Rebuilding a Master Replicas Fett helmet

I can take NO credit for any of the concepts you'll see in this post. Fettpride was the innovator on repairing the pinched visor on the MR helmet. He took the initial risk on his helmet, and when I knew it was safe and possible, I did the same thing.

Here are the guide photos I used. Helmet photos from rebelscum.com

http://www.501neg.com/photos/albums/...ttmodfront.jpg

http://www.501neg.com/photos/albums/...ettmodside.jpg

The cut I ended up making was a bit longer than that... almost to the keyslots. The longer the cut, the more you trash the paint, but the easier it is to reposition everything.

And now that the intro is done, on to the work! When I'm done modifying it, I plan to make a resin copy for myself. I'll never *really* trust that seam that I epoxy/bondo/goop coated for trooping. I'm going to use the ears / RF topper / etc... since the metal is nice. Paint stripped off of course!

Here is a shot of the helmet as shipped. Pinchy pinchy! And check out the weathering on the rangefinder:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5613.jpg

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5614.jpg

The soft edged dent.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5616.jpg

The interior, which sadly will never be the same again. This bummed me out, as the padded black interior was really nice :)

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5619.jpg

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5624.jpg

Ow, my eye! MEDIC!!!

And it's a good thing I WANTED to repaint it... The electrical tape DESTROYED the finish. The silver came right off. Even masking tape lifted the silver.

I used electrical tape here because that stuff can apply a LOT of pressure if stretched tight and wrapped around a few times. It did a great job of holding the cut area in place while I epoxied it from the inside.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5628.jpg

All better! Gotta love 5 minute epoxy putty!!

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5632.jpg

Internal support for the visor, since I have some paper thin plastic in there now. I'm pretty sure that a good visor would hold it in place properly, but since I'm planning on making a copy of it, I'm not worried about that. I just wanted to make sure nothing shifted while I repair the cut side.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5648.jpg

An hour, a NIOSH approved respirator, a face shield, many pairs of chemical gloves and a bucket of acetone later...

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5635.jpg

And the ears loosely fitted back into place.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5651.jpg

The dent, without the 99 layers of paint:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5656.jpg

Observations:

The paint job is interesting. If you see a color, chances are it's covering the entire helmet.

The base is the dark green on the back. Whole thing. Then the dome green, also covering it all.

On the visor area, the dark red covers the whole thing, with the lighter red on top, the grey on top of that, and the silver on top of that.

On the top, the dent was first painted dark grey, then light grey, then silver. so all total, there were 5 THICK layers of paint on there. No wonder the detail was soft.

The MQ-1 is a separate piece. I was able to pop mine out with only minor damage, that is easily repaired. I'm going to treat that as a separate piece in the molding process.

The RF assembly is neat. It's not a tilt switch... There is an on/off in the hinge area somewhere. the RF doesn't pass through the helmet, despite the large hole where it looks like it would have. It's entirely self contained.

There's a magnetic "lock" into up or down, which is cool.

The borden connector is metal.

It looks SO much better with the visor fixed. I *think* it could be done with minimal impact to the paint. You'd need to repaint the back left section of the helmet, in part or in full. Matching the colors well enough to touch up would be tough though.

Today I'll be doing the bondo work.

Oh, and there are more photos here:
http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/t....php?album=284

If anyone wants to see the gorey details :)

Wow! Very ambitious project! :)
Are you doing anything about that little extra "ledge" inside the edges of the mandibles? I think they added some extra material in there to secure the visor didn't they?

Brave, I applaud you sir, and PM sent :thumbsup

Real shame these mods need to be made to such a pricey bucket, but you're doing a great job.

Looks like its about time to break out the silicone....

Wow! The dent sure is much sharper without all of those layers of paint! I can't wait to see it finished!

Looking good, cant wait to see the progress on this one:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by superjedi

Wow! Very ambitious project! :)
Are you doing anything about that little extra "ledge" inside the edges of the mandibles? I think they added some extra material in there to secure the visor didn't they?

---

Yup, there's a second lip on the inside of the visor. I've filled it in flush with the front, making the visor thicker overall. The top of the T doesn't have the lip, and the helmet is about 1/4" thick there.

