I originally wrote this up for The Daft Club forums, but thought that it might be handy for people here - especially people contemplating using Alcad's metal finishes. Also, thanks to everyone here who helped answer my questions. I hope you enjoy :)
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So I started this project about six weeks ago, and I'm pretty much finished. I have a few bits and bobs to finish (padding on the interior, tidying away some wires, perhaps spraying the inside black). But it's mostly done - for now at least!
I should point out that this is the first time since I was a kid that I've really tried to make something 'crafty'. I've never really been that good with my hands, and you can certainly see that in areas of this build. It's the first time I've tried some of these techniques out, most notably airbrushing, which I found relatively easy to get to grips with.
I did make a few mistakes along the way, and I regretted a few choices I made. And if I go the rest of my life without wetsanding anything ever again I can't say I'd be heartbroken! ;) But overall, I'm pleased with my results.
In all seriousness, there's a distinct possibility that I might want to go back and re-do the chrome at some point, but for now, I'm really happy with how it's turned out. I'll try not to go over things that have been covered in depth before, by people much better at both writing and helmet building than myself!
So, this is how the cast looked when it arrived for me at the office a few weeks ago
It's a FireWire V1 helmet, and it is a thing of exceptional beauty. If you're reading this contemplating buying one of FireWire's casts don't think, just do it. You won't regret it, it's an awesome sculpt. If you'd told me this was cast directly from Thomas' original helmet itself, I would believe you. To me, it's perfect in pretty much every respect.
And here's the obligatory shot of me getting ready to do some cutting with my generic knock-off dremel 'rotary cutting tool' (I got mine from Maplin for about £15 when it was on special offer, and it's reasonably good)
I used a mixture of those cutting disks, the cutting bit and the sanding drum. It was all pretty smooth sailing, using the cut marks that are pre-scored into the cast. It didn't take long before I could get it onto my head.
Obviously some minor visibility and ventilation issues at that stage, but still ;)
I had a nightmare trying to glue the ears into place using JB Weld, which was the recommendation I read here. It just wouldn't harden with them in the right place, and I was so worried that I'd end up with them glued in slightly wonky, that I decided to use superglue instead. That held basically instantly, and in the exact spot, which just left me with a bit of filling to do in the gaps using Isopon (the British equivalent of Bondo / body filler), which reinforced the join between the helmet and the ears.
The next stage was priming and filling some of the minor surface defects, which we've all seen before, but just for good measure, here's how it looked
I used PlastiKote Primer Super, which did a great job of adhering to the surface. I sanded it using wet and dry paper from about 240 - 1000 grit. As it would later turn out, I was going to end up stripping all of this primer off - but I'll write more on that later. After more priming and filling, the next job was to cut out the visor. I got a bit confused at this stage, and rather than using the cut lines in the cast that FireWire helpfully provides, I went ahead and cut out the whole visor, as you can see here
In the end, it turned out that I was going to need to cut out all the visor anyway, so that I could see over my LEDs - but at the time, I was a bit gutted that I'd made a mistake so early into the project.
My next step was to buy myself an air compressor and some airbrushes, so that I could start the process of chroming my bucket. I did a bit of research, and bought myself a complete starter kit from eBay - a reasonably cheap compressor that came with a pressure regulator, a moisture trap, a hose and two brushes. The whole thing was about £70 delivered, so not too bad. The single action siphon feed brush I received wasn't exactly great, but the dual-action gravity feed was brilliant, and what I used for the whole project.
I also ordered all the Alclad paints I thought I'd need from Hiroboy - black undercoat, two bottles of the chrome, a bottle of the clear coat, and finally some airbrush cleaner.
Just a quick note, the solvents used in these paints are pretty nasty, and unless you want to chrome the inside of your lungs, you should use the proper safety gear, in an area with proper ventilation. I used my bathroom, as it has a decent sized window and an extractor fan. You'll also want to make sure that you have a PROPER respirator - using a dust mask will do nothing to protect you from the dangerous chemicals. Make sure the respirator or cartridges you get are rated A1/P2 for particles and organic vapours. You should be able to get this from your airbrush supply company, or if you're in the UK, B&Q stock a 28 day disposable respirator that's perfect for this kind of thing.
