Sanding a bio helmet: Project Silver Surfer

[MeanGene]

This project started with my acquiring a Silicone mold for sale. The mold was from a Brandon Croslin sculpture of a P1 bio.
The sculpture appears to have lineage with George's fabled P1 Stunt bio. (P1 stunt - original helmet from the movie castings taken directly from the mold made by stan winston)

I spoke with Brandon about the helmet and its origins. He stated the helmet was a sculpt from around 2012 or so, he sold a few and then sold the mold off to Julie Spehar. Julie has since sold it to me.

The helmet is a very nice sculpt. Very symmetrical. The typical warped eyes and back fins have been corrected.
The only downside to the bio was the  surface was quite lumpy. Not a knock to Brandon at all. 
The surface was begging for body work - bondo and sanding.

Below:
George's P1 Stunt (left) & Croslin's raw casting (right) 
 

 

Now begins the work.

The bio needing body work, something I have not done before to a high degree.
I wanted it to be completely smooth, like a chrome bumper or more specifically like the silver surfer.
Was definitely apprehensive about being able to pull it off and for that reason I decided to challenge myself. 
"Battle damage bios are easy" Perfectly clean, not so much.

Bondo/Sanding:


Got a variety of sand paper with the intention of wet sanding this to a high gloss finish.

In the end I didn't touch the 3000.

I used 220 grit a lot at the start to take down any initial high spots.
From there I bondo'd the surface to even it out.

Below:
One of MANY coats of bondo. Probably 5-6 time I would add bondo to various areas.
Including the eyes.


Spreading bondo on. Sanding it off. 
Spray a coat of primer. <- This shows you the imperfections.
Then Adding more bondo. Sanding it back again.
Each time using various grits of sand paper and water.
Primer was helpful in seeing imperfections.


Water was key when sanding. It prevented any heat from building up on the surface and also washed away any dust.
Watch Youtube for videos on how to wet sand.

Below:
Wet sanded bio and various coats of primer.

 

Wet sanding was now DONE!

The next step was a proper base layer of primary to have one even surface.

That primer was then wet sanded back to a smooth finish and a coat of Gloss Enamel Black was sprayed.
10$ Can of paint available at home depot.


I was tempted to leave it black but it was now time for the Rustoleum Silver paint.

 

 

Here are the results

 

 

Am I happy? Yes.

Is it perfect? No. But then again nothing is.
It has some small snot marks from the spray nozzle as the silver paint came out. Will clean those up later.

Overall I am happy with the finish and will be moving on to lenses, lasers, and the greeble pieces.

I am thinking black chrome lenses, to break up all the silver?

OR

Do I get some high reflective chrome? 

 

Will update more as it progresses.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Hez]

That's looking good Gene. For the lenses I'd probably go with a black chrome look to break up the silver. A mid or light grey tint acrylic with some mirror tint applied to the back of it would be my choice. Or a gold maybe? Hmm. Now I want to play around with my chrome bio.

[MeanGene]

On 10/29/2023 at 10:23 AM, Hez said:

That's looking good Gene. For the lenses I'd probably go with a black chrome look to break up the silver. A mid or light grey tint acrylic with some mirror tint applied to the back of it would be my choice. Or a gold maybe? Hmm. Now I want to play around with my chrome bio.

Thank you sir.

Its funny how we inspire one another. When I feel flat, I check out other artists like yourself and get that spark again.

I agree. I think I am going black lenses. 
And thanks for reminding me about the window tint method. Forgot about  that!

[MeanGene]

 

For $10 bucks. Worth a try.  "Black Silver" 

Its a static cling attachment type of material. Not sure how that will work. We shall see.
Can always glue it somehow?

[Bovine13]

Man, thats a lot of work. Well done sir.

[PredatoRob]

That’s one thing I dislike about Rustoleum aerosols; the spray tips they have, have an annoying tendency to spatter. Which just makes more work for you. Krylon, in my opinion, doesn’t suffer from this - only it’s just a finickier coating. Easier contamination, etc. Anyway, beautiful work man. I think it turned out great. I’ll definitely be checking out some “how-to” videos on YouTube, because I have no idea how to wet sand properly.

[MeanGene]

On 10/31/2023 at 12:38 PM, MeanGene said:

 

For $10 bucks. Worth a try.  "Black Silver" 

Its a static cling attachment type of material. Not sure how that will work. We shall see.
Can always glue it somehow?

Quick update.

The Amazon stick on window tint.

Complete garbage. Not well suited for using on bio lenses.