Helmet kit

I finally have everything together for a kit. As some of you already know I purchased the helmet molds from DCB and I am having a professional fiberglass company cast the pieces for me. I have also located all the other parts minus the hose that goes at the back of the neck. DCB included a 1/2 piece of wire loom and foam backer rod for that piece but I'm not sure I want to do the same thing. I haven't found a hose that I'm happy with yet.

Here are pics of my finished helmet as it came to me:










Here is the kit as I'm thinking of making it. I will assemble the binoculars and armature because I have a mold for making the bridge section connecting the two eye pieces. The only thing needed would be assembly, rub n buff, and weathering










Please PM me for more information. I don't check the boards everyday so please be patient with me if I don't respond immediately but I will get back to you as soon as possible

Great job on the helmet, MonCal! Nice casting job by the fiberglass co. too.

PM sent.

Looks nice!
PM coming your way.

Wow, that's awesome!

Looks nice!

God **** you're clever!

I maybe after the front emblem.....sorry

Moncal your talent continues to amaze me. Great work, as soon as you have kits for sale, consider 1 sold. Right here. Funds are available immediately. If you have any Zam parts you are selling at present please PM me. I am desperately trying to help a friend put a Zam together for C4. It is proving difficult. Thanks and again AWESOME work.

you know i will be pm-ing you

Wow, it looks amazing! Thanks so much for picking up the reigns with DCB's helmet design and doing a production run for us lidless Zams. And if DCB is lurking out there - thanks for letting MonCal be the new owner of the mold!

It does look nice!! PM sent...

that looks sweet, good work Cal!!

Moncal,

Something worth noting is, my girlfriend had massive problems getting into this lid. I've taken loads of the inside and detached and moved the ear pieces outward lots. Re glassed it and attached them back. Fits ok now

Maybe one size doesn't fit all?

Also, I think the DCB is lop sided a little. It doesn't sit right. Again this could be her head size, so I apologise if I'm wrong.
Have a good look at it and you may agree or seek me out and shoot me from afar. I think it's a totally stunnig helmet and blew me away when I took it out of the box. Wish I had that much talent I can tell you

whats the measurment between the ear pieces and of the head hole front to back?

I'm sorry gang! I never even thought about size problems. The helmet fits Kathy great as well as a couple other girls locally.

This casting has a bit of a lip on it that actually could / should be sanded down a little bit on the front and sides but the front to back measurement is about 7 7/8" if you trim the lip off in the front:



The side to side could be trimmed a little bit too if needed. It measures about 5 7/8" if the lips are trimmed:

Well, I just measured my DCB helmet compared to that, and it looks exactly the same. I got mine to fit, though it took a lot of work and some padding inside as well. However, this one looks like you can work with it more and the back of the helmet, with the two "ledges" look more even to me as well.

I was wondering how you recommend we attach the earpieces and small greeblies? DCB had a pin system and glue.

I will try to put together a tutorial as soon as I have time to assemble one of these helmets but I thought the little nails was a good idea for the squares on the back of the ears. That along with some epoxy would hold great. The ears on this kit have a better ledge for attaching than mine did. Epoxy will work fine or if you have the ability to run some fiberglass you could put a layer of that on the joint... although that wouldn't be necessary... just an option.

size looks good cal...jamie takes a 7.25 fitted so that should be fine

I am interested in a kit.

nm, your post answered my question... Duh...

Has anyone managed to successfully allow the helmet binoculars to be articulated, like they are in the film?

You see Zam look at Obi Wan and then she returns them to her head, but you don't see this close up. It's from a distance.

Has anyone managed to allow them move but still have them sit fairly tight on top of the helmet when not in use?

The ones that I make articulate. Although I don't know if I'd recommend using them that way a lot of the time they can certainly do it.

just got moncal's helmet kit...very nice but it is rather small...for it to fit Jamie we had to dremel a lot out of the inside to almost 1/8 inch around the front and sides...it still is snug especially once the ear guards go on...i think it will totally flatten her ears against her head to just get the helmet on...also not sure if she will have room at the base of the back for the hose thing...it sits almost against her neck as it is...

very nice kit but those with bigger heads may need to look elswhere...jamie wears a 7.25 fitted hat for reference...

