Painting a Replica of Pierre Gasly's 2022 French Grand Prix Helmet

To date my artwork / painting has been mostly on flat surfaces, but I've had a helmet visor signed by Pierre Gasly and decided to tackle painting a replica of his 2022 French Grand Prix Helmet (Designed by Adrien Paviot Designs and painted by BS Designs) The video shows most of the steps in the process. The upfront work done to recreate the helmet graphics isn't included - That's could be it's own video!
The helmet is a Bell RS7. This isn't the same as what F1 drivers use but is fairly close without spending a lot more money.
I used the ‪@iwatamedea1‬ HP-CS and LPH80 (1.0 nozzle) and a ‪@californiaairtools‬ compressor.
Paint was ‪@CreatexColors‬ for most of it plus some of their UVLS clear. ‪@HouseOfKolorHOK‬ was used prior to the ‪@ORACALUSA‬ silver chrome vinyl, some more paint for "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" (national motto of France) which went on the top, the additional layers of clear.
Sanded up to 2000 grit then polished with 3M Perfect-It.
Is it perfect? No. The slightly different helmet shape meant I had to improvise a bit with the layout of graphics. Lots of lessons were definitely learned!

[@luizfernando-ko4gi]

Muito trabalho mas ficou incrível ! Like e inscrito

[@mikezartwork]

Gracias!

[@elyx4017]

Great job, what grit of sandpaper do you use? Thanks and keep up the good work

[@mikezartwork]

It depends at what stage. Initially around 320-400 to get the base layer to adhere. At the end I'm sanding at 2000-3000 then using an orbital sander for the final cut and polish.

[@NYKWHY]

Thank you for sharing the progress. this is something I've been neglecting to start on my own lid. Can you share some thoughts about the chrome you used and you experience using it?

[@mikezartwork]

Thanks. The chrome parts are Oracal vinyl. Some painters will have a helmet chromed but that's usually $600+ and seemed overkill. From what I could tell, Pierre's actual helmet was also vinyl. I used a cheaper vinyl on my first attempt but it was slightly thicker, the adhesive wasn't as good, and it didn't like going around curves. I sprayed 2K clear coat, let it cure 24hrs, applied vinyl and let that sit for a day to make sure it didn't start peeling up. When that was good I did the final coats of clear coat to bury the vinyl.

[@nyc7708ems]

After clearing multiple coats did you have to sand it down at all to keep it from getting edges from the vinyl ?

[@PhillipSterling-w5g]

wait a minute man this is awesome, i've been thinking about making a verstappen helmet so long because no painter wants to do it due to copy right but ey ? i can always lie and say i bought it somewhere, so first how did you make those stickers and how do you cover them when you paint over it because max his helmet has a white base so i thought id first paint it white then put the decals on it and paint the rest of the colors

[@legendaryrico]

For max’s helmet you can use a white base and cut the logo’s in the vinyl. Instead of peeling the vinyl around de logo, you leave that and only remove the logo itself. That way you have a mask. The decals on max’s helmet are not painted btw, for his helmet they just apply the stickers and add clearcoat over it😉 There is an video of the making of his helmets on his official youtube channel

[@mikezartwork]

Probably not a big deal with copyright if you’re making it for yourself. I will be making a replica of one of Max’s helmets soon. Check out replies to other comments for how I made the stickers. Most are masks cut from vinyl then painted. A couple of the small / detailed logos below the visor were self-made water slide decals. This helmet started with a layer of the dark blue used by Alpha Tauri. I masked all the logos then painted the helmet white, then removed masks which left dark blue logos/graphics. It’s a time consuming process!

[@batspideycek]

Good job mate , Im planning to make ayrton senna's helmet . I will try applying stickers after apply clear coat on it . What do you think about that stickers (not painting)?

[@mikezartwork]

It’s down to personal preference… For me, I paint as much as I can unless it’s just not practical or the results won’t be up to my standard. Some of the best painters in the world use a lot of decals… More for speed/convenience.

[@rushdanrushil4771]

what do u use to make the text stencils?

[@mikezartwork]

These were made on a Cameo. Similar to a Cricut. I use software to create the vector graphics to make the stencils/masks.

[@kieranbryant1183]

Would you take orders for doing other peoples helmets?

[@mikezartwork]

@@kieranbryant1183 yes

[@mikezartwork]

@@kieranbryant1183 this should give you a ballpark idea of cost and my contact info is on there too. mikezagorski.com/helmets/

[@valentube3396]

Do u have a shop?

[@mikezartwork]

Www.mzf1.art