Scootch

That looks great! Nice work so far!!!!

Hey this is looking good!

Well there have been some great posts here! Thanks! My local Hardware store carries Rustoleum products only, so I picked up a can of Satin Black "Universal" advanced formula spray paint. It's got a crazy ergonomic looking trigger instead of the standard issue cap and spray button. But it's supposed to adhere to plastics!!! I will take my helmet bits to work tomorrow and prep them for a good squirting. Directions suggest several light coats within a few minutes of each other followed by a minimum 24 hour cure time. Sounds like all the other Paints I've ever used. Well if anyone wants to stop me you've got about 24 hours from now to do it!!!!! After that it's either laughing at a job well done or laughing at a blow it!!!

Yup, I went to my local screen and window shop, told them I was a Star Wars Freak and what I needed. They gladly handed over a fat roll of the nylon style screen material free of charge . All I had to do was hose it down on the driveway and cut pieces off as I need them.

No problemo! Yeah, I'm gonna paint it for sure since it's sure to aid in hiding my face inside, but I wanna find out who's done what and with what type of materials. I was planning to go with Rustoleum or Krylon fusion paint on one bucket. Unless someone has a better idea.

Hey troops! I know there have been interior decorating threads posted before, I'm interested in learning more about getting the inside of my bucket just right. Spray paint vs. whatever else is going in. Trying to stay away from toxic fumes after the deed is done too.

Great tips all! I went out old school and after gluing what could be clamped I came back 48 hours later with a small artist's brush and filled in the seams and pulled it all together snuggly with velcro style straps. Masked everything with blue tape first of course. Magnets are a great idea!

Great Idea! Nothing beats a good pair of knee pads! I bet that thing is comfy. I was able to take a few moments to make new lenses for my CE last week. Have a green face shield I've been whitling on for the past three helmets. Nothing fancy to report, just removed the stockers, traced around them on the face shield, cut with kitchen scissors, drilled out the holes and slapped 'em back in. Just doing that improved the bucket's looks tremendously! And I was able to peel the padding away from the stockers and re-use it.

Copy that Drosch! Here's another thing I stumbled upon by accident......your local fire department maintains their own vehicles to a certain extent. One of the things they have to do is rub out the light bars atop the vehicles and the headlamps too. I bought some plastic "cleaner" and "polish" at the local auto paint store to fix some light scratches in my TX. Same thing they use for their rigs. Works pretty well. You'll find if you take a Stormie bucket into an automotive paint wholesaler (where the hot rodders shop) they get all into it and come out with all sorts of helpful tips. Remember, these costumes are like life size models and all those guys used to sprack out on models as kids in the 50's. I'm a trial and error guy but that's half the fun for me in this hobby.

Well this may not be THE stuff, but I did a black laquer finish on some fork tins for an old BSA. I worked on them for a week of evenings from metal to primer to paint. I finished them by wet sanding with super fine grit, then rubbed them out with rubbing compound (Turtle wax brand I beleive) and finally a good carnuba wax. My old man is a hot rodder and when he saw those tins he was impressed. the rubbing compound is also good for removing scratches in clearcoat. I'm certain there are better brands of rubbing compound out there for modelling and Stormie helmets Orange peel has nothing to do with painting. It's caused from ABS being overheated when forming. When it occurs you can usually sand the worst off if it's minimal, but that's a bandaide fix for a piece that should be scrapped. True I've seen actual OATMEAL on burnt up ABS. Truth is orange peel is a painting problem which plagues the majority of humanity and thus such things as fine grit sandpaper, rubbing compounds, clearcoats, and buffers have been invented to combat it.

All this plus the actual material being sprayed, it's adhesion to the subject it's being sprayed onto, temperature, humidity, "anxiety" ha ha ha. Remember, some (most) paints have a shelf life and it's a good idea to use fresh and not something you've had in storage for any lengthy amount of time. I've screwed up so many paint jobs that I've learned quite a bit about what not to do next time.

Anxiety is definately a big one.......we're all guilty of this, wanting our paint job instantly without giving thought to things like runs and orange peel. I do it all the time, you can sand the orange peel out or sand and go over again not as thick. To prevent it outright one must paint in light coats and the first one or two will look strange, but in the end it will work to your advantage.

There's all kind of buckets on the Bay! The one in the pics looks like Hero style to me. I prefer stunt myself.

I've had several guys tell me super glue plus baking soda = big time bonding to plastic. Never tried this but if it works you could glue a piece of your trim scraps in the inside of the bucket to reinforce it. You could use ABS glue for that as well.

Awwww C'mon.......we're all bros here! No feelings hurt. You know that FX kit is bulky and requires much work for us smaller framed troops, I for one am totally into improving my TX . Working on Helmet and custom holster now in fact. I'm going for ANH Elite stats in black. I do appreciate all the great input here at FISD and you guys do look good in white! And who else is nuts enought to do a TE in Black?????

Well black DOES make you look slimmer. Man all of a sudden I feel like I'm in the wrong neighborhood..............

I made the control pad of my cannister (TD) removable and lined the inside with felt. It's attached to my belt by toggle bolts so it aint fallin' off! Money I keep inside my glove, and there was a fellow who actually installed a motorcycle helmet anti fog piece of material to help keep his glasses clear. I think he ran fans too. All the stashes posted in this thread are awesome! Great work guys! Only other suggestion I've got is roll with a Sandy and stash your stuff on him!