Back Again!
Finally got around to repairing the damaged crest and after what felt like an Eternal Battle I finally got the last of those damn pin holes defeated.
The lid as seen in the next two pics is good to go but like I think I mentioned in a previous post it will have to wait 'til I come back from Egypt next month.
The next couple of pics show the finished crests that have been shaped and trimmed to their final contours and at the risk of banging my own drum "again" I have to say I am well chuffed with the way they finally turned out.
These are the plumes without any stiffening as I am still not 100% what to use in the end as although I thought I had come across the perfect stuff in the fabric stiffener I showed in an earlier post I still was'nt happy with the overall look although there was absolutely nothing wrong with it and I was just being annoyingly picky and wanted to try out a few other things I had thought of during the process of making this helmet (which will now be forever known as "My Frackin' Nemesis").
I got myself a pair of hairdressing scissors which worked to a degree but I found the real horse hair to be a wee bit tougher than human hair. The scissors did the job but I felt they where 'tearing' the hair if I tried to trim more than say 1cm at a time which got laborious very quickly. The solution was at my mums' in the shape of electric dog hair trimmers. After an initial cut with the scissors the trimmers where used to give the plumes their final shaping and trim.
Was a real sod to get the two plums to match and all in all took the better part of six hours as I trimmed very carefully using templates I had made up ages ago. Once one plume was completed it was reasonably easy to match up the other one to it (or so I thought!) but there were subtle differences in each of the runners the hair was planted in to make matching the two up a total pain in the a**e!.
The major problem methinks with using the fabric stiffener was that I used it neat and straight from the bottle (much easier to apply when watered down slightly as suggested on the bottle and so much easier to work into the hair without messing up that overall shape too much) which worked extremely well but made the plumes impervious to anything but a full blown and direct nuclear strike.
Imprtant type tip now and that is :- "Read the bloody instructions on any bottle/container". And more so when applying to any hairy things!
It was an easy fix and just entailed 30 mins or so with the shower attachment some shampoo and just because it was there some good 'ol hair conditioner which by the way actually worked a treat as the plumes turned out brill and not as 'lifeless' looking as the first time when I just hosed them down to get rid of the stiffener. Another interesting and useful side effect of going all Vidal Sasoon on them was that when they dried totally (took nearly a bloody week for both of them) was that the hair went into a subtle "S" shape which lent itself brilliantly to supporting their own weight and helped stop them drooping backwards when attached to the lid. That "S" shape can just about be seen in the pics of the two plumes.
The final two pics in this WIP update show one of the plumes after I had got into with some strong hairspray which was suggested to me. I was not too keen on using hairspray at all TBH as I have visions of the lid catching fire and toasting my noggin inside it which I am sure you will agree would be somewhat embarassing not to mention a trifle painful. Another advantage is that it can be re-applied quickly when on a troop break but I am still trying other solutions even though it pains me to admit this is probably "THE" final route I will take. Got a few more experiments to do with the stiffener, spray and some mousse I am about to mention but nearly there.
The first pic show one of the plumes after being sprayed in this stuff and I have to say I was pleasantly suprised with the results. The bottom of the plume is resting on my hand and there is nothing to support the hair on any side bar this spray.
This is the spray I used.
I also got some "extra firm hold" hair mousse which was another thing sugested to me but I have'nt tried that yet along with that glue spray stuff.
So!Finally getting there and at last that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.
Thanks for following this thread and all the comments and suggestions given.