The vertical part of the T has the lip, but the front part is only about 1/8" thick. So I filled the whole thing in. I figured that I can always grind it back out to thin it down, but it's a lot more work to fill it back in if I want to add it up.

Wow, quite the project you are taking on. Looking great so far!

rf topper, sans brown splatter:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5663.jpg

not sure what i'm going to do about the rf topper. the rotj one doesn't have the polaroid window on the bottom, but that's the latch that gives access to the batteries. for now, i'll leave it as-is, until i think of something better.

ears, free of paint:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5657.jpg

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5658.jpg

whatever primer was on the ears did not dissolve in acetone. i had to break out that nasty stuff you use to get 200 years of paint off old woodwork. but they are perfect rotj ears now!!

and here is the inner working of the rf stalk:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5660.jpg

i'm actually really in love with this. i think it's great... the little spring that helps keep it in one position or another, the "switch" that makes contact when you put it down. i think it rocks.

That is a very clever design for the stalk!
And yes, if you were going ROTJ, you'd have some great ears there!

of course i'm going rotj! the One True Helmet! ;)

here are some lovely primer shots..

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5667.jpg

a bit more sanding and the cut line will be gone... note the area under the earcap, and how it looks like i've sanded away the detail in the line... the detail wasn't ever there. it's just really flat in that spot.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5665.jpg

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5668.jpg

Brave man indeed Brian... ;)

Looking awesome so far, gonna watch this with great interest! :thumbsup

Good stuff so far. Just out of curiousity, you are one of several folks that has chosen to cut the mandibles or cut the helmet to move the mandibles. Why is that? On my helmet I have simply corrected where they set by reinstalling a visor correctly.

Do you plan on modifying the ears to make them more accurate?

Last but not least, the borden seems to be a seperate peice, are you going to detach it?

Keep up the good work and the pics coming. :)

Yeah I did wonder that myself as I thought the problem was down to bad visor installation also, great progress, keep those pics coming :thumbsup

very interesting mechanism on the stalk...cant wait the final result.
thanks for doing the "operation" :thumbsup:thumbsup

I am sure this is a stoopid question, but here it is all the same. What is the advantage of using the MR helmet over say, FP or BM (other helmets are available)? Looks like a lot of work to get it to the stage they are delivered in and then start to paint?

Sorry if this is a stoopider than stoopid question. :?

confused, Rob.

Probably because the MR is taken from a cleaned up 3d scan of one of the actual pre-production Boba Fett helmets, thus making it the most accurate commercially available helmet.

You said it right HeadlessHunter... this is the most accurate fan availabe helmet out there. I didnt find it much work to strip it, and if you were simply doing a repaint you wouldnt have to rip the lining out of it, just strip the paint off on the out side and pull back the lining where it covers the screws and take the visor out, and install a new one correctly. Its just a matter of how crazy you want to get with it. Its a fun project either way.

Obviously, but apart from that.........:lol Just asking for the guys that were a little shy! 8)

Ok, I knew there would be a good reason. Good work, I would not fancy chopping one of these up.

Love the RF mechanism, that would be a great part for someone to manufacture.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by evan4218

Good stuff so far. Just out of curiousity, you are one of several folks that has chosen to cut the mandibles or cut the helmet to move the mandibles. Why is that? On my helmet I have simply corrected where they set by reinstalling a visor correctly.

---

I tried that first, and I didn't like the look of that mandible once the visor was in. The corner of it was pulled down too low.

Looking at FP's pics, I really liked the way it looked with the cut. It allows you to shift that entire mandible up slightly, which then offsets the fact that it dips down a bit when you bend the corner out.

Quote:

---

Do you plan on modifying the ears to make them more accurate?

---

I've never really studied the ears... what's wrong with them? I doubt I'll do anything to them. Since they are all exposed metal on the RotJ helmet, I wouldn't want any filler or scars on them.

Quote:

---

Last but not least, the borden seems to be a seperate peice, are you going to detach it?

---

It is a separate piece. I had thought about detaching it, but the glue they used on the rest of the helmet was REALLY strong, so I imagine I'd probably do a fair bit of damage trying that.

Quote:

---

Keep up the good work and the pics coming. :)

---

Thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by evan4218

I didnt find it much work to strip it, and if you were simply doing a repaint you wouldnt have to rip the lining out of it, just strip the paint off on the out side and pull back the lining where it covers the screws and take the visor out, and install a new one correctly.

