TK 4510 Helmet Build

[gazmosis[501st]]

I picked up one of Mike's (TK-4510) new ABS helmet kits. First off I would like to say what a pleasure it has ALWAYS been dealing with him. I have purchased numerous decal sheets and now the helmet kit and he is a true professional and a credit to the FISD. As well as his helmet tutorials!!! Anyway, he gave me his blessing to show off my helmet build of his kit. I hope I will make him proud. There was very little trimming to do. For the excpetion of the ears, I had to trim very little to assemble.

To begin, he was nice enough to initial the inside.Next a spread of the necessities.The details are great! Both faceplate and cap-n-back are of good thickness. But I can't get over how much it actually looks like a HIPS helmet with all the bumps and nuances we love.The eye sockets of the mold are much deeper than any other helmet I have built. This actuall made it tricky to mark off where to cut. I marked out the eyes and the teeth before cutting. I drilled holes and used a rotary tool with a rotozip bit on it to cut out the main area of the eyes. I then detail sanded with the tiny sanding drums on the rotary tool. One is in the picture next to the scissors.

Edited August 16, 2011 by gazmosis

[gazmosis[501st]]

After sanding smooth the eye openings, I began on the teeth. This was a bit of a challenge because the plastic within the teeth was very thick. I pre drilled and detail cut with an exacto knife. Notice how nice the eyes came out.With all face features cut out, I was ready to attach the cap-n-back. I put in a piece of dummy brow trim to make sure the cap fit right against the face. I drilled the cap at the ear, marked it against the face. Ithen drilled the face and snapped a rivet with a washer to secure it all up. I repeated on the other side.Now the ears. This was the only part that lacked mold detail. It was very difficult to see where I needed to mark the curved parts to cut out. Luckily, I had some leftover ears from a previous build and used that as a guide. I gave myself plenty of extra for I know there was a lot of tweeking to be done. First I marked, scored and snapped.

[TK-4510[501st]]

Looking good so far man. Be careful with that knife or you will slice your palm open like I did...

[gazmosis[501st]]

I guess I need to tweek this a little.The only tool I used to trim the ears was the rotary tool with the mini sanding drum. Oh, and a pencil. The more I trimmed the better the fit. A millimeter here and there can really make a difference!!Not bad but needs more tweeking.Several more tweeking sessions later and I think I am there.At the top of the ear, I cut a little notch to make up for the ridge that is created between the cap and faceplate. This allows the ear to fit nice against the helmet surface.I'll spare you the adventure with the other side. But all worked out well. One feature that I really liked about the ears was that the holes that marked the screw locations were reworked in the molds to create the recess for the screw head. In other builds, one needs to use a countersink or a larger drill bit to create this. This was a nice touch!!!!! I then drilled out the screw locations on the ears and helmet and mounted the ears. (sorry I didn;t take a pic of this!) I removed the ears and set them aside to be polished and detail painted. Something you can only do with and ABS kit. LOVE IT!!!!! At this point, I needed to make and install the lenses. Welders sheild of course.Although the lenses have a bit of a curve, it is not enough to match the eye opening. A little heat solves this issue.TO give something for the lenses to sit on and glued to, I cut several small squares of ABS and glue them together in a stack until it matches the reveal of the eye opening. I attach them with plasti-weld.

[gazmosis[501st]]

A little dab of hot glue and the lenses are in!Now that principle construction is done we can get to making things look really pretty. The ABS is amatte finish at best so it needs to be polished out to shine. The linelike glare at the bottom is actually a 4 bulb light in my shop that you can see in the after polishing picture. I use the compound first then the polish.The "after" pic. See the lights?I chose to hand paint all my details. I didn't want to make this a step by step painting thread which is why I didn't take pics along the way. Just one. Everything did come out nice, though.FYI, the paint I used was testors 1138 gloss gray. I added1147 gloss black in a mixing cup until the shade matched the grey on the decal sheet. Trim was just gloss black. Then I did the vocoder. I actually had to rough up the area first with fine sand paper to give the paint something to bite to. Then I marked it.

