BradleyFett helmet build up

I got one of the BradleyFett vacuum formed helmets, and am putting it together to give away as a prize in a raffle the 501st is doing in January.

I set pretty tight goals for myself. 2 days of assembly, 1 day of main painting, 1 day of detailing.

I fell off that a bit due to other distractions during the process, but if you add up the hours spent on it, I'm spot on.

First, the assembly.

The kit comes in 3 pieces, just like the FX stormie kits: front, rear and dome.

The helmet is undented, so the dent was the first thing I addressed:



Rather than the idea of heating and pressing, I cut out the dent area and fashioned my own dent out of epoxy putty.

The epoxy bonds well to the plastic, but I coated around the interior edges with Goop anyway, just to be safe.

After the dent, I cut out the forehead triangles and keyslots. Not really interesting enough for photos there.

I attached the front to the rear using scrap plastic and rivets:



The dome was attached to that using epoxy putty to get the initial hold, then a bead of Goop along the whole seam to seal it up.



Once that was all dry, I used more of the epoxy putty to close up any visible gaps between the front and back. I used wood filler to close up the seam around the dome.

The right earcap needed a bunch of filler behind it, to fill in some gaps. More epoxy to the rescue!



(oh, and I superglued the Borden connector on while I was at it)

Total time spent on assembly, probably about 4 hours. On to paint!


primer on and looking good.



Sliver base coat.





I did the silver about an hour after the primer. This was late at night, so the colors would have to wait. I was hoping to do all the painting in one day, but that would have required a free weekend day, and that wasn't happening.

Fast forward. I didn't do progress pics of the painting, as it would really just look like a rushed version of the paintup I did for my MS3.

I did latex masking / layered weathering. I didn't really go nuts getting every detail. I have a folder with half a dozen of my favorite ROTJ helmet photos, and I spent a couple minutes on each one, trying to capture the major weathering. There aren't going to be any fine scratches or anything on here...

And here it is:








And for size comparison, here it is next to my MS3



The idea is to make a nice little plaque for the stand, and have Jeremy Bulloch sign it in a couple of weeks at another local con. So we'll be raffling off a finished, signed Fett helmet.

Looks great even though it was a quick job:thumbup

was the MS3 closer to the camera in the picture or is it the size difference that makes it look like it?

Great thread and a good testament to how good one of these lower cost MB helmets can look. Looks like he's going to get a few more orders after people see this thread.

Originally Posted by never_ending_fett

was the MS3 closer to the camera in the picture or is it the size difference that makes it look like it?

the two were exactly the same distance, and both sitting flat on the box.

the angle of the mandibles is different on both helmets, which gives them a very different look when sitting flat.

tk7602,
What kind of visor did you use? It sounds like the paint job was done for a display, so this might not make any difference: when I put my vac-formed helmet together, I felt like it still seemed like three pieces of plastic glued together instead of one piece. Do you have that sense, or did your bead of goop around all joins solve this for you?

Thanks

Originally Posted by ioelus

tk7602,
What kind of visor did you use? It sounds like the paint job was done for a display, so this might not make any difference: when I put my vac-formed helmet together, I felt like it still seemed like three pieces of plastic glued together instead of one piece. Do you have that sense, or did your bead of goop around all joins solve this for you?

Thanks

between the epoxy, goop and rivets, this feels like 1 piece of plastic now. not as solid as a fiberglass one, but as solid as one would expect from plastic.

the visor is a grey welding facemask cut to fit. it is held in with epoxy and hot glue. so it's a thin visor, but it's secured pretty well to both mandibles, which really solidifies the helmet.

woo! RF and stalk came today. thanks delta75! pics as soon as the glue on the earcap is dry enough to take the tape off.

sorry for the grainy pics. i wasn't motivated enough to go get the good camera.





my biggest complaint is that the visor came out a bit darker than i wanted. it's not bad, but not the best. i *may* repaint it, but i doubt it.

Awesome job in short time! And for the good cause.

That looks great.Terrific assembly and paintwork.I am kicking myself right now for not doing my dent the same way you did.That is a great idea.I use epoxy putty religiously, and that never came to me.
I am going to have to get another one for my personal bucket. It should be a lot easier the second time around.
Sounds like we use very similar methods though.Great minds think alike huh?lololol

Brian, do you mean the mandibles are too dark? If so, use a lighter red in a rattle can and mist it. If you then weather it, it should look lighter.

Also, did you dullcote it yet? It seems pretty shiny still. Looking good though.

Originally Posted by MandalorFett

Brian, do you mean the mandibles are too dark? If so, use a lighter red in a rattle can and mist it. If you then weather it, it should look lighter.

yeah, misting it was my thought... 'cept i have to re-mask all of the damage first, so it will be a bit of a pain.

