Superjedi's SGB McQuarrie Fett helmet

superjedi

Sr Hunter
Hi gang!
Been pretty busy over here in Korea lately, but I have to make time for some Fett every once in a while. :D
A little while back, I picked up one of SkyGunBro's extremely cool McQuarrie concept Fett helmets. It's a very nice resin kit of a version of Boba Fett not many folks (outside us crazy fans) are familiar with.
I'm a big fan of Ralph McQuarrie's designs. He is an iconic artist and really helped to shape how Star Wars looked. SGB did a terrific job translating the design into 3 dimensions, and this helmet will make a very cool addition to my ever-growing Fett collection. (y)

I don't have any progress pics on this one, just the helmet as it stands right now. Although there's only one drawing of this helmet (that I'm aware of), I wanted to paint it up as it might have appeared in the Star Wars universe, and that of course means. . . weathered!

Here's the helmet after my weathering frenzy this evening.

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I started out by trimming out the visor section, giving the helmet a light sanding, and spraying a base coat of plain ol' Krylon gloss white. I did a couple of light coats, not worrying too much about getting a perfect finish.

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After the base white coat dried, I began the weathering process by sponging on some Tamiya Field Gray in random areas. I was going for an effect similar to the weathering on the ESB helmet.

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I used a smaller chunk of sponge and added some Floquil Gun Metal. This is a darker, bluer metallic than the Bright Silver a lot of us are familiar with.

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Once that portion of the weathering was done, I got out the airbrush and started dirtying this bad boy down! I airbrushed 4 different tones, again putting them on in random, streaky patterns. I used Polly Scale Earth, Boxcar Red, Reefer Gray, and PRR Brunswick Green. Hmm. . . I wonder why I would have those particular colors lying around??? ;)

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After letting the airbrushed colors dry, I went back with a small chunk of sponge and some Testors Acryl flat white and splinched some white back on in some areas. I wanted to sort of give the appearance that the helmet had been banged around even after getting all dirty.
(Yes, I did use the word "splinched." I like making up words :lol:)

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After the "splinching phase" I went back with a Microbrush and reapplied the Gun Metal color, and used an old dental tool to make some smaller scratches on the helmet. I also scraped down to the bare resin in some spots. Just another aspect of weathering.
Here are some closer shots.

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I still need to work on the aerator pieces that go in that big, black "mouth" area. I also need to work on the RF and RF stalk. It will probably be a while until I get to those parts as sanding resin in my dorm room makes for a lot of vacuuming! :p
Thanks for looking!
Eric
 

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Fantastic work (and word) Eric! Did you use any reference pics of actual weathering? Or was it by 'feel'? I love the subtle colours of the airbrushing...(y)
I'm off to the shed for a quick splinch...:lol:
 
WHOA!!!!! That is looking awesome! Totally stoked on this helmet! Good job! Oh, splinching, I will be using that term, great word, LOL!
 
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Wow, thanks guys. :) This was a nice project to work on for a change of pace. It was really fun to try to use techniques I've learned by doing ESB helmets and applying them to a 'blank canvas' so to speak. Just to kind of get a picture in my head of what I wanted the weathering patterns to look like rather than trying to replicate patterns on a screen-used helmet.

I'm off to the shed for a quick splinch...:lol:

Now, Garrett, what you do in your own free time is none of our business! ;)
 
Great work as usual how long did it take?
with speed like yours you sure your don't have a
time manipulating device stashed lying around somewhere?:D

Jason
 
Dang Eric, I have that same helmet sitting in my garage ready to paint up. If it wasn't so much to ship it to Korea I would have you do it. That is just stunning. Jason said he was going to post pics of his weathered version, but I don't think he ever got around to it.

Can't wait to see what you do with the aerators.
 
UPDATE July 6th: COMPLETE (Finally :lol:)

Been quite a while since I've updated this! Now that I'm home in Virginia, I've been able to get back into some of my projects that have been on hold for a long time.
I finished up my concept helmet a couple of days ago and wanted to share the final pics.

All I really had left to do was work on the aerators and RF assembly. For the aerators, I finished sanding and trimming, then gave them a coat of Model Master buffing metalizer in Titanium. The flat faces were painted in basic black, and I added some black plastic screen to the two lower ones. Just some added visual interest.

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Now, I made a big change from how Jason designed the RF stalk and topper. First I decided I preferred to have the RF on the right side. This was based on the "published" version of the original McQ sketch. I know there's some debate whether this was intentional or not, but it's what I chose to do. :) Next, I decided to scratch a new RF topper. In the drawing, it's a very basic wedge shape. Jason had sculpted a really nice RF that had more of a streamlined shape with a couple of simulated LEDs, but I wanted to stay closer to the concept drawing. I also built my RF stalk much shorter than the way Jason had sculpted it. In the sketch, it appears that it comes just over the apex of the dome, whereas his is significantly taller. Again, just personal preference.
Here's an overall comparison of my helmet to the artwork.

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I made the RF stalk from some Sintra I had left over from another project, and made the topper from some 1 mm black styrene sheet. I used black because the little slot in front is actually open, and it was much easier to just spray the exterior white than to paint all the interior faces black before assembly. (I'm lazy! :D)
In this angle you can see I added a small doohickey at the back of the stalk like in the drawing. It's not exact, but the stalk is too thin to add a fatter detail.

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Another shot.

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So here are a couple views of the completed helmet. I bought a little bronze colored paper towel holder to display it on. :)

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I think this was the longest Fett project I've done to date! But that was based on being overseas and not having access to all my hobby stuff. It's a really cool helmet, a terrific sculpt by Skygunbro, and I love having this addition to my "Fett Lineage" collection.
Thanks for looking!
 

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:eek: Dude, that is a beautiful piece!!! I've always loved that helmet! Outstanding job on that! Congrats on finally finishing it all up. Thanks for sharing those! :cheers
 
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This thing is pretty awesome! I was just checking out my Concept Boba Fett figure yesterday trying to figure out how to piece together a set of his armor. Amazing work here!
 
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