White Ranger Helmet: Part 8

The theme of this post is DAMAGE CONTROL.  If you should encounter any of these issues with cracks at this stage of your helmet, you can fix them as I have.  The most important point, however, is that all of these issues can potentially be avoided through proper cardboard skeleton construction, Celluclay application, and Dry-Dex application.  I saw a few of the cracks when preparing to spray primer, but 8 or 9 of them reared their ugly heads after the primer coat all over the helmet.  To say I was disappointed is putting it lightly, but I came up with a way that I hope will get rid of these cracks once and for all.  Bottom line, rule #1: don't let your helmet fall off your work space like I did, because this really sucks.

I figured the only way to get rid of these cracks is to literally cut them out down to the source.  I used my exacto knife to cut along both sides of every crack.  If your helmet is still slightly bendable even at this stage, go ahead and play with it a little bit because I assume the cracks will make themselves known down the road if you don't fix them now.  While I wish I would've fixed this at an earlier stage of construction, I know it will be much easier to fix this now than to do so later.

Now to make sure that I get rid of these cracks down to their source, I enlisted the help of a Dremel cutting tool.  I found this in the hardware section at Wal-Mart, it's the Dremel 7300 that comes with 5 accessories (one of which I used for the following step).  It's a handly tool for this project for under $25.  I also picked up a little pack of cutting wheel accessories (around $5) which I plan to use for reshaping the visor and mouth hole openings later.

\I used the grinding accessory from inside the box and I scoured each of the areas I cut out to make these cracks disappear once and for all.  Just a friendly reminder, read through the directions on this tool as you could be injured if it is used carelessly.  Even though it's small, it's still a spinning power tool with sharp accessories.

After I fully grinded each crack out sufficiently with the Dremel tool, I used little dabs of Dry-Dex to coat the rough patches where I had sanded back down to the Celluclay layer.  I am constantly reminded that I should have focused on perfecting the helmet shape earlier, but what can you do?  First time helmets are undoubtedly trial-and-error. 

After the Dry-Dex dried, I lightly sanded with the most soft grained sandpaper I had.  I was careful not to sand to hard.  The idea was to maintain the white color, if black started to appear I would have sanded too far and would have had to coat it again.  There are a couple of lumpy spots on the left-rear side of the helmet that I will have to coat one last time with Dry-Dex after I fill in the cracks. 

The reason I am doing parts of the Dry-Dex/sand step is because there are different levels of sanding necessary.  I didn't want to accidently sand too hard in one spot mistaking it for a crack-fill when it was actually a rough patch.  I really have made this more difficult than I needed to!  Here is how it looked with the cracks filled before and after sanding.

[Picture 1 and 2 to be uploaded]

After I reshaped the lumpy spots with the Dry-Dex and sanded, I made sure to blow all of the sanding dust off of it and sprayed one last coat of primer.  Once it dries, we will see if the damage control has worked.  The next post will involve reshaping the visor and mouth hole and any other cuts I need to make in reshaping the bottom of the helmet.  

White Ranger Helmet: Part 7

After the Dry-Dex dried, I sanded it down as smooth as I could.  I recognized immediately (as will you) that I overlooked the importance of perfectly sanding the Celluclay coats.  Since I didn't sand it perfect, there are peaks and valleys coming up after sanding the dry wall compound.  You can see it as the gray patches in the white in the photos below that I took after about 45 minutes of sanding.

 I bought a can of primer at Wal-Mart for around 3 bucks.  You can get any color, I just think it would be wise to get a color that contrasts with the white Dry-Dex (or whatever product you decide to use).

I sprayed a single coat as evenly as possible around the entire helmet.  This is how it looked after about 20 minutes of drying. 

I can already notice the imperfections clear as day from the sanding.  It's also very obvious where the Celluclay coat is peeking through the Dry-Dex.  I'm going to let it dry overnight to see if it is too unsightly.  If so, I will use some more of the Dry-Dex over those spots and sand lightly.  The cracks just under the visor hole are still giving me trouble so I'm already going to have to use some more tomorrow anyways.  And now we wait.

White Ranger Helmet: Part 6

It has been a while since I updated only because my work and life schedule has not allowed for much time to spent on the project.  Do not assume the dates on these posts reflect how long it would take you to make your own, as that would be far from reality and a bit discouraging.  The truth of the matter is that I've maybe put in a total of four to five hours of work spread over time since the part 5 post.

In the previous post you saw the first layer of celluclay mixture applied to the helmet.  Since then I sanded the helmet down, applied another coat of mixture (allowed to dry overnight), sanded again, applied another coat of mixture (allowed to dry overnight), sanded, and worked out some curvature details with a final coat of the celluclay (dried, and then sanded once more).  That works out to about 3-4 days of time it took because of how long it takes for the pulp to dry.

Sanding the celluclay after it dried has been an arduous task, be sure to have a sanding block nearby or else your hands and fingers will be very worn out and it will take longer.  Of course, you could always use an electric sander but I imagine this would be too rough on the malleable cardboard structure below and cause cracks to fix time and time again.  

Some definite issues I ran into (and hopefully you can avoid) were the realization that the helmet isn't properly shaped along the jaws similar to the show prop.  Half of this was because of the shape of my head, the other half was because I didn't have reference material on-hand at all times (and 100% because I'm a complete beginner at this and have no clue what I'm doing).  Keep reference material nearby, it has become a big hassle and a time-waster for me to have to fix things when I could have fixed it much quicker in the cardboard stage.

One other unfortunate event was when I broke part of the front of the helmet.  Lesson learned: Have a proper stand for your helmet.  The two foam pieces I used as a wannabe mannequin couldn't support the weight/center of gravity of the helmet and it fell over a time or two causing the break and a couple of cracks which have been very time consuming to fix.  After the full break, I cut out the cardboard behind it because it was warped and likely wouldn't hold any sculpting shape properly.

After I was satisfied with the general shape of the helmet (something I had to accept because there's no way it can be perfect at this stage and I'd rather not start over), I applied a coat of Dap Dry-Dex which is essentially dry wall spackling.  It goes on pink and dries white a lot quicker than the celluclay.  

 

This was much easier to sand too but be sure you are in a well ventilated area and don't mind a mess because there will be white dust EVERYWHERE even after a few minutes.  I didn't apply a coat to the entire helmet because it was more or less a test run and I was actually satisfied with the results.  Here is how it looked after maybe 15-20 minutes of sanding.

The next steps will be: 

1) finishing the dry-dex coat, 
2) sanding out to reveal imperfections in shape, 
3) fixing those imperfections with as little dry-dex as possible,
4) sanding once more until it is perfectly smooth,
5) applying primer
6) and sanding again (are you seeing a pattern here?)

Everything coming next appears to be a little bit easier, and I will not lie, the celluclay sanding really got the best of me at times and probably had more than just a little to do with why the progress essentially halted.  Expect the next post to come sometime this weekend.