Kids WOF scratch build

Andrew0928

New Hunter
Hi all, been lurking here awhile and thought I should put up a WIP thread. I'm making a Mando helm for my 4 year old son, who loves Fett. I'm on attempt 4 now, have tried a few different methods that I'll describe later. Pics of V1 through 3 will follow as well. If you see your idea copied here, it probably is - I'm super glad to learn from all the solid work others have shared here!

Here's the dome, done in cardstock and scotch taped together before slush casting rondo.

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Then I made a negative of the dome form WOF templates to hold the curing dome.

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Then I started slush casting/brushing in rondo, 2 oz resin and a golf ball size amount of filler, with both the liquid and cream hardeners mixed in. Pot life was around 5 minutes, cured to tacky in about 15 and ready for the next coat.

First coat
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Second coat
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Third coat
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After the third coat, I got impatient and added a layer of fiberglass mat - 4th coat looked like this
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I did one last slush coat to smooth it over
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The result is strong and the shape looks looks pretty good
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I used a scraper to take off the scotch tape and knock down the high points. I also etched in the reference points - the bottom edge cutoff line and front and back center marks with a drywall knife

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Kept knocking down the high points with a rasp
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Dear lord it's late! Time flies when you're having fun! More to come




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Argh... when the bourbon and fumes wore off, I realized the lip had warped and deformed while curing
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Here's another shot of it, on the "helmet base" template
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Man, looks like a lot of filling and shaping to be done. Not sure if I'm gonna do it or just start over with paper again.


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Maybe you could reinforce the base of the dome with a couple layers of stiff material. On a couple of my builds I left a ring of the base in to help keep the shape. When you get thick with bondo and other polyester resins they can draw up as they cure.

Your work looks good though. Keep it up! (y)
 
Maybe you could reinforce the base of the dome with a couple layers of stiff material. On a couple of my builds I left a ring of the base in to help keep the shape. When you get thick with bondo and other polyester resins they can draw up as they cure.

Your work looks good though. Keep it up! (y)

Thanks a lot! Solved the problem by re-doing it. This time I jot glued the cardstock into the support frame base, and used several smaller lifts of polyurethane resin instead of Rondo
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The new version fits the helmet base template perfectly, so it was well worth the time to correct.


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Finished scraping off the paper, sanded it smooth, added 3 brushed on coats of poly resin to the outside. SUPER happy with the product, a sweet dome.
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Out of town, visiting my in-laws, so no work on the V4 bucket to report. Here is a pic of my youngest son in the V3 helmet. I scrapped the build because I could see too many shape problems and thought I'd be better off starting fresh.

After reading many scratch build threads, I'm entertaining the idea of tackling the corrections, there's some good bones there. Thoughts?


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I threw away my 1st build about halfway into it. It's no big deal to start over with a fresh perspective. As you go along you begin to have eye for the details. Plus... It makes good sense to do things correctly from the beginning rather than backtracking and fixing after the fact.
 
Some progress updates

Built the main body from 2mm chipboard - Antman style

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Fiberglass resin outside, CSM and resin inside
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Many layers of bondo and sanding later...
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Ears installed with RF, both made from styrene
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This brings me to my dilemma - helmet fit. All the math works (head circumference, crown to eyeline, chin to crown), but when my son puts it on it "jams." Anyone else seen this before? It fits his little brother fine. I'm wondering if it's the inner support ring at the dome base. Gonna hack that out and try on the lid again. I don't wanna oversized the bucket too much, proportions seem right. Any help / ideas would be welcome.
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Also, a long overdue pic of my bucket scratchbuilds - arranged in order, V1 through V4.
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V1 was a WOF attempt, 85% scale. TAP quick cast resin brushed on to corrugated cardboard. Life happened and I didn't have time to lean it up, so I just let my kids play with it.

V2 was a 100% WOF for me. Dome is slush cast TAP resin, same technique from the beginning of this thread. Body was 1/8" sintra. The cheeks weren't working in sintra - I couldn't get them formed right, kept snapping them. I did the cheeks on cardstock, then resined and fiber glasses them. This one might be salvageable, I'm not sure. Sintra wasn't my thing though.

V3 was another 85% WOF build. I did it with corrugated cardboard, rondo on the inside to harden it, resin and bondo outside. I was almost done with the ears when the inaccuracies started to bug me. The brow band is too thick, the dome too small/rounded, and I lost the curves in the cheeks somewhere along the way.

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Detail work is coming along nicely - list of defects & fixes is under 10 now. Added turn signals and reworked keyslots.
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Well, it’s been awhile, but this project is finally approaching completion! My awesome wife gave me some time over the holiday weekend, got the mold made and pulled some casts!

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