Building the Rocketeer Helmet - lenses

Update on the Rocketeer helmet project.  I have been really busy and it has been hard to work on some of my "fun" projects.  That being said, I did carve out a little bit of time to work on my Rocketeer helmet.  When we last left off it needed some lenses.

I have never put lenses in anything before, so I had a little trial and error process.

I first ordered some sample lens sheets from http://tapplastics.com.  They come in 4 inch by 4 inch squares.  I peeled the protective paper off of each side, then holding it with needle nose pliers I used my heat gun to slightly melt it.

I melted the plastic outside of the helmet until it would flop over all by itself.  Then I put it inside the helmet and used a rag and pushed on the lens to slightly bubble it out.  

This is the first piece (after it was cool enough to hold.)

I taped the lenses in place...

 and couldn't resist trying it on.

Then I had to take a picture outside.  

I peeled the left side of the tape off of the lens and folded it over.  I put some 5 minute epoxy in a large area around the eye, and folded the lens back over.  I held it in place until the epoxy held then I did the other eye.

It is available for sale on Ebay 
Rocketeer Helmet Fan Made Custom Prop 

Making the rocketeer helmet update

Ok so it has been a long time since I updated the progress on my Rocketeer helmet.  I could use a variety of excuses, I moved to a different state, the majority of my stuff was in a storage shed for 6 months, I was abducted by alien pirates, that last one was just to see if you were still reading or just skipping ahead to the pictures. 

The air dry clay worked great until it dried, popped off the helmet and shattered into a million bits.  Actually it was about a dozen, but you get the idea.  I had to epoxy them back on and repair the spots 

with bondo.  

I learned from the other side and turned the helmet onto it's side when letting the clay dry. The first time it was straight up and down (on top of a high dresser so that my kids wouldn't mess with it.  Which is why they broke into a million/dozen pieces).  This new way resulted in a piece that was unbroken until I tried to epoxy it on. Which it proceeded to snap into several pieces.  Which I had to repair with bondo and sanding.  Despite that, the air dry clay gave me a very good way to add oddly shaped pieces.

The right vent never really had the right shape to me, so add some bondo to try and straighten it out.

After numerous times bondo and sanding and bondo and sanding I sprayed a primer coat on it.  People always ask me if I changed my mind on the color.  Um no. I am impatient and I sprayed it the copper color because I just wanted to see what it looked like with the copper like finish.

I hit it with some hammered black finish mainly I wanted to see if I could get it glossy and since that was the only gloss spray paint I had, I used it.

It turns out I hated the hammered black finish.  It never seemed to dry. It stayed sticky. (It might have been old paint.)  I sanded it some and sprayed it the copper color again.

I needed it to look like I welded the pieces together, so I used hot glue to make the weld marks.  I wasn't sure if the glue would hold the spray paint or not, but I figured I would test it. 

The hot glue did take the spray paint and didn't flake off or anything.

I ended up not liking the welds so I ripped them all off sanded down the small leftover spots and put hot glue on it again.  This time I used a minimal of hot glue and it looks better I think.

Next I needed the four rivets that go around each eye.  I took a brass brad paper holder thing and cut off the two tails.

I bent the leftover pieces inside being careful not to scratch the outside.

Then I hot glued them in place.  I spray painted them and they didn't really want to take the paint.

It left little pools of spray paint which i had to sand off.

I found out several light coats are far better than one heavy coat.

Next up Lenses.

Making the Rocketeer Helmet - Decor

Hey Gang, I'm back with more pictures of the my Rocketeer Helmet.  

I started by drawing where the vents and the weld lines should go.  

Then I got some air dry clay and molded them in place. I have never worked with this type of clay before, so this will be a learning experience.

Top View

Back View.  Now I just have to wait for 24-48 hours for it to dry.  

Don't know if I can wait that long.

Next -->

Making the Rocketeer Helmet- The Fin

Update on the Rocketeer helmet. That I started making here. and then continued here. 

I cut a piece of masonite out in the shape of the fin.  I didn't get it exact as you will see in the later photos.  But it isn't anything that I can't cover with Bondo.

I epoxied the fin onto the helmet.  It only touched in the front on on the back side top of the helm.

As you can see there is a gap in-between the fin and the helmet.

The back doesn't even touch at all.   But this can be fixed.

i forgot to take pictures of the bondo process. I smeared bondo into the crack and once it hardened I sanded it down smooth. Then I added a coat of paint to the new fin and all of the bondo areas.  I cracked the bottom of the helmet in two spots.  One was on the chin, and the other was on the right side.  I saw the one on the chin and fixed it. I only found the one on the right side when I painted it.  But that is where the decorative stuff goes so I am not too worried about it.

I am really excited about the way this is turning out.  For my first attempt at anything like this I am really pleased.  I am not quite sure yet how I am going to get the decorative stuff on the sides or the air vents on the top.  The pepakura file I had didn't have those pieces.  I guess I should have looked at that first.

Next Page -->

Making the Rocketeer Helmet - update

Quick update on the Rocketeer helmet. That I started making here. I have found that there are a lot of people who have either never seen the movie, or don't remember the movie.  So here is the movie poster.

Remember it now?  If not you should rent it and watch it.

Anyway the helmet should look like this.

This is what I have so far.

This is several coats of bondo and or fiberglass resin, and lots and lots of sanding.  I spray painted it grey to see where I needed work.  I might need a few more coats of bondo.

Next coat of bondo and sanding

Because I am a bit over excited to see what it looks like finished I spray painted it antique gold.

Then found a bunch of places that needed to be repaired. So more bondo and more sanding.

next page

Making the Rocketeer helmet Part 1

Ok yeah I jump around from project to project.  I get bored easily and if I don't see a lot of progress in the first little bit I pack it up for later.  I really need to focus on projects that I can get done in a few hours.  But instead I am going to try my hand at this pepakura helmet making stuff. (This project will probably take me a few months if I didn't have anything else to do. So don't be alarmed if I don't finish it right away.)

If you don't know about pepakura go here. In the gallery they have all kinds of stuff.  I started with a very simple rocketeer helmet.  By simple I mean it is only about 6-8 pages. That is not a lot considering a few of the Halo helmets have somewhere around 20-30 pages. Also most of the shapes are rather big, so that works for me. You use an exacto knife and cut out seemingly random shapes out of card stock. Then glue or tape them together.

This is what the helmet looks like halfway finished.  After that I painted it with a coat of fiberglass resin.  I had always been hesitant about working with fiberglass.  Mainly because I thought you always had to have the fibers and such.  That is not the case.  You can just mix up a batch of the resin with the hardener and paint it on something or pour it on, etc...

I mixed up some Rondo.  Which is a half and half mixture of Bondo and fiberglass resin.  I first mixed each with it's correct hardener according to the directions, then mixed the two together.  What I came up with was goop about the consistency of a thin milkshake.  I poured this inside the helmet and turned it this way and that to get the inside covered.  You may notice that they eyeholes are covered up.  I used some masking tape to keep the Rondo from spilling out of the eye holes.  I figured I would cut the holes out later.

I cut the eye holes out and mixed up some straight Bondo.  I smeared this all over the helmet and waited the thirty or so minutes for it to harden.  Then I sanded it down.  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures because I was so excited about doing this I forgot.

Subscribe so you can stay tuned...

The Next Page