Mikerscout Scout(Mandalorian) Lancer approved

[MikerScout]

Well.... It was bound to happen.  I had my first major mishap.
I filled and faired the helmet seam with bondo.  It was old (probably my first mistake) and it had been in my shed for...  years?  I probably should not have used it but it mixed up well.  My activator was new.  The bondo went on fine and seemed to harden up well.  I post cured it with a hair dryer before sanding.  I primed it with Mr Surfacer 1200 (probably my second mistake).  It looked great and surfacer dried nice and smooth and was sanding up really nicely.  Up toward the face of the helmet at the "wings" some cracks started to form.  There is quite a gap in there from funky fitment so jammed some more Oatey plastic glue and some bits of ABS to fill the void (probably my 3rd mistake).
I think.... the ABS absorbed the styrene and caused it to remain soft with the application of the Oatey.  Or the bondo absorbed the Oatey glue and prevented it from off gassing.  Either way I made the helmet soft and basically melted slightly over night.  I attacked it after work today and dug all the bondo out, some of which was soft, I think because of the Oatey glue.  I then set the helmet in the sun to just off gas as best it could.  It's hardened up now but if I hit it with a hair dryer it gets really soft really quick in those two little spots.  The ABS smells of styrene in that spot, I'm hoping it will just gas out over the next couple days and become durable again....  If not, I'll be buying another helmet. It's not a big spot but it's just behind where the face piece attaches and will be getting constantly touched.

[MikerScout]

On a bright note, I started gluing up the straps on all the arm & knee armor with some E6000

[Chopper]

Don't sweat it too much, dude. These things happen. I remember the horror I felt as I melted one of my shoulder armor parts with the heat gun. I was actually going to take my initial approval photos the next day...I just wanted to tweak it a little bit.

I think there's a number of things going on. Some of it could be chemistry, in that the various solvents aren't playing nice together. Another part of the issue is that bondo isn't great for structural fills. Bondo works fine for gap filling in places that aren't meant to flex or bear loads. Those parts on the sides of the helmet, near where the visor rotates up, gets a ton of flex. If you have your armor trimmings, I try to make an ABS paste to fill those sorts of gaps.

I think your approach makes sense. Leave it be for a few days, let everything cure, and see how it looks. If you have to buy a new helmet b/c the plastic is still soft, well...that does really suck, but I can tell you that pretty much all of us have been in that boat before.

[MikerScout]

Ok time for an update.
The helmet is going to need to be wet sanded and resprayed. This x2 is some strange stuff. It crackles even when used with its own primer. You basically can't second coat it after any amount of time regardless of what the directions say. That said, I have been able to get the face nearly done



Since I had the fine line out, I used it to lay out the tank.






I also need to sort the boots. I assume the soles are supposed to be "one color". I know I have the same boots used in the show but the display is clearly one color. I wonder if the soles were weathered to match the mid sole. In the show you see the orangeish color in some scenes bit in others its difficult to tell.

[Retrofire]

The “one color” reference is to the lvl2 spec for the ROTJ biker scout. The CRL states that the soles of the boots are tan so I think you’re fine here. The boots are heavily weathered so all those pristine surfaces will soon be covered in a layer of dust and dirt. If you are concerned I might be a good idea to run it past your GML just to be sure they will be ok with it.

[MikerScout]

So... after some Google searches this seems to be a common problem with the Rust-Oleum Painters Touch 2X Paint+Primer. It seems, it's not compatible even with itself if you let it completely dry. I used the 2X primer to first prime the ABS which was probably a mistake. It does seem that the 2X Painters Touch is good to go.  It's only the 2X Paint+Primer that has issues. After the first failure I let the bucket sit for 48+ hours then wet sanded everything down. Today I sprayed 2 thin coats letting it tack up between and I get this crap.

So that said, 99% of the helmet is good. I'll try to knock these down with 1000 grit and polish it then let the weathering hide the rest.  I'm done sanding and respraying. 



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[MikerScout]

Helmet is just about there! Some touch ups, comfort issues, and then on to weathering. Though weathering probably won't happen till last. I want to give this paint every opportunity to fully cure before throwing oil paints at it.

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[Aradun]

Nice work on the helmet Mike and yeah that 2x paint doesn’t play well with its own primer. It also doesn’t play nice when spraying over its own metallics.

[equuspolo]

Great job

[MikerScout]

23 minutes ago, equuspolo said:

Great job

Thanks buddy!!  I'm having a lot of fun!

[equuspolo]

36 minutes ago, Mikerscout said:

Thanks buddy!!  I'm having a lot of fun!

Glad to hear it.  

[MikerScout]

Boots...
I was hoping to be sewing these tonight but don't have any 1" velcro.

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[Chopper]

Do you have white 2" sew-on velcro, an exacto knife, and a ruler? 😁

[MikerScout]

6 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Do you have white 2" sew-on velcro, an exacto knife, and a ruler? 😁

I see what you're doing here.....

[MikerScout]

Need some boot feedback .
The toecaps are glued and the boots are currently over stuffed with socks to fill their volume. The top is just resting on there as is the dog bone. I wrapped the upper around my leg and I can just slide my hand between the upper and my jeans.  Velcro is 1" and stitched pretty darn close to the edge.  Top stitch is 3/8 down from the top ( I used the edge of the presser foot as a guide)

Does this stitching look OK for level 2? (thinking about making the top stitch closer to the top)

Are the "laces lumps" on the toe cap going to be an issue? If so, how should I go about getting rid of them? Not so tight with the vinyl?

Any glaring issues or should I sew the other side and glue them up?



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[MikerScout]

I like this better. I gave a little more room down bottom and tightened up the top seam. The dog bone might be a tad undersized, we'll see after I get the upper glued on. It bothers me that i can see the lump of the underneath the toe cap. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it. What do you guys think?

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[Retrofire]

I think those boots look great and I don’t think you have to worry about that lump at all. Once you start trooping those boots you going to get all sorts of wear in and flex so it will just become more of the personality and weathering of your boots. I think you’re doing a great job! Keep it up!

[MikerScout]

Pouches!!!



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[MikerScout]

Looking for some fitment feedback please.
I feel like I have the chest and back armor fitted well. The cummerbund is an 8 inch bund, belly seams measure 1 inch. I'm fairly happy with the placement of all this except for my carb/beer gut kicking everything out of wack (I think I need to work on that) lol. I'd like the bund up a little in the front but it binds with the back armor.  Ideas, suggestions?

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[BikerScout007]

Hard to say for sure without the codpiece but I think that looks good.

[TKZombie]

You might want to lower the cummerbund, hard to say without the cod. I only say lower it as you don’t have much gap between it and the back armour. 

[MikerScout]

3 hours ago, TKZombie said:

You might want to lower the cummerbund, hard to say without the cod. I only say lower it as you don’t have much gap between it and the back armour. 

lower the bun or raise the back armor?  The bottom of bund is sitting right on the top of my butt cheek.  I'm going to try to work up the cod today.  

[Chopper]

I would say try raising the back armor a bit. Try overlapping the shoulder bridges and giving us a look before doing any trimming on the bridges though. 

[MikerScout]

Brought the back up a little bit. Armornis sitting a little bit crooked but I'll even it out when I trim. The cod is paper, just trying to fit the pattern some. What do you think? @Chopper @TKZombie

 

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[Chopper]

Try bringing the back up another 3/4" to 1" and see how that looks.