Superjedi's GMH as ESB for Steveo4529

For the left ear I'm using the same color as the dome/inner cheeks. Since I do some
lightening and misting over the dome and cheeks, the left ear comes out looking like a
slightly different color.
 
I'm thinking of custom mixing something for mine when the time comes. When I bring my helmet thread back from the dead again I'll add it there. :)
 
Thanks for the birthday wishes! Went out for a great steak dinner and got some cool SW related birthday
presents. I got a Boba Fett wallet and a copy of "Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope." It's a book that tells the
story of Star Wars in the style of Wm. Shakespeare. I've only read a little so far, but it's hilarious! :lol:

I'm thinking of custom mixing something for mine when the time comes. When I bring my helmet thread back from the dead again I'll add it there. :)

Cool, revive that thread! (y)
 
Happy belated birthday! :)

Well how bout that young man - our birthdays are a day apart...and with the time difference, we would actually be celebrating them at the same time at some point ;) Hope it was a fantastic day mate, us August kids clearly are the coolest ;). Best wishes all round!!!
 
Happy birthday, Jonny! Yeah that international date line is a weird thing.
I was stationed in Korea from 2008-2009 and I never got used to trying to
figure out what day it was back home!

But you're south of the Equator and time runs backwards, so that's even
more confusing. :lol: :lol:
 
UPDATE: August 25, 2013

OK, the weekend is drawing to a close as far as painting goes. I have some yard work to do this
afternoon and I see a trip to the grocery store in my very near future. So here's where the helmet
is as of noon.

I've completed the band above the visor. This is a relatively small area, but the position of the detailing
becomes more important the closer you are to Fett's "eyes." People are programmed to recognize faces
so the details around Fett's face are one of the key factors in making the helmet look right.
Here's the left angle.

IMG_0394_zpsdcfd88fb.jpg


Here's the right angle.

IMG_0397_zps2ed8f4f6.jpg


I have also completed prepping the aluminum ears for paint. I sanded them with some medium grade
sandpaper to remove the vestigial machining marks, and finished by polishing them with some fine
wire wool. Later this afternoon I'll prime them with some Duplicolor self-etching primer. This is a nice
primer for bare metal, as it is designed to bite into the surface and give a really good bond.

The helmet itself only needs the left and right mandibles painted at this point. :)
Doing the ears, RF topper and Borden connector will come after that. Then, it's on to final
weathering with some pastels, and this helmet will be done!
 
Thanks, Wolfsburg. :)

UPDATE: August 29, 2013

Whew! Where has August gone??
Got the left mandible complete. Didn't have a lot of time the last couple of days, but
I finally got this section done. Still a couple of tiny details to add, including the
contrasting red mark near the top, but I'm happy with the way it came out.

IMG_0400_zps49dfbe1a.jpg


I also laid down the base colors on the ear parts. You can see them in the background.
So while I'm taking a break between the stages of the crazy right mandible, I can work on detailing the ears.
 
UPDATE: September 1, 2013

Another month torn from the calendar, and another major stage of the helmet is complete.

Got that crazy right mandible done. This always takes me several sessions. There's so much
detail, and getting the position and proportion of the damage areas correct is a challenge.
I have to give my poor eyeballs a break between sessions! :lol:

IMG_0409_zpsf0a5aafb.jpg


Now that this portion is done, all of the basic color application on the helmet is complete. I'll go back
over the entire helmet now and begin adding the contrasting pale color, the white thumbprints, and
some strategic pastel weathering.

The way my hobby room is situated, there's a certain time of day when there's too much glare coming
thru the window to work on fine detail work. The light just reflects too much off the surface. So during
those times, I work on things that don't require using a tiny brush. I used that time today to do the
black arch on the RF ear cap.

IMG_0411_zpsaf13ab01.jpg


Lots of finicky masking to get the curve to look right. I airbrushed the arch with Tamiya flat black.
Tamiya paints airbrush really nicely, and they dry pretty quickly too. (y)

I added those 2 tiny "drips" at the bottom of the left half of the arch as well. I'll give this piece
a good 24 hours to really dry thoroughly, then I'll mask for the white half-arch. I'll mask for the
white arch on the left ear at the same time.

Really almost done now, Steve!
 
