UPDATE Jan 1st, 2012:
Happy 2012! Have a nice relaxing weekend, so I'm able to get some hobby time. 
After sanding down the helmet, I did the first stage of the repaint by spraying the whole helmet with white.
I just used some Rustoleum white primer. With two coats, it gave a nice even flat white surface. I did an
additional coat down the top surface of the mohawk, just to be sure that red stripe would be covered.
With the Red 9 helmet, part of that stripe will be repainted, but I wanted to start with a fresh surface.
Here are 2 pics.
[ATTACH=full]124889[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=full]124890[/ATTACH]
Hopefully tomorrow will be warm enough to paint out in my garage. Otherwise, I'll have to wait a few days
to do the dark rusty red color.
More to come. 