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
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