CBRRRT

Well I've been thinking of doing a bit more with fiberglass, but this time rather than just start sloshing resin about I thought I might do my homework first and find out how to do it properly.
Ok, so the first thing I found out was I need to make a plug of what I want it to look like.

I made mine from layers of 12mm MDF, 22 bits all together. Here it is nearly finished shaping.




I'm quite happy with the overall shape and size, but not with the top of the nose bit, so I took the fine blade out of my block plane and reshaped it.


I wanted the brow to be slightly over slung and I think I managed to get the look I was after.


Now loads of sanding and filling

It looked smoother than an East end car salesman, but a shot of primer showed up more imperfections.

more filla, I used two pack wood filler.

Dry's quite quick and will flex with the MDF should it move.

more sanding

more primer

and more primer
Now then, because I want to make the mould in two halves I need to scribe a bit of MDF to the profile of the centre of the mask


There are a couple of places where there is a mm gap, but its not a problem because I’ll fill them with soft non-dry oil putty.

This is it from the back

After a bit more sanding I used a filler primer, about 6 coats with loads of sanding in between. Once I got a flawless finish I gave it 4 coats of car body Turtle wax to seal it.

Then both the mask and the halving form got 4 coats of soft wax release agent


Next I'm going set up the plug, give it a spray with 3 coats of PVA then 2 gel coats and start applying the layers of glass, about 6 in all. From that I will be able to cast my new mask and have the satisfaction I didn’t pay someone a fortune for it.
Alright then, so I got the plug mounted

The joint needed to be filled so I used soft putty, the type a glazer uses to replace glass in a wooden frame.

Easy to poke in and smooth off to get a nice neat corner joint

Once I went all the way round I gave it another coat of wax, then applied the first coat of gel evenly over the surface of the mask and the stand.

Once the gel coat becomes tacky, you can run a brush lightly over it and leave brush strokes without disturbing or moving the surface.

Now I'm going let it cure for 24 hours before applying the glass matt and resin.
I trimmed the edges of the gel coat just to neaten things up a bit.

The vids I watched on youtube said to thicken along the center edge with some compound, so I did.

Next I applied two layers of fiberglass tissue, then two of the bigger weave stuff. (Thats a technical term us fiberglassers use ha ha)

"Bigger weave stuff"


Next I removed it from the stand


It needed a bit of a clean up, but that was no biggy

Now I can chuck away the mounting stand, and start preping for the gel coat to be applied on the second half of the mould

Wax on............... Wax off.............. Wax on..........
Now then, all waxed up and ready to go on the other side

after the two gel coats I left it to cure overnight, same as before.
Next morning started with two layers of fiberglass tissue, then two layers of the big stuff

Same as before

then I separated the two halves

I drilled 4 holes and used 4 x 10 mm bolts to hold the two halves together.

The two halves didn’t quite separate exactly and there was a very small kink in the join. No biggy, I filled the joint with more putty.

Then gave it all a good coating of even more wax.

Now I'll leave it over night before applying the gel coat that will be the out side face of the finished mask.
OK, back to it.
After all that waxing I applied 2 layers of gel coat and let it cure over night.

Next 3 layers of glass and resin, and left that all day while I went off to work

About an hour ago popped it from the mold. It needs a bit of filling here and there but for a first attempt I don’t think its to bad really

I know one of the eyes is a little off but that’s fixable, yep! I'm happy with that


And as it’s the only one in existence, its not likely I pull up next to another fighter with one on it.
A lot of work, but worth it
Thats it then, all done. I used the guts from the black aftermarket lamp unit I had on before the predator mask, and it was a bit of a win really as in wasn’t planned, but fitted perfectly into the back of my home made jobby.