Reinforcing Styrene

[SnowHawkMike]

This likely has an answer that is escaping my google-fu this evening, but after about 2 hours of research and mixed responses reading through similar questions on various sites, I'm throwing in the towel and asking for help!

Some quick back story; at work we had 6 excess sheets of 6' x 4' styrene, about the thickness of two credit cards stacked on top of each other. We were using it for back drops in a display we constructed, and when I saw how resistant it was to damage I got the okay to take the excess sheets home.

I will be using them to build a ROTJ helmet following the WOF templates, but am concerned about the flexibility of the styrene. Do any of you have recommendations for how I should reinforce it? I've looked into fiberglass resin, but am concerned about the heat damaging the material. Any recommendations, or tips, are greatly appreciated.

 

[Fett 4 Real]

most anything you use that heats up is going to destroy the shape....

 

[SnowHawkMike]

That's my big concern here. Do you have any recommendations for a cold cure resin? Or an alternative to resin/fiberglass?


Sent from my iPhone

 

[SPY007]

I have used fiberglass to re-enforce styrene, but I put my pieces in jigs to hold the styrene in place. I have had no issue with warping. If your fiber glass is getting really hot, you may be putting in too much hardener. With my back plate, i screwed it in place on wood and put in a thin layer of fiber glass, avoiding covering the screws. Once it set, I removed the screws and added more fiberglass. I recommend looking at Rafal Fetts templates, I think they are all much more accurate. The fiberglass seems to grab to the styrene pretty good, but I shot some super glue into all the edges.