Life-Size Buzz and Neil (enlarged 1/4 Ken West "Apollo Astronauts on the Moon")

[Algebraist]

Dear all

Continuing with the visor attachment. Adding the larger joining strips bond the visor to the helmet body stronger. But another purpose is that I want to cover the entire inside of the visor with overlapping black sugar paper. This will eliminate any tiny holes so there will absolutely be no "white spots" when looking at the visor, which should enhance the look of the visor. This layer also strengthens the visor.

So the secondary tabs are added partway down the left and right sides.



As the helmet gets more sealed as more of the visor is attached a new unforeseen issue arises which is the fumes from the uhu glue are trapped inside the helmet which I am putting my head into. Now I am having to hold my breath whilst wrestling with the octopus!
I start working down from the side to the lower curve (just below where the visor hinge mechanisms are)



On the outside you can see that the model is starting to show signs of stress.



I do not understand why. Perhaps it is due to my trimming of the edges of the visor since it did not align properly, or the helmet not being made accurately enough or...?). Continuing things suddenly got seriously worse. The model started tearing itself apart!



There is no way I can "force" this through. After much thought I suddenly see the obvious cause of the problem. At this point on the helmet the paper need to curve in many different directions. Paper being what it is can not do this unless it is deformed and if not deformed is put into stress. Earlier I had the "good idea" of reinforcing the bottom semicircle of the helmet. It is this reinforcement that is stopping the paper from flexing and deforming at the point it need to do it most. So my good idea was a terrible idea. Moreover I can not remove all of that reinforcing as it is too embedded into the helmet. To do so would require a major rebuild of most of the helmet. More out of hope, I removed what reinforcing I could to give some amount of flexing



Fortunately it proved to be just enough that I could continue but the model is still stressed at this point and the glue is having to work hard. Hopefully it will hold until reinforced. Just need to finish off closing the visor join (which is on the lower curve). By now there is virtually no "room" (which is a good sign) so to bend tabs over need to use the pallet knives.



This last part is the most awkward gluing of all. Head in the helmet backwards, bending up the tabs from the outside, squeezing a hand in with some glue on a stick. There is probably some obvious easier way, but if there was I did not see it. Thankfully it was all glued and then I added the larger joining strips



And with that the visor was attached and firmly joined to the helmet. It was not perfect here are the two issue spots



And closer up



If you ever attempt something like this one thing you should know is you need a head torch that has RED light. Although the photo I took look like this



when actually gluing the white light was too bright (at least for my eyes). So when actually gluing everything was in red light



Overall this is what Buzz's helmet now looks like



And this photo has Gene (with a 1/24 scale helmet), a 1/4 scale helmet and finally Buzz's life size helmet



Now I just have to do it all again for Neil's helmet. At least this time will be easier now I know what I am doing.

Regards

Kevin

[Seascape]

This is an amazing looking helmet! Congratulations!


Fred

[Viator]

It's perfect!
I have never seen such a deliberate motif as a mirror reflection being modelled in paper...!

[rifleman]

outstanding knew you could do it dam fine work well done

[Algebraist]

Originally Posted by Seascape

This is an amazing looking helmet! Congratulations!


Fred

Thank you Fred for your compliments. Much appreciated

regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Originally Posted by Viator

It's perfect!
I have never seen such a deliberate motif as a mirror reflection being modelled in paper...!

Cheers Viator. I agree Ken's design of the visors is something else.

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Originally Posted by rifleman

outstanding knew you could do it dam fine work well done

As always, great to hear from you rifleman. I wish I had your confidence that I am going to manage the different parts of the model.

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

Started on Neil's visor and doing pretty much the same approach as used for Buzz's. It is very tempting to rush things to "get onto" new bits of the model but I have to give the same care to Neil's visor to try and get as good as possible finish article. It is slow work and at times my eyes are just not up to it and need to rest. Here are some shots of the progress so far











So the bottom 4 gores (of 8) are joined.

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

I finished making all the gores for Neil's visor and then started attaching the joining tabs



Finally completed this task



Next comes the careful gluing of the gores to each other.

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

It was time to join the gores of Neil's visor to each other. Checking beforehand with dry fitting I knew (as with Buzz's visor) everything did not match up perfectly so for each gore join I had to prioritize what was the most important part of the refection picture to "line up". Often this would be the flag pole in Neil's hand. Here are some assembly photos



Also the edges were out of line



Still the priority was to assemble getting (what I thought) was the best looking image



Almost there, a quick shot of the inside, which is rather messy. However I have been taking great care to get the joins as "invisible as possible" on the outside.



Last bits being joined



The sides looked like this



which I trimmed up to this



Then attached the final joining tabs to the sides



With that the visor was complete



This had been the more "careful glue I have ever done. I'm anxious about how it is going to look when it is joined to the helmet. So it now "red light head torch cave time"to join the visor onto the helmet. I noticed that Neils assembled visor is a lot less "round" than Buzz's was at this stage. I have no idea why this is the case and hope it is not some assembly mistake I have made that is going to cause an issue when attaching the visor to the helmet. Fortunately it should be considerably easier this time having already done Buzz's visor so I know what to expect. So now it is time for "(head torch) lights, glue, action!"

Regards

Kevin