"How do I look?" ....."Like a hood ornament"
All good intentions and all that...
Time, resources and money have led me back to basics with the next build and so I have plumped for a version of the helmet from the 1991 film, The Rocketeer.
I used a paper pepakura template which I have long since forgotten where it came from but I PROMISE to add a credit as soon as I find where I sourced it from as well as a link.
As the helmet is pretty much just a glorified dome with some embellishments and cut outs, it is quite straightforward to construct and with the usual fibreglass and car body filler (or Bondo), it came out like this.
The template itself did prove a little angular in places with a few odd convoluted folds but in essence it proved to be pretty good in terms of overall shape.
As I live in the UK, we don't use "Bondo" but any trip to Halfords or other automotive suppliers will present no end of options for finishing filler. I've even found it in some of the budget supermarkets and to be honest, it all does the same thing.
Note that I am using a sanding block to get the shape. This ensures that there are no low spots that will inevitably occur if you sand it by hand. It is SO tempting to sand out and dents without the block but you will not end up with a beautiful even surface.
OOOOOOHHHHHH! I can't believe I wasted all those hours doing this by hand!.....You could also plug in one of those new fangled electric sanders and use that too!
TOP TIP: WEAR A DUST MASK.
Next step was the fin at the top of the helmet. Now it is fairly obvious that using the normal paper/fibreglass/filler option for this is just not going to work. As ever I am on a STRICT budget for this project (Mrs Venom needs the money for shoes), so I attempted to use a nice sturdy offcut of cardboard cut to shape and coated with fibreglass resin.
This did not work.
The wet cardboard warped and bent slightly and was just not good enough. So it was back to the drawing board. Or FOAM BOARD. I pootled across to good old Hobbycraft and purchased a sheet of A2 black foamboard (Don't tell Mrs Venom I spent money!). Once cut to shape, I used some wood filler to patch in the edged and sanded them down to make sure they were beautifully smoooooothhhh (Like Mrs Venom's legs).
Lastly (as far as this post is concerned), I added some piping detail around the sides of the helmet using electrical flex that was glued in place with hot-glue (more on that later!).
These details were edged with decorators caulk to give a "welded" effect. And finally the whole thing given a coat of black primer (or just plain old matt black paint as I didn't have any primer to hand!), just to highlight any spots that needed further attention. (Which there were a LOT of).
What followed was a trial and error period whereby I had to figure out how to construct the air intakes at the top of the helmet....
More on that in my next post!
Time, resources and money have led me back to basics with the next build and so I have plumped for a version of the helmet from the 1991 film, The Rocketeer.
I used a paper pepakura template which I have long since forgotten where it came from but I PROMISE to add a credit as soon as I find where I sourced it from as well as a link.
As the helmet is pretty much just a glorified dome with some embellishments and cut outs, it is quite straightforward to construct and with the usual fibreglass and car body filler (or Bondo), it came out like this.
As I live in the UK, we don't use "Bondo" but any trip to Halfords or other automotive suppliers will present no end of options for finishing filler. I've even found it in some of the budget supermarkets and to be honest, it all does the same thing.
TOP TIP: WEAR A DUST MASK.
Next step was the fin at the top of the helmet. Now it is fairly obvious that using the normal paper/fibreglass/filler option for this is just not going to work. As ever I am on a STRICT budget for this project (Mrs Venom needs the money for shoes), so I attempted to use a nice sturdy offcut of cardboard cut to shape and coated with fibreglass resin.
This did not work.
The wet cardboard warped and bent slightly and was just not good enough. So it was back to the drawing board. Or FOAM BOARD. I pootled across to good old Hobbycraft and purchased a sheet of A2 black foamboard (Don't tell Mrs Venom I spent money!). Once cut to shape, I used some wood filler to patch in the edged and sanded them down to make sure they were beautifully smoooooothhhh (Like Mrs Venom's legs).
Lastly (as far as this post is concerned), I added some piping detail around the sides of the helmet using electrical flex that was glued in place with hot-glue (more on that later!).
These details were edged with decorators caulk to give a "welded" effect. And finally the whole thing given a coat of black primer (or just plain old matt black paint as I didn't have any primer to hand!), just to highlight any spots that needed further attention. (Which there were a LOT of).
What followed was a trial and error period whereby I had to figure out how to construct the air intakes at the top of the helmet....
More on that in my next post!
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