Thanks man!

UPDATE: September 4, 2013

Been slow on the Fettness the past couple of days. Real life keeps getting in the way.
How annoying! :lol:

Got some work done on the ears. In the last update, I showed the black arch that I airbrushed
onto the RF ear cap. I got the white half arch airbrushed on, as well as the gray damage and
some of the markings.

IMG_0413_zps0b14a598.jpg


Before I add the silver, I'll do some pastel weathering and seal the parts with dull coat. Then I'll
physically scratch the silver through the paint. That's one advantage of using metal ears! (y)

I also got the white arch airbrushed onto the left ear. The damaged sections were done with my
Winsor & Newton masking fluid.

IMG_0416_zpsdb7f28f9.jpg


I'll hopefully get to put some more time into the ears the next couple of days, but definitely by the
weekend. All that's really left to do is the gray and red damage on the left ear. Once that's complete,
I'll do the final pastel weathering and spattering on the helmet, then install the Borden and the visor!
 
Glad you like it Steve. :) I think you'll enjoy this update.

UPDATE: September 8, 2013

It's getting very close to completion now! I've spent some time this weekend working
on the ears, and just a little while ago I was finally able to attach them!

IMG_0418_zpse3f3f7cd.jpg


I love these metal ear sets. They're fantastic, and being able to scrape away some paint to
expose a glint of aluminum beneath is a great effect. On both ears, I did the small black markings
with dry transfer lettering.

IMG_0419_zpse959eb08.jpg


The dry transfers adhere really well to the bare metal, and they're super thin. More like waterslide
decals than vinyl decals. Plus, since the ones on the right ear parts are applied over bare aluminum,
I'm able to scrape them with a small sharp plastic tool after they're in place. In the above shots, I've
also done some light pastel weathering.

Just for fun, here are the vertical stripes on the upper RF ear cap. The original ESB is on the left, and
Steve's helmet is on the right. Just a couple of tiny black specks need to be added.

RFearcrop2_zps00782769.jpg


Remaining tasks: weather and install the Borden, install the MQ-1 inside the keyslots, install the visor,
weather and install the RF stalk and RF topper. :)
 
FINAL UPDATE: September 15, 2013

53 days later. . .

The helmet is complete! (y) I got all the final detailing and assembly done over the
last few days. Not much more to say about this project, so I'll just put up a few selected final photos.

IMG_0430_zps166c5515.jpg


After all this time, and having done so many ESB helmets, I still really enjoy the process of
getting a kit from its raw state to a completed bucket. :)

IMG_0423_zps5e4696fa.jpg


My hobby time is my "Zen meditation" time, and I just get in the zone when I'm working on a helmet.
Many people might find detail painting tedious, but I enjoy seeing how each helmet progresses, just
as (hopefully) you guys do!

IMG_0427_zpsb6a9021d.jpg


It always seems that there's something new I get to do when I work on one of these kits. In this case,
Steve had sent a real MQ-1 calculator that he asked me to disassemble to use the circuit board. Until
this project I had never even seen one up close, let alone take one apart. So that was very cool!

Here's the rundown of parts for Steve's ESB helmet:
--fiberglass GMH casting #22 (FP)
--machined aluminum ear & RF stalk kit (MojoFett)
--authentic Casio MQ-1 calculator circuit board
--machined brass Borden connector replica (MojoFett)
--3M dark green polycarbonate face shield
--3-piece range finder topper kit (TerminalFettler)

Steve, it was a lot of fun doing this helmet. Thanks for entrusting it to me, and I hope you get
tons of enjoyment out of it! I never really asked if this is for costuming or display, but if you
wear it for trooping, I expect to see some pics of you in action! :)

Thanks to everyone who followed along,
Eric
 
Stellar work Eric! You really have fine tuned your skills, that every one of these helmets look as though they have come of some sort of crazy awesome production line! Fantastic as always, and I have no doubt you are one of the finest painters on these boards. Bravo my friend! (y)
 
Steve , i am totally excited for you on seeing your helmet progress and quite frankly very jealous , enjoy it every moment you can
Eric you are a devil ,because you kill with each passing paintjob you complete. So now i'm sad because i don't own this helmet and this thread has pretty much ended.:cry:D
 
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