C6 Clonetrooper tutorial and build from head to toe!

I use the 1 1/2” black non roll elastic for the knees. Cut and hot glue to the foam pieces per below.
You want this to be tight enough to fit snuggly, it needs to hold the knee’s up while trooping.
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Hot glue into place.
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At this stage your pieces should look something like this.
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Now we are going to move onto the small clasp detail on the white strap. I know my version is not
100% screen accurate and this can be skipped if you like. It is kind of a pain to get his to stick and stay
into place. It is on the curve and I have had them pop off in the past. I have considered airbrushing
this detail on. If you do, please send me some photo’s, I would love to see how it turns out.
Attached below is the best digital file I can find of the detail. I think the outside detail may be different.
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Once glued on your knee’s should be complete. Only thing left if the air brushed weathering which
will be the last step of the build.
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I think we have covered all the vacuformed pieces. Now we are moving onto the belt.
This consists of resin boxes and a rubber belt. If you have the latest version of the belt most of the resin boxes
are already attached to the rubber belt. This process is done while casting. We have found that if done together
it makes for a great sturdy one piece design. The back boxes are still separate to allow placement on different
size troopers. Larger troopers may want to place the boxes further out than smaller troopers. The back boxes are
attached with screws and washers. I forgot to add the scews in the photo below but are needed for completion of the belt.
We use two clasps found at Tandy Leather for holding the belt together. A scratch build thermal detonator is then
clipped on and the clasps are hidden by it.
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The belt may need some cleanup. The extra rubber on the resin can be cleaned up with a mouse sander.
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The belt is around 47” long. For a accurate sizing you will need help with this part. Put on the cod/butt piece and
stomach piece. Center the belt and wrap it around. This is best done while standing in front of a full size mirror.
Have someone mark where the center comes together. Double check twice before trimming. Once trimmed the two
pieces should almost touch. I have about a 36“ waist. I mark my cut line around 9” from the last square on each side.
The final size of my belt is around 41”.
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Once cut we are going to add the clasps. These are called Buckle Back Ring & Hook 1-1/2" to 1-3/4" and you will need two of them.
I get these at Tandy Leather. They can be found here on line.
Tandy Leather Factory - Buckle Back Ring & Hook 1-1/2" to 1-3/4"
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Bend one of the pointed ends over and on the other clasp cut the pointed end off.
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Place clasps into position and mark with a pen. Then drill holes into the rubber belt. Slide rivets in and attach per
photo’s below. Washers will need to be used to hold into place.
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We will complete the belt on the following post.
 
The belt should be assemble and all the resin boxes should be cleaned up and ready for paint.
I use the same paint for the belt as I do for the rest of the suit. Gloss White Krylon Fusion for Plastic.
The boxes should be primered before painting. The rubber belt does not need primer.
Tape off the rubber belt. You don't need to worry about the rubber exposed below the resin boxes, as long
as you dont go crazy with the white paint those small areas should be fine.
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Primer the resin boxes. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo here.

