Mods to my MR "CE" Stormie helmet

Don't know why. . . there's no sun up in the sky. . . Stormie bucket!

Being the "tweaker" that I am, I made a couple of quick mods to my CE bucket. This will primarily be a display piece. I'm not currently a 501st member or anything, but I like collecting helmets.
I did both of these mods for around $10 and they took me maybe an hour.

First, I got some of those translucent plastic report covers from Office Depot and cut a couple of them to cover the lenses. I just removed the 3 screws holding each lens, then traced its shape onto the tinted plastic report cover. I used an X-acto to cut holes for where the screws go, and reattached the lenses with the tinted covers in place.
It's not ideal for someone who's going to wear the helmet, as the plastic isn't "optically clear," but it gives it a nice dark tint.





Next, I had read a link from Rebelscum about someone who had filled in the larger face gap with some silicone sealant. I bought a tube of DAP "Kwik Seal Kitchen & Bath Adhesive Caulk" in bright white. This is a water clean-up sealant.
I just ran a small bead along the gap, then wiped up the excess with a damp cloth. It says you have about 30 minutes to work with it till it starts to skin over. I don't notice any color difference between the sealant and the ABS. It certainly helps to hide the depth of the seam, and it was really easy!





Now I'm waiting for some "bluer" tube stripe decals I bought the other day. Hopefully I'll have them the middle of next week. I'll have to see if I can just lay them over the existing tube stripes or if I'll have to use some acetone or something to remove the pre-painted ones. I'm hoping the new decals will just cover the old ones.

This is a really nice helmet overall. Much nicer than previous licensed helmets from DP or Rubies. Since U.S. retailers began to offer it, I couldn't resist it for the price! Another helmet for my collection.

Another great thread Eric! Let me know if the decals stripes you ordered line up and cover the painted stripes. If not, I can re-size them for you since I just purchased the correct TK "tube stripe" blue vinyl.

nice! that seam along the frown is the only thing i really disliked on that helmet. a little caulking and it's all better!

Loads of us in the UKG have these helemts and have done the same mods, I would use white spirit and remove the old decals first then put the new ones on, as the spacing is a lot different on the accurate decals.

The only other mod I would do is to add screws to the ears, then job done a nice, fairly cheap trooper lid

Nice job on the lenses by the way

I have both the LE and CE trooper lids and theres not a great deal of difference between them for the money

Paul

Oh wow, how did you get your hands on one of these? Ive been interested in just getting one, but their UK exclusives, right?

I beleive there was a guy on the rpf called the Plasma infusion, that offers these, as although they are a UK exclusive a small quantity made it to the US

Originally Posted by Chewcy

I beleive there was a guy on the rpf called the Plasma infusion, that offers these, as although they are a UK exclusive a small quantity made it to the US

the ears confuse me... i don't see why they are so squared off.

Originally Posted by tk7602

the ears confuse me... i don't see why they are so squared off.

They look a lot flatter than they should be too.

Originally Posted by superjedi

Don't know why. . . there's no sun up in the sky. . . Stormie bucket!

Oh man!

This helmet is really nice! But... You are going to mod the ears? I say that because are really good cuted and looks 1 with the helmet (Made in), I know, aren't in the helmet so... You will touch them?

Originally Posted by tubachris85x

Oh wow, how did you get your hands on one of these? Ive been interested in just getting one, but their UK exclusives, right?

eBay GOD!

Well as far as the ears go, I don't think I'm going to do anything to them. Ear mods would require major surgery, and I just don't want to put that much effort into it.
Anything more than I've already done would probably require a complete repaint/re-decal job as well.

Like I said, I think it's more than worth the price it was going for. Compared to the LE helmet at $450 retail, this was a deal I couldn't pass up!
They are available (as far as I know) from a couple of U.S. retailers. I got mine from Toynk.com. I think there's a site called Redford or Redfordfilms (?) that is selling them also. I paid $120 from Toynk.

Chewcy, thanks for the advice on the tube stripes! I'll just wait and see what the size and spacing of the new decals look like when I get my hands on them. Hopefully if I need to "erase" the stock decals I can find something that won't damage the finish on the ABS too much. (Really don't want to have to repaint this thing. . . can you tell? )

I just got one of these, and for $100, it is one heck of a bucket.I plan on getting another one, just to have a spare.I cannot believe these are so cheap.I wore mine around the house for quite a while.just need the rest of the suit now.lol

yeah, ears and seams aside, you can't even usually get an FX kit for $100!

Originally Posted by tk7602

yeah, ears and seams aside, you can't even usually get an FX kit for $100!

Yea, Im going to get one of these pearly whites eventually, I dont have a completed TK bucket..