Also, did you dullcote it yet? It seems pretty shiny still. Looking good though.

nope, i still need to do a bit more painting before final stuff like that.

Right on, sounds like you've got it handled.

Actually, if you mist it, you could touch up the silver with one of those metallic silver leaf pens. That way it still looks masked, and it's not as much work.

Nice job Brian!! You did a really good job in such a short amount of time!

Great work as usual!!

The person who get's this helmet will really love it!

Originally Posted by MandalorFett

Right on, sounds like you've got it handled.

Actually, if you mist it, you could touch up the silver with one of those metallic silver leaf pens. That way it still looks masked, and it's not as much work.

good point. that would definitely save some time.

the more i look at it, i think i need to, since with final weathering it will darken up even more.

i'm trying so hard to not be a perfectionist about this, but it's hard!

Wow- nice to see my kit actually does work! Great looking assembly/paint job on that!

I am back up and running after a very hard October, so if anyone wants a helmet, PM me here.

Mark

Nice looking helmet. These kits look pretty good especially for plastic. I really like how you did the dent. Probably the best, and maybe only way, to get an accurate dent in the plastic.

Glad I could help Brian.

Originally Posted by tk7602

woo! RF and stalk came today. thanks delta75! pics as soon as the glue on the earcap is dry enough to take the tape off.

Extremely well done!

here it is with the stripes on, mandible area repainted, and some flat clear and black misting all over:







i put a bit of foam on the inside of it so that it is wearable and so it will stay put on a stand. i don't imagine the winner will wear it, but it seemed like the right thing to do anyway.

honestly, i'll be impressed if it's no on ebay a week after the con, but hey, what can you do?

Originally Posted by Bradleyfett

Wow- nice to see my kit actually does work! Great looking assembly/paint job on that!

I am back up and running after a very hard October, so if anyone wants a helmet, PM me here.

Mark

thanks! i think this is by far the best choice for the budget-conscious fett. i'm glad i got the chance to put one together.

Originally Posted by wickedbeard

That looks great.Terrific assembly and paintwork.I am kicking myself right now for not doing my dent the same way you did.That is a great idea.I use epoxy putty religiously, and that never came to me.
I am going to have to get another one for my personal bucket. It should be a lot easier the second time around.
Sounds like we use very similar methods though.Great minds think alike huh?lololol

the epoxy dent really does look great up close. it's a nice, quick way to get some sharp detail.

and oddly enough, i'll be using that very same putty to fill in the dent on a jodo kast helmet tonight. it's the circle of life... or dents... or something

Great job Brian, the mandibles do look better. Somebody's gonna be stoked to get this.

oooo, me like.

Thats a great job bro. I dunno why, but I love the primed fett version, lol, but that is a sweet job you did.

EDIT: One thing I woulda done was to drummel the edges for better accuracy. but cheers mate!!!

Originally Posted by loveless

oooo, me like.

Thats a great job bro. I dunno why, but I love the primed fett version, lol, but that is a sweet job you did.

EDIT: One thing I woulda done was to drummel the edges for better accuracy. but cheers mate!!!

which edges? the thing to remember is that this is thin plastic... there's about 1/16th thickness all around... so if you shave even a hair to much off, you've got a hole.

It looks awesome. A great paint job goes a long way!!

Brian.. did you ever mount the board I sent?

Originally Posted by Mojo-Fett

Brian.. did you ever mount the board I sent?

it still hasn't arrived. as soon as it comes, it's going in!

woo! mq-1 arrived today! it's silvered up and ready to mount!

Cool... I'm glad it turned up buddy.

That kit looks pretty darned good....
Rob

I just ordered one. I can't wait to try my hand at painting my first Fett bucket!!

i think that particularly with a more loving paint job than i gave it, these make for really nice trooping helmets.

Fantastic, it looks really good!!! Nice work and hats off to BF for the kit

Very nice!
I think you have inspired me to want one one of these helms for my 2nd armor set.
=)

The Fett helmet was raffled off this weekend. We raised a bit over $800 for the Make a Wish foundation!!! We didn't track individual items, so I couldn't say how much of that was the bucket, but the winner was REALLY excited about it and has NO interest in eBaying it!

In addition to the RF stalk donated by Delta75 and MQ-1 donated by Mojo-Fett, the helmet also featured a big red TDH sticker on the inside

Thanks again to those that helped!

Nice job Brian - to you and the rest of the NEG. The helmet looked sweet!

$800 eh? That's quite an impressive success if you ask me. Great job, troops!

Great job Brian and NEG!

That is pretty sweet for such a quick job. Cool to see a vacuform bucket build up. Doesn't look too shabby