Kid-sized Fett Project

thorssoli

Active Hunter
I've got a couple of costume parties coming up in the next couple of weeks. With most of my family and friends coming. My sister will be bringing her kids to the second one. Since she has two kids (and a husband) she will get to make four separate costumes. I don't know what she or her husband or her daughter will be dressed as, but a few weeks ago I found out about her son Trey.

Apparently she picked him up from school a while back and asked him how his day went. He replied, in the most serious tone an elementary-schooler could muster, "Mom," says he, "I've decided what I want to be for the party."

"Oh?" she asks, "What's that?"

"Boba Fett"

I'll admit that when she told me the story it made me a bit misty until my sister asks if I have any of the parts for the Boba Fett costume. I told her that while she was right to guess that I have the costume, she was wrong to guess that I'd have it in midget sizes.

At the time I was still camped out in a Washington, DC hotel room. I needed a small project and decided there was nothing I'd like more than to manufacture a miniature Fett helmet or two. I told my sister the rest of the costume would be up to her, but I'd be able to at least take care of that part. And so I began with...

THE PROTOTYPE:

My original plan was to fabricate the entire helmet using the Pepakura program and any of a number of readily-available 3D models of the character. Once the dome was built, I decided that I didn't like the way the rest of the model was coming together and ditched it in favor of a scratch-built version using the Wizardofflight templates as guides to cut out various thicknesses of sheet styrene. Once it was all cobbled together, it looked like so:
3622295322_81df6a52b4_o.jpg


Then it got a healthy dose of primer:
3622294806_ba7cf61a77_o.jpg


Then a bit of Bondo and a lot of sanding to perfect the rounded dome:
3636887473_aedd072dcb_o.jpg


At this point the wyf and I had left Washington DC and driven to New Orleans, so there were a few days' delay before the prototype got it's final coat of primer:
3650185323_7116a82d9b_o.jpg


Then it sat in the back of the car for a few more days before I got around to adding those annoying little keyhole notches and other details on the backside:
3670902840_4513999ab1_o.jpg


I'd fiberglassed the inside of the helmet so that it would be strong enough to hold up to sanding and grinding, but with all the Bondo and such it was starting to get pretty heavy. So I painted it lightish red like I tend to do with my prototypes, before moving on to...

THE MOLD:

The mold was fairly straightforward. I started with a jacket of brushable silicone covered with a few layers of pourable silicone:
3722466037_d24cd81a19_o.jpg


Before anyone asks, my favorite source for molding and casting materials is www.jgreer.com. Their prices are great, but tell them Shawn Thorsson sent you, I'm hoping to get a discount sooner or later.

Once I'd finished the jacket mold I built a mothermold using jgreer's mothermold product. It's good stuff and it was easy to work with, building a strong, lightweight shell in just a couple of hours (one for each half)

Once I had the mold, I wasted no time before making my first casting:
3723279430_fd14e5725e_o.jpg


Then I took the first casting (on the left in the above picture, the lightish red helmet on the right is the prototype) and added the dent and the wart to make the Jango helmet work as a Boba helmet. Then I made a mold of the Boba helmet and cranked out a few more copies:

3708416657_30bc8bef9d_o.jpg


Stay tuned and I'll explain the paintjob as I get that knocked out. I've also been thinking about taking on the construction of a kid-sized jetpack, but that may take a while.
 
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Hiya folks...
Since I JUST got one of these buckets for my son, I thought I'd use this opportunity to introduce myself!

I've been lurking on this forum and the RPF for a few years and have been agonizing over finally taking the plunge.

I have been so AMAZED at the talent and skills I've seen displayed and I am so excited to finally be able to join in.

SO! My wife recently had my oldest daughter exchange rooms with my 7 year old son. She chose to be responsible for re-decorating the girl's room and told ME to take over my son's room! UH OH! SHE thought I should make him a "geography" room. (we homeschool and my kids can be VERY academically minded...but seriously dude, COME ON!)
He'd been begging for a star wars room, and so I HAPPILY relented...gave me a GREAT excuse to start making some props. Compared to what you guys do, it's all so very newbie and "rustic" . If I am allowed to post pics I will.

To the point, he wants a mandalorian outfit. So I bought Thors LAST available helmet! He was excellent to deal with. The helmet came VERY quickly. It was packaged well and I am VERY impressed and excited to work on it! I've already started..and thanks everybody for the great posts about diferent techniques etc!

I just wanted to say a public "attaboy" and thank you to Thorsson.

NOW I desperately need one for myself...I wonder how much money I can get for donating plasma?

I am a bagpipe maker and work on a lathe 9-15 hours a day. I'd be happy to trade labor or any turning I could do for you guys for prototypeing, or mold making etc. in exchange for mando bits or other props (I'd LOVE to get a rocketeer helmet to build!)

All the best,
David
www.greenwoodpipes.com

p.s. I'll try and keep my posts shorter in the future,,,I tend to ramble!
 
Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you're happy with the helmet and hopefully it fits. At least until he outgrows it and it becomes solely a display item.

Here's a couple of "during" shots of my nephew's helmet:
3751089767_80a779b23a_o.jpg


6495_108283766249_508181249_2135927_7613371_n.jpg


I've had a few folks say that my kid-sized Fett helmets were too small for the kids they're trying to fit. It seems big to me, but what do I know. My nephew is a somewhat small 8 years old, I haven't seen him for a while (I just got back from a deployment to Afghanistan) so I had to ask my sister to measure his head for me.