---

Yeah, the paint came off with very little fuss, and the lining around the visor wasn't damaged when I pulled that out.

I absolutely love the look of it, now that it's all straightened out and primed. It's a lot of work, and it stinks to "destroy" a limited edition collectible, but it's worth it to me.

And hey, I'm making every other one out there worth so much more! ;)

Brian ... holy mackerel!:suprise I knew that one day somebody would post a thread on fixing the non-parallel vertical T-visor. But like others have said, you are a VERY brave man! I didn't expect you to be completely repainting the entire helmet. On the other hand, I'm with you ... ROTJ all the way!:fettrotj

You're pretty fast at painting ... any chance I'll be able to see it in person at NYCC?

Are you going to have the slight taper in the visor that the ROTJ helmet has? :thumbsup

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HeadlessHunter

Are you going to have the slight taper in the visor that the ROTJ helmet has? :thumbsup

---

i'm not going to match anything specific from any helmet... i want to be able to do either rotj or esb with it in the end.

and mr. buffett, i fully expect to have my shiny new helmet by nycc. though i'm not 100% sure i'm even bringing boba!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by old_jedi_mind_trick

I am sure this is a stoopid question, but here it is all the same. What is the advantage of using the MR helmet over say, FP or BM (other helmets are available)? Looks like a lot of work to get it to the stage they are delivered in and then start to paint?

Sorry if this is a stoopider than stoopid question. :?

confused, Rob.

---

My take on this is that obviously it is scanned off of the prepro, but also consider this . . . even if you plan to do all the work modifying it, you're still money ahead.

A good fiberglass kit will run around $250 / metal stalk $40, electronics for rangefinder $60 / metal ears $200 / helmet stand $40 (that's what those dowel rods with a hemisphere of styrofoam cost, and this is much nicer). Total - $590 (and kick in shipping for all of the above)

MR helmet - around $420 (with a killer paintjob thrown in to boot)

You do the math. Strip it down, keep it as is, or just fix the visor, the MR makes better financial sense.

WOW! I am blown away by your skillz 7602! It takes guts to do what you did, and I have no doubt it's gonna look money when all said and done! Great re-work!

Just to stem the tide of PMS!

Yes, I am molding this and making myself a resin copy of it. I don't trust the structural integrity of the patched mandible. And yeah, I'll probably make myself a couple of copies, so that I can do various paint jobs that I've always wanted.

No, I am NOT making copies for sale. I know that there's a fuzzy area about recasting discontinued commercial products, but I'm not looking to go down that road. This is a project just for me.

Wise move :thumbsup Keep those pics coming, I'm really enjoying following this thread

Wow, I go to Death Valley for a few days and Brian destroys (makes better) his MR helmet. :lol

Great work Brian. :thumbsup

here it is preped for rubber. i've never done this before, so i'm basically going from smoothoninc's youtube tutorials, and the guys that did the halo helmet video.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...rubberprep.jpg

couple of interesting points.

it's propped up on a gallon jug of windex. i globbed a bunch of hot glue onto the top of the bottle then set it in. in retrospect, leveling it better would have been... well... better. but what can you do?

the bottom skirt and visor are filled in with thin sheets of plastic that i got from jason ages ago. hot glued into place, then the perimeter of the skirt was hot glued to the base board it's sitting on (foamcore). that was to prevent leakage under the skirt.

my seals around the edge of the visor aren't perfect, so i may have some cleanup to do on the mold. we'll see tomorrow or so.

the holes on the sides for the earcaps i filled in with modeling clay and pushed in enough to leave a dimple. i used modeling clay here because it's easy to clean out later.

fast forward through 4 coats of silicone, applied about an hour apart...

