Full steel formed dished and welded helmet

that is really cool. What is the weight like on a full metal lid?

that is rockin! i've been wanting to get a metal helmet for a minute. how difficult would that be to do in a lighter guage sheet metal?

Wow. That is fantastic. Are you going to do steel armor as well?

The weight is going to be probably 7-9 lbs, or about 3x that of a normal fiberglass or resin one. Typical SCA medieval armor helmets are in this range of 6-11 lbs.

I don't think it would be much easier to do in a thinner gage metal. In fact some parts would probably be harder, like the welding and grinding.

I do plan to do armor as well. It will be Mando inspired but will have to follow a lot of SCA rules in order to cover and protect correctly, so it will have a lot of medieval look to it as well.

That's awesome. Can't wait to see the rest.

Photobucket was down, so here are some attached update pics Didn't do much tonight. Will try to get the left cheek by the end of the weekend.

wow...always wanted to do a metal lid...this is awesome!!!

You're 50% Bat **** Insane, 45% awesome, and 5% diligent to do a helmet and armor out of steel! This is guna be a raw project... Keep the updates coming... String some El-Wire through that thing too!

My current armor is hammered Aluminum. I'm the red and gold mando from this pic:

Awesome project!! Also love the photoshopped pic of the Mandolorians...it looks like it could be a poster or original art....a book cover perhaps....really cool!!!

Just out of interest how thick is 12gauge steel,in England 12guage(SWG) is about 2.8 mm
is it the same in the US?
This is realy making me want to start my own helmet(10SWG/3mm aluminium),just want to finnish my back plate first!

FMF

I was going to do one in Aluminium, but found that welding aluminium is an art far beyond my ability. Between Lance and I we banged out about 10 sets of aluminium armor for the mandos in the pic above and several others. We have been wanting to do helmets, but never had a real way to dish metal that much. Just beating out a chest plate was a lot of work and that is minimal dishing. By using the 12 ton press I made from a bottle jack and a cast iron ball I am able to do about 16 hours of hammer swinging in about 4-5 hours. My welding skills have always been very minimal but are improving daily. I ran out of gas for my MIG welder last night and just got some more today. Lets see what kind of progress I can get this weekend.

updated the photobucket with some structurally complete photos. I still have some cleanup and mainly got to square off the bottom. Will probably do most of that tonight and tomorrow.

That's really cool, I like that idea. As a side note, I actually have that second picture of you guys firing hanging on my wall, I liked that picture so much.

You're using a pretty heavy gauge of metal there. My armour is 16-gauge, and I'm planning on doing my helmet in the same. How much would the metal thin being dished for the dome? Should I start with 15? 14? And are you going for the simple hemispherical dome, or the more complex "baseball-helmet" shape of the original helmet?

--Jonah

I took patterns off of I a helmet I have, I think an MSH. It has the "baseball-helmet" shape with the bulge in the back right quarter.

I have some of the sheet metal armor that I piced up from someone here. I'm not sure of the gage, but it is really really thin. the stretching will thin it some, but not as much as you'd think. It'll be an almost un-noticeable amount. I sugest dishing it in two halves and welding them together. I started with the plan of doing quarters, but after doing the first to I tried the other half as once pices and it worked out great.

Originally Posted by TD-4242

between that one and this one http://duneseagarrison.com/photo_gal...ander.jpg.html to of my favorite narcissistic pictures of myself.

Which one are you, the heavy gunner or the other ARC Trooper? Either way though, I really like both costumes, especially the Heavy Gunner.

I built them both. Originally we were both the ARC Troopers, I just modded mine with the new helmet and gun.

i'm lucky that i have a 100 ton press at work and thats what my one piece dome will be done on once i get around to making a press tool. I have a cunning plan on useing a couple of steel pipe end caps to make the tool.

FMF

awesome metal helmet...I was thinking of making an aluminum/steel one this summer and hopefully it can turn out and good as this steel one

TD-4242 -- Good to know. Did you do right and left halves, or front and back halves? I'll probably go with 15-gauge, and if it ends up a little thicker than 16, hey bonus.

FMF -- I don't suppose you'd consider a run of one-piece steel domes?

Really, the barrel almost makes itself, as far as bending and cutting go, but -- unless you have boobs and are making suitable chestplates -- the dome takes more dishing and planishing than any of the other armour pieces. A pressed piece would be an awesome alternative.

--Jonah

I updated the first post with some new pics. There is still a lot of swirl marks from teh sander that show up under flash a lot more than in reality. I have a few internal reinforcements that I have to do to make it combat ready, then I'll have to take it in for inspection.

Peregrinus: Actually I think the cheeks ended up quite a bit more difficult then the dome, at least to finish off. I used some of the templates found here for doing cardboard/styrene helmets to get the patterns.

Peregrinus I must agree with TD-4242 the cheeks do look a lot more work than the dome.

I may do a run,depends on how things go with my personal helmet.Hope to start my own post on the project when i get going.

FMF

Originally Posted by TD-4242

I built them both. Originally we were both the ARC Troopers, I just modded mine with the new helmet and gun.

Cool, you did quite the good job on them, I must say.

TD-4242 have you thought about using an ostrich feather plume rather than a range finder? It would go well with the medieval look.

FMF

your helmet is AWESOME!!! i bet that takes lots of patience, and dilligence...however i'm sure it will look stunning once it is complete!

put a gunblue on it using a blueing kit. took a quick video to show it off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZuyYBgI2Qg

Decided I'm going to do a magnetic range finder. Still working on it though. I need to be able to remove it for combat so it doesn't get caught on anything.

