FP CC - help me finish this helmet

ItsThatGuy

Well-Known Hunter
Well, I finally received my FP CC in the mail yesterday! :love:thumbsup:

I took it out of the box and just stared at it for like 10 minutes straight...:lol:...that thing is beautiful! 8)

Here's where you come in... I've seen a few tutorials on here, but nothing very detailed.

First, His tutorial says to sand the whole thing with medium and fine sand paper. Is that ok - I'm afraid to do anything with this helmet.

Second, What is the accurate color face shield to use? Dark Green or Smoky? Or does it really matter?

Third, The key slot section looks really thick, and it doesn't match the Cold Cast look - should I sand it down and then Rub'n'Buff it? (I will post images later). How thick should the key slot section be?

Please help if you can! :cheers
 
Nevermind - Someone PM'd me with the info, but I still need to know:

What is the accurate color face shield to use? Dark Green or Smoky? Or does it really matter?
 
Ahhhh man! Nice! I was about to answer your pm (I've been very busy) But looks like you already got it! :D

Show pics man!

EDIT: The Face Shield color's doesn't matter at all, because there's no light inside the helmet and you'll see it black
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well here are the pictures... (sorry in advance for the poor quality pics)

This one is from the first night I got the helmet:
LCIMG3479.jpg


Ok this was after I wet sanded with ultra fine sand paper and then went over it with 0000 steel wool:
HCIMG3483.jpg

Do you think I should sand it one more time? I don't want it to get too shiny.

This is the issue I am having - I don't want to sand it too much, but can you see the inconsistency here (it's like that on both cheeks):
DCIMG3490.jpg
It's kind of hard to tell, it's a bigger contrast in person.

Oh and yeah - I still have some dremeling to do ;) It's raining today, which is good news (since we've been in a drought for about 7 weeks), but bad news since I will have to wait until I can paint it.
 
nice looking helmet tony, my suggestion is as long as the dome and the back looks even...i wouldnt worry to much about the areas you plan on painting...put down a good primer base and sand that smooth then paint it...
 
Ok so last night I ended up sanding it again.

I started out with 600 grit all over the "silver parts". Then wet sanded them again with 1000 grit and then again with 1500 grit. Last I rinsed it all off let it dry and then went crazy with 0000 steel wool. Rinsed it again and let it dry. I then used a liberal amount of Aluminum polish, rinsed it off, and the rubbed it dry with a clean dry cloth.

The helmet is slick to the touch, but it still has a grey apperence to it, not really the silver look I was hoping for. And it still has the inconsistency of color as show above.

It looks lighter than the above images, but not by much. I will have to post some pictures later tonight to get some feedback... :facepalm

Anyone have any ideas?
 
i hate to say it, but you could always rub n buff it...

iirc, the cold cast stuff does have the potential of not being ultra shiny, depending on how the aluminum dust mixed in.
 
Have you taken it out in the sunlight yet? I'm kind of curious how it looks in natural light. If the sun hits it, and it hurts your eyes when you look at that spot, it's done :lol:

What I've learned is this ... the shinier it gets, it can appear gray"ish" with inside lighting. It's how the light refracts from it, sort of like a "void". If you take a pic out in the light, it should do this ....

1b.jpg


2.jpg


3.jpg


4.jpg


5.jpg


The helmet shown in the pics was made the very same day yours was, with the same mixture of alu, to the same ration of resin, with the same amount of catalyst. It won't ever look like chrome, or mirrored if that's the effect you're going for. It's the same with the Jango exhibit display .. in darkness, or yellow light, it appears almost to be a led color at times, at other times it can appear to be painted white with weathering :lol:

Sometimes it's best to leave some steel wools swirls in it, as it breaks up the "void" and give a bit of a brushed alu look to it as well. If all else fails, hit me again, and I'll send you a sample of the "Classy" shine that I use. After polishing it with that, hit it with the steel wool to break up the "void" and you should be good to go.

