superjedi
Sr Hunter
UPDATE #1: November 11th
Yikes! Here goes.
First of all, I mentioned in the FPH thread how unbelievable this helmet looks. I've been doing props and costumes for 6 or 7 years now, and of all the FG and resin kits I've worked with, this is far and away the nicest, cleanest set of castings I've ever had on my workbench. The parts are just perfect.
It may be a little thing, but one thing that struck me the most is how smooth these parts are! The ear pieces and the RF feel like injection molded plastic. Fantastic work!
To begin working on the helmet (after I washed off all my drool ), I chucked a very small drill bit into my Dremel and drilled many small holes in the keyslots. I left very little space between them. Then, I carefully dragged the bit sideways to connect the dots. This opened the keyslots up. I finished the rough openings with a couple of jewelers' files. Since the casting was so clean it was very easy to see where the outer edges were.
For the visor, I used a reinforced cutoff wheel in my Dremel, and carved out the majority of the visor with that. I finished the edges in the upper corners using that small drill bit again. After the opening was roughed out, I went back with some course sandpaper wrapped around a thin chunk of wood and sanded the edges smooth. Once that was done, I took some finer grade paper and finish sanded all the way around the opening.
I took a whole bunch of blue painter's tape and plastered the interior to keep the nice gelcoated interior clean, and hit the whole helmet with a few light coats of Tamiya gray primer. I've used Tamiya primer several times before, and it gives a great smooth finish. I've never had any problems with my topcoat adhering.
So here she sits on day one!
Much more to come!
Eric
Yikes! Here goes.
First of all, I mentioned in the FPH thread how unbelievable this helmet looks. I've been doing props and costumes for 6 or 7 years now, and of all the FG and resin kits I've worked with, this is far and away the nicest, cleanest set of castings I've ever had on my workbench. The parts are just perfect.
It may be a little thing, but one thing that struck me the most is how smooth these parts are! The ear pieces and the RF feel like injection molded plastic. Fantastic work!
To begin working on the helmet (after I washed off all my drool ), I chucked a very small drill bit into my Dremel and drilled many small holes in the keyslots. I left very little space between them. Then, I carefully dragged the bit sideways to connect the dots. This opened the keyslots up. I finished the rough openings with a couple of jewelers' files. Since the casting was so clean it was very easy to see where the outer edges were.
For the visor, I used a reinforced cutoff wheel in my Dremel, and carved out the majority of the visor with that. I finished the edges in the upper corners using that small drill bit again. After the opening was roughed out, I went back with some course sandpaper wrapped around a thin chunk of wood and sanded the edges smooth. Once that was done, I took some finer grade paper and finish sanded all the way around the opening.
I took a whole bunch of blue painter's tape and plastered the interior to keep the nice gelcoated interior clean, and hit the whole helmet with a few light coats of Tamiya gray primer. I've used Tamiya primer several times before, and it gives a great smooth finish. I've never had any problems with my topcoat adhering.
So here she sits on day one!
Much more to come!
Eric