Well, my brain has started working again, so let's post some ACTUAL progress on this thing!!
UPDATE: July 25th
Got the helmet primered with Duplicolor auto primer. I like Duplicolor sprays. They're really tough when they dry, and they go on nice and smooth.
Then I painted the two rear panels with Floquil Concrete. (Yes, everything else was masked off beforehand. I just don't like leaving the tape on any longer than necessary.)
The Floquil paints are soooooooooo nice to work with. They spray on easy, and dry pretty quickly. I only had to wait a few hours to begin outlining the damage on the back of the bucket.
I use a reverse tracing technique to mark the damaged areas.
First, I measure a known area of the actual helmet, such as the height of the keyslot area. Then, I use one of my reference pics and size it to "actual size" by holding a ruler up to my computer monitor. I take a piece of tracing paper and hold it against the monitor and draw the outlines of the damage areas.
Then I take the tracing paper, flip it over, and re-draw the outline on the reverse. After that, I hold the paper (right side out) against the surface of the helmet and use the back of a small paint brush to draw over all the lines. This transfers the lines to the helmet. It's a bit of work, but it allows me to be very accurate in placing the pencil lines.
Next step: masking fluid over the areas that will remain Concrete, and spray on the dark bluish green!