FP
 
I haven't taken it outside yet, when I get home from work it's already starting to get dark outside. Like you said it does look more like lead, but I will wait until I get home to see it outside (hopefully it the sun will still be poking out a bit).

That's the problem with looking at other pictures - is you never know what type of lighting they are in to compare yours to their's.

Like I said, I will check when I get home and post back on here... maybe with some pictures! ;)
 
Hit it with some Autosol aluminium polish and give it a damn good polish and you should see better results, Ive got a Dr Who Cyberman helmet which is cold cast and after handling it does dull quite alot, I polish it every now and then to keep it shiny, I agree about keping the swirls in, you dont want it to be silky smooth, the swirls give it a 'machined' look
 
OK here are are some more pictures. This was after I sanded with 600, then wet sanded with 1000 and the with 1500 then used the steel wool and then polished it twice!

Looks pretty much the same as before (above pictures). I still have the same wierd coloring on the cheek area, It also is around the rim of the helmet too:
CIMG3547.jpg

CIMG3560.jpg

CIMG3564.jpg


See the places where it's more silver - that's the color I was hoping it would look like.

The helmet just looks gray - like lead - no mater what light it's in. :facepalm Not sure what to do now. It seems JangoUri had the same issue and he just ended up Rub'n'buffing it...I don't really want to resort to that, but if that's what it's going to take to make it look good...

What does everyone think?

Can anyone post some pictures of their FP CC for comparison?
 
Here is a comparaison of my FP CC helmet and my JD R&B Helmet :

28.jpg


The shiny effect is the same on the CC helmet. But it takes a lot of time !
1. I've sanded all the helmet with a wet Sandpaper 600 (I was afraid to remove the aluminium layer). I've try to remove all the "accumulate" silver in the corners to have the same dull grey everywhere.
2. Then I've sanded again with 800/1000/1200 wet sandpaper.
3. When all the scratches is removed, you have to use a wirewool (the most fine, I think it's "000").
4. Now you have to take a cotton cloth (clean), and buff your helmet during a lot of time to remove the "brushed" effect of the Wirewool and to make it shine. It takes me about 2 or 3 hours
5. And last but not least, use a Metal polish with a special metal polish cloth (used for cars).

Here is the difference before and after metal polish :
metalpolish.jpg


And now on the whole helmet :
BEFORE :
21.jpg


AFTER :
23.jpg


Be patient, it tooks me at least 20 hours to sand it and buff it properly.
Last advice : Test the whole process on a small area first (an area on the "T" is a good idea because you gonna paint it. That's what I've done.).

Hope it helps.

Pierre.
 
The thing about cold casting is your not going to always get a flawless finish as from what ive seen its a real pain to use, I was lucky enough to tour the studio of Millennium FX who do all the prosthetics and monsters for the new series of Dr Who and when talking about making the Cybermen which were all 100% cold cast suits, they said its a pain in the butt to cast, whereas with r'n'b you can polish your surface as smooth as glass then paint it, accuracy doesn't always mean perfection if that makes sense?
 
Eskilax I did all that. I am afraid if I sand it anymore than I already have it will go thru to the fibrerglass. I've sanded it (600, 1000 wet, 1500 wet), steel wool 0000, and polished it. I did that process twice already!

Maybe I will look for a better polish today at lunch... I don't know... :facepalm
 
I don't know if this will help, but I had better results of making my cold cast guantlet test pulls shinier when I used the stainless steel cleaner on the left, versus the metal polish on the right which just seemed to leave a dull film on the surface.:facepalm

Also, remember that in the nooks and crannies you'll be applying weathering, so I wouldn't worry about them too much. Plus, the roughness and blemishes here and there will only help to enhance your helmet's "weathered" look.

I'd say put down the sandpaper, and only work with #0000 steel wool at this point. But don't rub one particular area so much that the resin becomes warm and starts to cake/build up/smear (for lack better terms). At this point, it looks like the finest steel wool (#0000) you can get your hands on, is your best friend!

DSC07374.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This thread is more than 16 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top