Mandalorian Armor Project 3: Bondo

Chapter 3 details the process of mixing and applying Bondo and finishing the exterior of the helmet. This process took about two weeks of constant mixing Bondo, sanding Bondo, and patching the holes in and around the Bondo. It was also one of my favorite parts of this project.

I had finished laying down fiberglass and was ready to start the next step. I used a pair of large and small putty knives to mix and applying the Bondo. The vinyl gloves were good to have around because it keeps the Bondo from adhering to your hands. Interestingly, the lid of the Bondo jar is the most helpful tool I used during this project. Because its round shape, it was the perfect helmet stand. 

I started off by mixing a decent sized batch of Bondo. I used my putty knife to help fill the the crevasses in the dome. While doing this, I found out that Bondo's Automotive putty has a really short working time, which meant that it completely cured in under 10 minutes. I ended up wasting a fair bit of putty because I didn't work fast enough. 

I had to eyeball how much catalyst I added to each time I mixed a new batch. As a result, each batch of Bondo came out a slightly different shade of pink. 

Bondo is great for creating a sandable, flat surface, but it's also great for patching large holes. I used it several times on the interior, and again to patch a hole in the rangefinder. Bondo is an excellent material to work with because it's very easy to shape, and you can build up several layers of it.

I spent a few hours trying to create a smooth transition between the Bondo and fiberglass patches. Eventually  I realized that it would be far easier to completely cover the dome in Bondo, and then sand it smooth. I mixed a few more batches of Bondo and went to  

Because I had a lot of material work with, I covered the dome in heavy, thick coats of Bondo. Instead of hand sanding everything, I saved some time by using a hand sander. What should have taken hours of soul-crushing labor, took ten easy minutes. 

When I wrapped the visor, the fiberglass left some serious imperfections along the front of the helmet. I fixed these areas by patching them over with a few thin coats of Bondo, followed by a bit of sanding. The new visor came in, so I just had to take a few pictures of it.

Because I have a tendency to notice problem areas and then forget about them, I started circling them with a Sharpie. The majority of these problem spots happened at the edges of the Bondo patches.

Bondo is great for filling large gaps and building flat surfaces. Unfortunately, it has a consistency of cake icing and isn't good for filling little holes. To fill these little imperfections I could have also used automotive glazing putty, but chose drywall spackle instead.

After a trip back to Home Depot, I returned with a tube of DAP drywall spackle. This was a good choice because of its fine application tip and because I could quickly dry it with my heat gun. 

Whenever I'd spy a hole, I'd fill it with spackle, bake it dry with my heat gun. This particular brand would go on pink, but would dry to a uniform white. Then I'd use a square of 400 grit sandpaper to give me a smooth, scratch-free finish.  

Overall, I was able to quickly touch up my problem areas with a bit more spackle.  Once these holes were finished, I was ready to start painting and priming the helmet. 

Or so I thought.

Link to full album: Imgur

Link to Part 4: Blogger

Mandalorian Armor Project 2: Fiberglass

So what happens once you've built your paper model of a Mandalorian Helmet? You fiberglass it! Chapter 2 documents the process of building the fiberglass shell of the Mandalorian helmet.

These are the materials I started off with. The tin foil was incredibly helpful. It kept the resin from gunking up my container, and it allowed me to mix several batches of resin in quick succession.

The first thing I did was to give the dome a solid coat of resin. I may have painted my fingers onto the helmet a few times...

It took several batches of resin to fully coat the outside of the helmet. Each time I had to use a new paintbrush; I must've gone through seven or eight of them for this project. 

Once I had coated the helmet in resin, it was time to start fiberglassing. I cut my large sheet into two types of strips. Each one was two inches wide, but one type was 8" and the other was 4". I started layering my sheets from the dome, downwards.

I covered these concave shapes with a single long strip. I got total coverage by overlapping adjoining strips, usually by 1/4".

 

Because I'd be cutting it out later, I didn't bother covering the visor. 

These long strips needed extra resin to hold them down. If I were to redo this project, I would use individual strips for paper and cardboard. Because the cloth wouldn't lay flat, these hard edges softened out.

Fiberglass has a tendency to warp if it isn't supported. An ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure, they say. So before I removed the helmet's frame, I rigged some 16 gauge sculpture wire to help it keep it's shape.

I cut off the bottom of the frame and cut off one of the frame's sides. Because I left the frame attached to the helmet, this made for a handy place to hold while resining the inside. 

I started resining from the top down, which was actually a dumb mistake. The smart way would be to paint from the bottom to the top, so that your hand wouldn't get completely sticky.

I resined each section after pulling out the frame. After the first coat of resin dried, I started putting fiberglass  strips on the interior of the helmet. The only parts left to fiberglass was the bottom rim and hole for the visor.

Cutting out the visor was fairly simple. Cutting from the inside of the helmet, I used my Dremel's biggest cutting wheel to slice through the layers of fiberglass and paper. As sson as I started cutting the fiberglass, I made sure to protect myself. I had on sealed eyeware, a respirator, gloves, and a rubberized suit to keep the dust pieces out of my clothes. 

Cutting the keyholes was more challenging for two reasons. Even when using the large cutting disk, the curve of the slots kept the Dremel from getting close enough to completely cut through.

And that's the second reason. That little chunk ended up ricocheting off my eyewear at full speed. 

I went ahead and hot glued the wire into the helmet. I attached it at three points; on on each side and right below the keyhole slots.

I used different strips for the bottom of the helmet. Fiberglass cloth doesn't like to bend at sharp angles, so I had to use wide strips of cloth and lots of resin to convince it to lay over the edge. In the end, it didn't bend like I wanted to, but ended up giving the helmet a nice thickness.

The last area to get fiberglassed was the front area near the visor. Because this area wasn't as thin as the bottom, I was able to get the fiberglass to lay pretty nicely.

The only thing messier than cutting fiberglass is sanding fiberglass. I got all dressed up again and took my Dremel's sanding attachments to the highest points of the helmet. My primary job was to sand down lumps and ridges from when strips overlapped. Lumps like these were easiest to clean up.

To smooth areas like this, I started with some 120 grit sand paper and quickly moved up to a 220 grit. In hindsight, I should've given the flat areas quick once-over with the palm sander. 

My last task was to start sanding grinding down the frayed edges left by the fiberglass cloth. After an hour of hand sanding, I realized it'd be easier to use the Dremel's sanding drum to grind off these little tines. 

Sanding fiberglass kicks up a lot of nasty particulates. Fiberglass dust irritates skin, sticks to clothing and is seriously dangerous if its inhaled. If when sanding fiberglass, I put on an old rubber suit I had bought for another project and covered every inch of my skin. Otherwise, I'd break out in a nasty rash from the fiberglass irritating my skin. The running joke on campus was that I was an extra from Breaking Bad.

Link to full album: Imgur

Link to Part 3: Blogger