Superjedi, if you use white spirit on the decals with a bit of rubbing they will just peel off, with no damage to the helmet at all.

As for the ears the shape is all wrong, but all ive done is drill holes for the fake screws to go in and then just paint the screw heads white and the ears look a million times better, with no need to repaint or anything, if you wanted you could even just cut the screw heads off and stick them on with no drilling, its abot a five minute mod but way worth doing.

There should be plenty of the lids to go round, as the UK supllier had these in the thousands

Chewcy,
Thanks! I'll have to look into getting some white spirit. Is that a common name for it?

It is for us Brits SJ...
I'm not sure what it 'may' be called over the pond!

This mod thread is awesome... I was toying with getting one of these for my collection and with the mods I've seen you make... Hhhhmmmm 'cha-ching' I'm sold..
Great work as always bro...

Originally Posted by Mojo-Fett

It is for us Brits SJ...
I'm not sure what it 'may' be called over the pond!

This mod thread is awesome... I was toying with getting one of these for my collection and with the mods I've seen you make... Hhhhmmmm 'cha-ching' I'm sold..
Great work as always bro...

Well, if it's for "you Brits" then I'm sure there's an extra "U" or two in there somewhere.
Maybe I should look for whuite spuiruit.

EDIT: I just looked it up, and I think it's called mineral spirits here in the Colonies.

[quote=superjedi;328552]Well, if it's for "you Brits" then I'm sure there's an extra "U" or two in there somewhere.
Maybe I should look for whuite spuiruit.

Suo Whaut Aure youu truying tou Sauy...



]

Originally Posted by Mojo-Fett

[
Suo Whaut Aure youu truying tou Sauy...

I'm sorry, I can't understand you.
I don't have my English to English dictionary handy.

I have one of these buckets too. Got it for like 95 bucks on Ebay. I plan on doing these mods to my helmet too. Thanks for the thread.

Well, glad some others are getting a good deal on this helmet, too!

I tried using mineral spirits to scrub off the tube stripes, but only succeeded in smearing the blue paint around. I was wearing latex gloves and working out on my balcony, and the fumes were still killing me after only about 10 minutes or so. So I resorted to wet sanding with a very fine sanding sponge and that took them right off. I used some Novus to polish it back up to the original shine, and now I'm just waiting for the new stripes to arrive. I'm hoping that once they're in place, it'll look better than new!

Oh, when oh when will I learn.
I decided I just wasn't satisfied with the way the helmet was looking. The mold parting lines were bothering me too much. So rather than apply my new tube stripes and call it good, I decided to go for a more complete "overhaul."

Using an X-acto blade and an old dental tool, I carefully separated the neck and brow trim from the helmet. There's a little of the glue which remained, but once the trim is reattached, it will all be covered.



Then, using my Dremel from inside the helmet, I very carefully ground away at the base of the Hovi mic tips. I just left a small thin rim to reattach them once the repaint is complete. The mic tip parts are really well done. They have the 4 little open slots around the circumference, and the 4 little raised strips running perpendicular.



I used a couple of different fine and extra fine sandpapers and worked on all the mold parting lines all over the helmet. These ran around all the trapezoids on the dome, and from outside the corners of the frown, up along the "tears" and along the outside of each eye. Whew! What a chore. . . I should hopefully have some feeling back in my fingers tomorrow.
In the two pics below, you might be able to see the holes I drilled in the ears to install screws. Just something else to make it look like a more "authentic" stunt helmet.





I rinsed the helmet really well with water to get all the sanding dust off. It's drying right now, and once I'm sure there's no water hiding in any crevices, I'll hit it with some new white paint! I'm going with Duplicolor DSGM 153, "Classic White." It was the whitest white I could find.

Once it's painted, I'll have to go back and repaint the trapezoids, tears, frown, and vocoder. But after painting a few Boba ESB helmets, I don't see this as being too terribly difficult.
Any TKs out there know a good gray color to use? I've heard the originals were painted with Humbrol paints, but haven't seen any mention of a specific color name.
More to come!

Originally Posted by superjedi

Oh, when oh when will I learn.
I decided I just wasn't satisfied with the way the helmet was looking. The mold parting lines were bothering me too much. So rather than apply my new tube stripes and call it good, I decided to go for a more complete "overhaul."

Using an X-acto blade and an old dental tool, I carefully separated the neck and brow trim from the helmet. There's a little of the glue which remained, but once the trim is reattached, it will all be covered.



Then, using my Dremel from inside the helmet, I very carefully ground away at the base of the Hovi mic tips. I just left a small thin rim to reattach them once the repaint is complete. The mic tip parts are really well done. They have the 4 little open slots around the circumference, and the 4 little raised strips running perpendicular.



