My Ugly Duckling Recasted MH Progress thread

This is such a huge job! Kudos for getting right down to it, and such a great job at that.
Chances are, I would probably try to build one from scratch before I tried to repair something like this.

Keep posting. I wanna see this thing when it's done. I bet it'll be beautiful!
 
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the compliments!

Well, Im afraid that Im going to have to scrape off the bondo :wtc:

Its been a really sunny day today, and I let it sit out there, but its still very soft. Im assuming that I miscalculated the amount of hardner I put into the mix...

Oh well, trial and error, go do it again!
 
It's going to look amazing when it's done man!
Could you do me a favour? Could you post a pic or two of the inside of the helmet? Around the visor area? I'd just like to see what you're working with... to compare.

It's all good with the bondo though... it could be worse! It could have been the other way and it could be too hard! ;) At least it will be easy to take off, right?
 
It's going to look amazing when it's done man!
Could you do me a favour? Could you post a pic or two of the inside of the helmet? Around the visor area? I'd just like to see what you're working with... to compare.

It's all good with the bondo though... it could be worse! It could have been the other way and it could be too hard! ;) At least it will be easy to take off, right?

No problem, I just gotta scrape off what I can first, and I'll take pics of the area you asked for. Just gotta find my scrapper now..
 
Awesome!! Don't do too much work on it before you take pics ok? :)
Before and after shots would be cool! lol

The reason I ask, is because mine is very thick and misshapen in that area.. I have to file and sand it down to make the grooves that the visor will fit into.
 
Sorry if I'm repeating anything someone else has said - not much time to read right now... This helmet fix-up is looking great. My only question/concern has to do with the auto putty applied inside the way you have it a few posts above. The stuff tends to shrink and pull inward as it cures. I wonder if this will affect the shape of your lid - particularly around the mandible area.
 
Sorry if I'm repeating anything someone else has said - not much time to read right now... This helmet fix-up is looking great. My only question/concern has to do with the auto putty applied inside the way you have it a few posts above. The stuff tends to shrink and pull inward as it cures. I wonder if this will affect the shape of your lid - particularly around the mandible area.

Well, most of the bondo did not cure at all, just leaving a really nasty, pasty mess for me to scrape and pick off. I will explain below, that some areas have actually cured, especially around the mandilbles, but so far, nothing had changed drastically from the bondo.

Continuing on, today has been a pain. It was like trying to pick off semi-dried epoxy all over it. Fortunatly, some bondo has actually cured, but were just beneath the non-cured paste.

Its been more work then I thought trying to pick off, scrape and sand what I could. For the most part, which Im a bit happy about, is that parts of the rim of the helmet are actually starting to look fairly decent, because those areas are where the bondo actually hardened up.

The only real area that Im concerned about is the inside of the vertical part of the mandibles, where you would place the visor in. The bond had dripped into the inside (my fault for not removing it at the time!) so it had hardened out. The issue I have with it, is that its hard for me to get a sander or even my files. My metal files are starting to go bad now cause of the pasty bondo getting into it.

Im still not done right now, just wanted to post whats going on right now, I gotta grab the dremel...

Stellardude-I'll get the pics after I spray primer over it in a bit

-tubachris
(Screaming non-politically correct 4 letter terms at this helmet)
 
Alright. Im done for the day, I can only take so much of it lol

Here it is right now, I used a dremel to reach in and sand off the excess bondo on the inner mandibles. It actually worked out for me in a way; I cut off the fiberglass re-inforcement where the visor is going to sit, so I now have sort of a lowered area to put the visor. for the top inner rim of the visor (where the forehead is) most of that is still too uneven and nasty. So im going to try a technique to get the bondo to stay in place, while making it all even. Im going to cut a strip of styrene plastic so that it run the length of the inner rim, from side to side. Since its uneven, the space between the fiberglass and the plastic should be somewhat open and have gaps. From that, I will apply the bondo to fill in the spaces and then sand it down until all is smooth. Thats the plan of course.

Anyways, here's a pic of it with the primer. Dont be fooled, theres a ton more work needed. I can never seem to spray an even coat of primer onto anything...

002-17.jpg


Stellardude, I promis I will get pics after this is dried. The temp is good right now, and I should be able to handle it a little later tonight.

-tubachris
 
Looks like you got a good hard days work in there!
It's looking very nice!

I know how you feel about getting progress pics... when you get momentum on your work, it's hard to pull yourself away in order to take step by step pics! lol

I'm going to post some pics tomorrow of progress over the past two days. I couldn't get any clear pictures of the latex mask of the damage (clear fluid barely shows to the naked eye, nevermind to the camera!). I've got my base colours applied and the mask is off to show all the damage... looks beautiful! (a tear comes to my eye!)

Keep up the great work! You seem a lot more patient than I am! :)
 
Looks like you got a good hard days work in there!
It's looking very nice!

I know how you feel about getting progress pics... when you get momentum on your work, it's hard to pull yourself away in order to take step by step pics! lol

I'm going to post some pics tomorrow of progress over the past two days. I couldn't get any clear pictures of the latex mask of the damage (clear fluid barely shows to the naked eye, nevermind to the camera!). I've got my base colours applied and the mask is off to show all the damage... looks beautiful! (a tear comes to my eye!)