Paint the primered resin boxes white.
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Remove the tape and paint the back of the belt white.
* It is important here to only use a couple of light coats. To much paint on the rubber will cause cracking
when the rubber flexes. If done correctly it should look like this. Try painting the back first to get a good feel of how much paint to use.
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Once dried, move onto painting the front.
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When completely dry, we will move onto adding the back boxes. I use two screws and washers for each box.
Make sure to use screws that are not too long. You don't want them going all the way through the resin boxes
and coming out the front. If you are using pointed screw there is no need to pre drill any holes. Just go slowly
and make sure to use washers.
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Well, your belt should be done and your finished version should look like the photo’s below.
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Now we are going to scratch build a thermal detonator. The only piece I include for this is the white plastic.
I know some people offer these as kits so if you don’t feel like building one please PM me for a link. If you do
want to build your own you will need to gather these supplies. Pick up some PVC pipe, you will need it to be
2” size and 10” long. Bankers Clips, I use to be able to walk into Office Max and pick these up. The last time I
needed some I could not find them. I ended up getting them on Amazon.com. One package is all you need.
You will also need two rivets and washers (sorry, I forgot to add them in the photo below).
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Cut the PVC pipe down to 8 1/8” and also cut 3 pieces down to 3/8”. Take the plastic included in the kit. Cut two
large round circles, two rectangles and two small round circles. These piece will be the inset items on the detonator.
Also cut one long rectangle and 7 smaller ones. These will be for the buttons on the front.
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Trim the banker clips down and round off the sharp edges. Drill two holes in the back of the detonator. I make mine
3 3/4” apart. It’s always a pain to drill the holes in the banker clips. I use a hammer and sharp screw to get these going.
Attach the bakers clips with the rivets and washers.
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Take one of the 3/8” pieces of PVC pipe and cut it in half. Place it inside the detonator per the photo below. It’s much
easier to place the large round circle in correctly with something to rest it on.
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Once glued together it will look like the photo below. Another small piece will be added to the center area. Please see
photo’s later in the build for this. I just pick a interesting shape to add to it. Like I mentioned before the Dollar Tree or 99¢
Store is always a great place to find interesting and cheap items for all sorts of prop projects.
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Mark and add the two round 3/8” PVC pieces to the main body. You will need to cut them in the back to get them to fit.
This will leave a open section in the back. This area is not seen while trooping.
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We are now going to attach the buttons to the front of the detonator.
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Super glue the 7 buttons to the long strip. Once dried, attach the competed long strip to the main body.
Use the magic sculpt to do this.
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Once the magic sculpt has had a full day to dry, clean up and sand as needed. Once finished add primer to the piece.
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Once dried, paint white. Below are the photo’s of the finished detonator.
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Here is a quick recap.
We should have everything done that was included in the kit. The only items left are the helmet and the boots.

As you may know, this build will be for sale once finished.

If you are between 5’ 10” to 6’ 2” and between 185 lbs to 215 lbs this suit will fit you perfectly.
To sweeten the deal I will also include two helmets and a DC-15 long rifle.
Please PM me if you are interested.
The extra helmet is a E3 Clonetrooper and the DC-15 is a light weight 3 piece rifle I purchased years ago.
Con season is upon us and this suit will be complete and ready to wear with a week or so!
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Before we move on we still need to add some details to the knees, elbows and cod.
I use primer on these items. The idea here is to give the illusion that some of these areas are recessed.
The goal is to give these areas some minor but realistic depth.
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First we will start with the knees. I use some 1” painter tape to start with. Center it along the back of the strap.
Once centered, apply more tape to the top and bottom of the 1” tape. Remove the 1” tape to reveal the area
we will be painting. Tape and mask off the rest of the knees. Paint using primer. Once dried move onto the small
areas on the buckle. Tape off and paint the two small lines in both buckles. I guess this could all be done at the
same time with the back stip but it’s kind of a pain to do together.
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Tape off the recessed area of the cod. I am not sure if this area is gray in the movie. Perhaps only on E3 Clones
it is gray (see photo below). Paint using primer. Once total finished, we will tone this down
with some fine sandpaper. The sandpaper step is not done until we airbrush and weather the entire suit.
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Now we are moving onto the elbows. We are going to add two small lines across the staps. Tape off per the
photo below. Don’t remove the center tape for this one, see below for the final photo’s. Paint using primer.
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Once finished all of your items will look similar to the photo’s below.
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We are going to make our Clone boots. I must point out I don't supply any of these items.
I also have to start by thanking fellow 501st member Mike Harrison TC-1536.
He is the one that came up with this idea and original boot tutorial in which I made my boots from.
But I must admit, I've made a few special modifications myself. ;)
The shoes I get at Wal Mart. I choose them because I like the soles. They are inexpensive and run around $18.99.
While you are there also pick up a some Fabri-Tac. You will only need one bottle. The white fabric can be purchased at any fabric store.
I am not sure of the what kind fabric this is, I just picked something that was thin and had a nice vinyl feel.
The size needed is around 14” x 50” which runs around $10.00.
The plastic straps and buttons pictured below I had cut out on a water jet machine. I would love to be able to offer these for sale but can’t. I don't have
access to the machine anymore. If you want the PDF files I used please send me a PM. I will send you the files. The files can be printed out and traced onto a sheet of styrene or plastic.
You will also need some medium size rivets and washers.
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Making these boots is something new and the templates used for cutting out the fabric are not included with the printed version of my tutorial.
If you want a PDF copy, please PM with your email info and I will send you one. Remove the laces and tongue from the shoes.
Trim out the fabric from the templates.
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I started gluing the first two large pieces down when I realized I forgot to add the small piece of stretch fabric
to the opening of the shoe. This does not need to be white, black will also work since this area get covered up.
You might have some extra left over from the suit build. Super glue this piece per the photo below.
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Now we can start gluing the fabric to the shoe. Start by applying a large amount of glue to the inside
of the fabric. Use the Fabri-Tac for this. The more glue the better. Wrap the fabric around the back and have
it meet up per below. It's important to cleanup any excess glue while its still wet. Once dried it thought to get off.
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Now add the front piece that goes up front. You will need to stretch and hold this down while the glue sets.
Once dried, clean up all the way around the shoe. You can do this with a exacto knife or dremil. If you use a dremil
make sure to wear a mask. The toxic fumes that come off the rubber soles are just terrible.
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We will finish up the boots on the next post.
 