Ahhh i was worried this would happen LOL. Same as me (not with moncals kit but the original!) We went crazy with the dremmel and had to fill a few holes :S

Try doing what we did and taking the ear covers off completely and re-setting them further out, it helps with the ears

If youre struggling with the back id also be tempted to dremmel it off under the rear of the brim line and ret that back also. At least it might add a few mms

I think an attempt to deliver my helmet was made today. All I can say is this is one time I'm glad I know I have a small head! (I have trouble finding glasses because they are all too wide, and usually have to put women's baseball or golf caps on the tightest setting....)

So do people put foam on the top of the inside or anything to kind of soften the fit? Or is there really just no room for that?

to be honest...i dont think the foam will not be needed..unless your head is unbeleiveably small... I dont think the helmet is made to be pushed all the way down against the top of your head anyway...if jamie did that the front would be over her eyes and the back would be stuck into her shoulder blades...

hey becky...Jamie will be glad to hear all that(she was begining to think she was a freak with a big gigantic head). we thought about setting the ear guards on the top of the side rather than under the ridge too...thats what you guys did? seems it would add an extra 1/8 to a 1/4 over the ears. dont think it would look all that off either. what about the hose...in the back? did you guys find a way for that to work? and not sure i understood what you meant about the back. do you mean actually cut the back bottom off the helmet all together and push it back by adding some resin and resanding? Does the nuts that hold the binocs on bother you when you wear the helemt?

I put foam in the top to take some pressure off my head. My actual head was never going to fit up the top of the helmet as it gets gradually smaller so i filled that bit with foam

LOL tell her its Brains JD! Its because we have such big brains!

The nuts dont bother me so much now we have set the ears back, i cant feel them anymore. We really did go crazy with the dremmel tho, take out as much as you can IMO LOL

Hey JD, this is what we did dude

We took the ears off (one needed repair anyway see) and then just build up a new layer to plsce them on. This stuff is 2 part epoxy putty that dries like a stone! Put the ears up to it, traced around it and then dremeled the new curve/ridge into the epoxy extension. Put them back on and glued

One ear is slightly out more than the other but don't tell Becky that



As for the insides. I put it on her head and asked her where it hurt, then dremeled it away.
I've not handled Moncals lids but the old lids ones, whilst amazing are lop sided anyway. We need to put foam inside to help it sit on her bonse right

Yeah... I had trouble with my helmet too... (Original DCB run) had to clean out the insides quite a bit as well. *Yeah.. it's all the brains I've got! * I had to put some padding into it as well. I was afraid to get too carried away with excavating it...

The hose in my helmet is cut in half lengthwise and has a wire "inside" of it, then foam glued to the inside of that (like a sandwhich). The wire extends past the hose and wraps around the inside of the nuts on the ear pieces. It's also glued to the bottom of the lid. Does that help?

yup...thanks guys

Wow - I finally had time to get my helmet at the post office. Thanks MonCal! My head is pretty small, but this helmet is too small for me too! I think side to side it is OK, but front to back it is not long enough

As I look at it, the front part of the helmet has a bit of a lip that goes inward under where the leather brim would be. I see Cal mentions that the lip needs to be sanded down. As of right now, that is the bit that prevents me from getting this helmet to come down past the hair line on my forehead. Is there a particular dremmel bit that I should use that won't rip it to shreds if I need to grind out the inside? Should I just use my files and sand paper to carefully sand that lip down? It looks like I've got some work to do but if others have been able to grind their helmets down I'm hoping I can too

yes you need to dremel that down to about 1/8" thickness....and on that note....DO NOT DROP YOUR MANNEQUIN WHILE THE HELMET IS ON!!! I actually broke the helmet in three places(both ears above the original glue line and it cracked in three small places in the front) and the binocs broke! I've since repaired the helmet and binocs and i think all is well...but a tragic situation non-the-less

Please make sure to wear a good mask too guys, fiberglass is nasty stuff for your lungs!

We used a dremel we got a couple holes in a few places as its hard to tell how thick it is and where, they filled in fine again after tho so they fixed up fine, just go slow

Dang JD, I'm sorry to hear that your mannequin fell over. I hope it's o.k. now. I was thinking of making a mold so that the ears and helmet were one piece but if people are needing to do a little grinding maybe it's better if they're separate.