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...001/rubber.jpg

the rebound silicone doesn't like cold... that slows its curing down a LOT. i had to bring the thing up from the basement to get decent times out of it.

i molded a couple of other things along side this (that's another thread). one of the small ones i brought upstairs to use as a gauge for when i'd be ready for the next coat. when the vortex manipulator was ready, so should be the fett.

but when i got downstairs, i found fett to still be wet enough that i could brush the rubber around.

i brought it up to the second floor and closed it in my office, which gets REALLY hot. it went from 2 hours for a coat to dry to about 45 minutes :)

i demolded the vortex manipulator (torchwood prop), and it came out clean. so here's hoping fett will be the same! the rubber was all from the same batch, so as far as that goes i should be ok. i'm just hoping i didn't lose any details. i'm particularly concerned with the borden connector and the corners of the visor. we shall see!

i'm hoping to be able to peel this off as an uncut glove mold. i did build in a thicker line down the right ear, should i need to cut it. but i hope it doesn't come to that. the rebound is supposed to be really stretchy, so here's hoping!

tonight is the plaster jacket, which is the last step before i demold and see what i got!

Can't wait to see the results!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sithlord23

Can't wait to see the results!

---

you and me both!

at least there's enough rubber that i can mess up a few times on the mold before spending any more $$$

Man you don't hang around do ya?! :lol

Can't wait to see the reveal... ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mojo-Fett

Man you don't hang around do ya?! :lol

Can't wait to see the reveal... ;)

---

Sleep is for the weak minded! 2 hours a day is fine, right? :)

Is it done yet?? No?? ah well









Is it done yet?? No?? ah well..........

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HeadlessHunter

Is it done yet?? No?? ah well









Is it done yet?? No?? ah well..........

---

hahahaha! i'm still at work, and they don't like me bringing my fett parts to work on here!

no, really, i did bring my knees here to peel the latex masking fluid off of during an overnight... left little bits of orangy yellow paint everywhere!

Nice work! Definitely anxious to see your progress.

As a side note, has anyone tried to clearcoat the helmet with a dull clearcoat?

i demolded this morning. the silicone came off as a single piece... no cut needed :)

i made the mother mold out of plaster of paris with fiberglass tape embedded in it. i think i'm going to redo that in something lighter, like maybe fiberglass. slushing that big beastie around is going to be less than fun!!

and since the pms are still coming in... no, i'm not being coy. i'm really not doing a run of these or anything. seriously.

But... Are you going to do a run? Huh? :doh




It's a joke... It's a joke :lol:lol:lol Nice work tk7602 :thumbsup

this one looks nice, but is way too thin... needed another 1-2 coats of resin.

one more try and i should be done!

i've poured 4 so far.

#1 was WAY too thick... so thick that i couldn't cut out the visor... the dremel cutting blade was too small

#2 was better, but had a HUGE glop of resin on the inside that was too much to even bother working through.

#3 (shown) went the opposite direction... too thin!

#4 will be tonight, and i HOPE that will be the final one!

i threw some silver paint on the thin one and slapped an opaque black visor in it. i mostly wanted to make sure the ears still fit properly.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5726.jpg

so, in the end... is it worth all this fuss? i think so! it's a beautiful helmet, and once i finally get the pouring right, i'm going to be REALLY happy.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5727.jpg

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...l__MG_5730.jpg

Looking great! Hope you have success with #4! :)

Now that looks a million times better, why couldnt MR do this in the first place?

great job buddy, im sure no 4 will be perfect:D

I'm so tempted to 'play' with mine... BUT her in doors would throw a complete Eppy! (UK talk)

Great thread and Kudos to you for doing this.... your very own Fett army! ;)

the change in look of the helmet from out of the box to now is huge... 10mm doesn't sound like much at all, but it really is.

go on, saw it up... what's the worst that could happen? ;)

and i'm guessing that it could be repaired well enough to still be wearable without going through all of this fuss. i'm just paranoid.

I know... that 10mm does make a big difference! who says that size doesn't matter? Oh yeah us men... :lol

Very tempted but will keep as is for now... but from what I have seen so far? minimal damage if it does go 'PeteTong'... ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mojo-Fett

minimal damage if it does go 'PeteTong'... ;)

---

Can helmets go deaf? Or have drug problems and inflated egos?

What.. encouraged by giant badgers??? ;):lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mojo-Fett

What.. encouraged by giant badgers??? ;):lol

---

man, you folks across the pond are crazy! no wonder it's the only country i've been to more than once! (present country excluded of course)!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tk7602

man, you folks across the pond are crazy! no wonder it's the only country I've been to more than once! (present country excluded of course)!

---

Film... "It's all gone Pete Tong" you will see badgers my freind... :lol

glad to have you come and visit us in the mad house... ;)

Brian,

I'm looking forward to seeing this helmet with the "correct" paint scheme on it.

