My attempt. Input requested.

Hi there fellow Fett-heads! Well, I finally got a few pix of my scratch-built bucket. Let me know what you think.
How does the general shape look? Is the flare OK, etc.
Plz be kind.

The dome is not tall enough.

I agree, the dome is too short, but it also may be a little long front to back. Maybe it's just the pic... or maybe it's just the way it looks with a low dome. I'd be interested to see what it looks like after the dome comes up a bit.

The over all shape looks pretty good though. I recommend getting a form onto the bottom before you try to attach the cheeks though. If you don't have your flange shape defined well you could end up with really wonky cheeks.

That white plastic looks quite thick. Are you using a 5 gallon bucket... like the kind you get industrial cleaning fluids and stuff in?

Gypsyboy,

The white plastic is thick Sintra. I know it's thicker than "For Sale" signs and it was scrap material from a local sign company. I'm pretty sure it's 3mm thick. It worked great for the body armor, nice and solid feeling. It was not so forgiving as helmet material. I got my best results by putting it in the oven at 200F for about 5 minutes.

I'm planning on using 1/4" MDF to make a bottom form. Do the cheeks angle in slightly, or are the perpendicular to the bottom of the helmet?

Oh, they definitely angle. I would suggest printing out the WOF patterns for the cheeks and trying it out of paper first to see how they go.

David.

Okay, since you PM'd me with a few questions, I decided to search out your thread to see if I could add some more suggestions to aid you.

Once you've removed your dome, I'd suggest possibly turning it around. The sloped portion that you have at the back currently, looks like it would suit the front much better. Then the back would need to built up some more to give it a more vertical slope.

Please don't get me wrong here, the dome you have started looks great. It just needs a lot of fine tuning... which I found out with my builds is the longest, most tedious part.

You're armed with some more tips via our PMs, and I've already stated that you can drop me a PM or e-mail any time. So take your time, and it'll all be worth it in the end.

Thanks man. Funny you mentioned the dome. It actually is reversed. I debated about which way to lay it because of the slope. I made a mistake by gluing the white part around the dome. I've popped off the white part and have reprinted the templates.

I followed a suggestion by Kripps. I am trying to match TK 409's dimensions on his website. I printed the cheek part of the template and enlarged it using my copier until it was 122mm long. I then printed all the originals and then photocopied them all at 103%.

I'm going to make a ring out of MDF for the top and bottom of the flared part. SD 68 & Honus did this, so I think it will work out well for me. I'm probably going to use just the "Outer Surface" templates since I have PLENTY of 3mm Sintra.

Thanks for the tips and I'll be posting pix later.