Moving on, we are now going to add the upper front strip and the two small boxes.
The upper part of the strip must be trimmed down for you foot to fit in properly.
Try the boots on right now and trim as needed. Also glue the small box to the top of the
big one and then glue them to the boots.
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Now we are going to add the fabric to the inside of the straps. First use a heat gun and curve
the straps to the desired angle. Once done, super glue the cloth to the inside of the straps.
This area takes a lot of punishment while trooping so I also add a bead of hot glue around
the edge where the fabric meets the plastic.
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Once completely dry, we will now attach the straps to the boots. Find the center of the straps
and drill a hole in each side.
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Put the boot on and place the straps into place. Keep in mind that you will need to be able to get
these boots on and off. If the strap is too far back, your foot wont fit. Have someone help you
and with a pencil mark the holes. Drill the holes in the boots.
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Once the holes are drilled cut out the foam inside of the boots where the rivet will punch through.
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Using the rivets with washers attach the plastic strap to the boots. Once attached I always add
a couple of drops of hot glue to the inside of the shoes over the rivet and washer. This is just to keep it
rubbing up against your foot while trooping and causing any problems.
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Since the rivet is now in place, there is a small bump from it on the outside of the strap. Drill a small
area to allow the button to fit flush against the straps.
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Super glue the button pieces to the boots.
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If done cleanly, you really shouldn't have to paint the plastic areas. The boot will get airbrushed and
weathered later.
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OK, now we are going to cleanup and build the helmet.
In early 2005 C6 and I attended Wonder Con if San Francisco. C6 wore his newly completed E2 Clonetrooper. While trooping he was stopped by a employe of Lucas Film. The employee was blow away by seeing a Clonetrooper walking around. He told us that he loved the suit. He also mention that he asked George to make 5 suits that could be photographed and taped. I don't think they wanted them for the film but to help out the animation crew. Unfortunately no helmets or suits were ever made by LFL.
The C6 helmet was the first fan made E2 helmet. It was build with the idea of it looking like the CG ones in the film. With that being said, it has a neck ring on it that no real person could ever put on. Since it’s built this way you have two options. One remove the lower part of he helmet completely. Two is to keep the helmet intact but cut it to pop apart and then put back together again.
What I am going to show you is how to cut it apart, add magnets then be able to put it back together keeping the neck seal on the helmet. C6 is the first person to do this and I am going to show you how it’s done.
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First we are going to cut out the visor area. I use a hacksaw blade for this. I also cut one of the rounded corners off to create a sharp point.
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Once removed clean this area up. Keep in mind that the visor will need to fit cleanly inside this area. Cleaning up the inside of the visor area is extremely important for the visor placement. You want it to fit flush against the inside of the helmet. The visor will be installed at the last stage of the helmet build.
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Knocking out the holes in the mouth area is the next step. I use various tool for this. I use a drill first to get them going then a dremil to get them close to the desired size.
I use a set of small files for the cleanup.
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Now that those two areas are done, I cleanup the rest of the helmet. The helmet is created using a two piece mold. Since it is a two piece mold, there is a seam line that is needed to be cleaned up. I use a mouse sander for most of this cleanup as well as various grades of sandpaper. Sorry no photo’s of this being done.

