Mods to my MR "CE" Stormie helmet

Finished!
OK. . . OK, so I didn't stick to my original timetable. :lol: The Duplicolor white cured very nicely, and once I had polished it a bit, I used some Duplicolor clear to protect it. This was also polished with some rubbing compound and that brought it up to a very nice, natural looking shine. It's not like a mirror finish, but I think it closely approximates the gloss white-painted look of the original stunt helmets.
Here's an overall shot.

IMG_3561.jpg


I repainted the frown, tears, trapezoids, and ears with Testors Gray 1138. My excellent hobby shop, which normally has anything I could ever want, doesn't carry any gloss Humbrol colors. :facepalm
But comparing the Testors to the original color, I think it's a great match.

IMG_3557.jpg


The black stripes inside the rear trapezoids and tears, and the vocoder, were painted by hand with a Testors gloss black paint marker. In all my years of modeling, I had never used one of these things before! Sooooooo easy to use!! (y)

IMG_3559.jpg


The black outlines of each trapezoid were done with auto pinstriping tape. I just wanted to have those lines very smooth to define the shapes.

The replacement tube stripe decals I bought are terrific! Very vibrant shade of blue, but not too light like I've seen on some TK buckets. I cut a thin line of painters tape to use as a guideline, then cut each tube stripe out individually to ensure they conformed better to the curve of the helmet.

IMG_3554.jpg


Once I was sure I wouldn't have to respray anything, I reattached the Hovi tips with CA glue and added some black mesh inside the frown. I got a 1-foot roll of the stuff for like $3.00. . . I have enough left over to do about 200 more helmets. :D I just tacked it down with a few drops of CA, just in case I ever have to remove it for anything. I also put some of the black mesh inside the Hovi tips because they're basically see-thru.

I re-tacked the brow trim, again just using a drop of CA on either temple, and put the neck trim back on, then the very last thing I did was replace the report covers I used to darken the lenses with some smoke gray limo tint. It's much better to see thru!

So that's it. My "cheap" MR bucket wound up costing a little more, but I'm glad I made the alterations. Would I do this again? Probably not! At some point I'll probably wind up getting another one of these CE helmets to keep pristine.
Thanks for looking!
 
Very nice bruv... 8)

I'm waiting on my better half to agree to me buying one in a weeks time! But I think would keep my alterations to a minimum... too scared!

That Testors 1138 looks like a pretty good match too... and nice tip on the Testors paint marker!

So whats next... :lol:
 
that's a dramatic improvement in look for relatively little work. and in the end, probably a lot cheaper still than what you'd pay for one of the higher end fan produced kits.
 
Thanks guys, this was a nice diversion from all things Fett for a change. :)

In total, I'd say I spent about $40 or so on supplies. . . maybe a little less. So the total project including the helmet itself was well under $200. Less than half the retail cost of the LE helmet. (y)
 
very, very nice job, looks a million times better, very similar in look to the LE one now. If you wanted to be totally accurate you need another screw head in each ear

great job Eric
 
I debated about adding the other screw in each ear. I actually saw some pics on Jez's SW Helmets site that showed a helmet with only one screw above the gray box, and one screw close to the neck trim, so I went with that.
If I ever want to add another one it's a 5 minute process. :)
 
Looks great, thanks for keeping us posted on the progress. I definitely plan on modding mine, and I'll use this thread for reference. :)
 
I'll be dammed to hell but I'm going to go ahead and get one of these despite the fact the wife will flip out, maybe! (seeing as there's a distraction in the works) If I miss out on one of these I know I'm going to kick myself. Now where did I put my visa card?? :)
 
Nice job on modding the MR CE Stormtrooper bucket Superjedi! I won the auction for one of these buckets today on Ebay for a little over $100 bucks and maybe I'll mod it as well. Thanks for sharing this with us!
 
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SJ: How exactly did you get the HOVI tips off? I'm looking at mine and there is a little piece which it is glued to. Did you just grind that off? And how did you reattach, just with the CA glue?
 
Rytil,
I used a small grinding bit on the Dremel and went at it from the inside of the helmet. I did this very carefully, grinding until I could just get the Hovi tips off.
For reattachment, yes, I just used a few drops of CA glue. The helmet is being shipped to Korea right now, so in about 6 weeks I'll see how well it held. ;)
 
wow eric, great mod! after seeing this thread and the prices i had to get one.
i picked up one on the bay for 127 shipped. so im happy :) no way was i going to be able to "sneek" this one past the wife. lol so i brought up the $171 she spent on some clothes over the weekend and i got the OK!!! heh heh...............now only if the star wars chronicles book goes un-noticed ;) :lol:
 
Great. Thanks Super! Looks like I'm going for the full mod as well. Going out now looking for some Squadron putty (MMD) and buying some new HOVI's for it. Putty, paint and reassembly..oh I'll be done by the end of summer! :)

I'm debating whether to cut the lid top so it matches the Stunt look (higher brow rubber). I saw somewhere (???) that some did it. Didn't look to difficult, but not sure if I feel like tackling that. I think I will trim the ears down though.

R.
 
Great. Thanks Super! Looks like I'm going for the full mod as well. Going out now looking for some Squadron putty (MMD) and buying some new HOVI's for it. Putty, paint and reassembly..oh I'll be done by the end of summer! :)

I'm debating whether to cut the lid top so it matches the Stunt look (higher brow rubber). I saw somewhere (???) that some did it. Didn't look to difficult, but not sure if I feel like tackling that. I think I will trim the ears down though.

R.

Cool, have fun with your conversion. :)
I think it was someone on rebelscum.com who did the stunt brow conversion.
 
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