Senate Guard (Nearly Complete.17-11-2010)

[TK IAIN]

These boards are getting quieter so I thought I'd bring you all up to date with what will soon be the only Senate Guard in the UK and indeed in the UK.Garrison at this time.

The helmet as pictured only has to have the lacquer coats applied, the first of which will be going on this weekend and then I'll leave it alone for a full week before applying the second coat.
The lid as pictured has four coats of paint to get to this stage and I cannot be happier with the result.Especially as I have'nt painted anything this large in years.
Four coats applied to get the depth of colour that I was after.Cost a fortune in paint as a standard 300ml can would get about 90% of the helmet painted before dying on me so two cans was the way to go.
Each coat was lightly sanded down before the next coat was applied. All in all I reckon there's easily 60+ hours of work put into this lid so far but the end result has shown it was more than worth it.

Anyhoo!Time for some pics methinks and I would like to hear/see any comments you guys have.




The lid is definately blue and finding the correct shade (Rover Midnight Blue) entailed a few trips to the local auto retailers but we got there in the end.
The visor has been made and that will be in place after I have the fans for cooling inserted alongwith a motorcycle foggy breath mask to cut out any fogging of the visor.

The robes have also been completed and these have been the work of an extremely talented lady across on the UK Garrison forums.





I will be getting the robes next week and I cannot wait to get my hands on them at last.

The final piece of this puzzle has been created by yet another very talented member of the UKG who made me the most amasing ceremonial rifle.



This costume has been the result of the hard work and skill of a group from the UK Garrison and I cannot thank or praise them enough.

Amy/Jon for the helmet.
Fran for the robes.
And last but by no means least Darren for the rifle.

I hope ypu enjoy the pics folks.

Iain.

[RoyalProtection]

Looks great!

[JesterTDA]

That looks fantastic!

[TR-2011]

Looks great! Could you post a pic on the motorcycle mask, please?

[TK IAIN]

Looks great! Could you post a pic on the motorcycle mask, please?

Been trying to get a pic for you mate but my photobucket account is playing silly buggers!
Just go the that auction site that sells stuff and look for "Foggy Breath Mask" and there will be loads that come up.

Helmet suffered a bit of a disaster at the week end when I went to apply the first coat of lacquer.
Was indoors with the window wide open and an extractor fan going.
Got the lacquer on and thought that was it but a wee gust of air caught a bit of kitchen roll which flew across the room(from about 6 feet away) and landed on the chin of the lid and promptly stuck to it and then flopped over and stuck to the left cheek area and under the left eye.

After a quick "Oh F***!" and nearly bursting into tears i had to wait a bit beofre the lacquer was dry enough to remove the kitchen paper.A lot of it stuck to the lid and was'nt going to come off without a fight.

To cut a long story short all I could do was rub down the affected ares 'til smooth again and then I'll repaint the lid.I actually just rubbed the whole lid down again so I'm basically back to where I was about two weeks ago,

Not a major problem but just a really, really, really annoying one as it has put the lid completion back a couple of weeks and I was so looking forward to having it done and dusted and ready for delivery of the costume parts.

[TK IAIN]

Back again.


After about a months work I have got the lid at the point where all that needs to be done is to apply the 2-3 coats of lacquer (again! ).From what I can gather to get the best results I'll leave the lid alone for a week between coats so saying that I'm looking at another three weeks or so before the helmet is finallyu finished bar the visor and all the bits 'n' bobs like fans and so forth.

Just thought I'd bung in a few pics to show how it looks at the mo with the "final" coat of paint applied.I won't be able to do anything else with the helmet for at least two weeks what with work and the festive season just around the corner and the next two weekends booked up with this, that and the next thing.





Hopefully applying the lacquer will go without a hitch as long as no more bits of flying kitchen roll enter into the equation.

Just thought I'd bung in a picture taken just before the lid got to the point shown in the pictures above. This is with the Senate Guard costume that I could'nt resist trying on with the helmet (minus the visor) just to see how it looked.

[JesterTDA]

very nice! I hated the clear-coating process for my helmet. In fact I don't know if I'm quite done seeing as I know I'll be trooping in Feb so Ive got 10 weeks to make it perfect.

[Fox5]

Sweeet! I can't wait to see the finished product.