In the movie the fin area has a red blinking light. If you plan to run lights in you helmet a hole must be drilled from the inside of the helmet to the fin area. Now you don't want to go and start drilling into your helmet, if you did there is a good chance of the drill breaking through all the way and coming out the top. What I do is to take 4 popsicle sticks. I glue two of them together then slide them into the fin from the back. Now find a nice area in the inside of the helmet that looks like it will line up with the fin. I use several different tool on the dremil to get this to work. The popsicle sticks should help you in realizing when you have reached the inside of the fin. If done correctly the last photo below is how it will look.
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Now we are going to add the Magic Sculpt to the inside of the helmet. I purchased the bigger size but if you are only building one suit and helmet the smallest size will be enough.
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First thing is to figure out where you need to cut. Keep in mind that if you don't make the hole big enough, you will not be able to fit your head in. Mark the cut line with a pencil.
Once marked, use some heavy grit sandpaper to scuff up the area inside the helmet. The Magic Sculpt will stick much better if this is done.
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Weigh the Magic Sculpt, mix and apply to the inside of the helmet. The Magic Sculpt can be smoothed out and cleaned up with water while it is still soft. Smooth out as needed. Once done, it will need a full day to completely harden.
See photo below for placement.
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Once the helmet has set for a day the Magic Sculpt should be dried enough for cutting.
Start by working along the seam of the helmet. Get a nice grove worked into the white resin. Find a good spot and work it until you beak all the way through the Magic Sculpt. Once this is done, the rest should go a lot easier. I work on both sides of the helemt first.
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Once both sides are cut I then cut the area below. Disregard your hand drawn line and try your best to split it up the middle.
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Your finished helemt should look like the photo below.
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The helmet has been cut and now we will add the magnets.
I have built helmet using only 8 magnets but sometimes you may need more. If you need to order more the can be purchased here. I use the D42-N52. The size is 1/4" dia. x 1/8" thick.
K&J Magnetics - Products
Pick 4 or 6 spots where the magnets will go. Mark these areas with a marker. We are only working with one of the two pieces of the helmet. Use your drill to make the holes. I like to start with a smaller bit then work up to my final size which is 1/4”.
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It is important that the magnet fit into the hole properly. It needs to be level with the Magic-Sculpt.
It it is to high or low, it will cause major problems with the pieces fitting together properly.
It is also important that the magnets are all going in the same direction. I like to use tape to help get the my first set glued in properly. The tape just helps with keeping the magnets all facing the same direction while gluing.
Use Insta-Cure and Insta-Set to glue these into place.
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Once all the magnets are glued into the base, now you will need to mark and glue the other magnets into place. Its always tough getting the placement holes correct to match up. I color the magnets with a marker, then place the chin into place. Hopefully the mark with transfer and this will help with placement. Once you are happy with your reference marks, drill the holes the same way you did before.
IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO GLUE THE SECOND SET OF MAGNETS IN THE PROPER MAGNETIZED DIRECTION.
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If done correctly, you will have a freestanding helmet that is held together firmly with the magnets.
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Great work so far! I'm really happy I found this thread, and can't wait to save up for one of these armour sets. I could suggest that if your buckle detail on the knee strap keeps falling off, you use methyl chloride (resinbond) to secure the styrene instead of superglue.

