My ATA Helmet Build

[maxsteele[TK]]

 

 

 I personally don't like the look of stopping the frown at the fifth tooth, leaving a white void, and then continuing the frown after it. I do see that some just painted over the 5th tooth, which is what I'm going to do.  However, I see what you mean that I do look like I'm bringing the frown to a point on the indent of the 5th tooth hole.  I had stopped it there from this description:

 

"Frown is painted gray and does not leave the teeth area."

 

Where I stopped it seemed to be where the teeth area ended.  What I'm wondering is where exactly should be the stop point for the frown points?  Reference photos that I'm looking at don't get a good shot on exactly where the points come down to the detail of the helmet.  I don't want to bring it down too far where it's interfering with the cheek areas.

 

What helmet detail would be a stop point for the points of the frown on ATA?  I can then use that as my point, and then paint backward into the rest of the frown.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Ears painted.  I haven't put the black rank stripe on yet, but I wanted to show this painting progress.  My cell camera took the pic upside down.  I tried 5 times to rotate the pic in imgur, but it just wouldn't stick.  It's ok though, you can see what they look like.

 

[maxsteele[TK]]

Well, it looks like I really made a big screw up.

 

I went to size up my tube stripe templates on my cheeks to prepare for painting them.  I noticed something off:

 

 

 

See the 14th and 15th stripes?  The 14th stripe will be touching my ear, and the 15th stripe will be covered by it.

 

Then I started looking at other people's builds, and it seems their ears are set back a good 1/2" or so more than mine are.  I followed everything, I lined up the traps with the tears, I double and triple measured all my holes, I made so many posts here validating everything I was doing, and my ears are too close to the face plate of my helmet.  I'm disappointed that I was so careful and even told my line ups and screw holes looked good, only to find out this far into the build I don't have enough room to put all of the stripes on the cheeks.

 

If I attempt to move the ears back, I'll have to drill new holes, and my ear shapes will be off and may not cover the cut lines between the two pieces.  Also, if I don't have enough left to trim, I'll need to start over with the ears again.  Another issue is moving them back will expose the current holes I have drilled.

 

If I can, I will simply just leave off a couple of blue stripes on each side of the cheeks and call it good.  I'm fine with this.  I have seen some other builds on the forums that don't have 16 stripes on one side and 15 on the other.   One build had 13 on each side.  I would be able to have the same.  Thoughts are always welcome.

 

EDIT:

 

It seems the CRLs have this to say about the tube stripes:

 

• Tube stripes are medium blue, numbering between 9 and 16 per side with the curve bends extending backwards.

 

Between 9 and 16?  Does this mean that there were helmets that didn't have exactly 16 on one side and 15 on another?

 

 

Yep, here's one with 13 stripes on the right side.  Just like how I'll have to do mine.

 

This guy has 11 stripes, and the space between the end of his ear and the tear looks to be the same as mine:

 

 

 

And both of these crawling TKs have 13 stripes:

 

 

 

Ok, I believe my panic attack is averted.  I took my helmet back apart to see if maybe I put my ears on the wrong way, but I hadn't.  I think I'll keep my helmet apart for applying the tube stripe decals and painting them.  I'll put my ears back up to it to make sure I don't paint any stripes underneath them.  I'll just cut down or ignore a couple of the tube stripes in the template when I paint.

Edited May 19, 2014 by maxsteele

[maxsteele[TK]]

I did the "paint gloss white over the template to seal it first" trick, then waited what I thought would be enough time to start painting the blue.  I waited about 1 hour and 45 minutes, and then started painting in the blue.

 

Yeah, that didn't go so well.

 

It seems that an hour and 45 minutes was not enough time for the white to fully dry, and I had horrible coverage with the blue.  I've tried to salvage it as best I can by letting the blue dry a bit and then painting it again, but I think I'm going to have a big blue mess when I pull the template back.  This was on the right side of the helmet.  I'm not going to touch the left side of the helmet until probably tomorrow night.  Surely that will be enough time for the white to dry.

 

I have no idea what I'm going to do with the right side if it looks horrible.  We'll see what happens when I pull the template off.

 

EDIT:

Yeah, it was pretty messy.  Fortunately, parts that are dry are cleaning up nicely.  I'm just going to let it sit for 16 hours or so and then I'll scrape away the mistakes with a toothpick.  Testors paint is really good at doing that.

Edited May 20, 2014 by maxsteele

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Humbrol takes about 6 hours minimum to be dried because it is a chemical reaction which make it dry. And sometimes it can take much longer (>24h!) so always check with the very tip of your finger before painting over.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Humbrol takes about 6 hours minimum to be dried because it is a chemical reaction which make it dry. And sometimes it can take much longer (>24h!) so always check with the very tip of your finger before painting over.

