This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life! Thank you thank you thank you so much for posting this! I need to make some resin helmets for a costume group this summer & this is exactly what I needed to see!!!
So what are all the different things you used in this? What did you coat the helmet with, what did you put over that, what did you use for the mold, etc. I love this, I'd like to learn more about it.
I used Smooth-on Black Onyx. I also used Onyx reinforced with fiberglass for the outer shell. I like Onyx for its ability to resist heat. The two biggest risks to resin helmets is being dropped and loosing its shape from heat, like being left in the car too long or being in direct sunlight for too long. Since most helmets will suffer damage from being dropped, I use Onyx to help with the heat warping.
Realy, you working withut dust protection and vaccum cleanerr??? Fiberglass isn't your lungs' best friend, without protection. Don´t do this. But the helmet looks good.
I actually do wear a respirator, and did most of the time and also had a vapor and dust collection just off camera...I wasn't wearing my respirator only when talking to the camera but most of that was cut due too the vapor and dust collector noise on the audio.
The original helmet was a generic 3d Mandolorian helmet, heavily modified to create the proper look. The ears and ear caps and also the key slot (recessed panel in the rear) were all hand made using body filler and styrene plastic.
Small question regarding the outer shell of the mold: at what point did you remove the clay/create this ridge to split the cast? Im a little confused as to what exactly you did there.. But awesome work! Very helpful:)
The clay was removed after the first half of the outer shell had cured, then some heavy paste wax (minwax paste finishing wax) was applied too keep the two outer shell haves from sticking together.
What product did you use for the mother mold? I see the plaster wrap but the black substance has me perplexed. You only used one coat of this and it doesn't appear that thick like a plaster mother mold would.
Yes, I used magnets, I started experimenting with keying molds with magnets, The goal was to have a thinner sock mold to have a seamless helmet ready for paint with little work. Thinner molds tend to show traditional keys in the finished part as dents or wavy distortions. Magnets solve this.
@@SpiderTrout check out our lastmonths streams on my channel. Last month was all about mold making. Good info and our love stream are all about props and prop making. Feel free to join the conversation and ask questions
@@MaskedCrypto smooth-on 57D will make a flexible helmet that will hold its shape. Its a urethane resin that works well in roto casting and large slush molds
LOL...I know it can be difficult. if you notice in the video I built up clay on the backside of the clay partition. the clay I built up for support is also how I hold the clay to the silicon. I work the clay till it softens and gets sticky, I also add a little water to help. Another thing I do that makes things easier is my partition is strait. Others like to add angles and bends in their partitions for keying the mother mold. Mine are just strait and I add wedge shaped clay cutouts to the partition for keying.
@@cloudy95979 I also used Onyx for the outer shell, that and fiber glass mat. I had lots of Onyx on hand at that time but I could have just as easily used fiberglass resin also. The outer shell is just for supporting the silicon mold and holding the over all shape. You can use almost anything thats rigid for the outer shell. People use many different materials for their outer shells, all depends on their own preference. I used plaster just the other day to support an open faced silicon mold, I knew the mold was going the only have 4 or 5 castings so to save money and keep the cost down I made a thin silicon mold backed with plaster, total cost just under $50. So for 5 castings the mold cost turned out to be less than $10 per cast. I had made a thicker silicon mold and backed it with a more expensive material the cost would be over $100, which makes the cost per casting over $20. Depending on the intended use of the mold and the number of castings you plan to make from your mold can help you decide what materials to use for the outer shell.
That's correct. I used rare earth magnets in the mother mold and the silicone mold for registration. I'm going to be doing a tutorial video on this process in the future.
@@blasterpro7860 I saw the magnets in the silicone mold, but I wasn’t sure why you put those in before you did the mother mold since the rubber mold was a one piece & didn’t need to be separated. I am very new to mold making of this caliber, so I’m not quite sure how “registration keys“ work.
@@catherinefisher6188 The keys are for lining up the silicon mold to the mother mold. My goal with this mold was create a seamless mold needing little clean-up. with my past experiences the mold has to be relatively thin, 7 or 8 layers to act as a sock mold. traditional keys can cause dents or imperfections in the finished helmet. Using magnets helps to avoid this problem. Also a thicker mold will do the same but would have to be a two part with a seam line. Having a thinner mold imperfections can easily creep into your finished helmet, for example besides the keys having a lumpy or very uneven outer surface to your silicon mold can and probably will show up on your finished helmet. The mother mold will reproduce all the lumps and imperfections and its very difficult for the silicon mold to settle in pefect even with the keys....Smooth is ideal. Heres a live stream where we go into detail about helmet molds, skip to 17:00 ru-vid.comLiHhDSIYRp8?feature=share
The video did have audio, but the fact we where using a vapor extraction system it made the audio unusable for parts of the video. Also we made this while we where preparing for our large charity event and con which the helmets where used. If you look at the comments I have answered many questions people have asked, including materials, what processes I used and how magnets work for keying the mold.
That’s super cool. Right up until the end I was like “I still don’t get it. If you fill that thing with resin you’ll never get your head in it.” Then he rolls it around the inside. Duh! That’s awesome though
