May 17, 2001 NOTE: This link is jumping in in the middle of the blog. NEWEST UPDATE is HERE: http://mu5a5hi.blogspot.com


TIME MACHINE

THIS IS A LONG POST. It is all copied from posts I made elsewhere and consolidated here to catch up to date..

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Thought I would go back and catch up to the present day. I originally started this helmet project by posting on the 501st Sith Lords Boards. Not everyone i know who MIGHT be interested is a member there so this post will hopefully catch everyone up.

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First off, for some reason, I forgot to take pictures of the Rubie's before i started, but if you search for 'Rubie's Supreme Vader Helmet on google you should find it.

It begain with of my trusty (and dangerously powerfun) heat gun, a red paint pen, and my multispeed dremel (80's vintage i think! I remember dad using it when I was in late high school)


One of the few pics I have of Rubies vader before any sanding or mods.


Dr. Vader says to always be safe when working with power tools.


Trimming off 1/2 inch of the left (from front)



After dremelling that extra half inch off, I got out the heat gun and got to work. The goals were to reduce the crazy neck flare on the right (again all mentions of right and left are me LOOKING AT the mask in my hands..)
fix the sunken in side on the right, and to make the side pipes more uniform, specifically following my movie observation that the upper pipes were concave (bowed inward) and the bottom ones were convex (bowed outward) .. except right up where they are about to get to the tusks. Also to do some analysis of where some of the lopsidedness comes from and what i can do about it.


Learned quite a bit with this one. The eyelids meet on the outside of the eyes at a different height on each side.

Also the plastic on the left side of the triangle mouth is much thicker than on the right side. which can account for SOME but not all, of the warped look there.

Mouth and nose centerlines are far off balance. I'm going to have to find a happy medium when i remove the 'teeth' and put them back in more evenly.


After considerable heatgun reshaping, now the both sides stick out roughly the same. You can Seethe piping edges and the neck edges all from a top down/front view. This picture is exaggerated by my camera lens curvature.


Side view. Both sides look similar now.

Next up... cutting out the eye 'rims' the rubies lenses mounted to.

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EYE SOCKETS

Begin cutting out the eye sockets to remove all that excess plastic under the lens in the Rubies.


Saw Saw Saw (and clip with sprue cutters, not shown)


Eyes done for now...


Closeup of Eye. Still needs a lot of cleanup


Sitting on paper to trace existing neck outline


This is not a pretty outline


THIS is a pretty outline. Use it to generate a 'jig' to mold the neck to (still
working out what method im gonna try on this)


Making a pattern for a wood insert to stabilize top of helmet while reshaping neck.


Completed Pattern. ready to be cut from thin plywood.


Dremel tidy Heres an example. I cut a bit off on the other side too...

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RESHAPING THE NECK

Wooden wedge to isolate top of helmet for neck reshape


Wedge inserted


Busted Mouth


Neck reshaper thought i would cut the groove with the dremel...


Dremel was not the tool for it. Used Jigsaw


Mask well secured in board for neck reshaping.


Straightening up the neck.. marking with paint pen


Reshaping neck


Neck in much better shape.


Reshaping complete

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BEGINNING THE BUILDUP

We remove a whole lot of the 'mounting' plastic.


Most of the mount removed


Decided to remove the original mount on the facemask, it was just too far from the right place.


Just checking to see what it looks like. not attached...


Finally some BUILDING UP instead of tearing down. Going to fill in the helmet ridge with evercoat to fill it for the reshaping of the outside...


Make sure to sand everything with 60 grit so it has some chance of sticking.


Mixing the Evercoat. Smells great!


Inside filled in. Drying...


Smoothing out the holes i cut out with files.


A few openings filled with bondo putty. Cant use the fiber filled evercoat on the outside.

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Next up:

- Some more filler on the outside of the facemasl.. something with no fiberglass in it but more coverage than putty.

- Sanding the inside of the helmet smooth(er) and then laying a couple sheets of real fiberglass and resin over it to really shore up the helmet before i remove/reshape the 1 inch ridge on the top/outside.

- Probably going to have extend the length of the helmet edges, have to find material to do that with. ANY IDEAS?

Not particularly looking forward to sanding fiberglass. respirator here i come.