Nice one Gav for use of the word 'Eppy' the first time I've seen it on this fine forum, great job Brian, I too am crossing my fingers for number 4 on your behalf :thumbsup

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delta75

Brian,

I'm looking forward to seeing this helmet with the "correct" paint scheme on it.

---

He's goin' ESB now? :lol

Looks great Brian. :thumbsup

WOW!!!! Brian!!!! You did an AWESOME JOB !!!!!!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delta75

Brian,

I'm looking forward to seeing this helmet with the "correct" paint scheme on it.

---

Come on Wes MR took their time to do the ESB paint right! :b

Had it not been for RS they prob would of casted the Jango bucket and paint scheme. And try to pass it off as the MR ESB Superduper Special Pre Pro Mantastic Limited Signature Edition with matching Man Bag!:thumbsup Ofcourse the man bag would scratch up the helmet when shipped.


Bro your killing me cutting up this bucket.:lol

You have no idea uggghh. LOL

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rogue Studios

You have no idea uggghh. LOL

---

*sniff*

really, it's not you... it's me!

i just like rotj better! and parallel mandibles ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tk7602

*sniff*

really, it's not you... it's me!

i just like ROTJ better! and parallel mandibles ;)

---

:lol:lol

Sorry to see the ESB paintjob go tho.... that poor, poor helmet... *sniff*

Hey Brian, any news on number 4? Love this thread :thumbsup

That's a great looking cast, and a great mod job. It's the kind of thing I think about doing to stuff when I see wonky spots, but rarely have the inclination to actually do. It's amazing how that one cut fixed more than one warpage problem. Are you using polyurethane resin?

Well, #4 wasn't a winner either, and I realized why...

My mold is too thin at the top of the dome!

It's sufficiently thin that the weight of the resin is pulling down little dimples in the top.

There are also a couple of flaws in the mold that have been bugging me.

Soooo..... I'm going to re-do the mold!

I am using urethane resin. I just ordered a new flavor to try. I've been using smoothcast 321 (7 minute pot life). I just ordered smoothcast roto, with a 2 minute pot life. Should make things go faster! ;)

What do you plan to do with your failed casts?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GCNgamer128

What do you plan to do with your failed casts?

---

He should take them behind the wood shed and beat them for failing. :lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GCNgamer128

What do you plan to do with your failed casts?

---

*playfully* ooooo the vulchers are circling...

yeah are the failed casts easily to make them look better?

At this point I'm just plowing on to see where I end up. I've been numbering the failures as I go, so that I can see the progress when its all done.

I'm not going to give up on this mold just yet... My new stuff won't arrive until Tuesday or so, so I'll probably have on more go at it this weekend.

I'm thinking the thicker mold plus the faster resin will let me finally make something tough enough to actually wear.

... and this is why we love Brian up here in the NEG. ;-)

the neg's own jodo kast (aka travis) and i spent the afternoon going through the various failures and picking out what if anything might be salvageable. short version: LOTS of work needed.

i think i finally got a handle on the slush casting technique. i ran out of both resin and mold though... the bubbles in the mold and the too-thin rubber finally did it in.

still no long term success... my helmet still remains a glimmer in my eye.

but, i've got the silicone for mold #2. i'll start on that this week sometime. and by the end of a second gallon of resin i HOPE to have my final bucket.

Your in the zone, you'll nail it

the NEG needs a Boba on the 12th. webchief can't make it, and I've got no helmet...

So I picked the best of the bunch from my first round of tests and am painting it up!

Primer and deep scratches:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...1/photo-10.jpg

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...01/photo-9.jpg

See all those light spots? Those are filler, to fix dimples on the dome.

Once all that was done, it actually started looking pretty good!

I can't wait for my new supplies to come so that I can try again. I can taste the perfect helmet!!!

I did another coat of primer after this, and laid down the silver base before work today.