So the first stage of painting was the black basecoat. It went on relatively easy, and even with the first coat, I started to get a decent shine on the helmet
However, I ran into a bit of a problem here - no matter how many coats I added, I just wasn't happy with the reflectiveness of the surface. After respraying, I would constantly have an orange-peel effect in the paint, and wet sanding the cured paint would invariably lead the the primer very faintly showing through, as you can see on the 'cheek' area in this photo
I later realised that perhaps I should've waited longer than a few days between coats / sanding, and also that using a higher grade of sandpaper would probably of helped. But also, I was probably spraying my initial coats of black a bit too thin. The secret to getting a good gloss finish is to shoot the paint 'wet' - so that it's a glossy, slick looking finish to the paint. The difficult part here is trying to get a wet coat, but not a runny coat. Spray it at about 15psi. I found that holding the brush relatively close to the surface (like, 5cm - 10cm away) and moderating the flow of paint to build up a wet, reflective surface was the best method.
But being unaware of that, I thought that the primer I used might have been at fault and causing the orange-peel effect. The grey can I used was probably about five years old, and I thought that might have something to do with it. On reflection, it probably didn't - but I didn't want to risk pushing ahead with the paint job, just to find out that the whole thing was doomed from the start. So .
I stripped the whole helmet, right back to the resin. It was pretty awful to do it, but I wasn't sure what was the right thing to do. Because I was a bit gutted with this stage of the process, I didn't take any photos. I was a little downhearted and not even sure if the project was going to reach completion. But just imagine a very sad looking person sanding off layers of paint, and you're just about there.
In hindsight, I could probably have pushed through. Eventually my airbrushing technique would've gotten better on the later coats, and I would've discovered MicroMesh.
If you don't know what it is - MicroMesh is basically wizardry. The way it transforms a matte surface to a mirror shine is incredible. It's basically a system of very, very fine abrasives with a soft backing, which will bring anything up to a perfect shine. You use the MicroMesh like you would use any other wet sandpaper, moving up through the grades from around 3200 up to 12000.
I did a bit more research, and decided to go ahead and use the gloss black without a primer first. Combining my improving airbrush technique with the subsequent MicroMesh sanding, I was finally able to get a really, really deep gloss black finish that I was happy with
If I were going to go back and do this again, I wouldn't skip the primer. Whilst using the Alclad gloss black as an undercoat wasn't hugely problematic, it did have a tendency to get sanded off quicker from the Isopon / Bondo that I used as a spot filler. It wasn't a major issue, but it did mean going over a few spots several times, and some very careful sanding.
If you're planning on going the Alclad chrome route, you really need to make sure that the surface is perfect before you start spraying on the chrome layer. There are a couple of spots on my helmet where I skimped on the prep, and the chrome just amplifies any surface defects or marks. In particular, I did a rough job of sanding down the ears, and it's noticeable in the final finish.
So I was just about ready for the chrome paint to go on. When you're spraying the chrome paint, you really need to make sure that the bottle is shaken up very well - I gave it a good couple of minutes of fairly vigorous mixing, and didn't encounter issues, but I read that if you don't, then the chrome effect just won't work. Likewise, with the gloss undercoat, if you don't mix it properly, then it'll never harden and remain tacky forever. So get shaking!
Also, when you're spraying on the chrome, it's basically the opposite of the gloss black. You just want to mist this stuff on, in the lightest possible coat. Remember, you can always go back over with a few more coats, but taking the paint off if you overspray is a real pain in the ass. If the chrome paint goes on too thick, the solvents in it will eat through the undercoats - so go easy on it. Spray at about 12psi, holding the brush about 20cm - 30cm away from the surface.
