Advice for a newcomer?

Greetings gents, and I'll preemptively apologize for the lengthy post!

I've been lurking here for a little while now and thought I'd finally speak up. I've been a Boba Fett fan since I was in middle school and I've always found him fascinating, despite his brief screen time. I've been poring over the gallery and the many helpful posts here and I am absolutely blown away by the wealth of knowledge presented here at TDH. I consider myself a fairly well-read Star Wars fan but I had no idea there were so many variations and alternate iterations of Boba Fett, as seen on the pre-production Fetts and the two movie Fetts. I never noticed all the differences between them, some very minute in detail and some quite obvious once it's pointed out. I can't believe how much I never noticed and was never aware of. The story of his creation and evolution is also very interesting to me.

That said, I came here quite by accident. I've always wanted a Boba Fett helmet and as a child, even tried to build one out of discarded sheet metal. Needless to say, it didn't go well! :doh Recently that hankering for a Boba Fett helmet resurfaced. I thought I could simply go online and buy a nice, quality Boba Fett helmet for display but to my surprise, it would appear there aren't any to be had! Even the Master Replica helmet from a few years ago apparently has some dubious dimensions (and I didn't even realize MR no longer existed! Shows how up to date I am!).

After stumbling across and exploring TDH, it seems to me that my best option is to source a shell and eventually have it assembled and painted, as time and money allows. I have no real crafting or artistic skills so most, if not all, of the work would probably need to be commissioned. I've certainly been impressed with the skills many people here exhibit. Some of the paintwork I've seen is just astounding. A helmet made in this way would hopefully be nicer than anything that could ever be made commercially available.

My long-term goal is to ultimately wind up with a helmet that, at least externally, looks as close to identical to whichever one it's modelled after as possible (not sure which one I prefer the most yet), but I'm not necessarily looking to replicate the actual prop in regards to construction and features. I would like to make use of the aluminum ears, borden, and RF stalk that are offered and would like the helmet to have some degree of electrical function, particularly in regards to the RF lights and maybe a RF stalk servo. Inside, I would like to spruce it up with some sort of interior kit that at least looks plausible in regards to what his helmet might've looked like if we ever got a peek. In other words, I'd like to replicate Boba Fett's helmet as much as possible, rather than the actual real world prop itself. Does that make any sense? It will be primarily for display and showing to people. I wouldn't be trooping with it and would rarely even wear it (maybe...;)).

Some preliminary questions:

-What shell is preferred or recommended? The GMH from Fettpride sure looks nice, and I like its pedigree, but have I missed the boat on those?

-Is there a list of vendors and/or people that take on work?

This looks like a great community and thanks for any advice and insights that can be provided! :thumbsup

Hi , I'm new here myself and must agree ,if it's not on this site it's not worth knowing , I've found the search engine very useful , like you I've always wanted a :fettrotj helmet , found one on eBay and will attempt to paint it myself, now I've gone and bought the sidewinder rotj EE-3 boater kit , so I think I'm hooked
Regards, cliff

Sounds like you're off to a good start! The options that are available to us are almost overwhelming! Which shell did you decide to go with?

I must confess I dont know it's history ,it was listed as fan made , I will have to add a pic and see if someone can shed some light on it

I see. Hopefully someone will be able to give you some insights about its origins!

If at all possible stay away from eBay, most if not all the helmets there are recasts of helm made by people on this site. There is one in particular that comes to mind because you can see the FP in the visor, which means its 99% a copy of fettpride's helm. While the FP GMH is awesome, I have no idea if he is still making them. I have been a member here since June of this year and have tried on numerous occasions to contact him to no avail. Apparently Facebook is the best way and I don't have an account.
Bobamaker who is in the UK makes a nice helm but its pricey and he has a long backlog. I ordered some armor from him in August and don't expect to see it until march.
Here are a couple of suggestions with regards to looking for parts; the cargo hold will be your best friend. I look at it myself too many times a day to count, it's almost become a habit.
If you want a nice helm for a good price, look for an Asok cold cast. He is great to deal with, ships fairly quickly, and its a nice lid. There are a lot of great painters on this forum, but when it comes the buckets the name that comes up almost immediately is deadland. Look for his threads and you will see why. If you want to try to paint it yourself, look to Jayvee, rafal fett, dynamic1, and terminal fettler they will point you in the right direction.
The most important piece of advice I can give is to read the threads and do some research, the people on this forum will help, you just have to ask for it.

Hey Wolfsburg, curious what you mean by the "dubious dimensions" of the MR Boba Fett Helmet. I have one and I think it looks great, but was wondering what you think, or have found in your research, is off?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jc27

If at all possible stay away from eBay, most if not all the helmets there are recasts of helm made by people on this site. There is one in particular that comes to mind because you can see the FP in the visor, which means its 99% a copy of fettpride's helm. While the FP GMH is awesome, I have no idea if he is still making them. I have been a member here since June of this year and have tried on numerous occasions to contact him to no avail. Apparently Facebook is the best way and I don't have an account.
Bobamaker who is in the UK makes a nice helm but its pricey and he has a long backlog. I ordered some armor from him in August and don't expect to see it until march.
Here are a couple of suggestions with regards to looking for parts; the cargo hold will be your best friend. I look at it myself too many times a day to count, it's almost become a habit.
If you want a nice helm for a good price, look for an Asok cold cast. He is great to deal with, ships fairly quickly, and its a nice lid. There are a lot of great painters on this forum, but when it comes the buckets the name that comes up almost immediately is deadland. Look for his threads and you will see why. If you want to try to paint it yourself, look to Jayvee, rafal fett, dynamic1, and terminal fettler they will point you in the right direction.
The most important piece of advice I can give is to read the threads and do some research, the people on this forum will help, you just have to ask for it.

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Thanks for the input! Exactly the kind of advice I'm looking for. I'm in absolutely no real rush so I intend to take my time and continue to be a "sponge" and absorb as much insight as I can.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by banjo

Hey Wolfsburg, curious what you mean by the "dubious dimensions" of the MR Boba Fett Helmet. I have one and I think it looks great, but was wondering what you think, or have found in your research, is off?

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Well keep in mind I'm very new to this and still learning but my understanding was that the MR helmet was laser-scanned from the PP3 helmet and scaled up, so it's bigger than the original helmet. If that's incorrect and I've gotten my wires crossed, I hope someone will correct me!

Welcome Sir!

And thank you sir!