Testors Chrome and Visor Question- Newbie

Musical Fett

Active Hunter
Well, I got my second bucket in the mail yesterday, and I am very impressed so far. My first bucket came a few weeks ago; it was supposed to be a DP '96, but the seller listed it wrong and it was actually a Rubies. I sent it back and decided to upgrade a bit. I went with a fiberglass "mystery"helmet. So far I am veyr happy with it, though I have a few questions.

I am going to start with the testors Chrome as a base coat. I've seen on several threads that one should take their time with the chrome base. I've heard I should give a few days after spraying the chrome to go onto other colors. The question I have is, how long should I wait between coats of the chrome? Is it ok to wait a day and then do another coat? Or is it spray, wait 3-4 days, spray second coat, wait 3-4 days, and add other colors?

My other question is about the visor. I have already purchased a new visor, but I am wondering about the fiberglass piece that is where the visor should be. Is it better to trim this off now, so I don't have to touch-up the paint? Or should I wait until I am ready to add the visor to cut this part off? I have heard of stability issues, and I would hate to crack or break this bucket.

Thanks in advance,

Chris
 
To be honest I've never understood why some people mount the visor before painting. The stability issue should matter as long as you are careful with it and arent grabbing it by the mandibles and carrying it around. If it's a Mystery helmet you should have no problem with cutting it out first.
 
if you mount your helmet on a stand, you wont need to be handling it before the visor goes in, i would cut the visor out now, save you risking messing up your paint job after.
 
Also, to get a better chrome coat you can use the layering technique. After you've applied the primer give it a few coats of flat black. For some reason this gives the chrome a more realistic and shiny look. Personally I prefer the Krylon Original chrome over the testors, just be careful to put it on over krylon paints, or it doesnt dry right for some reason.
 
leave the visor area in....Ive done 2 buckets so far and leaving it in is way easier. It gives the helmet much more strength incase you drop it (which your bound 2 while do alot of handling while painting.) As far as messing up your paint job when you cut it out, i wouldnt worry to much about that. Actually once its done you want to handle it more and get a good "weathering" ontop of your "weathering" if that makes sense. The helmet's colors once done are usually bright but w/ a bit of handling (during the visor removal) should help to blend and dull the colors so they dont stand out so much.......
 
Here's a quick pic what im trying to get at
You can see in the 1st picture the mandibles "red" is brighter than the second and the colors in the second picture are more blended than the 1st. I spent about an Hour just handling the bucket w/ dirty oily hands and and just basically (massaged) the bucket until i got the desired effect.

29520213830.jpg


29520245034.jpg


Granted lightning does play a big effect but the colors are def apparent and were all dulled just by handling the bucket and that process can just be established when you cut out the visor area and during painting
 
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