Tonight I'll be masking things out and laying down a couple of colors at least. Depending on drying times, I can technically knock it all out in one night. This is a temporary helmet so I'm not going nuts with it.

and super-quick paint job is done! i knew this was a temporary helmet so i cut a lot of corners and flew through the whole thing, from silver to done in 1 evening.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a.../photo%7E4.jpg

side note: i love the pic on my laptop screen in that photo. i thought i had screwed something up... the mandible on the side i hacked sticks out a lot further from the top of the visor than i would have thought it should. but that photo confirms that the original is warped like that!


http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...hoto-1%7E0.jpg

i simplified the back quite a bit... the weathering shouldn't be all silver. there should be a sort of grey gradient across it. but this is a quickie.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...hoto-2%7E1.jpg

visor is on its way, and the missing bit of the rangefinder is sitting in some silicone right now. i'm hoping to make an rotj friendly replacement for the battery cover.

overall, not bad for a single day paint job! silver went down before work, and the rest of the colors went down over the course of 6 hours or so.

i did do layered weathering, but rather than subtle color blending to finish it off, i just misted with black and grey, and rubbed some graphite dust into a few places.

the ears aren't weathered yet. not going to do that until the final helmet.

no mq-1 in the back yet. also not bothering on this one. i'll put some black mesh in there and call it done. the one from the MR still needs to be repainted.

i was experimenting with new colors. i'm pretty happy with how it came out. i'll probably use the same on my "real" one, just with better weathering.

One day to do all of that??!!!:suprise Did you have the whole day off from work? I swear no matter how many time you've gotten something done in lightning-fast time, I still blown away. Very impressive work, sir!:thumbup

WOW!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...s/appl2ti3.gif

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jimmy BufFETT

One day to do all of that??!!!:suprise Did you have the whole day off from work?

---

heh... nope, i started at 8PM!

i look at it and just see all of the things i skipped, missed, simplified, etc... but it will do the job for the saturday troop, and that's all that i need :)

There is an additive you can add to the silicon to keep it running so much, it thickens it up like peanut butter but i dont recall the name of it.
I used to use it for a final layer to really lay it on thick. Might be something helpful you could look into, takes alot of babysitting out of it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by patiam69

There is an additive you can add to the silicon to keep it running so much, it thickens it up like peanut butter but i dont recall the name of it.
I used to use it for a final layer to really lay it on thick. Might be something helpful you could look into, takes alot of babysitting out of it

---

That's exactly what I just got yesterday :)

Smoothon calls it Thi-Vex. It's AWESOME!!! I was actually giggling when I was filling in the visor area and it was just sticking. I was packing it in to prevent bubbles, thinking about how cool it was that I could do that!

Brian

Your a master, you painted that in a day, over here in England our days only last 24 hours, is there some sort of different rule where you live? ;) Keep us updated as you carry on, as I said before this is a great thread :thumbsup

Man that's a great paint job for being so quick! That's amazing actually...

my biggest "secret" on the high speed painting is having a good sense of when paint is *just* dry enough for tape... and i only use the crazy $10 a roll super delicate surfaces tape.

the nice thing with rattlecans is that they dry fast and the finish is REALLY tough.

i can lay it down tape about an hour after i paint if the temperature is good. and a small space heater does wonders for the temp.

that and i find layered weathering much easier to do if you don't let the paint cure too much before peeling it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tk7602

my biggest "secret" on the high speed painting is having a good sense of when paint is *just* dry enough for tape... and i only use the crazy $10 a roll super delicate surfaces tape.

the nice thing with rattlecans is that they dry fast and the finish is REALLY tough.

i can lay it down tape about an hour after i paint if the temperature is good. and a small space heater does wonders for the temp.

that and i find layered weathering much easier to do if you don't let the paint cure too much before peeling it.

---

I completely agree, nice work :thumbsup

I went over Brian's last night and saw this helmet first hand. I've got to tell you people... it's nothing short of AMAZING what he's able to do in such a short amount of time! I was floored!

I've been having fun playing around with colors... trying to really capture the rotj look.

I think my base colors are good, and with the proper weathering, it should be rockin'

here is the helmet with the visor installed:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a..._fetthelm1.jpg

i liked this shot because in the background you can see a tiny little rotj photo, and the colors look pretty good :)

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a..._fetthelm3.jpg

and my "quick and dirty" RF mod.

