I Should Probably Be Sleeping, But Instead I'm Doing This...: This Is Gonna Be Good...

All-in-all, I would say the weekend was a success. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I did get done about what I expected to. There were four pieces I worked on this weekend, the first and main one of course being the helmet. Second I wanted to get some work on the chest and back. and then if I had time I wanted to get after a bi/tri/shoulder and a thigh. The helmet was coming along, but it still had some nasty cracks and nicks in it that were driving me bonkers. I did some reading online and found this amazing stuff called "Bondo Spot Putty". I have been using Bondo's body filler and resin for a while now, but never heard of the spot putty. Simply put, the spot putty works like Bondo, only it comes pre-mixed in a tube and is a gift from the gods... I had been trying to get info on using it over the primer because once the surface is primed and all the same color it is SO much easier to see the imperfections. So once I got that stuff the helmet came together much nicer.

It also looks pretty badass in that nice dark red color... after it dried I did a little light sanding and re-primed.

There are still a few minor spots that could use a fix up, but definitely looks 1000% better than before.

That was all Friday night, of which my good buddy James came over to once again assist me in my venture. after a quick lesson on Bondo application, he was off to work on the chest.

I didn't tell him until later that he would have been shot if he damaged it... you know, don't want an employee with bad work moral or anything ;)

After a couple hours of Bondo'ing, and a lot of talking, he left me with this.

I was really excited to see how good it looked. The front of the chest was a bit caved in on the left breast plate, and he got a good amount of even level out of it. From that point, we called it a night... and went inside and played Halo Reach for several hours...

Monday, I got back to it. I started back in on the torso in hopes of getting it done. I am sure that being an amateur I don't have all the proper tools and know how when it comes to Bondo and sanding (or at least I pray there is a better way out there) because about 7 hours of work later it looked like this:

and at that point my back was killing me! I also discovered that there are some downsides to working outside.

1) The sun is hot.

2) Hot sun equals hot driveway.

3) Bondo sets MUCH faster in the heat.

I might as well be holding a handful of quarters! (okay, so maybe its not that much... but I'm cheap!) However, I adapted to my surroundings (move into the shaded garage) and pressed on! I picked back up on Tuesday due to some other chores and things I needed to do around the house since I was off and all.

After a lot of Bondo and sanding and Bondo and sanding and Bondo and... where was I? Oh yeah, sanding! I got a good layer across the whole area.

There was another area that was caved in on the outside of the right shoulder blade. I slathered that up pretty good with Bond and did a little shaping and carving. Here it is before I sanded it down.

I also had to pour some more Rondo into the piece because as I was sanding I ran across a few week points in the front of the chest and one or two in the back. After that, I decided to go ahead and see out we looked in primer.

I knew it wouldn't be perfect, but like I said earlier I can now see all the impurities in it and know where to use the spot putty at.

Throughout the day as I was waiting on things to dry, or realized I made too much Bondo, I worked on the Bi/Tri/Shoulder and the Right Thigh pieces. The arm piece is pretty straight forward, just some Bondo work:

The thigh however was a bit more involved. The edge was very thin, so I used a technique I have seen online (thanks Thorsson) where you use duct-tape to line the edge and do a roto pour so as to thicken up an edge.

I then realized that when I made these I didn't give them a good test on their size and as it turns out, now that they are hardened and more stable, I did and they are a tad bit too long! Oh the horror!!!! I tried not to panic, and instead got out the ol' Dremmel tool. I cut off about 1/3-1/2 an inch on the back of the knee because the problem I had was that I couldn't bend my knee enough to sit or squat... and as we all know, Master Chief has to be able to squat over his victims...

I did do a little sanding to round it off, but didn't take an after shot.

I might trim a hair off the top of the front as well for a good hip crease, otherwise I think it will work great!

Finally, I was done for the day. Like I said, I do wish I had gotten more done, but for me, this was a lot of work to get done all at once and I am thankful I was able to get the time to do so! Here are some final shots of everything I worked on.