I figured that lip on the front might be too much. I did ask my fiberglass guy to cut it back but since he didn't I decided to leave it so people could customize it. Kathy's helmet doesn't have that thick of a lip. It's probably only 1/8" or so. She has to put her hair up which pulls the helmet back too and makes it tight but other than that it fits her fine. You should be able to dremel that front lip back with a sanding drum. I do recommend a respirator and some air flow to keep the dust out of your face.

This is actually one item I haven't had a chance to put a tutorial together for so any suggestions on assembly and finishing are welcomed!

I have some photos of the helmet from FIDM that I'm not allowed to share at the moment (I'll check with my friends). But I can see from these photos that there is virtually no lip on the front of the screen used helmet. So I guess I'll grind that down as far as I can without compromising the integrity of the helmet.

The screen used helmet also appears to be lined with a maroon-red leather. The ear pieces seem to float freely, rather than being glued or attached directly to the plastic helmet (fiberglass, whatever it was made of) itself. I can sort of see a gap between the ear piece and the helmet in my friends photos as well as some photos taken at the earlier exhibit (Australia?)

I believe I can see an extension tab of leather inside the helmet that comes down and snaps onto the leather liner of the ear pieces (they are either small silver snaps or rivets.)

The real ear pieces are actually hollow, almost as if vac-formed but I don't know that vacuforming can pick up that kind of detail. They were probably just sculpted or cast to be hollow? So the leather on the ear pieces appears to be cushioned with some fiber fill or batting. I think they are supposed to be like headphones!

DCB's/MonCal's ear pieces are not hollow so I don't know how the leather lining + tab technique could work. And leather tabs alone might be too flimsy. I almost wonder if the leather tabs are covering something more sturdy like metal extensions that might be anchoring the ear pieces to the inside of the helmet? I just worry that the binocular armature needing something really stable to anchor on to, not just some ear pieces that are hanging in place.

I guess that was my very long winded way of saying I think I will try to anchor the ear peices using some kind of tab on the inside of the helmet and maybe add the maroon leather for that headphone effect.

Thanks for sharing that info Kay_Dee... If you can share the pics GREAT! Though, I understand if you can't.

It wouldn't surprise me if the helmet were lined (They lined everything else... couture sewing and all... ) And I remember reading that the earpieces were supposed to be earphones/headphones to talk to Jango or whomever she was working with.

Well we tried a few of the things suggested on the helmet but we couldnt get them to work.

Floating Ears: We did manage to have them floating but because the binoc armatures are attatched the weight and articulation of them went a bit crazy with free earpieces. Ours were held on with the back wire but the binocs kept moving and wobbling and falling down all over the place. Only way to secure the binocs safely was to refix the earpieces.

Padded Ears: Again we tried to work a padding into the earpieces but the small and tight nature of the helmet to start with made even the small amount of space needed for ear padding impossible to find.

Front Lip: We ground our lip totally off but the brim became less secure so we decided to remake a small one

Im thinking about maybe casting up a set of my own earpieces and vac forming them. Maybe attatching the binocs in a different concealed way so they look secured through the ears but the main fastening and load bearing surface is the main helmet? .... possibly lol

I guess when I say free floating, I don't mean that the ear pieces are totally free from the helmet. I do think there is something inside (either just the leather tab extension or something under the leather tab) that connects the earphones to the helmet. Hum having a tab extension from the inside of the helmet that the binocs screw into through the earphones sounds excellent too! And then the leather lining could just cover all that to make it look pretty Then again, these helmets are running so small it seems that most of us might not have room to add anything like lining to the inside.

I was also thinking that I might try to sculpt new ear pieces if I get really ambitious! They just need to be a little deeper and more hollow to allow for the leather lining.

Hum, I don't know why the brim would be less secure if you grind away that lip that extends inward to our heads? The brim rests in the slot on the outside of the helmet right? I'm just talking about grinding away the inward lip protrusion - it might only be on the new run MonCal has done. I don't know if they were there on DCB's original helmet run. But yes, the helmet does extend downward onto the forehead past the brim. So if you ground that part away, I can see why the brim may not have been stable.

