Hi!
As promised when I introduced myself, I'm starting a new thread about resin. How to make new parts? How to repair broken parts? Etc..
I don't have all the answers myself as I'm a newcomer in this subject.
I've been using/sculpting resin for over 10 years now in my practice. I'm a dentist. Obviously, knowing how to shape, sculpt and polish a temporary crown with resin did help when I started helmets. I made few trials last summer, then gave up. Then, cooster67 came home and saw my work and was quite enthusiastic, so I gave it another try during my summer holiday this year.
To start with, the materials I use are Magic Sculpt Resin (black), Plastiline (not Plasticine, Plastiline is a trademark, it comes in different colors according to its stiffness, I use the gray one), and Milliput (white). I have a few tools too: a craft knife (X-Acto with different shapes for the blades), a surgeons' knife, a nail file (metal, not cardboard), and some carving tools I used for wax when I was a student. I use a Proxxon mini power-driil with a selection of burs that I brought home from work.
The Proxxon is mostly used for the early stages of shaping, when thick layers of resin need to be removed. And of course you'll need water-sandpaper, lots and lots of water-sandpaper!
Getting started: You'll need an old playmo head, with it's hair. With plastiline, you need to fill completely the gap between the bottom of the hair and the shoulders, chest and back (all around the head) if you use a torso to hold the head, thus, also covering the face. I prefer to use the head alone and make a small stand for it with more Plastiline.
Last, but mostly important: you have to insulate the hair so the resin won't stick to it!, use Vaseline oil, olive oil, or whatever fat you want but you've got to insulate.
Then:Prepare a small amount of Magic Sculpt (instructions on the boxes), the size of a playmo head altogether, then you can either spread the resin on top the head giving a very rough shape of what you've decided to create. The important thing is to have an even thickness of material everywhere, it's always better to have too much cos you sculpt by removing material.
Or, when you've grown accustomed to the material, you can add small chunks of resin, one at a time, to create the different parts of your helmet. This will spare a lot of work with the drill, and a lot of dust in the house!
OK, let me take some pictures now.
