Jango 2-piece injection helmet conversion to Boba ESB

Hi everyone!
Last week my nephew asked me to build him a Boba bucket for Halloween. Since Halloween is only two months away, I won't have time to build him a bucket that will pass his scrutiny. For an 8 year old he's an expert at the small details of a Boba helmet since Boba Fett is his ultimate favorite SW character. So to make my life easier and give myself enough time to give him what he wants, I decided to buy Jango Fett 2-piece injection mold helmet ($25) and convert it to a Boba ESB. Of course I had to OK this with my nephew since the Jango is different from the Boba (ex. right side ear piece and no dent). I assured him it'll look just like Boba's ESB helmet and he agreed.

I've decided to share this conversion progress with you all since I haven't seen any post on this type of helmet (none that I know off). I've attached some pictures of the Jango bucket. You will notice that they made the RF stalk backwards. If I have time I will make a new one since I cannot use this one in reverse. The first thing I need to do is to sand everything down. Until then....

Looking forward to seeing it!

I finally finished sanding the helmet and I also made the dent crater (as I like to call it) using a water bottle cap. The next step is to fill in the gap between the two pieces and sand it down, fill in the crater and shape the actual dent. Until then...

Update pics of where I'm at with the bucket. First I reinforced the inside with Gorilla glue and tape for more support and rigidity, now it's not flimsy and a lot more sturdy. I made the dent, filled in the gap, sanded the whole dome down and gave it two coats of automotive primer. Now that all the prep work is done, it time for the fun part...painting. Until then...

I'm definitely excited to see how this turns out

wow. i would like to see how this turns out as well

Sorry for the long delay since the last update. My work requires me to travel for sometimes weeks at a time. So I'm back and this is what I've gotten done to date.

I couldn't find the right colors at the hobby shops in my area so I decided to go with standard Home Depot spray paint colors and some acrylic paint I got at an arts & craft store. Dome & cheeks (moss green), upper cheeks (generic black), mandibles (colonial red), back panels (hunt club green) kill stripes (standard yellow acrylic). The moss green I used for the dome and cheeks was too light so I added some of the generic black to make it darker. I sprayed the black from about a foot away lightly misting the moss green. I'm satisfied with the result. Next will be the weathering and battle scars.

Just for the record, this is my first time doing anything like this so I'm opting for the amateur method of painting instead of the professional method so many talented painters on this website use. Until then...

Looks really good so far. My only suggestion would be to reinforce the lower cheeks from behind with a rigid, flat piece of plastic so they don't bow out anymore. Just trace and cut a piece that you can glue over the entire inside of the lower cheek to flatten them out. I think it would help tremendously with making the helmet look more accurate.

@Maud'Dib Thanks for the advice. Here's a quick update on what I did to the cheeks so they don't bow out so much. I decided not to add anything to the the back of the cheeks so I shaved off a little piece and sanded it down. Then I took a heat gun and used it to soften the plastic then bent it into shape using clamps and poster board blocks so the paint wouldn't get scratched. I love the results.

I can't wait to see how the weathering turns out.

I'm back with more update pics. I've completed all the dome scratches along with the back panels and both the ear caps. I not really satisfied with the brown paint I used on the back panels (I used the wrong color, I was using a reference photo that had that color. In reality it should be more of a light gray color). All in all the back panels looks OK.

Nice paint job

This is turning out nicely!

While the paint job looks great, please replace the right earpiece at least. The closed look doesn't look right for Boba.

I just got back from the road 4 days ago and finished all the paint job needed for the bucket. I'll post pictures of the finished bucket tomorrow when my nephew comes over to see it and try it out with his Halloween costume. Right now I'm just doing the finishing touches on it. I'm replacing the original t-visor with a green tinted face shield I got at Orchards. I made the bordan connector from a piece of wood I cut from the handle of a chisel tool. And lastly, I installed the inner padding for the bucket.

I included a picture of the helmet that came with the costume and I can understand my nephew's frustration and pain. I sure as hell wouldn't want to wear it also. It should be against the law to make children wear such low quality Boba buckets (hahahahaha!).