OK, Sablebadger was nice enough to let me post his Zam photos from FIDM. You can find the photos all here.

This is the image I'm referencing when I talk about leather lining on the earphones, a leather tab, and snaps (look at the left side. For some reason I don't see the silver snaps on the right).

(click on the image to view the high res pic and make out the earphone lining better)



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Nice view of how thick the forehead part of the helmet is, and you can see it looks like a about a 2" strip of the maroon leather lining along the base of the front of the helmet.



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And this shot kind of shows how the ear pieces appear to be somewhat hollow and are kind of filled with the leather lining.

That's the same color as the "lining" on the inside of the gauntlets I noticed on one of DCB's pics. They lined those with the same leather then... Hmmm...

And the brooch isn't black on inside part, just grimy like the rest of her costume... Hmmmm....

nice shots

It also looks to me like the hose on the helmet is the same as the hose coming off the vest/armor? If not it's dang similar...

The three little greeblie pieces off the helmet are also rounded not just flat like we have them on our helmets... *I was there... I saw this thing and didn't notice it!!! *

those are all very good observations, but IMO, the helmet we got is pretty dang close and I dont forsee changing anything anytime soon...I like the ears being on in a secure fashion...I wouldnt want them flopping around...I may be interested in holoowing them out some so there is room for Jamie's ears inside...rather than squishing them against it...would make them real brittle though...would be nice to have some made from abs...that would be a nice upgrade for this helmet i think...

Oh I agree the helmet is pretty dang close... Closer than I could ever get if I tried to make one! I'm pretty happy with mine...

The hose I might replace with the hose I use for the front armor... It also looks more round than what I have with my original DCB helmet, which was cut in half lengthwise.

The little greeblies are also pretty easy to replace *heck I lost one anyway* so why not round them up a bit eh?

Other than that - it would require a whole re-do of the helmet and molds...

You could just make your own ears and attach em to this - thats what i think i will do i really think they are a lot more dome shaped

I can really see how it could be construed that the helmet is totally seperate from the ear pieces...if you could find a way to make the binocs be more "springy" like a set of head phones and make them two seperate parts that would be cool and make for a much more comfortable setup...put the helmet on...then slap the headphones on.. maybe some sort of magnetic attachment to the side of the helmet even

let me know how that works out for you becky...jamie and i may be interested in your upgrade as it seems you and jamie both had to really work on getting the helmet to fit...

Originally Posted by JDFett

those are all very good observations, but IMO, the helmet we got is pretty dang close

Oh, I agree! That's why I say only if I feel really ambitious would I even attempt to make my own ear pieces. These are so darn close, I would only attempt to make new ears for a fun modification and to take a stab at doing a little sculpting (I may suck at it and have to scrap it). I also agree that with the armature for the binoculars, they need something fairly solid to anchor on to.

When I bought the molds Dallas mentioned I should redo the ears. Now you guys are making me wish I would have They are one of the small details on our suit that bug me.

I still think they're made of fiberglass, just deeper. It would be impossible to capture the details with a vac-formed piece. If I wasn't so busy I'd go make them right now and just give you guys replacements but at the moment I don't have any extra time

Awww... c'mon Cal... what else could you possibly have to do?

*You probably have nightmares about making Zam parts! *

yes cal...finish the gauntlets first...LOL

but i wouldnt be totally objected to getting a christmas gift in the mail down the road...hehe

Originally Posted by MonCal

If I wasn't so busy I'd go make them right now and just give you guys replacements but at the moment I don't have any extra time

No no no! You have done so much fantastic work on this costume already. The ear pieces are really a minor nit pick. Please don't think you have to redo them. I only started to notice the slight differences when I was trying to figure out how to attach my ears in a somewhat screen accurate way.

Yeah, the more I looked at the ear details and the hint of the thickness of the inner edge I realized it probably couldn't at all be Vacuformed. Even if it is fiberglassed, I think there is a small amount of empty space inside that allows for the lining.

Yeah... but knowing Cal... he's gonna obsess over this until it's done perfect!

Count me interested!!

Awesome job Zammers.