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HERE GOES THE SANDING

Sanding off the bondo filler putty


Sanding the inside of the dome


Sanding off the rounded ridge


FIBERGLASSING PART 1







Ready to tear in to the remainder of the mohawk tomorrow night. With any luck the helmet will not break in half. If it does i will have to do significantly more fiberglassing. :)

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NO MOHAWK

No Mohawk


Warped


How to NOT cut a helmet in half

(oh hey look, a Cleaning Droid...)

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ROUNDING THE HELMET SKIRT


The facemask is at a reasonable stopping point for the moment. the 'Removal' phase is all done and the rebuilding plase will start soon.

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Here is the next challenge, since no one knew (or spoke up) i decided to make both sides rounded. seemed more logical.

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Traced the outline onto MDF board, then transfered to paper, folded at the halfway mark, and duplicated it You can still see the 'old' line on the 'left'
side, its quite off:


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Inner line drawn and ready to saw.

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Careful viewers will notice the helmet will now not go in this jig because the spars are there. In reality I cut a space out of the jig for them, but i forgot to take a picture of it that way. It was a learning experience. The jig by itself didn't work well enough like it did on the mask, i think because of the size of the helmet skirt i couldnt do heatgun work with one hand and hold the helmet in place with the other.

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Very pleased. To fix the warped skirt when viewed from front I used a triangular wood block screwed into the mdf from the bottom, not shown. there was a good half hour there where i was problemsplving on the fly and forgot my camera...

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And the end result of this round of mods:

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LENGTHENING THE SKIRT


glued the super thin styrene sheet to outside.



Styrene cut down a bit and clipped to make sure the it will stay put. and not let TOO much resin up in between it and the abs, that i will have to sand off later.

Next i will fiberglass inside the whole helmet and extend the skirt from the inside. This Will strengthen the whole thing and make it more rigid, as well thicken it up for more screen accuracy.


Incidentally while trying to do this without the jig in introduced a warp i will need to fix...

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Put in spars. The plastic on the 'left' (Right in photo cause its upside down) was still malleable from the heat gun so these spars succeeded in pushing out that side.

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AND THAT...

And THAT my friends catches us up to where i started this blog. with
A Novice Guide to Fiberglassing

Hope you are enjoying it.

Helmet extended!

So, What was all that Fiberglassing for?

The helmet is now extended and the next step will be to paint it with self-etching primer, then coat many areas with Evercoat filler (much like Bondo), then sand it all smooth and rounded and pretty. except where the edges need to be sharp. files and careful sanding there...

 So here we have the Vader helmet 'bucket' with its length extended all along the bottom by about an inch. You can see a few remnants of the white polystyrene plastic sheet i used to make the 'mold' into which i shaped the fiberglass, layer after layer, until it was finally thick enough.

 Another shot, clearer and from a better angle. There's maybe 5-7 layers of fiberglass cloth along the edges here making it between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch thick at the thick areas along the sides and bottom and tapering to very thin in the top middle 'widow's peak'

 As you can see a lot of cleanup sanding will need to be done inside. While technically this step is unnecessary, I doubt by OCD nature will let me avoid doing it.

 Here we get a really good look at just how much thickness is added. the red line at the top is where i will be Cutting off part of the extended part.

Ahh.. Another step done.. The edges are now dremelled down. The bucket is long in the back and only a tiny bit longer in the front than originally. This will allow it to look much closer to the helmet in "Empire Strikes Back"

 One more picture. just because i Like it. . Lots more left to do. Once i have finished using filler putty to make everything super smooth i will then have to add the 'mohawk' or 'raised stripe' that goes along the middle of the helmet. The one that came molded on here was very rounded and bubble shaped. I sanded it off and am going to replace it with one with nearly squared off edges.

 Next Project: Neck Shaping

Next I'll be extending and shaping the neck of the mask part. This too will start with a polystyrene base upon which i will build up layers of fiberglass to give it the characteristic Flared Shape, like so:

  Here are the first couple layers of fiberglass being applied to the neck.

3 sides view of Extended skirt

Novice Guide to Fiberglassing

So I thought I would go through the very basics of fiberglassing as my first REAL post with 'content.'

Materials Needed:

• Fiberglass Resin (the big metal container)
• Fiberglass Cloth (Not shown in this pic)
• Fiberglass Liquid Hardener (The tiny tube)
  (These can usually be bought together in a kit. This kit is 3M from Lowes. brand and such doesn't matter for this quick rundown.
• Cups/containers to MIX the stuff in. I'm using the red plastic cups
• Popsicle Sticks / Stirrers to stir mix 
• A paintbrush you REALLY do not want to keep. (Those 59 cent ones at the bottom of the shelf!)
• Something to cover your work surface with. I prefer cardboard as it is less likely to have the resin soak through. I have forgotten to use it in this example!
• Scissors.. not your wifes/husbands favorite ones. (Ok i stole them from the kitchen but the next day I bought her a brand new set!)

