BARC trooper and other helmets WIP

[SlyClone]

Have you consider balsa wood for some of the curved parts of the helmet? Thin and easy to bend and is stronger than card but not as heavy as ply.

Hmmm! Balsa wood.... Now there's a name I haven't heard for a lonnnng time...

About fifty years in fact, since I last used it. I guess it'll soak up the resin really well, and it certainly likes wood glue.

Thanks so much for the suggestion!

Haha no problem. Was trying to think of a light weight alternative to ply. Plus my grandfather used it when I was a kid for making models.

[Blaxmyth]

Well, following up SlyClone's suggestion,I checked out the balsa wood stand in Mitre 10 and found I was definitely not living in the 1960's any more! Staggering prices. Good thought though, and back at home I discovered a whole lot of 3mm ply in amongst other stuff...

Anyway, got inspired over the weekend and went crazy with resin and fibreglass mat. In hindsight I should have used woven cloth around the crown and collar areas of the BARC helmet, because I now cannot get my head inside, even though it went in easily before the fibreglassing. Live and learn. I can probably cut off the collar and epoxy a new, bigger one in, which might happen.

Anyway, thought I'd share this and some of the other builds I've been doing recently. I did two copies of the Batman Arkham cowl, one of which I gave to my son for him to finish as a display piece. The biker scout is a wearable work in progress which Nick K has tidied up for me.

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[Blaxmyth]

Plus I got round to re-meshing the ARF trooper pep I found online. It was quite a drama because it was made of about six different, overlapping meshes, but it was satisfying to get it turned into one mesh. I modified it to make it a more 'build-able' Pepakura file. I left out the box in the ear groove, because this would be easier to add after the build instead of doing it as a pep.

The other major deal was that the rear section of the helmet needed to be stretched proportionally and the whole helmet stretched slightly in the vertical direction. I suspect that many of these pep files originate from game rips, where the proportions might not be 'real world' ones.

I have checked the fit about 50 times, and will use cloth instead of the thicker mat when I lay in the fibreglass. Hate to have this one not fit me either.

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[SlyClone]

Your BARC and Scout helmets look to be coming along very nicely! Very very nicely indeed. Pity that the Balsa wood was a tad on the expensive side, must be the fact people don't use it as often as they used to back in the 80's and 90's like I remember from my Dad and Grandfather using it for modeling etc.

That ARF remesh you have done is fantastic work, much better than the one I've been working on haha. I keep forgetting to email you back about it to compliment you on the work you put into it. The pepped version of it you've made is making me jealous. I don't think mine looked as clean and tight as that does, great work.

When I was doing the resin side of my helmet I used some chop strand fibreglass cloth, just one layer on the inside and it came out pretty strong with just the one layer. Obviously now with the bondo on top it's pretty sturdy. Can you sand back the neck ring to get your head in or is it now too thick that no matter what you do you need to cut it out some more?

[Blaxmyth]

Thanks for the kind words! Did I send you the pep file? It's here if you want it - or if anyone else wants it, just sing out.

I tend to overbuild. My first trooper suit is like a tank. The present one I'm building will be not quite as sturdy, but I want it strong enough to survive a fall without damage.

As for the BARC, I think I can carve away the neck ring and rebuild it with a wider piece epoxied on. Problem with polyester resin is that it doesn't stick to things very well, but epoxy does. Should be fixable. If nothing else, learning happened...

[SlyClone]

Thanks for the kind words! Did I send you the pep file? It's here if you want it - or if anyone else wants it, just sing out.

I tend to overbuild. My first trooper suit is like a tank. The present one I'm building will be not quite as sturdy, but I want it strong enough to survive a fall without damage.

As for the BARC, I think I can carve away the neck ring and rebuild it with a wider piece epoxied on. Problem with polyester resin is that it doesn't stick to things very well, but epoxy does. Should be fixable. If nothing else, learning happened...

Indeed you did send it to me.

Should see how solid the ARF helmet is at the moment, I've chewed through 2 liters of bog and onto my second one now. Though I'm over half way through it so maybe another liter to go?

I've heard that about polyester resin but never had a problem with it myself? Seemed to coat the card nicely and didn't give me trouble at all.

Are you planning on doing a mold of any of your helmets?

[Blaxmyth]

Polyester will stick, but without any strength. If the object is stressed, such as by being twisted or flexed, it will delaminate. I struck this when I sat down with my trooper suit on, and the butt plate cracked where I had added extra layers to reinforce it. I remade a new plate yesterday and glassed it all in one go, so it will effectively be just one solid piece.

As for moulding, I really can't justify the cost of making a mould. It would probably cost over $250 just for a thin mould with a fibreglass mother shell - maybe even more (Oota Goota would know more accurately). And I enjoy the pep process so much that it's only about 8 or 10 hours to print, score, cut and assemble a new helmet.