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This piece was really a collaborative effort between myself, and a good friend Tim Arp. I did most
of the prep work, and Tim did the key artistic finishing work.
I got the helmet as a four part kit. There was the main helmet, the fin, and two lenses for the eyes. The fin proved to be a lot of trouble, as during the casting process, it had shrunk a little, and did not perfectly match the contours of the helmet. I fixed this by using a technique Tim refers to as "The Bondo Squish". I laid down seran wrap onto the top of the helmet all along the groove for the fin. Then I piled in a ton of bondo, and squished the fin down on top of it. This allowed the bondo to fill in all the gaps, while the excess would squirt out the sides. once the bondo had set, I lifted the fin off the helmet. Because I had put down the seran wrap, the bondo did not stick to the helmet, but it did make a perfect mirror of the contours of it. After that, I just sanded it a bit, then epoxied it in place. I also went ahead and drilled three holes through the inside of the helmet up into the fin, and then pinned it in place with some steel rods. The paint job was pretty complex, at least for me. I started out with a couple solid coats of the ever faithful plasti-kote automotive primer. I wetsanded it smooth, then hit it with 2 solid, wet coats of Rustoleum antique brass. I actually was really happy with it at that point, but decided to follow Tims recommendations closely, and went ahead with the next step. I followed up the Rustoleum with some spurts of Tamiya gold. I basically went with the contours of the helmet. Anyplace that was raised got a good shot. The lower points along the weld lines were ignored. Tim then went in with an airbrush and did the detail painting along the weld lines and the rivets. He then sealed it with a coat of Krylon dull. After that, it was just a matter of dremelling the lenses down to size, then attaching them with a few dabs of hot glue. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this piece. I consider it one of the centerpieces to my collection. It's a nice, big piece that is very recognizable, and very well built. Thanks TIM! |
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In June of 2004, I acquired a very well made liner replica. This was made by a friend named Todd, who used a screen used helmet liner as his pattern. The liner is really well made, and fits the helmet nicely. The bummer for me is that because my head is so frickin' huge, it no longer fits well in the helmet :( My nose gets crunched up agains the front of it. Oh well, small price to pay for making this helmet that much better. |
