Need new bucket - Suggestions?

Okay, a major mishap happened at the Lilac parade. In a little accidente, my oldest daughter Ruth turned around and tried to run out of the way of a golf cart and slammed right into my arm that was holding my bucket. I dropped it on the ground and now it's cracked!! Charles and I talked about some solutions yesterday afternoon, I came home, exhausted them all and am now starting from scratch again. Basically I need a new bucket. I didn't know if anyone here had any suggestions. I've looked at BobaMaker's and although expensive, the wife has okayed for us to pull out some money to make that work. However, I have heard that he is notoriously slow at getting his buckets out. Here's the problem. If I want the bucket painted and ready for Dragon Con, because of my schedule, I will have to have the bucket by mid to late June in order to get the painting done.
By the way, don't ever use a Don Post bucket (lesson learned) because when a problem like this arises, the material is too thin to glue back together. I'm so depressed today I can't even begin to explain!!!

Okay, so an update on my helmet "situation". First off, I am in contact with Sarge on the TDH boards and may be ordering a mystery helmet from him in the not too distant future (probably by the end of the week). I decided not to order from Bobamaker because he's about three months behind on orders already.
Some good news. I was able to get the PVC glue to work today with some help with my wife. My helmet looks like absolute crap now because I have to glue and Bond-O it back together. So, I'll be working on the sanding tonight and tomorrow will try and work on forming some Sintra to put on the inside of the helmet to help "sure up" the helemt to give it some more stability. So, lesson learned, DON'T DROP YOUR HELMET, PUT IT ON AND DON'T TAKE IT OFF UNLESS YOU'RE PUTTING IT AWAY!!

Other than that, the parade went really well and it was well worth the trip up to Rochester. I really enjoyed my time and can't wait to meet up with them for the parade again next year!

Bob,
I am glad to hear that PVC glue will work. I don?t know how far along you are with this but if you aren?t too far and you want me to do it I might be able to fit it together well. I have a lot of experience gluing thing like this so they are water tight- literally. Just let me know if I can help and I am sorry for not mentioning it earlier.

Sorry to hear about your bucket but.............yeah. you need any help just let me know.

I'm actually pretty far along now. Believe it or not, I worked like a race horse yesterday and got it glued, then Bond-O'd and it doesn't look half bad. As a matter of fact, I was able to put on the first layer of white spray paint before going to bed last night. I'll get pics of it when I've completed the repairs and let you all see. Then we'll discuss whether I need "weathering" or not and what you would all suggest.

Sounds weathered already... Rubber cement is your friend when it comes to any type of ease in the weather ing department... Base coat tape off what you dont want painted put your cement heavy and eratic along the tape edge then your next coat of paint. Let dry, After drying rub off cement, advance your tape edge and repeat. do this for as many layers as you want..
P.S. let base coat and all other layers cure a few days befor adding tape and rubber cement both will lift your paint if its not dry. SeeBelow for example..
[image=http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u185/JagVader/mandoA2-1e.jpg]