Ok, uploaded some new pictures of the completed helmet ready for combat.

Looking amazing Bill!

Might want to move this thread to the Mando variants section. I'm going to start posting the rest of my armor build here as well.

Here's the start of my shoulder armor



couple more pics on the photobucket page

Finished the range finder and linked to it in the first post of this thread.

Wow, that must have been some serious work to make that. I thought it was hard enough making my armor out of aluminum. Dang! Great job!

Its funny I went to a local con and saw some SCA fights, I thought it'd be interesting to see some star wars inspired armor out there and here it is! Great work!

what is that padding you have up in there? it looks hella comfy.

This looks very neat. Is it alot to carry weight wise, the complete suit? I struggle in a pair of jeans and a polo shirt on warm days so you must really feel the heat once your all suited up?

Well, I have worn star wars armor (Sandtrooper, Clone Troopers, BobaFett, custom Mando, etc...) in as much as 122F weather here in Phoenix and it is really not fun. That was a bad day to have the temp gage in the car as we were driving to the event. Luckily this is specifically for the Estrella War (SCA event) in February. It drops to close to freezing at night and is cool all day at this time of year here.

I haven't made much progress on this project yet, I decided I wanted to paint my Boba Fett helmet I've had sitting onthe shelf for about a year and a half now.

Really cool idea!!! Thats gonna look sick on the battlefield!!!

El1te

where did you get the padding on the inside of the helmet?...looks like padding from a sports helmet, but which sport? all the padding i've found is just foam...this stuff looks like the padding from the riddell miniature i'm using as reference for my bucket...thanks and good job

Originally Posted by TD-4242

I'm the red and gold mando from this pic:

Cool pic, where did the mando all the way in the back of th non photoshopped go? or is it because he is a Boba?

That's really cool,
I've been wanting to do a sca/ ren fest style mando myself.
It's good to see someone else actually doing a crossover suit of armor.

I don't know. I don't know the original artist of the photoshopped version.

It all came out of a Ridell football helmet. I went to the used sports gear shop and picked it up for ~$30.

Awesome helmet!!

Bill, did you show Lance this yet? he was talking about how cool an SCA approved mando lid would be...

He did come over before it was completed but saw it in it's assembled state.

I have decided to see if I can streamline these. I am dishing 2 more domes. Will start progress updates soon.

Well we had a few somewhat cool days so I worked a bit on dishing 2 more helms. Now it's back up to 102 so I'm inside. I did start some cool leather work though that I'm going to use over a steal chestplate to give it hte mando feel.

I would be interested in purchasing a full dished steel helmet depending on price. Is there anyway I could get an estimated price so i can decide if I would like to move further.

here is a step by step forming of the helmet dome hemispheres. Except for final planishing to make it smooth.

and also my leather chest guard that will go over the full breast plate.

Bill, have you thought about raising the dome instead of dishing? Takes a little longer, but you wouldn't need to weld those 2 pieces and metal wouldn't get stretched so it would last in SCA combat longer.

Just a thought. Thats a pretty bada-- helmet man, and it's great to see some old traditions make it's way to mando armor production.

actually it is done with a bit of both. I dish the deepest part and raise the outer edges.

I've got another dome almost done. Been working rather slowly. Went on a hike this morning that wiped me out.

Very cool. I was just wondering how much a steel helmet would weigh when I was out in the garage haha.

Me and a friend of mine worked all day yesterday and I put in another 8+hours today, (though some of that was yard work)

Figured I'd add some of my latest pics. I picked up a 55 gallon plastic drum from the salvage yard and used it to make the chest and kidney parts. They'll be covered with the leather Mando pattern I started. It'll be a full vest when done.

I've also got my left arm 90% done from gauntlet to shoulder. got the right gauntlet done now too.

Legs will be done with baseball catchers knee/shine guards. I will put either alluminium or leather plates over them to hide the modern look.

Also have my door shield painted up. I haven't attached any of the hardware yet I just wanted to paint it

Few more pics and just to show off my Fett Mannequin

couple of test fits

hehe I fight in the sca, no offense but I would aim for the stalk lol, Nah just kidding. I've never seen anything like this though. Very nice I bet you get some looks from other people.

got that covered, the stalk is atached with a magnet and will go in a pocket before battle.

The occasional time I get bored of working on my new armor I started making 2 more steel helms. Here are some pics of the most complete one.

Wow...I'm absolutely speechless. Kan-freakin'-dosii, vod. Outstanding

That is just crazy awesome! You need to line that thing with Kevlar and sell it to the Army--lol

Well, much better than I hoped, still needs some tuneing though:

That is cool, so are these going to be available to anyone??

Anyone with a hammer, stump and a welder.

Just to let you know, if I see you with this helmet on, I will have to give it a quick rap with my knuckles to make sure it's really made of metal

As a seller of welding equipment, and also have a play with welders now and again I can certainly say that you've done a fantastic job there.

Nice to see a piece of bare metal 'come to life'.

Very cool man, a lot of my friends back home are in the SCA. I really love the shield!

That is impressive.

Awesome work buddy. I like the metalwork.What kind of padding are inside the helmet?

I'm pretty sure your my new hero. keep up the good work.

I forgot to ask, but what kind of gloves would you recommend for a mando suit? also, any advice on boots?

Kandosii! I was planning on doing a set of Mando SCA-legal armor. You've further inspired me to undertake this project!