As you spray it on, you'll start to see the reflections on the black paint start to lighten the whole surface starts to brighten up. Initially, it looks like quite a dark chrome effect. When your first coat looks a bit like this, stop and wait for it to dry before carrying on
It flashes off between coats relatively fast, around about an hour for something this size is more than enough if you're doing light coats. If it's dry, buff it very, very gently with something like a chamois or a polishing cloth, then spray another layer. Here's how it looks with another coat - you can see that it's really starting to look metallic
After a few coats, you'll start to see the surface turn somewhat 'dusty'. Don't panic, this is perfectly normal. It's a good indicator that you've got a good coat of chrome!
Once it's dry, that 'dust' will buff right off, leaving you with a pretty spectacular chrome effect.
I wasn't too happy with the main dome of the helmet, which had a couple of streaks in where I'd oversprayed the chrome, you can just see here above the visor that there's a little bit of clouding
So I stripped back the main dome, leaving the visor and 'face' alone. After a couple more coats, this is what I ended up with
Overall - pretty phenomenal for, what, about £20 worth of paint?
If this were going to be a display only piece, I would've left the paintjob there. But because I wanted it to be wearable, I did need to clearcoat it. The chrome by itself was reasonably resilient, but if you rubbed it too much, it would wear slightly thin. I used the Alclad Aqua Gloss, sprayed at about 40psi in a reasonably thick coat. Again, the aim here is to get a wet coat that doesn't run. From what I've read, it's better to spray one or two thickish coats, rather than lots of light ones, which will just leave you with an orange peel texture.
Clearcoating will definitely take off the shine from the chrome effect, so prepare yourself for that. I don't think in my case it effected the paint, but it did introduce a bit of texture that takes away from the reflections. But personally, the balance between looks and practicality meant that it wasn't too bad. Here's a before and after of the clearcoating
Also, that clearcoat hasn't quite set there. It sprays on somewhat milky, and clears as it dries. And buffing once it's totally set will improve the look somewhat too. Once it was dried, I decided to spray on another coat of the chrome paint, to bring back a little of the lost lustre, which definitely improved the overall look.
Here's the final paintjob, with the visor and LED matrix in place
It's somewhat difficult to photograph the chrome looking as good as it does in real life. It especially looks great when in motion (see the gif at the top of this post for an idea of what that looks like).
There are a few marks and dust spots that are a bit irritating. For example, just above the visor, there are two slight runs in the clearcoat
And there's a slight patchiness at the back, which I guess was caused by poor surface prep
But for the time being, I'm really happy with the way the paint job has turned out :)
In terms of the electronics inside my helmet, I went with
chaz493's suggestion of using an LED car display - although my bracket to hold it in place is much less elegant, though it is removable unlike chaz's original
I made the bracket out of coat hanger wire, bent into shape, and insulated on the front with a bit of electrical tape. There's one piece which holds the matrix into a semi-circular shape, and then two 'arms' on each side (a bit like the arms of glasses), which have a hook on the end to attach into the helmet
Everything is held together with a boatload of hot glue. Remember when I said that I wasn't very crafty? This is what I meant! Not elegant, but it gets the job done.
To hold it in place, I've glued two bolts just in front of the ear cups, which double as a convenient place to store a couple of 9V batteries. The batteries are held in place with some velcro dots. The hooks fit over the bolt, and are secured in place with a nut, so can be removed if needed
I also added a slim case fan over the visor vents, which really helps keeping the visor clear of fog.
The visor itself was made from 1mm PETG, tinted with limo window tint After following the window tint instructions, I left the visor compressed between two bits of wood and under some heavy books for about a week to make sure that there was a strong bond between the tint and the plastic. Next, I made a 'lip' inside the helmet using my dremel's cutting disk, and then used hot glue to attach the visor in place. I need to go back in and clean up some of the hot glue, because it's causing a bit of an issue with reflecting some of the light from the LEDs and looks a little untidy - but the visor itself seems to be holding in place nicely, and the tint looks good, without any bubbles or crinkles.
And that pretty much brings us up to date with where I am with my build!
I hope this post is useful, especially for people considering doing DIY chrome with Alclad. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.
Cheers!