Moostic Posted February 2 Posted February 2 Very excited to get this costume started, I've been meaning to make one of these for a very long time. I decided to pick up a kit from RS Prop Masters during their black friday sale. Everything arrived last week and I've been chipping away at it since. Trimmed up the main armour pieces without much trouble so far. I'll be getting to the holster and back tank later. For now, everything's looking pretty good. Putting those aside for now to work on the helmet. Got it trimmed down the middle and getting it to fit together now. The gaps seem pretty wide, especially on the back, I'm just a little worried I might've cut it down too much. They seem pretty wide to fill - any hope of saving this one? Hopefully someone with some experience can chime in 1
Chopper Posted February 2 Posted February 2 Did you keep the bits you trimmed? You're going to have to glue plastic bracing on the inside to support the helmet either way. Once you have the interior braces in place, you can make ABS paste out of the scrap plastic and fill in the gaps. Any other finishing can be done with spot putty. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/42866-how-to-make-abs-paste/ 3
Moostic Posted February 2 Author Posted February 2 55 minutes ago, Chopper said: Did you keep the bits you trimmed? You're going to have to glue plastic bracing on the inside to support the helmet either way. Once you have the interior braces in place, you can make ABS paste out of the scrap plastic and fill in the gaps. Any other finishing can be done with spot putty. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/42866-how-to-make-abs-paste/ I've been cleaning up the plastic with a shop vacuum, I should have enough to work with. That was more or less my idea as well, I'll give it a go. 1
Sgt.Bilko Posted February 3 Posted February 3 I've been cleaning up the plastic with a shop vacuum, I should have enough to work with. That was more or less my idea as well, I'll give it a go.Hi,Just finished piecing together my RS helmet. To make sure you have or have not cut too much, confirm these measurements. Get the ends to line up with these, tape the ends and work toward the middle section, trimming as need be.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1
Moostic Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 52 minutes ago, Sgt.Bilko said: Hi, Just finished piecing together my RS helmet. To make sure you have or have not cut too much, confirm these measurements. Get the ends to line up with these, tape the ends and work toward the middle section, trimming as need be. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I got about 12.5cm between the two front points - hoping that'll be close enough.
Sgt.Bilko Posted February 3 Posted February 3 10 hours ago, Moostic said: I got about 12.5cm between the two front points - hoping that'll be close enough. Should be fine with flex of the helmet. What about the trapezoid measurement on back? If you are close on both, given your gaps, Chopper is correct it's time to glue the halves together and focus on closing the gaps. What seems odd to is the gap with the pencil lines. Are those your pencil lines or RS? My RS pencil lines were good enough to get me to the ball park and switch to sanding down for fit. 1
Moostic Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 17 minutes ago, Sgt.Bilko said: Should be fine with flex of the helmet. What about the trapezoid measurement on back? If you are close on both, given your gaps, Chopper is correct it's time to glue the halves together and focus on closing the gaps. What seems odd to is the gap with the pencil lines. Are those your pencil lines or RS? My RS pencil lines were good enough to get me to the ball park and switch to sanding down for fit. These were the RS pencil lines. I was skeptical too - I made a couple very minor tweaks in areas I thought a bit unrefined, but nothing more. Just lucky I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The gap on the back is pretty close to 7cm too, so I’m moving ahead with getting it put together and reinforcing the middle. The 2mm ABS is pretty stiff, I thought about heating it up a bit to let it curve along the front and back a little bit better - thoughts?
Sgt.Bilko Posted February 3 Posted February 3 I suppose you can heat up the strips to bend to the contour. I did not and chose to cut smaller contour pieces. See the photo.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1
Moostic Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 6 minutes ago, Sgt.Bilko said: I suppose you can heat up the strips to bend to the contour. I did not and chose to cut smaller contour pieces. See the photo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk More than one way to skin a cat it seems,
Chopper Posted February 4 Posted February 4 10 hours ago, Moostic said: The 2mm ABS is pretty stiff, I thought about heating it up a bit to let it curve along the front and back a little bit better - thoughts? Yes, use a heat gun to heat the strips (away from the helmet), then once the straps are hot enough to be flexy, press them into place. Once they cool, they'll keep their shape and you can glue them in. You should have strips reinforcing along the entire seam line. There should be no gaps showing though, or else you risk seam cracking. 3
Moostic Posted February 6 Author Posted February 6 Starting to get around to putting the reinforcement strips in the helmet. Up until now I've been using E6000 as my go-to adhesive, and that's just not cutting it. The drying time is too long - it's simply not practical to keep in place with both halves lined up. I see in the RS Prop Masters helmet tutorial video, they use CA glue and activator spray. Would this be the best option then? I found some near me that I think should do the trick, but as always, a second opinion would be appreciated: https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/instant-bond-multi-purpose-adhesive-super-glue-with-instant-hold-activator-spray-small-2-pc-0671034p.html Any other tips or advice when it comes to adding the strips? 1
Chopper Posted February 6 Posted February 6 Yeah, E6000 will leave you with pieces of a helmet and that's not going to cut it. You need a permanent bond. I recommend Devcon Plastic Weld for securing the reinforcement strips. https://www.amazon.com/Devcon-22045-Plastic-Welder-Dev-Tube/dp/B003NUGL9S 3
Moostic Posted February 6 Author Posted February 6 5 hours ago, Chopper said: Yeah, E6000 will leave you with pieces of a helmet and that's not going to cut it. You need a permanent bond. I recommend Devcon Plastic Weld for securing the reinforcement strips. https://www.amazon.com/Devcon-22045-Plastic-Welder-Dev-Tube/dp/B003NUGL9S I've got some JB Weld Steel Epoxy kicking around - would that work too? Or should I go with the one you've shown instead?
Dart Posted February 6 Posted February 6 16 minutes ago, Moostic said: I've got some JB Weld Steel Epoxy kicking around - would that work too? Or should I go with the one you've shown instead? If you can find something that's more for plastic, that would be better. JB Weld does make a plastic bonder, and you can get it at Crappy Tire. I'd probably pick that as it's actually made for plastic. 2
Chopper Posted February 6 Posted February 6 Agreed you want a glue that's specifically designed to bond plastic, not metal. 1
Harbinger Posted Saturday at 06:53 PM Posted Saturday at 06:53 PM I use ABS cement when I need a permanent bond. 1
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