OU-R2 Beneath The Dent.. Asok Budget CC

dolioshmolio

Jr Hunter
*paint up pics added 9/14/13*

Hello All,

To start I want to thank the TDH community as a whole, both the people who posed the questions to the old hands that answered them; Thank You. I wanted to share my WIP on an Asok CC. I'm currently in the painting process doing a layering method using Jayvee, TF, Raf. and ww as my major painting tip resources along with many other members WIPs. In the end i decided to cover all the CC but its there in most places(there is some bondo work in some spots) and can be scratched back to if need be. Each casting may have little variations, so what i did with this helmet may differ from what other castings need(not sure ..not an expert).

This is the Bucket with some buffing with the 0000 wire wool on the Dome. The visor and around the bottom have not been trimmed. I got so excited i didn't take a picture of it until i had already given it a little wire wool action. CC looks amazing and was kinda bummed that i didn't use it. But i'm happy with my end results. So this is the Before
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Trimmed Off the bottom, put some more wire wool to it, then started the process of attaching the ear cap. As you can see i used some Neo-Buttons. I picked these up at Walmart in the Hobby section for around four dollars. These magnets work well but, If i had it to do over again i would purchase the Super Magnets from Home Depot. The cost is the same, and they are certainly stronger. If you look closely at the right hand picture you can see the top magnet on the Helmet is below the surface. With the thickness of the ear cap on the thin side, you don't want to risk drilling through. The Helmet side is thick in this area so sink that magnet a bit until the ear cap is sitting flush. I stuck the magnets together, put them in the hole on the helmet side, then laid the ear piece on top to check if i had drilled to the necessary depth. I used some handy JB weld,and applied it to the holes in the helmet(a dab will do ya). I then placed the magnets ,still stuck together so as to not confuse polarity in this process, in the holes on the helmet. I applied another dab of weld to the other set of magnets, still stuck to the set in the helmet, and laid the ear piece on top. I applied pressure for around four minutes, then left it alone(set it and forget it) I had to resist the urge to "check" (because i did and you have to start all over again) :lol: Note: I did not use a drill on the ear caps just a drill bit in my hand as I didn't want to risk drilling through. I felt i had more control.)
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The pictures say a lot here. What i was going for is to leave as much room in the RF for electronics. I was not sure how much room is needed for the lights so this is what i did. I drilled two holes on the bottom ( if RF was in the down position) of the RF and the RF stalk. I cut two small bolts one shorter than the other. The small one is an anti-torque bar and the longer bolt does the holding.(used JB weld to hold the two screws in place) This left it nice and open inside the RF.
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The RF pieces all have some excess that needed to be trimmed. I wanted to make a nice RF lens, so i carved a more realistic looking one out of the lens from the kit. Its not perfect. but i am happy with the end results. ( i think that is TF's Lens pic. One of the pics i used as a reference)
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I picked up a shade 5 shield from a local welding supply store. then I cut out the visor area in the helmet with my Dremel Rotory Tool.I picked up from welshwarriors you tube channel (go subcribe!) to not cut out the T-Visor until you have something to put in its place, so as to decrease the chance of cracks, warping, and the like.( i still cracked mine). I cut the visor bigger than what was needed, then trimmed it to fit. It was some work and took some time but now i have a template for my visor when I have to R&I another shield. I used Tee Nuts that i modified, neoprene washers and stainless steel screws to hold the visor in place. I cut two of the tee nuts a bit more to fit on the lower part of the mandibles. To find where to drill the holes on the visor; i installed the tee nuts with JB weld where i wanted them to sit, then laid the Visor on top and marked with a sharpie( i used a light to shine from the front side so i could see where the tee nuts were located under the visor)
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Alright, My visor is in place and as you can see there are gaps between the mandibles and visor. I didn't like this to much so i applied bondo to the insides of the mandibles to remove the gap( this also helps to hold the tee nuts). The helmet was missing corners in a few places.. i used bondo to build up the corners on the ears and the rear slots. I also filled in the bottom three slots, as i am attempting an ESB lid ( I'm putting together an SE Fett ). I had two cracks come up on the left side i used some bondo and wet sanding to smooth them. I reenforced the insides with plumbers putty( this stuff is awesome everyone needs some plumbers putty) . the left mandible was little out of sort so I .. what else? ,, thats right .. Bondo.. gotta love it. with that i gave it a good wet sand primer wet sand primer wet sand ( i used 350 -1500 for the wet sand ... 600 is a good stoping point but its nice to have a sheet of 1500 around .. in case you get the sniffles or something... its basically tissue paper.:lol:)
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On to the physical damage: I used some fine files(picked up at Home Depot set of six for five dollars) to apply the damage and used Raf's reference pics for the location and shape. After that was complete something inside me said " i want to see this thing all white" so i purchased some white primer and laid that down. then one more light wet sand with 1500.
Note: on the wet sand i let the paper do the work, meaning, i didn't use a lot of elbow grease or pressure( light touch)


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Well there it is ... Thank you again

enjoy

Justin

questions and critiques welcomed
 
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Prep work is my least favorite part of doing a helmet, but it looks like you
took your time with it. That should give you an excellent base for doing
the rest of your paintwork! :thumbsup:
 
thank you...this is my first time and boy did it get tedious at times.. i would tell myself .. " its good enough" and then find myself 3 days later still working on some little details. One main hurdle i encountered in this was all mental .. you know you spend so much money in this hobby its a little frighting thinking about mistakes you could make. Then i realized that pretty much what ever happens there is nothing a little bondo or fiberglass can't fix(even with the paint i ended up striping and prepping the left ear twice,third times a charm:D). I even did a little reshaping in a spot using a heat gun(which i left out above). You know you read about the procedures on here and it seems daunting, but at some point you just have to get your hands dirty. That's when the fun starts:D
 
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that looks awesome! im waiting on my bucket to come in the mail so i can start my build. still have not decided if i want to go ESB or ROTJ yet
 
:D Thank you! I'm glad you're finding it easy to work with!
Did I read right that you decided to not use the cold cast?
 
i ended up covering the CC with primer and using the Humbrol 11 as the silver... i kinda messed the CC layer up, being my first helmet, by not buffing it right .next time .. i'll know what i'm doing:D
 
That's a bummer on the cold cast layer. We have a motto around here that a mistake that you learn something from isn't really a mistake. :lol: I lost count of the number of times we had to redo the mold for the current budget helmet before we had it right. Too bad there isn't an exact science when doing all of this.
 
it was a bummer, i shined to much on the dent area and that one of the spots that the CC really gets to shine ..But this has really brought something back out of me that had been dormant for a while .. i'm focused on this project but i can't help but think about what i'm going to do next. Bill was the first person i had contact with on TDH and really made me feel welcomed .. i thought it was cool when i got my lid and the address was from Greenwood In to Greenwood Ar.. My wife is from Kokomo In just north of that area as well.
 
I remember shipping your helmet. At first glance I thought "why am I shipping this, can't I just hand deliver?" then I saw the state. :rolleyes Yep, can't hand deliver to AR. We have a bunch of friends in our local Garrison that are up in Kokomo. We go up there frequently for armor parties. We've got a working vacuform table up there, so it's kinda cool.
 
a little bit about this paint up:

I did all the scratch and masking work by eye. I didn't tranfer the stencels to the lid. I mainly used Rafs stencils(invaluable) to see the color separation.
I used a single acton airbrush with Humbrol paints and Jayvee and TF's paint list and WIP threads as references .
I used the Art of Star Wars Gallery for nice close up pictures of the bucket.
I used a layering technique and then a fine brush for the smaller details and a razor to scratch the surface
 
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