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a..._fetthelm2.jpg

i took the battery cover off and removed the sliding latch button, aka the polaroid window.

i then filled it all in with modeling clay and molded it. i used clear resin to make a cast, then sanded it smoothish. i could have sanded it better, but i thought i was going to need it for today. since i don't need it until tomorrow, i'll pop that back out and smooth it out better.

it's just held in with a blob of hot glue, so whenever i need to change the batteries, i can pry it off.

the finish on the topper is rough. i stripped the paint off... it's molded in black, but should really be painted again. i'll get there eventually.

in other news, mold #2 should be ready to go tonight!

Kick butt Brian !!!

FP

Oh my sweet lord, thats pretty :thumbsup

I'm loving that dent! Awesome!

Very nicely done!

the second mold came out much nicer than the first! i did one last night, and while a little thick, it's looking great overall.

that was my first time with the smoothcast roto, and working with it was a bit strange... SO fast! but it was fun, and i feel like i'm closing in on it!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fettpride

Kick butt Brian !!!

FP

---

I couldn't have done it without you! Both figuring out the mod, and looking at your own RotJ helmet really helped me pick out some stuff I hadn't seen on my own!

I started trimming out one of the pulls from the new mold last night, and will start painting on Monday (I'm away at NY Comiccon until then)

I *think* I have finally got a winner!

Pics coming tonight!

i finally dove in to the ear cap issue!

sorry... lots of text, not lots of pics!

so, the MR earcap on the RF side is just odd.... i don't know why they built it how they did.

it's hard to put into words, but basically think of the 2 parts of the RF side ear cap as being the inner and outer caps. the inner cap sits on the helmet. it's the thicker of the 2, and has the cutout for the stalk.

the outer cap is sort of a cover that goes over it, and is thinner.

on the mr it's reversed. the piece that touches the helmet is about 1/16" thick, and all of the bulk is on the outside. the outer cap is concave on the inside for no obvious reason. it has a small lip at the bottom where the RF stalk lives, but is curved otherwise (reduce cost by shaving an ounce of aluminum out?)

i was trying to figure out how to do something with it that didn't involve scratch building a whole new piece. i wanted to preserve the look and feel, but make it closer to accurate.

i ended up taking the assembly off of the helmet, removing the stalk, and then screwing the 2 pieces back together. this left me with a sort of sandwich of metal with a gap in the middle for the stalk.

i filled the gap with modeling clay, leaving a solid chunk.

i made a 1 piece silicone mold of this part, and poured 2 copies.

on copy 1, i carved / sanded / filed away the outer cap, leaving just the inner part that touches the helmet.

on copy 2 i did the opposite, carving away the inner part, leaving just the outer cap.

a LOT of sanding later, we get:

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...pstuff_019.jpg

if you look closely at the back of the little triangle wedge at the bottom of the cap, you see that i cut a little too much. i'll build that back up with epoxy putty, rather than going through all this effort again.

once i get these all properly sanded and smooth, they will be the masters that i mold off of for my final ears.

Those ear caps are looking great Brian... ;)

Phenominal job! Great seeing your progress.

Geo

This is very informative. I figured someone would make some mods to this, I just don't have the nerve, unless I picked one up for cheap.



Robert

And here we have a good pull from a revised mold, painted with the focus on looking good, not speed!

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...pdates_027.jpg

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...pdates_026.jpg

http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/a...pdates_028.jpg

The colors used are highly variable... I misted all sorts of stuff on top of each other to get what I wanted.

The dome and cheeks are sage green, spruce green, dark grey, black, and flat brown. The visor is claret wine and black. The mandibles are black, navy blue and hunt club green. The back is hunter green, grey and black.

The earcaps are lightly weathered with flat brown, mostly sanded off.

The stripes are a mix of a couple of acrylic colors that I blended until I liked it.

Weathering is primarily misting of black, brown and grey. On the cheeks I latex masked some areas before misting, so that they remained their original green.

When it was all done, I put some Testor's dullcoat on there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tk7602

painted with the focus on looking good, not speed!

---

and it does! :thumbsup

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dabbafett

and it does! :thumbsup

---

Agreed! Looks amazing!

Fantastic work my friend!!! :thumbsup

I'm in no way a ROTJ Fett but that is freakin awesome Brian!
Love the 2nd pic with the head slightly cocked to one side... very Clint Esq! ;)

wow you did a fantastic job fixing that. i plan to get a MR helmet but im still swinging back & forth bout fixing it. plus that paintjob, idk if i could risk that. it'd give me a heartattack