How to smooth my helmet ?

Krynnec

New Hunter
Hey,

first of all, I'm sorry for my english, It's not my native language.

If I come to you today, It's because I need to make a choice and I hope you could help me with it, I'm creating a boba fett helmet made out of cardboard, but the matter isn't smooth, and I'm asking you what kind of material should is use to remove the imperfection.

There is a lot of resines available and I don't know wich one to buy, the thing is that I want to make the area clear and smooth, but I don't know what kind of material I should buy, should I buy resine (if so, wich one ?) ? or maybe latex ?

I would be glad if you guys could help me with that. I was thinking about buying some kind of plastic-resine to reinforce the helmet and make it more solide, so that it look like tough plastic instead of cardboard ? Does that kind of resine exist ?


Thank you so much for reading me !
 
What country are you in...........that will help with people giving you the right name for your region.

Also bondo and fiberglass are two of the best materials to use. I have no idea what they would be called where you are from.
 
LIke Mullreel said, we have Bondo in the states, but it's basically just auto/car body filler...which is a polyester resin based compound. It works great and gets very hard, but you want to apply it in small amounts...there is a lot of sanding involved. Make sure you wear a good respirator as well.

Fiberglassing is something you may want to research on youtube. It's the best way to add reinforcement to your helmet. It requires polyester layup resin and fiberglass mat or cloth.
 
Hey, I'm from France sorry for not mentionning it. Thank you for the answers, I started using some paper and glue but I think i'll do the fiberglass and resine way, I have some but it's very toxic. But for the dom, if I use fiber, will it be ok ? I mean because it's a dom form, the cloth is going to get a layer, it's going to be apparente ? I never used resine, is it going to do a big layer that I could sand, or is it going to make a small layer ? I don't want to see the fiber, I want it to be smooth, like a perfect smooth surface not ugly like cloth looking.
 
Hey, I'm from France sorry for not mentionning it. Thank you for the answers, I started using some paper and glue but I think i'll do the fiberglass and resine way, I have some but it's very toxic. But for the dom, if I use fiber, will it be ok ? I mean because it's a dom form, the cloth is going to get a layer, it's going to be apparente ? I never used resine, is it going to do a big layer that I could sand, or is it going to make a small layer ? I don't want to see the fiber, I want it to be smooth, like a perfect smooth surface not ugly like cloth looking.

You would use the cloth and resin on the inside for stability. Lay pieces of the cloth in the helmet and fully soak or wet it out with resin...a piece at a time. Use a disposable chip brush to dab the cloth to work out the air bubbles. The layer needs to be thick enough to soak the resin, but not much thicker.

The resin and cloth on the outside will be frustrating to sand smooth...trust me. You want a sandable filler or faring compound (bondo for example).
 
Sorry for double post but, can I use the resine on the outside ? The main reason would be to reinforce the helmet but mostly to smooth it.
 
Sorry for double post but, can I use the resine on the outside ? The main reason would be to reinforce the helmet but mostly to smooth it.

You don't have to use the cloth if you aren't concerned with reinforcement. You could coat the whole thing with resin...the thing with resin is, if it's not very thick it will remain sticky and not cure unless you cover it with PVA or spray paint. The resin will seal it, and you could fill the dips and valleys with bondo to give it a smoother look.
 
Body filler on the outside would probably be the easiest to smooth. I start with a 60 grit to get the basic shape and knock off excess bondo, then move to 120, then 400 grit, then prime coat and use glazing putty to fill any imperfections and sand smooth. Reprime and wetsand the primer again with 400. May take several coats of sandable primer and putty. Then depending on how smooth or shiny you want it wetsand the final coat of primer with 1000 and then 2000 grit.

Sent from my LGL82VL
 
If you follow the steps above your finish should resemble whats on the jetpack body shown.
45013bd208ac3b37f2257e021fddf250.jpg


Sent from my LGL82VL
 

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Resin on the outside is pretty uneconomical, and would generally be a very messy and time consuming process. And you would definitely not want to glass it, as sanded fiberglass is pretty much the most dangerous possible thing you can expose your lungs to, and even if you wear a respirator, it's going to be terrible for any clothing or environment you do it in. You're essentially dealing with microscopic particles of sharp glass. Also, it'd be really delicate.

I'd highly recommend just finding body filler. It's pretty much the same thing as resin, just with some thick putty material mixed in with it. It's designed exactly for this purpose. I'm sure France has an autobody work industry that makes it readily available to buy in some name brand or another. If you'd like to work with something less toxic, there's some alternative polyurethene and epoxy-based fillers and putties, but they're gonna be quite a lot more expensive though. Smooth-on offers many, but I'm not sure if they sell in France.
 
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