This project will produce a riveted armored style design with a candy blue base. The completed helmet is pictured at left. More images can be seen in the gallery. Auto Air paints were used. The wind visor shield was removed before prepping. All sealer, base coats, candy coats, and clear coats were sprayed with a full-size top-feed spray gun using a 1.4 mm needle. An Badger 360 airbrush was used for all other spraying. The first step is to remove as much padding and trim that can be easily removed (not glued down). I do not recommend disassembling the helmet any more than you are qualified to do. Most helmets are very difficult to reassemble correctly without compromising its structural integrity. Excessive disassembly may also void the manufacturer's warranty. After disassembly, mask off any remaining trim, rubber seals, and the inside of the helmet with a medium or high tack masking tape to keep those areas free of overspray. The helmet is then prepped for paint by scuffing the OEM finish with 600 grit sandpaper (a red Scotchbrite pad will also work well). Now the helmet is ready for the sealer and basecoat. A few coats of sealer (dark) are sprayed on and heat cured with a heat gun. The sealer is not necessary but does promote adhesion of subsequent coats. It is especially recommended as the base for the aluminum colors because they do not adhere as well as other colors. Next, the aluminum (coarse) is used as the initial base color for two reasons. One, it will be the base for the armored area, and two, it will also serve as the base for the candy color. Photo 1 shows the helmet after the aluminum was sprayed and heat cured. The side covers on the helmet were sprayed while off the helmet. They were placed back on the helmet for display only. Now the helmet is ready for the layout of the armored area. I use 1/4" blue 3M fine line tape to outline the armored areas at the front and top of the helmet, making sure to press firmly on the tape for a good seal. If you find the tape is not adhering well enough, lightly sand the base coat with 600 grit sandpaper or a red Scotchbrite. I switch to thinner 1/8" fine line tape near the front vent holes to make the tighter curves. The thicker tape will bubble or wrinkle too much around tight curves, which prevents a good seal. Note that the outside edge of the armor is defined by the outside edge of the tape. Photo 2 shows the completed armor layout with the fine line tape. Next, the inside area that will be the armor is masked off with a low tack blue "painter's tape". A low tack tape is used because the aluminum base color lifts easier than most other colors. A higher tack tape could lift the aluminum color off completely when it is removed. I just rip sections of tape to conform to the shape of the area. Just be sure to overlap and seal the pieces well enough so that overspray will not leak through and contaminate the armored area. Photo 3 shows the inside masking completed. If you want to preserve some of the aluminum basecoat for tear-through areas (as shown in the final photo at top), then those areas should be masked off in this step as well. Now the helmet is ready for the candy teal blue. With all the masking in place, laying down the candy color is simply a matter of spraying the entire helmet uniformly. A uniform spray pattern is essential for achieving a smooth and uniform candy finish. Spraying erratically will produce a blotchy finish. About 8 coats were laid down and heat cured in between each coat. Photo 4 shows the helmet after the candy was sprayed. After the candy coat has cured, all the masking defining the armored area is removed. You can see the armored area is now well defined in Photo 5. Here you can also see the aluminum base areas that were preserved for the tear-throughs coming away from the main armor area. At this point, a clear coat is sprayed over the entire helmet to seal the candy color from contamination. Clearing the helmet at this time also protects our base colors from mistakes when we get to airbrushing the details, such as the armor rivets, lettering, and tear-through graphics. The side covers are also cleared at the same time. After the clear is given at least 24 hours to cure, the entire helmet is wet sanded with 600 grit sandpaper to prep for more paint. Now, the lines that will define the bracing around the edges of the armor are layed out using 1/4" fine line tape. Great care in placement is taken at this step to ensure smooth, uniform lines. Three lines of tape are used to define the two lines of the bracing. Photo 6 shows the masking completed for the armor bracing. Once your bracing lines are defined by the fine line tape, mask off the rest of the helmet. Photo 7 shows all the masking completed. Next spray just a few coats of a dark gray color. Using a straight black color would make the lines too dark and overpowering. Once the paint is heat cured, remove all the masking. You may be able to avoid this very time consuming step if you are an expert pinstriper. If so, then create the bracing border lines by pinstriping the lines with a dark gray paint and fine tipped brush. Photo 8 shows the brace lines after the masking is removed. To achieve the rest of the armor look we have to airbrush the rivets and wear shading. The final helmet also has other airbrushed details, such as lettering and rocket flames, but I will not go over them in this guide. A quick how-to on airbrushing the helmet's side covers with dial knobs can be found in How-To Guide 2. To create the rivets, I use a standard architectural circle template as a freehand shield. I decide to use the 1/8" hole since that will make the right size rivets for the 1/4" wide armor bracing. With that in mind, I use tape to cover all the holes in the circle template except for the 1/8" one. Now, using the circle template and the same shading mixture as the brace lines (dark gray), I gently airbrush the shadow side of all the rivets. Photo 9 shows the look that you want to achieve when you do this (bottom line of shading). This does require practice, so warm up on paper before trying on the helmet. It is very easy to apply too much paint or at a bad angle and get the bad examples of rivet shading that I show in the top line of Photo 9. Once you have the shading for the rivets done, use the same dark gray color to lightly streak over the rest of the armor. I only did this in the bracing area because I wanted to keep the main part of the armor clean looking, but you could apply these wear streaks wherever you think it is needed. The last step to complete the rivets is to use white to define the highlights. Simply spray a small dot of white in the opposite corner of the rivet's shadow area. If targeting is difficult for you, then I suggest using a fine art brush to apply the dot highlights. Just dab the brush's tip with paint to try and apply the least amount of paint possible. Photo 10 shows a portion of the completed rivets and brace shading. The helmet is now ready for its final clear coat. You may add other graphics and embellishments at this point, but the primary riveted armor look is now done.

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