My ESB Helmet
- Thread starter HeadlessHunter
- Start date
HeadlessHunter
Well-Known Hunter
Ok my step by step guide to fitting my Borden Connector, firstly you need to grind away the old cast borden so I whipped out my 'trusty' dremmel and fitted the smallest sanding drum, I then ground away about 75% of it leaving the last25% to be done by hand, I didnt want to risk sanding into the main part of the cheek 
after its all sanded smooth I took a 7mm drill bit and drilled through, but before you go drilling through your helmet its important to make a 'spot' to guide your drill through, otherwise your drill may slip and either hurt you, or hurt your helmet, what I suggest is getting your drill bit and holding it over the center of the area you wish to go through, then apply some pressure and give it a few light twists, this should creat a small spot face where you can later position your drill, you will also find you are less likely to shatter your helmet unlike if you just drive a drill through with a lot of force Lesson over Anyway the diameter of the real borden is 9.5 mm so I file out the remainder of the hole by hand, I am not making it a size hole as I just want the borden to sit in the hole, not go all the way through, from what I can tell there is about 2.5mm of borden sticking out on the original helmet, the rest is glued through the helmet. Next step I got some 5 minute epoxy and fixed my borden to an M5 bolt, I held it in place with a small g-clamp until the epoxy had cured (see picture) Next up I reprimed my helmet where I had removed the cast borden and made my hole (see picture) The borden, now attached to the bolt now simply drops into the hole and sits in the slight recess, I then used 2 washers and a nut to secure it from the otherside (see picture) the helmet is now ready for paint and I can remove the borden at anytime during the painting process, hope this is of some benefit to you guys
Big thanks to Gav MojoFett for the real Borden
after its all sanded smooth I took a 7mm drill bit and drilled through, but before you go drilling through your helmet its important to make a 'spot' to guide your drill through, otherwise your drill may slip and either hurt you, or hurt your helmet, what I suggest is getting your drill bit and holding it over the center of the area you wish to go through, then apply some pressure and give it a few light twists, this should creat a small spot face where you can later position your drill, you will also find you are less likely to shatter your helmet unlike if you just drive a drill through with a lot of force Lesson over Anyway the diameter of the real borden is 9.5 mm so I file out the remainder of the hole by hand, I am not making it a size hole as I just want the borden to sit in the hole, not go all the way through, from what I can tell there is about 2.5mm of borden sticking out on the original helmet, the rest is glued through the helmet. Next step I got some 5 minute epoxy and fixed my borden to an M5 bolt, I held it in place with a small g-clamp until the epoxy had cured (see picture) Next up I reprimed my helmet where I had removed the cast borden and made my hole (see picture) The borden, now attached to the bolt now simply drops into the hole and sits in the slight recess, I then used 2 washers and a nut to secure it from the otherside (see picture) the helmet is now ready for paint and I can remove the borden at anytime during the painting process, hope this is of some benefit to you guys Big thanks to Gav MojoFett for the real Borden
HeadlessHunter
Well-Known Hunter
well now that I have finished another project I can get back to this, horray!
HeadlessHunter
Well-Known Hunter
Holy cow, an update! After MUCH (too much) thought and pondering I am back on this project, over the recent months there has been so much development in the way ESB helmets are painted, especially from Garret (TF) who's layered paint-job is easily up there with the best, all this made me reconsider how I approach painting my helmet, here is my helmet re-primered with Tamiya Fine Primer which I highly recommend, previously I have used a car body primer and not realised how heavy/thick it was, take it from me this Tamiya stuff is perfect and shows any tiny rough spots that you can address before painting
I once again decided to go topical with this helmet as I love to be able to get all the details as spot on as possible, however for the back quarters of the helmet I will be going layered as well as on the ears, one of the things I enjoy most about these paintups is the finish weathering which I think can really bring everything together, enough rambling onto the pics, for my base coat I used the traditional Panzer Olive Green BUT I added a few drops of German Field Grey, it gives a very nice tone in natural light, it doesn't really look that different to the POG in the photos for which I apologise, anyway enjoy and stay tuned for more, as always I invite critiscisms and comments either good or bad
After MUCH (too much) thought and pondering I am back on this project, over the recent months there has been so much development in the way ESB helmets are painted, especially from Garret (TF) who's layered paint-job is easily up there with the best, all this made me reconsider how I approach painting my helmet, here is my helmet re-primered with Tamiya Fine Primer which I highly recommend, previously I have used a car body primer and not realised how heavy/thick it was, take it from me this Tamiya stuff is perfect and shows any tiny rough spots that you can address before painting I once again decided to go topical with this helmet as I love to be able to get all the details as spot on as possible, however for the back quarters of the helmet I will be going layered as well as on the ears, one of the things I enjoy most about these paintups is the finish weathering which I think can really bring everything together, enough rambling onto the pics, for my base coat I used the traditional Panzer Olive Green BUT I added a few drops of German Field Grey, it gives a very nice tone in natural light, it doesn't really look that different to the POG in the photos for which I apologise, anyway enjoy and stay tuned for more, as always I invite critiscisms and comments either good or bad
mmgraphics
Active Hunter
Awesome Joe! Love the color!
HeadlessHunter
Well-Known Hunter
Absolutely mate, I am very pleased with the results I got with the mix, I think for the ROTJ I will use purely the POG as it is ever so slightly darker overall
mmgraphics
Active Hunter
yea, at the moment I am starting my FPH in ROTJ style layered ... And like TF said, I will use the german field grey with a misting of black underneath.
Should be some kind of equal result then. I hope!
Should be some kind of equal result then. I hope!
HeadlessHunter
Well-Known Hunter
I managed to take advantage of the good weather this weekend and get a little more done on this, I masked off the back panels and layed down a fine coat of silver, this will form the base of my damage areas, I then masked off the exposed areas and applied 2 thin coats of the dark grey which will eventually sit around the silver scratches, the grey was a custom mix of Humbrol grey 79 with a touch of German Field Grey to compliment the dome colour, I let the helmet sit for an hour outside and then removed the liquid mask. Next step is to remask the silver and grey and apply the tan colour
mmgraphics
Active Hunter
NICE!!!
HeadlessHunter
Well-Known Hunter
Lookin good Joe.... better start to brush up on ROTJ! 3 lids coming your way soon...
Cheers bud, looking forward to it....I must be mad....yep, I am
HeadlessHunter
Well-Known Hunter
*Update*
I decided that whilst the helmet was at this stage that I would mask off and paint the satin black under cheek area, basically with this portion of the helmet it is best to mask off the black area and then apply the Caboose to the mandibles, this is a tip I picked up from Alex (Spidey) when painting my FPH you can then overspray slightly when you add the red So here she sits as of about 15 minutes ago, I will leave this for another hour and then take another look at the back portions
Edit: I forgot to mention I added a drop of panzer olive green and a drop of german field grey to the black
I decided that whilst the helmet was at this stage that I would mask off and paint the satin black under cheek area, basically with this portion of the helmet it is best to mask off the black area and then apply the Caboose to the mandibles, this is a tip I picked up from Alex (Spidey) when painting my FPH you can then overspray slightly when you add the red
So here she sits as of about 15 minutes ago, I will leave this for another hour and then take another look at the back portionsEdit: I forgot to mention I added a drop of panzer olive green and a drop of german field grey to the black
mmgraphics
Active Hunter
Your helmet turns out pretty good! It´s fun watching the progress!
