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Making the best out of a bad ANH recast - advice requested


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Hi there. I'm Sarah, and fairly new here. My first bucket I purchased was an ebay recast from Makerofthings. I know better now, and have purchased a nice ABS ATA helmet, so let's move beyond the scolding to my actual question.

The lower back edge of the helmet seems extremely irregular on my pull, and I don't see a single reference of anyone cutting that back lower edge. Is this correct? I know the black rubber trim will go on it, and make it much better, but I'm just not sure if my edge looks correct. I feel like it should be a solid curve intowards the neck rather than that curve plus an added little flip out away from the neck again. I've attached photos. I'm having lots of trouble finding references of DURING the trimming process, which I feel is the most important/easy to mess up step. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've included a shot of my facepiece, which thankfully isn't too bad a pull and trimmed pretty easily.




 

Thanks!

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Normally you can see a faint line where the helmet pieces need to be trimmed. Have a look through some if the ATA threads I know there are some there with pencil lines on them showing where to cut. Good luck with the build

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 Are you on the DSG forums? We have a lot of people locally that can help you. We are having a armor party on the 22nd of this month.

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It does look like the neck bulge is a little shallow, but it's harder to tell from photos and when it's not all together. Might I suggest (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong - I'm on suggesting what I would try myself) to use a little sealing iron on that very edge to curve it inward more like the rest of the bulge? The sealing iron we use for return edges. Or perhaps simply heating it with a hot hair dryer, but it's harder to "mold" properly on the edges that way.

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I'm not sure what a sealing iron is...I'm very new to all of this. Think a hair straightener might work? I could test it on a scrap piece. Great advice! Thanks Ingrid. It does look like if i trim any more, It wont meet the cheeks properly, so I have not as of yet. I also had to assemble it with screws only, the rivets were not working very well. I'm not sure if that will discount me from entry, but I'm making a second helmet anyway so ...

Very grateful for the responses! I know the 'new people posts' might be somewhat bothersome.

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Another idea would be: keep it the way it is at the moment. Then join face and back and see how it looks with the trim on. Measure twice, cut once ;-)

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Thanks Steffen! The face and back are joined, and I was able to put the brow trim on. I've quit for the evening but will try and do the rest tomorrow, when I purchase more screws (oops). Here is a progress shot. I will do what you suggested before trying to warp it. maybe the trim will cover the imperfections! Thanks.

7ETLJP0.jpg

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Looking good but you could go a little squarer on the teeth corners also the brow trim seems high in the middle and low on the sides. Coming along nicely :)

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I appreciate the critique, always good to have an objective eye. The brow is stuck like that unless I attach the browband with glue later on and drop it in the middle. I think I will have to do that. Teeth I can easily fix! :) This mold is super-bad so I'm having to improvise and repair a lot.

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