Glad to see you're moving at that pace. 
I had to re-start from scratch with my helmet, I did a silver layer of paint which did not behave itself with the primer that I had on the helmet, so now I'm trying to locate some Krylon Metallic Silver (blue can) that FP used on his helmet. Gonna try some of RS teqniques for weathering, hopefully it'll work well, if not i always have delicious mustard.