Keep up the great work! You seem a lot more patient than I am! :)

Im trying to be patient, but I always gotta remember why I got this thing to begin with!

Anyways, the primer just finished drying for the most part. Its revealing aloooooooot of problem areas on the surface. there are alot of little bumps and whatnot that I need to sand off. The dome is another issue, there are several dips in it, and I need to fill with bondo and sand, so that I can get the dome somewhat more round then it is now.

Alot more work is going to be needed. Gimme a sec, and I'll post the visor pics for you
 
Nice pictures, my friend!
Looks like it will be good to go after a bit of sanding!

Not to be picky, but I was hoping for a picture of the inside, on the vertical section of the mandibles? Where the actual visor will sit? :)
 
looking good! great attitude too mate. I had a similar time with mine when some epoxy putty didn't set, must have been a bad batch. An absolute swine to scrape out and clean up -but hey, keep on trucking!
 
Thanks for the pic of the inside of the bucket!
Doesn't look too bad! Looks like you won't have too hard a time prepping it for the visor, eh?

As you can see from the pic I posted, I'm going to have to buy a BIG file, lol.
 
Thanks for the pic of the inside of the bucket!
Doesn't look too bad! Looks like you won't have too hard a time prepping it for the visor, eh?

As you can see from the pic I posted, I'm going to have to buy a BIG file, lol.

Yea, Im sure you'll figure it out, you did for the rest of your helmet!

Anyways, the primer is there now, not looking as ugly as before. Im going to be going out of town on thursday, got an "field training exercise" (FTX) but its going to be more of a little vacation, going to ft stewart (my like 5th time there), flying out on shinooks, do some tank/bradley sims, and then get to wander around downtown savanah. So yea, a mini-vaction to me lol

Back on track, Im going to do some more surface sanding tonight, nothing major, but I really want to clean up the outer surface a bit.

-tubachris
 
Alright, well I'll post pics in a bit, im still kinda working on it.

I got some sanding done, not all that I wanted, a guest came over when I was about to start, he showed me his WIP gaffi stick for his tuskan raider, and its looking really nice.

Anyways, I sand mainly the front. There are still areas that need to be worked, however, most of the spots that were annoying me got sanded off. I then took a finer grain sand paper, and went over it again.

Now, the next thing I decided to do, was try to help the ears sit better on the helmet. I studied the FPH for awhile, to see what I can do, to make it more accurate, that is, while still trying to make it usable lol.

I used the FHP as reference for 2 reasons:
1) its a (insert 4 letter word, including "ing") awsome helmet
2)I have a set of the FP ear's

So taking what I see in the pictures, where the ears sit on the sides, are actually elevated areas in the same shape of the earpiece. So what Im doing, is tracing the ears that will actually touch the helmet, onto some styrene sheets ive been using for my DT jump jet pack. That way, I can attach the strips to the sides, whit its still thin enough to not stick it out awkwardly, I can also smoothly attach the ears with out the need for more bondo. It will also bring out some of the lost details at the bottoms of the ears, where you have the angled sections, as well as slightly extend the sides to help shape the walls when its attached.

Will post in a bit
 
Okay, well just finished. Its not 100% perfect, but it will, or at least should work.

I didnt take a pic of it, but the RF side, the top portion is still extends somewhat out, where the curved portion is. What I think im going to do, is attach it where I want to, and just fill it in with some bondo, and basically sculpt/sand off the excess to make it even and look right.

Now, I havent been gettting high off the fiberglass fumes or anything, but when I applied the primer, something *appeared* to me while inspecting it's surface. Im either going totally nutz, but....I can see what appears to be the "cat" scratch where its sopposed to be if you painted it. I didnt sand it in the hopes I can get a decent pic of it though. Its not so obviously clear, but its sort of a physcial detail more then just a visual. You would just have to look at it at certain angles, and you can see the shadows, which it is clearly an elevated portion...Anyways, back to reality, here are some *pics*

003-11.jpg


004-11.jpg


005-9.jpg


Im going to have to square off the rounded part above the cheeks too..

-tubachris
 
Well, Im going to try to get some more work done today. Didnt get the other items in the mail, yet, so all I can really do is still sand and bondo some more.

This is a pic I took the night before I left for training, just cause I was bored, and thought it was fun, despite how irrelevant it is to this project lol

001-27.jpg
 
Well I ended up having a busier day then I thought, but was able to attached the sytrene "risers," which imitate how the FPH has molded onto it. Everything appears to fit fine, except for the top RF ears Just need to fill that area with bondo, sand and sculpt it until its in the appropriate shape. The other ears fit perfectly fine with it. The only thing that I really need to do, is yes, more bondo, to go around the edges to make it appear as part of the helmet. Another good thing, is that at the bottom, where the rim is, the risers act as a guide for the future bondoing, so that I can cut it off evenly.

The top RF ears in the pics are a little loose, only had regular clear tape to mock it up.

001-28.jpg


006-9.jpg


Here, you can see the whole area I need to fill with the bondo

007-9.jpg


Thanks

-tubachris
 
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