Anyhow, I actually like the ANOVOS helmet system, minus the fact that I had to completely redo the H&L tape they used for the harness as the adhesive on the tape was woefully unfit for the task (I covered this in a previous blog entry). The part that irked me about the system was the H&L tape, but in this case the stuff that secured the harness to the inside of the bucket. When I went on my first troop, some curmudgeonly kid hit me hard in the back of the bucket (before the wrangler could scare him off) and caused the strap to come unglued from the inside of my bucket. The inside of the bucket wasn't prepped right for good adhesion, plus I had to move the strap anyhow for better performance. But before I replaced the H&L tape, I wanted to remove all the hardware and PlastiDip the interior.
The PlastiDip can help add a little strength to the helmet (or a lot of strength if you go with the brush-in PlastiDip layered with cheesecloth like some troopers have), but it also reduces the amount of reflected light when wearing the bucket. I wanted to get this done before installing new H&L tape for the helmet harness. So I took out the fan system and began with ripping all of the tape and foam out of the helmet's interior, and removing the lenses and screen behind the teeth. I put the adhesive stuff on some aluminum foil in case I wanted to salvage anything.
There was some cracking on the bucket underneath the gasket, so I had to repair one spot by adding a backing of scrap ABS with some CA glue. There was also some other minor cracking in other areas that I may have to address later.
After all the hardware was out of the helmet, I started masking everything I didn't want sprayed or affect by overspray with blue painter's masking tape. I started with the eye sockets, then some on the inside of the bucket over the teeth, then on the outside of the eyes and teeth, then around the neck.
(I also removed the Hovi mic tips and masked over the screw holes, but forgot to photograph it.)
After the masking was done, I wrapped the outside of the helmet in newspaper and secured it with more tape, making sure that all my edges were secure.
Once I was satisfied with the masking, It was time to spray.
Before I began spraying, I scuffed the inside of the helmet with some 350 grit sandpaper - finer than the 100 or 150 grit, but enough to give better adhesion for the PlastiDip. After a light sanding and dusting, I started spraying the PlastiDip in even coats, waiting 20 or more minutes between coats (or overnight since you can reapply any time). I also sprayed the foam pads that go over the screws that secure the bucket pieces together, as they're also originally white.
A cardboard box helped hold the bucket while drying.
Over the course of two evenings I coated the inside of the bucket as well as I could. The front bottom of the bucket proved most tricky as it has a lot of crevices to cover, which is tricky to do without a lot of overs pray.
Since I was revamping the bucket anyhow, I decided to replace some of the ANOVOS screws in the bucket with more screen accurate screws, which happen to be #6 flat head flat drive screws. The problem is that most screws of this variety don't come short unless you order them online. At the hardware store, the shortest they had was 2", which meant I needed to trim at least an inch off each screw. Dremel tool with cutting disk to the rescue. I cut them to the same length as a screw I removed from the bucket after the last coat, but be advised that screws on one side of the bucket are slightly longer than screws on the other side. We're talking 1" vs 3/4", but it's a major difference when working in tight margins, and made putting the new screws in a little more difficult in the end since some where shorter than the original screws.
I forgot to photo the next step since my phone was low on power, but I scuffed the screw heads with some 150 grit sandpaper and painted the heads white. The next evening, after the paint had dried, I installed them into the helmet using washers and #6 nylon nuts. After installation, the paint on the screw heads was slightly scratched, so I'll need to re-paint these a touch when I submit Centurion pics (I need to retouch the armor rivets anyhow).
The screws removed from the bucket will actually be used for the thermal detonator, as they're more screen accurate for that piece. I may also be trimming the TD to make the length more screen accurate as well. If so, it will be content for a future blog post.
Back to the bucket, after the last coat of PlastiDip was dry, everything looked very professional.
Now it was time for the moment of truth - to see if all of my masking had prevented unwanted spraying. I carefully removed the paper and tape and was not disappointed. There was no over spray on the neck seal, teeth, eyes, or other seems, and the job turned out great!
I had to mask over the teeth in order to prevent over spray. To blacken them on the back side, I took some Testor gloss black and painted them by hand. The gloss black is shiner than the PlastiDip's satin look; thankfully, when the screen is reinstalled, it wasn't noticeable at all.
Speaking of the screen, I still plan to re-paint the frown on the teeth towards preparing for Centurion certification, so instead of re-fastening the screen with hot glue, I simply taped it to the inside of the bucket with black electrical tape, so I can remove it later when I perform that paint job. The tape is holding fine for now.
I purchased 15' of 3/4" black H&L tape from a local electronics store. Though slightly narrower than the 1" tape that ANOVOS uses, the adhesion was much better. After re-securing the foam with some extra double-sided tape, I used two strips on top of the foam for each side of the visor (I prefer the visor to separated eyes to help prevent fogging and increase air flow into the bucket around the eyes). Then I used more H&L tape to re-secure the harness to the bucket.
I used the ANOVOS H&L tape as the removable straps for now (hence the white H&L tape for one side of the fasteners) as I would have to tediously remove adhesive from the replacement tape to be able to use them for both sides.
I was now ready to face a bunch of kids wielding pool noodles.
Pics altered and cropped for the benefit of the kids.
Check out that pinata :D
Here I am with my smallest trooper
My older trooper got into the spirit too :D
Overall, the PlastiDip and new tape worked great! One strap did became un-fastened (but NOT un-glued) after I took quite a few pool noodle blows to the bucket, but this was easily fixed and not what I normally expect to do while trooping.
The armor will need some work though, For starters, one of my thigh shims is cracking, again. So I'll need to make more ABS paste and redo the seam again, after sanding down the joint a little and applying some CA glue to strengthen it. I'll also have to re-rivet part of the holster strap since it doesn't even appear that ANOVOS tapped the rivet to begin with. At least I have plenty of Tandy leather rivets from other costuming projects.
These are either simple fixes or otherwise well documented already, so I actually don't anticipate updating this blog until I:
- Repaint the frown on the bucket
- Work on the thermal detonator (it's a shade too long and I want to replace those screws)
- Shim my kidney plate for girth (some slight pudge aside, I actually have slight scoliosis as well)
- Replace the ANOVOS belt with a better one, and/ or
- Replace the hand guards with latex versions
That being said, the next update may not be for a while, but when I have time and/ or the funds, I'll start making improvements towards Centurion. Until then...