Still, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

If anybody else who bought copies of my helmet has shots of them painted up, please feel free to add them into this thread. I'm keen to see what you've done with them.
 
I got mine too.......two days beore his 3rd birthday.....theygrow up so fast....err anyway, looks like it will be another little surprise. Then I can try it on his grape and he can help me paint it (y)
 
I too had a problem with size unfortunately. My daughter is only 5 and the helmet ended up being way to small. Though the problem there may just be that she's inherited her daddy's ginormous head....I've tried to get myself fedoras from a couple manufacturers and not a single one makes a hat big enough for my head either. We're going to keep the helmet though, it's going to be good for practicing painting until my helmet shows up. Once the wife paints it up I'll post pics of it.
 
I am still waiting for my mini helmet to show up ... shipping overseas with customs can be frustrating long ... but once the helmet is here I´ll start to airbrush it.

I´ll post pictures as soon as I can.
 
Yeah, my nephew is 4, and unfortunately it didn't fit his noggin, but the helmet is so AWESOME !!!

Maybe if we all focus a Jedi Mind Trick on Shawn, we can persuade him to make a bigger model as well, like he doesn't have enough going on already !

Shawn, I found a good home for the helmet, so it will be loved and cared for : )

And a serious thank you for the work you do, both in the workshop, and overseas !!
 
got my mini fett helmet today...very nice helmet....but WAY TO SMALL (my kid is 6 with a small narrow head.....It was hard to judge if it would fit looking at pics....maybe next time have a kid were the helmet to model it it for better reference....this is a really nice helemt. I would be a perfect if it was a tad bigger...(y)
 
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Well, my friend that I had go 2 buckets for worked out. His son is 4 and fits him well, even fits his 9yr old girl but not his 10 yr old.

My son is 8 and would not fit him. So it is a hit or miss. but will work just fine for the 4 yr old it was bought for.

Thanks
 
And I thank you for that helmet. It does fit my 3 yo daughter perfectly, but not my 6 yo son. I picked up a "one end" helmet for my son, it is much bigger, but will require much more work than Thor's. I'm also hoping for a larger one in the future from Thor....:cheers

Yeah, my nephew is 4, and unfortunately it didn't fit his noggin, but the helmet is so AWESOME !!!

Maybe if we all focus a Jedi Mind Trick on Shawn, we can persuade him to make a bigger model as well, like he doesn't have enough going on already !

Shawn, I found a good home for the helmet, so it will be loved and cared for : )

And a serious thank you for the work you do, both in the workshop, and overseas !!
 
I managed to wedge my finished helmet onto my nephew's head, but it only looks right from certain angles:
6495_109998546249_508181249_2165158_4289892_n.jpg


When he looks up you can see his chin poking out from underneath. He's pretty small for his age(and seven years old it turns out. Oops.), but I still had to grind a lot of material out of the inside of the casting in order to get his head inside.

That said, maybe next year when I get back from being out at sea I'll crank out an in-between sized helmet to fit bigger kids. He should be a bigger kid by then.

First I'll be molding and casting a kid-sized HALO Master Chief helmet though. The HALO helmet is more forgiving in the size department.

Of course, that's all while all of these other projects are going on:
3765613819_816ce3de2a_o.jpg
 
Just making sure you don't think that I'm not pleased with the helmet I received. It is extremely nice and I only have to do minimal work before paint up. I also didn't think about grinding out some inside material to make it a bit bigger either. Thanks for that idea.
 
Today I got my mini-fett helmet for my son! Absolutely fantastic. Although my son is just 2 years old he stared at the package and I told him "here´s your own boba helmet".

He went crazy and was very very happy about the helmet.

He´s just 2 and knows who is Boba, Vader etc... And he loves his helmet!

I´ll prep it and paint it the layered technique just as my TF helmet and will post pictures later on.

Thanks a million Shawn!
 
Just making sure you don't think that I'm not pleased with the helmet I received. It is extremely nice and I only have to do minimal work before paint up. I also didn't think about grinding out some inside material to make it a bit bigger either. Thanks for that idea.

I'm glad you like it. I try to make my products so as to minimize how much work the buyers will have to do once they get them. There's nothing I hate more than buying a rotocast helmet from someone and having to spend an hour cutting out a big lump where the maker let the resin pool up and cure. That said, I was pretty happy with most of these castings. There were only a few with big drips that needed to be cut out.

When I needed to make my nephew's helmet a bit bigger I used an angle grinder with a flapwheel on it. I could've done it with a Dremel tool, but it would've taken days. If you do go this route, be extremely careful so you don't end up cutting right through the helmet.
 
Got it. Thanks for info.

I'm glad you like it. I try to make my products so as to minimize how much work the buyers will have to do once they get them. There's nothing I hate more than buying a rotocast helmet from someone and having to spend an hour cutting out a big lump where the maker let the resin pool up and cure. That said, I was pretty happy with most of these castings. There were only a few with big drips that needed to be cut out.

When I needed to make my nephew's helmet a bit bigger I used an angle grinder with a flapwheel on it. I could've done it with a Dremel tool, but it would've taken days. If you do go this route, be extremely careful so you don't end up cutting right through the helmet.
 
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