sabs
 
Moving right along now we are going to primer and paint or helmets. I am also going to paint a E3 helmet along with the E2 helmet.
First we will primer the helmets. If you see any problems here, now is the time to fix them. You may need to do some more sanding or use some spot putty or Bondo to clean up any blemishes in your helmet.
Once the helmets are primered and looking good, we are going to paint them white. At this point I tape out everything that will be grey on the helmet (with exception to the mouth area).You will need some good quality painters tape for this.
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Now we will paint the helmets white. Since the E2 is now in two pieces you will paint them that way. The photo below show the E2 as one piece but I did not put it back together until the white paint was good and dry.
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Once the white is good and dry we will move onto the black areas and the grey mouth. Tape off everything that is going to stay white. Make sure when taping to do a real through job. The black has a funny way of sneaking into the small areas that are not taped of very well.
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Paint the mouth area’s grey and after they dry, tape them off.
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Paint the remaining areas black.
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Once dried, remove the tape and see how it turned out. Don't worry, any small area’s with black overspray can be cleaned up with some fine sand paper.
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Great work so far! I'm really happy I found this thread, and can't wait to save up for one of these armour sets. I could suggest that if your buckle detail on the knee strap keeps falling off, you use methyl chloride (resinbond) to secure the styrene instead of superglue.

sabs

I will have to give that a try!
Thanks, Darren
 
Reinforcing your chest and back pieces.
All plastic is not alike. I use .125 HIPS but the consistency sometimes tends to differ from order to order.
Some vacuform better than others. Like I said in a previous post, the chest and back
are the largest pieces on the suit. They are stretched more per square inch then any of the others.
If you troop a lot you may want to reinforce your suit. My first and most used suit has cracked over time.
If I had thought to reinforce these areas then it would have saved me from fixing them back up later.
My cracks appeared on the curved area’s below the shoulder straps on my original suit.
I went ahead and reinforce more areas on this one. I must say, they feel much more sturdy now.
I used epoxy and fiberglass tape for this.
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*DO NOT ADD THE FINAL PLASTIC PIECES IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED SIZING YOUR CHEST AND BACK PIECES*
I will create a separate post on how to do this.

If you HAVE sized up you suit, then finish the back piece by adding the white plastic pieces.
Follow the directions below.
After the epoxy has dried you will add the two white plastic pieces to the back plate.
Once finished we will add velcro to them. This will hold the front and back pieces together while trooping.
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Once finished. Primer and paint the pieces as needed.

Hi Darren,

Can I use this kind of fiberglass tape, in the Netherlands we only have the fiberglass sheets to work with, with all the fibers(hairs) getting loose, it's kind of nasty to work with, so I was thinking about starting to use the drywall fiberglass tape, is this the same kind you are using, or shouldn't I be using it for armor, because it's supposed to be for walls and ceilings?
Ofcourse I will be using the liquid fiberglass ontop of it.

65' FibaTape Fiberglass Mesh Drywall Tape FDW6561U | eBay

Your help on this will be greatly appreciated.
 
Hello Meneer Troepert,
Yes, they sell that stuff here at places like Wal Mart. I think it should work just fine. Just do like you mention and use the fiberglass liquid on top of it. I would try one piece first to see how it turns out. Please let me know, I might be a great alternative.
Thanks, Darren
BTW, here is a link for the stuff I use. You will need at least 4 yards. I use the 1" stuff.
Fiberglass Tape with Selvage Edge: TAP Plastics
 
Your helmet is probably looking good but we still have a few more things to do to finish it.
First we are going to paint the tube stripes on the E2 helmet grey. Spray some primer on the corner of plastic or carboard. Hand paint with a brush. This technique also works well in touching up the white and black areas on the helmet.
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Now we will add the various loose greeblies to the helmets. Primer and paint the items flat black.
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First we will add the greeblies to the E3 helmet. I add a small dowel to the center chin piece. It gives it a little more stability and less chance of it getting knocked off. I also like to drill the center out of the aerators and add screen to the inside. It’s not exactly screen accurate but it gives them a nice look.
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I add my tube stripes with a file I created in adobe illustrator. I then use blue electrical tape with my template. Please PM me if you would like a PDF copy for timming out the tube stripes.
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Finish off the E3 helemt by hand painting the black on the ears.
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Now we will add the chin greeblie to the E2 helmet. Like before, I add a small dowel to help keep it in place. Since this is two piece helmet their is a greater chance of this being knocked off while trooping.
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Now add the mesh screen to the inside of the helmet. If you ordered the kit, also add the foam padding (not pictured).
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Now all that is left is adding the visor. If you are going to airbrush the weathering I suggest adding the visor last.
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I thought I would throw these out just for fun. I little Star Wars helmet evolution. I figured they would make a nice screen saver.
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