeah, as soon as I realized how much trouble it was going to be avoiding those air pockets with the fiberglass, I immediately thought to switch to Rondo. I'll get some pictures when I get home tonight. Do you think I should still do a layer or two of fiberglass, or should I just stick with straight Rondo?

 

[Sepheus 13]

Yeah, as soon as I realized how much trouble it was going to be avoiding those air pockets with the fiberglass, I immediately thought to switch to Rondo. I'll get some pictures when I get home tonight. Do you think I should still do a layer or two of fiberglass, or should I just stick with straight Rondo?

I used straight Rondo on my reach build, I made the forearms, and the helmet out of pepakura so I used Rondo on them, (I really dislike fiberglass, It never turns out right for me.) but my pieces turned out great! It was completely hard, and I haven't had any issues with anything breaking, Just get a good, decent thick layer of Rondo and you should be good. basically what I'm saying is that Rondo is strong enough to support your costume without fiberglass.

 

[Spaztic chief445]

great work so far as for your "foam void" problem maybe you might try spray expanding foam or this spray on truckbed liner

 

[Sangheilioz]

I used straight Rondo on my reach build, I made the forearms, and the helmet out of pepakura so I used Rondo on them, (I really dislike fiberglass, It never turns out right for me.) but my pieces turned out great! It was completely hard, and I haven't had any issues with anything breaking, Just get a good, decent thick layer of Rondo and you should be good. basically what I'm saying is that Rondo is strong enough to support your costume without fiberglass.

Yeah, I was looking at the helmet when I got home, and I think straight Rondo will be fine. I just need to do another thin layer on the back because the first layer was a little TOO thin. Thanks for the advice!

great work so far as for your "foam void" problem maybe you might try spray expanding foam or this spray on truckbed liner

Thanks! And I'll look into those options. I'm really not sure what I'll be doing yet for sealing the foam, but I have time since I'm focusing on finishing the helmet before I work on the armor. Gives me extra time to lose some weight too.

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UPDATE TIME!

As I said, I rondo'd both helmets last night. The smaller test helmet got a thick enough coat that I'm pretty much done with it at this point, but I need to do another thin coat on the back of the big helmet. Just a couple of pictures to appease you thread-scrollers. ;P

 

[EvrydayDekay]

Awesome EVA, I prefer the look of the visor on this helmet to most others. It's coming along very nicely!

 

[Sangheilioz]

Thanks Evry! Yeah, I prefer the Reach EVA over just about all the other helmets. There's just something about having a smooth, faceless dome that screams "I'm a badass, emotionless killing machine and you have no chance."

 

[rickrtickr]

Thanks Evry! Yeah, I prefer the Reach EVA over just about all the other helmets. There's just something about having a smooth, faceless dome that screams "I'm a badass, emotionless killing machine and you have no chance."

Hahaha. You bet. Right now the only problem I've had so far with my visor is that I am trying to find a high reflective paint or coating that I can put on after vacuum forming.

 

[Sangheilioz]

Rickr, let me know what you find. I've been trying to figure out what to do about that myself. I'm considering getting mirrored acrylic and vac-forming that, but I don't know how that will affect the mirror coating (plus Acrylic would be a terrible thing to break in your face...)

 

[Sangheilioz]

Been awhile since I had the chance to work on this, but it's finally time for an UPDATE!

I got the initial sanding done on the test helmet AND the actual one!

And my dad decided to try on the helmet.

Next is the first round of bondo, so I'm hoping the weather's nice tomorrow!

 

[thorn696]

Helmet looks great.

 

[BiffyBob]

looks very good! when you hardened your helmet with the fiberglass resin did you do it in sections or all at once? Also I have downloaded files for the knife as well for my odst build that i have going. As i looked at the file i was curious on how you would harden it with it having a sheath and the actual inside of the blade itself?

 

[Sangheilioz]

Helmet looks great.

Thank you, sir! Means a lot coming from one as accomplished as yourself!

looks very good! when you hardened your helmet with the fiberglass resin did you do it in sections or all at once? Also I have downloaded files for the knife as well for my odst build that i have going. As i looked at the file i was curious on how you would harden it with it having a sheath and the actual inside of the blade itself?

Thanks! Do you mean the initial outer coat of resin? I did it in sections. If you look at the picture where the two helmets are on my makeshift work table, the closer helmet only really has the visor resined and the jaw is still paper. I think I did visor, back of helmet, and then the bottom of the helmet, including the jaw section.

Regarding the knife, I've been thinking about using pep templates to trace onto wood and build it that way, or I'd build it so that it was split along the blade and fill the inside of both halves with Rondo. It hasn't really been on my mind since it'll probably be one of the last pieces I do.

Best of luck with your ODST!

 

[Stiilus]

eagerly awaiting what you come up with for the visor... i know it was a real b!7ch doing what i came up with for my mkvi version, but the mkv visor is much narrower so different rules may apply here... regardless, the helmet is looking amazing so far. well done ...

 

[Sangheilioz]

Thanks, Stillus! Your visor approach was truly innovative, but I wouldn't be pleased with myself if I didn't have a single-piece visor for my build, so I'm planning to vac-form one myself. The tricky part will be finding a way to make it mirrored blue and still be able to see out of it, but that's a problem for much later since I have tons of detail work to do yet!

 

[Sangheilioz]

Delayed Update!

I actually did this late last week, but I've been busy with getting our pool ready for the season as well as finishing up some major tasks at work, but I fixed the holes and the crack in the test helmet with some added Rondo!

I then proceeded to add bondo to the outside of the visor and top of the helmet and sanded it down with some rough sand paper (by hand, can't find our electric sander and may have to just go buy one -.-). Still have a lot of rounds of bondo and sanding to go, but it's starting to shape up!

And that's it so far. I don't know when I'll be working on it again as we still have lots of work to do to get our pool ready for the summer, but I'll update you all when I make some more progress. Keep building!

 

[thorn696]

Looking good, And yes you'll want that sander right about now Well till you're next up-date, Take care.

 

[BiffyBob]

Thank you, sir! Means a lot coming from one as accomplished as yourself!



Thanks! Do you mean the initial outer coat of resin? I did it in sections. If you look at the picture where the two helmets are on my makeshift work table, the closer helmet only really has the visor resined and the jaw is still paper. I think I did visor, back of helmet, and then the bottom of the helmet, including the jaw section.

Regarding the knife, I've been thinking about using pep templates to trace onto wood and build it that way, or I'd build it so that it was split along the blade and fill the inside of both halves with Rondo. It hasn't really been on my mind since it'll probably be one of the last pieces I do.

Best of luck with your ODST!

YUP! That answered my question perfectly! I was just curious because I heard that if you do the whole helmet it will warp like non other. As for the knife I'd be more than interested to see how you plan to build it! Keep up the good work the Helmet looks great!

 

[Sangheilioz]

Looking good, And yes you'll want that sander right about now Well till you're next up-date, Take care.

Yeah, my hands were cramped up like crazy after manual sanding all that... You take care too, sir!

YUP! That answered my question perfectly! I was just curious because I heard that if you do the whole helmet it will warp like non other. As for the knife I'd be more than interested to see how you plan to build it! Keep up the good work the Helmet looks great!

I'd heard that about the warping myself, which is part of the reason I decided to go in sections. Another reason was because I was so meticulous about evenly coating the resin that it took way too long for me to coat all of it in one go without the resin gelling up, so I opted to do three rounds of resin, plus a fourth for touch-up work in areas that got kind of skimped on. Regarding the knife, it's pretty far in the back of my mind at this point, I just want to get the helmet done ASAP!

 

[Road Kill]

wow very nice helmet man =D