Converting the Rubies 2-piece Jango to ESB Boba: My take

I had so much fun converting the 1 piece deluxe Jango into my ROTJ bucket that I figured I would tackle taming the 2 piece injection molded Jango. This bucket is a little bigger than the deluxe version. Right out of the package, the shape is all jacked up but I feel that this helmet actually has greater potential than the deluxe. The first thing I've done is set about trying to correct the shape of the helmet.
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As you can see, the helmet is too skinny and the cheeks bow out. I first flattened out the cheeks. I took a 1" wide scrap of trash can plastic I had left over from my chest armor and superglued it to the inside of the helmet. I used a bench vice to press the 2 pieces of plastic together. When it was all finished, the cheeks were much closer to being flat than before.
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The shape of the helmet is much better at this point, but it's still too tall and not flared out enough. I've taken a 10" wooden embroidering craft thing and put it in the bottom of the helmet.
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There are actually 2 components to the hoop: an outside piece and an inside piece. I took the inside piece, halved it, and glued the 2 halves together. I had to carve out a notch with the Dremel so that it the ring would fit around the key slot thing inside and flush with the bottom of the helmet. I'm really liking the shape of the helmet a lot better now.
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I apologize for the crummy quality of the pics. I'm using my my phone because my nice Sony camera got stepped on :(
 
I've glued on the left ear piece. Originally I was planning on painting the ear piece first, but after modding the shape of the helmet, I figured it wouldn't fit flush so I glued it on. I used some C clamps to make sure that the ear was nice and flat against the bucket while the glue cured.
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I also started working on modding the right ear piece. I made a little "cap" out of for sale sign material and glued it onto the helmet to more closely emulate the look of the actual helmet. I also managed to somehow spray this thing with some primer.
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The next thing was adding the dent. I originally was going to try to cast the dent from the Hasbro toy helmet, but I abandoned that idea in favor of making the dent from scratch. I first traced out the hole for the dent with pencil. I then cut out the hole with a Dremel. Using an idea I got from Stormtrooperguy, I crafted the dent out of epoxy putty. After the putty was cured, I sanded and filed the dent to shape.
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I finally bought some Bondo and used that to clean up the seam across the dome.
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It's nice having a smooth, seamless dome.

I've also started working on making the right ear piece. I first took the single piece and cut it into 2 pieces with a hacksaw.
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I've taken the top piece and trimmed off some of the excess plastic.
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I still have to make the wedge piece that fits underneath. I'll fashion that out of for sale sign material.

I made the inner range finder "track" out of for sale sign material, also. I drilled a hole into the helmet so that I can use a 1/4" carriage bolt, washer, and nut to secure the range finder. I had to Dremel the range finder base to fit flush against the helmet, but I'll talk more about that later. The ringe finder is going to require quite a bit of modification.
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I took the bottom section of the right ear and trimmed off the excess plastic. I then created the vented box thing out of for sale sign material. I filled the hollow box with hot glue before drilling the vents so that they would have some real depth to them.
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Might wanna cut the lower cheeks out completely and replace them with a flat piece of sintra or something. You'll thank me later. I did one of these for my son, never straightened the cheeks, and kicked myself for it. See what I mean?

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I agree it will be well worth doing as the curved cheeks thro the hole thing of;

Nice rig DVSTR makes me lean toward ESB again, hmm
 
Might wanna cut the lower cheeks out completely and replace them with a flat piece of sintra or something. You'll thank me later. I did one of these for my son, never straightened the cheeks, and kicked myself for it. See what I mean?

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That looks so cute... he looks like a bobble-head-boba!
 
Might wanna cut the lower cheeks out completely and replace them with a flat piece of sintra or something. You'll thank me later. I did one of these for my son, never straightened the cheeks, and kicked myself for it. See what I mean?

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Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Also, I really dig the paint job on that bucket! What paints did you use? I'm working off of the AFFO$ rattle can list. What did you use for the visor?
 
I went ahead and replaced the cheeks. I cut out some scrap plastic from a trashcan I had laying around. I still need to clean up the seam with some Bondo, but I'm very pleased with the results. I just need to attach the borden connector to the cheek and do some minor cleaning up and then I'll be painting this sucka.
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Say, Devilstar2k2, do you have any other pics of that helmet? It looks really good from the one pic. I'm just curious to see what it looks like from other angles.
 

Not to derail, but this is one of the cutest Boba's I have seen... well, if Boba can be considered cute. My 4 year old has been begging me to make him a Boba, and this is my inspiration to do it, lol.

Elusivesolution... Keep up the good work. It is looking very nice.
 
This stinks! It's been too cold to work on painting this thing. All I've managed to do is get the first layer of red on the left ear piece. I'm so impatient!
 
Yay! I finally managed to get the left ear piece done. I first masked off the entire helmet minus the ear piece with newspaper and painters tape.
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I put down a layer of Rustoleum colonial red and then masked off the damage using the ESB helmet templates.
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I let the red paint cure for a couple of days before layering on some Rustoleum automotive primer.
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The first time I tried this, I didn't let the red paint cure long enough and the primer had all sorts of cracking. I suppose it was moisture or gases escaping from the paint. I actually had to sand down the entire ear piece and start from scratch. Patience is the key!

After the primer layer, I masked off the red and gray damage and sprayed on some Krylon Italian Olive.
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I was deliberating on how I was going to do the white decal thing for quite some time. I decided to take the printout of the damage template and cut it out from that. I sprayed the front with some clear coat to give the paper a protective coating. I then carefully cut out the decal with a utility knife. I sprayed the back with Elmer's spray adhesive and then pasted the sucker on my helmet. Voila! Very fast, easy, and cheap.
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EDIT:
I forgot to mention that after each layer of paint, I gave it a light scrubbing with #0000 wool to knock back that spray painty texture
 
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