Edited August 16, 2011 by gazmosis

[gazmosis[501st]]

Since the vocoder needs to be a matte black, I mixed testors 1149 flat black with the 1147 gloss in equal parts to get this. I think it came out nice.Now that the details are done, I needed to put on the mouth screen. I trimmed it so that there would not be too much excess. I used super glue but I wiped all the surfaces with the priming pen (glue activator). This is the same stuff recommended to glue Karin's rubber handplates to the black chemical gloves. This works great for an instand grab!!!Next I installed all the detail trim. The brow, the hovis and the "s" neck trim. I ALWAYS save the tube stripes for last. I don't know why I see this as the final piece to the project but I do.Once the stripes are in, I needed to dab the screws with some white paint, give it a final wipe down and the lid is complete!!!! Marvel at its glory!!! I want to give Mike(TK-4510) a thanks for being who he is and giving me his blessing to do this build. Sadly though, as deeply in love as I am with this helmet, I need to part with it. I bought this to be my back up for my armor but it is a noticeable shade off and just doesn't match with the rest of the armor. Thanks, though for giving me the experience and hopefully helpign someone else along the way!

[TK-7980]

Thats a beautiful helmet.

 

 

A little note though, the tube stripes are on the wrong sides.

[gazmosis[501st]]

I never knew there was a standard for the amount of stripes that are on each side???

[gazmosis[501st]]

Still trying to figure out the tube stripe comment. I have reviewed several centurion award threads and the amount of tube stripes is different on every helmet. ??????

[Sonnenschein]

It is not the number, the left and right sides are different und you mixed them up. Hardly noticeable.

But it is a nice build. Mike got me the #4 helmet and i am proud of it beyond words.

Edited August 16, 2011 by Sonnenschein

[gazmosis[501st]]

O.K. , let's start over. I have never seen "R" or "L" on tube stripe decal sheets. What is it about the stripes that makes them left or right? They are just curved bars set in a row. How can this be seperated into left or right?

[TK-4510[501st]]

The tube stripe decals are on the sheet the way they should be applied to the helmet. Left goes on the left side, right goes on the right. Before I made these "hand painted look": tube stripe decals, all tube stripe decals were identical. When I was making the Dave M decals I noticed that the Dave M helmet as well as other helmets had the tube stripes painted on irregularly. I noticed that the stripes varied in width and shape AND I noticed that as the stripes got closer to the chin they seemed to curve inwards more on the inside edges. So my tube stripes are made for left and right. You can kind of fix this mix up by removing the first and maybe second stripe from each side carefully and switching them.

Edited August 16, 2011 by Trooperbay

[SCTrooper[TK]]

Wow! Your hand painted details look amazing, How many helmets have you painted?

[gazmosis[501st]]

Thanks for the kudos, Nick!! I have built about 15 but hand painted about 7 or 8 depending on What I feel like doing. I have always liked the hand painted look and since I have found a way to make it come out o.k.,I just choose to do that sometimes.

[gazmosis[501st]]

O.k. After getting in touch with TK- 4510 himself I will make my attemps at repositioning the tube stripes without tearing them. Wish me luck. I will post the "corrected" lid when done.

[TK-4510[501st]]

if you mess up just PM me your address again and I will send you a replacement set

[gazmosis[501st]]

Thanks a ton for the offer, Mike! This just proves the professional you are. Since you are the authority.....did I fix it or is there more tweeking to do?

[TK-4510[501st]]

Good enough for government work

 

By the way, excellent job on the hand painting. Next time get my tube stripe masking templates and hand paint the entire thing

Edited August 16, 2011 by Trooperbay

[gazmosis[501st]]

I will take that as compliment times 10 coming from the man himself. Thank you!!!!!!

[Cannon]

That's a beautiful lid mate. Great skills.

Edited August 17, 2011 by Cannon

[tk0000[501st]]

That's a nice thing to do Mike. Great looking helmet too!

[Stormsurge]

Boy am I sick, just noticed ive done the same, any advice on removing the first and second stripe without damaging them?

[gazmosis[501st]]

I used a very new razor blade and very carefully worked the corner up until there was enough to stick to the blade. Once it begins to lift press your finger onto the decal that's stuck to the blade and gently lift. If done right, only a tiny, tiny bit of the decal will be stuck to the blade. The will let you line it up the way you want visually, then re-apply it.

[Jancelot[TK]]

This thread is great! I just received one of Mike's helmets and started my build today. Thanks for the details and pics.

[silverBoyd[501st]]

Great build thread...did u have to trim the bottom edge of the face mask? Seems there is a very faint line that looks like I'm suppose to trim it...what you think?