My Sandy AP

[lordvader1974[501st]]

OK guys. Here's the deal. I recently bought a full TD from someone on the MEPD boards. It ended up being a soft recast of FX armor but it had a great backpack, decent T-21, and an AP helmet. The armor probably wouldn't have been my first choice since it's a recast but I'm stuck with what I'm stuck with. Truthfully, the only thing I'm waiting on is thighs from RT-mod that I'll weather to match and I should be good to go.

 

Anyhoo, about the helmet. He had already built the helmet and did a pretty decent job but there were some things that bothered me a bit so I decided to tear it apart and build it up the way I wanted. I took the lenses out because they had hot glue on them and didn't fit the contour of the eyes very well. I decided to replace them with ones from Smitty (great product btw...check 'em out if you haven't already). I was very unhappy with the neck trim. It looked like a very ill fitting piece of hard auto door trim. I think it probably used to fit, but the guy I bought it from is like me with a good sized gourd and had to open the neck up a little just to be able to put the helmet on (it's still a chore for me but I like it that way). Also, it didn't conform very well around the vocodor. The interior of the bucket was unpainted and only had what I assume was the padding that came with the kit. He had hot glued everything into place in the helmet and there were just gobs of the mess all over the interior. While they didn't hurt anything, they just bugged me.

 

So, I set to work correcting the things I could. I took the aerators out and made them more "wonky." Then I used rubberized undercoating all through the interior (after removing all the old hot glue of course). I padded it with some T-ball batting helmet padding that I cut to fit the way I needed it to. He had two CPU fans each wired straight to a 9v with no switch and just left the wires taped in the helmet. While functional, I decided to make it more functional by adding a 3rd 9v and making it all work off a switch and hiding the wires in some wire loom. I got some of the Webers S trim for te neck and cut it so that it met in the back. Then I re-weathered it to match my taste and it looks like the sand around here at the beaches and in spots of my back yard. After I broke it back down to add the new lenses, I decided to trim a little off the front of the cap to raise the brow slightly. You can see in the initial pics that the brow was very low. The final pic is one I took yesterday after installing the lenses, raising the brow, padding it up, and installing the Webers trim.

 

Let me know what you think, but be warned: My wife will divorce me if I spend one more minute or cent tinkering with this helmet! It is the way it's going to be! (also note that for whatever reason, the flash makes my glue dribbles...E-6000 btw...look greenish. I don't know why).

 

On to the pics:

Edited February 11, 2021 by gmrhodes13
photos updated gmrhodes13 2021

[lordvader1974[501st]]

Continued:

Edited February 11, 2021 by gmrhodes13
photos updated gmrhodes13 2021

[ThayNerd[TK]]

Look great!

[psychotropic]

thats look very nice. i hope you have lots of fun trooping in your new setup

[lordvader1974[501st]]

Thanks a lot for the positive responses guys. This is my first (and only for quite a while) armor and I am especially proud of the AP helmet.

[Amish Trooper]

It looks sharp. Is the Vocoder suppose to be painted straight across/

[lordvader1974[501st]]

Nope...but I have neither the time nor the inclination to do anything else with it. The wife will leave and this is an alimony state Hoss. Not worth it. Know what I mean? LOL After all...we're all pretty much a bunch of 30 somethings wearing plastic! It ain't the end of the world for me. LOL!

[Nairod]

Nice helmet.

 

The neck trim look really good and very accurate, where did you get it?

[TKDUEUNO]

I'd really like my helmet to have the same black textured interior as yours, what paint did you use to achieve that nice look?

[lordvader1974[501st]]

Nairod said:

Nice helmet.

 

The neck trim look really good and very accurate, where did you get it?

 

 

I got the neck trim from0000----------- It's part number RG102 (second from the top on the page in the link. I hear it's not as accurate as the stuff you can get overseas but it's the best option anyone's found stateside from what I've read. I really like it.

 

TKDUEUNO said:

I'd really like my helmet to have the same black textured interior as yours, what paint did you use to achieve that nice look?

 

I used 3M Rubberized Undercoating. It's in a spray can in the automotive section of Wal-Mart (where the touch up paints are). It takes a while to fully cure and is pretty smelly until it does though, so be warned! It does look nice when done though.

Edited February 11, 2021 by gmrhodes13
link not working, removed gmrhodes13 2021

[Nairod]

Ok, thanks for your answer! I bought thistrim from weberspump... but it's small!

 

On your helmet, it look great...strange.

[lordvader1974[501st]]

Ok, thanks for your answer! I bought thistrim from weberspump... but it's small!

 

On your helmet, it look great...strange.

 

It may have changed. The reason I say this is b/c on the MEPD boards where I first learned of it, they were talking about it having some white chalky stuff all over it that needed cleaning off. Mine didn't have it. Therefore, I feel it's possible they may have changed it up somewhat. Not sure though.