Until tomorrow with the finished bucket.

I think your paintjob is fantastic! Have you painted a Boba helmet before?

@clonecollector Thank you, this is my first time doing this.

@Maud'Dib I wanted to modify the right earcap and make it the proper Boba two-piece along with fixing the backwards RF stalk by I just didn't have the time to.

Hello fellow TDH members, I'm finally done with painting the bucket.

The weathering of the entire front of the helmet along with the red areas and the keyhole slots in the back was done with only two colors: bright silver (Floquil) and battleship gray (Model Master). Unfortunately I couldn't find the other colors for highlighting (maroon & base metal) at any of the hobby shops in my area. Also I bought a paint brush kit but only ended up using the fine tip brush, a sponge that I cut into little brushes and masking fluid for the weathering of the entire helmet (I used a sponge so the paint would not show any brush strokes). I'm surprised at what I achieved with only those three things I used.

When I got the paint stencils and saw how detailed it was I was overwhelmed with doubt that I could pull off a halfway decent job, being this is my first time painting a bucket. I should have chosen to paint it ROTJ style, it's way more easier. But my nephew wanted ESB so it was do or die. Please keep in mind that I'm a amateur/beginner and I had limited time so I wasn't going for complete accuracy of the intricate details of the helmet. I just want it to resemble an ESB paint job. I've included before & after comparison shots and close-up shots. Enough of my yapping...here are the pictures.

Not bad for a $25 bucket.

Wow! That looks awesome. Can you get a shot of someone wearing it?

@elusivesolution Thank you! Per your request. Here's my brother wearing the bucket along with a very happy nephew ready to go bounty hunting for candies.

Man, that is so sweet. It's amazing how much better that Fett costume looks with the superior helmet. I converted the deluxe Jango into a ROTJ Boba, but now I wanna try my hand at modifying the 2 piece Jango. Truly inspirational

@elusivesolution Thanks so much! I went and checked out your Jango deluxe conversion...SWEEEEEEEEET, man! I had so much fun doing this that I'm going to do a helmet for myself. I'm going to convert the Jango Deluxe.

I'm glad you liked my bucket. I've never actually handled the 2 piece in real life but it looks to be about the same size, perhaps a teensy bit smaller than the deluxe. Have you had the chance to compare the 2? Also, did you use the ESB helmet templates that are available on the board or did you free hand the damage? It looks killer.

@elusivesolution I've never handled the Jango deluxe before so I'm not really sure. Just from looking at both they seem like the same size but I think the 2-piece is slightly longer from front to back. The back panel weathering and dome scratches I used the stencils because they were big enough areas to place the cut out stencils to trace. As for the rest of the helmet (mandibles, upper & lower cheeks, keyhole slot) all was done free-hand because there was so little room to place a stencil pattern to trace.

Here are the measurements of the helmet. Just so you're aware, both L & R earcaps are hallow with no back wall and the RF stalk comes backwards if you're planning to get one.

Alright, I bit the bullet and ordered one today. I can't wait to start working on it

This was my sons first helmet as well... You can cut the right ear apart to make it into two pieces. For the goofy stalk, trace the old one and add length to it, then just cut a new one. I wish when I did his, that I would have cut out the lower cheeks to make them flat. The curved cheeks just look off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mister Hyde

@elusivesolution I've never handled the Jango deluxe before so I'm not really sure. Just from looking at both they seem like the same size but I think the 2-piece is slightly longer from front to back. The back panel weathering and dome scratches I used the stencils because they were big enough areas to place the cut out stencils to trace. As for the rest of the helmet (mandibles, upper & lower cheeks, keyhole slot) all was done free-hand because there was so little room to place a stencil pattern to trace.

Here are the measurements of the helmet. Just so you're aware, both L & R earcaps are hallow with no back wall and the RF stalk comes backwards if you're planning to get one.

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At what percent did you print off the stencil patterns?

I copied and pasted the stencils to MS Paint and enlarged it through trial and error to get the right size. You can manipulate the size of the the image you paste by dragging the r & l side or the 4 corners inward or outward to increase or decrease the size.