TheLorelei

Yesterday I harvested my glued bucket face with much delight: Look at those lenses! *swoons* Then I moved one strapping connection point and glued down the kidney side of the elastic hinge (which is made of elastic glued to ABS strips like the ab/kidney hinge, but the ABS is on the bottom here). Aaand that's where the happy stops. I assembled my bucket to discover that I dislike the ears, the ears I spent so many hours on. They look different from each other. But how different is too different? Here we have our friend, Mr. Move Along: - sporting an eerily similar difference in thickness of the lower ears, and this chap in the front: with seemingly similar balance issues. You can see the right ear from even this drastic angle, while the fully visible left is quite thin at the bottom. And then Mr. Set for Stun (many thanks to starwarshelmets.com for curating all these!): which COULD be the photo angle, but still, the ears aren't identical. Lay it on me, y'all. Should I redo both ears? One ear? If so, which one? Are they fine as is? Specific suggestions greatly appreciated. Today I'll place belt snaps on the ab, start painting the cap, and do some fixing up of the belt rivets so I can glue the covers on. And yeah, I'll wrestle with the sniper knee, too.

I heard one! And that's tough about the cap color. It's nice that it's darker than the face but it does seem a bit too dark, at least in pictures. Have you taken it into different lights to see how the shade of khaki changes? Maybe that would help you decide.

Folks tend to recommend Darman: And there are others in the sales section, too. Or you could make your own!

Welcome, Erick! As silly as it sounds, this white armor journey is one of change and healing for many, myself included. It's a GREAT group of folks here who are willing to come alongside. Have a browse, ask anything, and once more - welcome!

Hang in there, Frank. Why hello, Sha Sha! Right, a skills blind spot I want to explore - that's exactly what this is. Good for you for making the fan setup! Did you use squirrel fans? Nice to know you're happy with just two (and oh my, how do they use no fans at all??). I haven't decided how many I'll use yet; I've heard having one on top of your head pointing down towards the back is nice for clearing gathered heat and humidity though. And I'm not sure how I'll like having fans blowing up my face so I'm anticipating a bit of placement testing and modification anyway.

Oh my goodness Rowan who let you in the house?? You're exactly right And thanks! I'm feeling the full effects of the 80/20 principle - stuck in that last 20% of work that's taking 80% of the time. Got everything glued as planned today though so that's something.

Thanks, Matt! With thinner lenses I would have used your Sugru method (but with epoxy putty, what I made the mounts from, instead). Since the lens material that came with my kit is so rigid, I made the mounts the proper shape so the lenses would be forced to conform, instead - they sit so nicely once all screwed in, so I won't be baking any lenses any time soon, don't worry!

Thanks Brad! Yeah, I'll wait and see. Or not see, if the fog is that bad. Fan placement is going to be interesting. But that's a matter for my electronics thread.

Glad you're back at it - nothing like some white armor to cheer a spirit Looks to me like if you took some of the return edge from the top of the ab you could gain some space to help close the gap.

Oven is an idea! I'm quite wary of using a heat gun. Fortunately they're lying peacefully now, at least: but if they rebel at some point (or I swap lenses) I'll give the oven a shot Thanks for the options! So yep, I assembled my eyes tonight. And I CA-glued some fiberglass screening (and a bit of glove) into my frown outline: and trimmed that down. Sliding the completed eyes onto the face was a happy squeal moment, to be sure. It looks like a real bucket!! I had to polish up some bucket scratches before moving further, though, so I spent a while sanding to 2,000 grit and then Novus-ing it up. The results are satisfactory. Smudge's smudge remains on his nose despite it all. (Insert nose/spite/face pun that I'm too tired to riddle out.) Tomorrow I'll use my heated workspace to E6000 in the eyes, frown, ab button plate, and new kidney-butt attachment points. Moving along!

Trust me, I tried. Whatever they're made of just isn't a thermoplastic. Heat (from seriously extended periods of time in boiling water, at least) has no effect whatsoever. They spring delightfully back into flatness when cooled!

Lens mounts! Those silly, dust-involving pieces that kept my whole bucket waiting for them! I chose this design because a) it looks awesome and b) I needed something with many points of attachment for the lens (more than the 2-3 Chicago screw concept) because my lenses were so thick and not thermoplastic. Y'all saw bits and pieces of making the mounts - I finished sanding them down to size, filled the edges, sanded again, and prepared to drill screw holes (an important step as you don't want the epoxy to crack as the screw forces it apart). I had cut out lenses earlier, otherwise I would have cut them based on the mounts. I held the lens on the mount and picked eight points at which to secure it, placing more Sharpie dots on the higher tension/curve area at the lower left. (I imagine these tension points vary from helmet to helmet depending on how you trimmed your eyes.) Since I had #2 screws, I used a 1/16" drill bit to make holes in the lens. I wanted these done before I drilled pilot holes in the actual mount for alignment's sake. Then I held the lens in place super tight and made my first pilot hole right in the middle of the high tension zone. This way, everything else takes its alignment from this spot. PSA: keep your drill bit at a 90° angle to your lens! Especially important when you want the screw heads to lie flat for aesthetics. You know, for all the people that will see the inside of your helmet. A look at how high the lens wants to float after the first screw is in: This is a stubborn, stubborn material. I'm glad I'll have as many screws in it as I will. (Also, this is clearly before I filled the edges and re-sanded.) Repeat the push-down-hard-and-drill thing just across from the first screw, get that screw in, and everything should cooperate much better from there on out. No need to put screws in every hole as you go any more. Next I took all the screws out, sanded the mount edges to match the lens edges where practical, washed the mounts thoroughly to get rid of that pesky epoxy dust, and let them dry while I tested my 3-part Novus polish on the lenses. It's pretty neat stuff. Still some hairline scratches, but I can't see snuff through the lenses anyway so potatoe, tomahto. Once the mounts dried I painted them black (no pics) and that's where they stand. Woo!

Great progress despite setbacks! Go you! The punch may have gotten bent due to hammering on the granite slab if you didn't put a buffer behind the leather would be my guess. @Grihm is our resident leatherworker and can likely weigh in on punch quality questions.

It's admittedly pretty obscure but if The Three Stooges is (are?) your thing, it's a must-see! It's run by Larry Fine's grandniece's husband. Delightful chap. Looks like it's closed through March for renovations but I highly recommend a visit after that!

We exist solely to infuriate you. *bows* What can I say - I wasn't willing to sacrifice the entire mount by drawing in false sanding lines in more artistic places. Alternate (also true) excuse: I'm really really bad at applying makeup.