MLC helmet WIP

[Centuri]

Hey everyone, I made a start on my MLC helmet.

 

First off big ups to Mardon for a fine piece of work.

 

I decided to mod the bolt covers, the resin parts that came with the kit are designed to be glued over the bolts and sit raised, however photos of the screen used helmets show that the bolt covers sit flush with the side of the visor.

 

 

 

I traced the bolt cover on each side of the helmet. Then i dremelled out the traced circle to the same depth as the original hole, smoothing the edges with some 200 sandpaper.

 

 

 

I created a new bolt cover using 2mm ABS sheet, as the original resin covers were still a bit too fat for the recess.

 

 

heres the result, a nice flush bolt cover

 

[jaycee9]

As always, nice work Cen

[Centuri]

after reading through some of the threads here I'm led to believe there should be 8-9 vents indents on the back right of the helmet.

Some Screen used helmets have a wider vent on the far left, but I'm going with all equally sized vents as can be seen on the new EFX helmets and in some ROJ screenshots.

 

On the MLC helmet, there are only 7 - so my intention is to recreate another on the left. I have marked it out in pencil, and also marked the approximate centreline on the helmet. On all reference images i have seen, the vents are always to the left of the centre.

 

comments on whether this looks right or wrong appreciated!

 

[Centuri]

My helmet so far - now extra Groovy

 

 

[lonewolf]

Two small but great modifications to improve this helmet. Have a very long look at the eye area of an original helmet. You can possibly cut the MLC eye area out to help the eye appearance as well.

Nice work.

[Centuri]

Thanks for the positive feedback!

 

I recieved my helmet back from the paint shop today. I took it to a bumper repair shop and left them with a pice of my armour to match the colour. they did a great job! I also shaped and trimmed the visor lens i used 3mm tinted acrylic. Here are some more progress photos:

 

The lens shaped and then trimmed to fit:

 

 

And the Helmet so far, painted and visor lens in place:

 

 

[ECOLI]

Centuri,

Did you find the paint shop to be pretty reasonable in price. I have an MLC helmet and am trying to figure out whether I paint it or just pay for a professional to do it???

[Centuri]

hi erik,

 

I went to a shop who had already done a couple of local members helmets, cost $100 NZ (about $80 US) and took about a week.

I figured thats a pretty fair price considering i probably would have spent $20-30 on paint, sandpaper etc and the time to prep and paint it myself.

[Centuri]

Snout painted:

what do you think of this grey?

it is Tamiya Haze Grey.

 

[lonewolf]

Nice job, helmet looks great.

[4505Marcel]

Nice bucket mate, I do love my MLC

[Centuri]

thanks guys. I was a bit worried the grey may be too dark. I have seen some snouts painted a very light grey.

[Centuri]

Decals all applied.

I re-painted the snout and helmet bolt covers to match the grey of the decals better.

aerator painted black, so thats the helmet exterior all completed!

 

 

[Southscout]

Did you spray paint the black around the snout?

[Centuri]

Yes i did.

 

I masked it off first, but even with the masking tape it leaked a little and ended up using a blade to clean up the lines.

[jaycee9]

AWESOME job Cen... Looks fantastic

[4505Marcel]

Looking good bud, what do you have planned for the inside?

[Throttle-jockey]

This looks great. I think I want to get this bucket. My head is fairly large, think it will work? I have a tall head, not terribly wide but still a good size circumference.

[Centuri]

ok, had a break from this to work on other parts, but heres photos of the interior completed.

 

I didnt take any in progress pics as this was very much 'work it out as I go'. feel free to ask any questions though.

know there has been alot of discusion here about the chin cup, using magnets, and padding for the helmet so hopefully this helps others.

 

Helmet padding

i ordered Team Wendy's Zap pads. really comfy and you can position them how you want, my only concern is the top round pad makes the helmet sit quite high so depending on how it looks with the rest of my kit on, I might take that one out and replace with something thinner.

 

 

Magnet placement

on the side of the helmet, i found that the lower it was positioned the better the fit. the elastic strapping for the chin cup ends up covering the magnet, but the hold is still strong enough with this in between and it gives the magnets a little protection. i made a little housing for the magnet out of 3mm ABS sheet for more glueable surface area.

 

for the magnets on the inside of the faceplate, i had to grind the fibreglass back a little so that it fit ok, the elastic between makes it quite tight. I glued using a 2 part epoxy glue.

 

[Centuri]

oh wait! i do have a couple of progress pics...

 

Chin Cup

I received a chin cup with my MLC helmet, its fibreglass as well. I did a little trimming to match the chin cup on the screen used helmet.

LINK to reference image

Then i sprayed it gloss white.

 

 

heres the strap and cup installed. the strap is secured using snap domes (see pics above)

 

[Centuri]

Visor installation

heres a photo of the inside of the faceplate. I don't trust using hot glue for visors, so I used an epoxy putty to create some support for the visor. there is a left and right housing plus a bit in the middle at the top of the snout. once cured I fixed the visor in place with a single screw into the centre.

 

 

you can also see the magnet placement in the pic above.

[Centuri]

and done, the completed interior, except for the fan and black material for the vents.

 

[Southscout]

Helmet padding

i ordered Team Wendy's Zap pads. really comfy and you can position them how you want, my only concern is the top round pad makes the helmet sit quite high so depending on how it looks with the rest of my kit on, I might take that one out and replace with something thinner.

I had the same issue with my MICH pads so I took out the padding and sliced it in half, i don't know however if that is possible with the zap-pads.

[Centuri]

I had the same issue with my MICH pads so I took out the padding and sliced it in half, i don't know however if that is possible with the zap-pads.

 

cheers for that - i think i have solved it. i just took the centre round one out, and it fits quite snug with just the 4 on the sides while still leaving some space between the top of my head and the top of the helmet.

[Griffin-X]

Looks great!