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SAFETY ESSENTIALS! 
Because you dont want to inhale THIS
Fiberglass cloth is.. well I'm not sure if its really glass or what, but its definitely tiny microscopic strands of something, and its really really bad for your lungs. You don't want to breath it.

• Safety Mask/Respirator - this is number one. This stuff is probably as bad for you as inhaling asbestos.
• Rubber Gloves 
• VENTILATION - The resin stinks and cannot be healthy. I do this in the garage with both doors open, then when done i do not dawdle there...
• Safety Goggles - if you think you need them, I'm not your mom. :)

Getting going - OVERVIEW

The process is fairly straightforward...

1. Decide what you want to cover with fiberglass
2. Mix your resin and hardener. this starts the time clock. You have until the mix is unusable thick (the hardener has begun working!)
3. Place the cloth where you want it to be.
4. Paint the resin/hardener mix (henceforth just resin..) onto the cloth.
5. With More Pieces of cloth, repeat steps 3 and  until you are done, out of cloth, or your resin is too think to be workable.
6. Get the heck out of the room, this stuff stinks! 

STEP BY STEP....

So lets take a look at the process in detail now that I've done an overview.


Cut Up Your Fiberglass Strips

Using scissors you do not value very highly, Cut the fiberglass cloth into strips or rectagles or squares (or irregular polygons... whatever)

I do this step before i get the resin out because it cures quickly. You definitely need your mask on here. these microscopic shards are now flying through the air. YUM! Dont get them in your mouth.

Everything is Ready to go

I am working on reinforcing the inside of my Rubie's Darth Vader helmet with fiberglass, and extending the length of the helmet skirt. I have already roughed up the plastic with a power sander so that the resin will stick very well. It sticks better to a less smooth surface.

Here we see the helmet with the previous session of fiberglassing already done, and my cut up pieces of fiberglass cloth ready to go.

Mixing the hardener and resin

• Pour Some resin into a cup. Here i used about 8 ounces. which was too much!
• Add the amount of hardener specified on your resin's can. It will still be guesswork as the amount of a DROP is dependent on the size of what you poked a hole in the top of the hardener tube. I recommend erring toward a little too MUCH the FIRST time you do it.. then as you gain practice use less to give yourself more working time. You do not want to get into a situation where your resin never hardens.

STIR IT UP

Stir it up very very well. Very. As you can see this is a good time to have your gloves on.  If you didnt have them on for cutting the cloth your hands should be good and itchy now as those microscopic shards bore into your skin... Just sayin'

Get to Work

Ok the resin is mixed and the clock is ticking.

• Place a Fiberglass cloth piece where you want it and begin coating it with the paintbrush until it is completely saturated. It will turn transparent (mostly) when saturated enough.

Here you can see i am putting a long piece on the edge. I am concentrating on building up the edges. If I fiberglass a whole layer throughout the whole helmet for EVERY layer, I will have a 30 pound helmet to wear around.

Continue this process with all your remaining pieces of fiberglass cloth. If you are doing this as a small repair. you may only need a few pieces and once dryed this stuff is likely to never need any more work.

The job i am doing here takes multiple layers over several days. Once done I will then be wearing even MORE protective gear and SANDING it a great deal.

FINISHED

Finished... with todays layer. I could do another layer in an hour or so but i have to go in and write a blog post.. oh.. thats now...

So I'm going to let this dry Overnight.

Another picture of the finished layer...

Well that is all there is to applying fiberglass, if you are just building something up or doing a repair.

For a fully smooth and nice finish, if it has to look good.. there are a lot more steps. I will tackle these after a few more layers inside so the edge is nice and thick like the real movie helmet.

Next Steps

• Trim the edges you see sticking out with a dremel rotary tool. 
• Coat the outside in a thin layer of body filler (bondo/evercoat/etc.) Let dry.
• Sand / Prime / Identify problem areas 
• Fill problem areas
• Sand / Prime / Identify problem areas 
• Fill problem areas
• Sand / Prime / Identify problem areas ....
• ...
• ...

Thats it. Hopefully my first post has not bored you to tears! Have fun and don't inhale any glass fibers.