 

Yep, I had checked it, and the white was dry to the touch. Unfortunately, once the wet blue hit it, it wasn't dry anymore and started mixing with the blue.

 

I tried some cleanup this morning and I think it will be fine. I'll get the left side painted tonight.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

[maxsteele[TK]]

Behold!  The power of toothpicks!

 

 

 

I didn't take a before shot.  But trust me, it was not pretty.  Paint everywhere.  This pic is a little blurry, but you get the idea.  My right side tube stripes are complete!  Tonight, I'll paint the left side, let it dry over night, then I'll remove the template and clean up if necessary.  Final touch will be the rank stripe on the ears, which I'll free-hand, and then I am done with painting!

[gazmosis[501st]]

Good work so far. Is it just me or do you maybe think you went a bit small on those tear areas?

[maxsteele[TK]]

I did go smaller on the tears than I had originally masked off.  Pandatrooper was telling me that I masked off too big of an area.  I explained that I had it masked so the black would come down to the indent of the tear, into the valley.  He said that the black was on the flattest part of the tear ducts, which meant before the valley, and then he posted this image:

 

 

And so I brought the black lines back to before the dip into the valley on the tear.  My black lines are on the flattest part of the tears.  Comparing the tear on your image to the tear that Panda posted, his tear is certainly smaller than yours.

 

I feel like if I bring the black lines out further, I'm going to end up making my tears too big.

 

Also, interesting that your helmet pic has 11 tube stripes, and Panda's has 13.  

Edited May 21, 2014 by maxsteele

[Locitus[Admin]]

Definitely too small tears. Yours are smaller than those of both shown helmets.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Hrm...  Well, better too small than too big, right?  Definitely easier to add more black on than to scrape away the black.

 

I'll work on bringing them out.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Your tears should fill the complete inside of the tear, right up to the "wall".

[maxsteele[TK]]

Here's a bigger tear on the left side (ignore all the bleeding on my tube stripes.  Believe it or not, those look better than what the right side originally looked like)

 

 

 

Should I go bigger?  That seems plenty big right now.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Yes.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Here's the right side.  Now I feel like I went too big on the right side.  Or do I need to go bigger on the left side?  This is tricky.

 

 

 

I need to wait for the black to dry before I can paint in the grey.

 

 

EDIT:

 

Just saw your "Yes", Mathias, on should I go bigger on the left side.  That makes me think I went the right size on the right side here.  I'll bring the left side out more.

Edited May 21, 2014 by maxsteele

[maxsteele[TK]]

Thanks for the near real-time feedback guys.  You're all awesome.    Here's the left side again, made bigger:

 

 

 

As I said, I'll let this dry overnight and then I'll paint in the grey, and modify my stripes.  I think I'm good now.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Your tears should fill the complete inside of the tear, right up to the "wall".

 

Gah!  That's what I was going to be doing originally!  Then Panda was saying that my tears would be too big.  

 

Alright, I'll paint them right up to the wall, but not going up the wall.  So my black line should rid in that valley all the way around the tear.  I can certainly do that.  It's what I wanted to do in the first place.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Gah!  That's what I was going to be doing originally!  Then Panda was saying that my tears would be too big.  

 

Alright, I'll paint them right up to the wall, but not going up the wall.  So my black line should rid in that valley all the way around the tear.  I can certainly do that.  It's what I wanted to do in the first place.

That is correct. To the wall, but not up on it.

[maxsteele[TK]]

I have traced with a pencil right down in the valley where it butts up against the wall.  That is where I believe I want to put the black up to:  (please ignore color difference - this was with my phone's flash so the pencil lines would show up)

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2014 by maxsteele

[Locitus[Admin]]

That line looks much more like it.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Thanks for sticking with me Mathias.  I'll paint to my pencil lines.

[gazmosis[501st]]

WOO HOO!!!!! If you paint many more layers over that, it will look like a bumpy mess. I'd strip it and start over now that you know where you are going with this.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Well Steve, I'm not going to paint over the grey I already have.  The only painting over I'm doing is the new layer of black that I just put in.  That up-close pic with the flash looks terrible, but it does not look like that at all in natural light and at a normal viewing distance.

 

I'm going to try painting the grey in and see if it works.  If it doesn't, then I'll consider stripping it.  It won't take any more effort to strip it a couple of days from now.  

 

If I do need to strip it, since it's ABS and not painted HIPS, will hitting it with thinner take the paint off?  I don't want to risk using too much thinner and start softening the ABS.  That would be my luck.  Or would I just scrape off the paint with some type of small instrument?  I've never done something like that before.

[gazmosis[501st]]

As long as whatever thinner you use is mineral spirit based you will be fine. NO ACETONE!!!

Any question, test on scrap ABS

[maxsteele[TK]]

No stripping necessary!  And yes, they look much better.  Thank you Steve and Mathias for taking the time to look at my progress and talk me through widening the tears.