I used a couple of different fine and extra fine sandpapers and worked on all the mold parting lines all over the helmet. These ran around all the trapezoids on the dome, and from outside the corners of the frown, up along the "tears" and along the outside of each eye. Whew! What a chore. . . I should hopefully have some feeling back in my fingers tomorrow.
In the two pics below, you might be able to see the holes I drilled in the ears to install screws. Just something else to make it look like a more "authentic" stunt helmet.





I rinsed the helmet really well with water to get all the sanding dust off. It's drying right now, and once I'm sure there's no water hiding in any crevices, I'll hit it with some new white paint! I'm going with Duplicolor DSGM 153, "Classic White." It was the whitest white I could find.

Once it's painted, I'll have to go back and repaint the trapezoids, tears, frown, and vocoder. But after painting a few Boba ESB helmets, I don't see this as being too terribly difficult.
Any TKs out there know a good gray color to use? I've heard the originals were painted with Humbrol paints, but haven't seen any mention of a specific color name.
More to come!

LOL Why am I not surprised that you decided to redo the whole helmet?

Anyways, I dont think its a perfect match, but for the gray, the "painter's touch Dark grey" Ive been using seems like a similar color match, but pictures are decieving when it comes to colors..

Humbrol 5 Dark Admiral Grey?

Testors grey #1138?

Thanks Tuba and Count D!
I was actually just doing some searching and I saw a couple of people on some Stormie boards recommending Humbrol #5. That's probably what I'll go with.

The helmet is now painted white. I put on about 4 "medium" coats of the Duplicolor and now I'm going to follow the instructions on the can and let it dry for 48 hours. Then if it needs it, I'll use some mild rubbing compound (3M #3900) to make sure the surface is nice and smooth. Once I'm sure I won't have to respray anything, I'll pick up some of the Humbrol gray and some gloss black and repaint the details.

I ended up having to pay $140.00 for mine.But I don't care,It's worth it!!!

Originally Posted by Count Dookie

Testors grey #1138?

testors 1138 is what i've used. with a number like that, it's made for star wars!

Well, maybe I'll get one of each of the Humbrol #5 and the Testors 1138 and see how they look.
I just checked on the helmet and I'll definitely have to polish it a bit, the finish could stand to be smoother.
But I'm gonna have to be patient and wait till Tuesday!
I hate waiting.

Pretty cool for the money. Some simple mods, good to go!

So someone wanna volunteer to start buying us some helmets?

Dude Eric youre crazy!!! Cant wait to see it thursday!

Originally Posted by firstsonofsolo

Dude Eric youre crazy!!! Cant wait to see it thursday!

Well hopefully it'll look more like a Stormtrooper bucket again instead of a blank white outline of a Stormtrooper bucket.

Not sure why anyone would completely redo this pristine bucket, but to each his own I guess.I think the bucket looks fabulous as is.So shiny and assembled very nicely.I would be scared to death that I would ruin it.You are a brave soul superjedi.lol
however I do think I would like to do up a sandtrooper bucket with my next one.No redo, just dirtied up.
If anyone else gets one, I recommend a seller who goes by funstuff on the bay.Very good packing, fast shipping and the buy it now is only $99 usually.

I'm so tempted to get hold of one of these. Found a spot in the U.K. that does these for 60 Quid and free postage. Now all I have to do is sneak the cash past the Mrs without her noticing. You guys think this is possible?

No, it is not possible to sneak cash by any Mrs without her noticing. They have built in detectors and safeguards that can't be rerouted or hacked. I've tried.

****!! Well bang goes that idea Back to the drawing board....(sob)

The only way to get past this roadblock is to get her something of equal value.

Humbrol number 5 AD Grey is indeed correct Nice work Eric, its great to see all these threads of people destroying......err I mean correcting their MR products

yeah, really... master replicas. best prop kits in the world, some assembly required!

It might be possible...but then what will she say when a new bucket magically appears on the shelf?

Just swear that it's always been there and she's simply never noticed it before

Finished!
OK. . . OK, so I didn't stick to my original timetable. 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.



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.
But comparing the Testors to the original color, I think it's a great match.



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!!



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.



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. 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...

Looks fantastic Eric, nicely done I've got one of these helmets myself, now if only I could remember where I put that hammer.........

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.

Good work! Saw a ton of these on the auction site, very tempted.

Hmm you think it would fit my bean?

Originally Posted by firstsonofsolo

Hmm you think it would fit my bean?

Well. . . . . . . maybe if you just set it on top of your head.

:p kinda like Chewie from SW Lego 2?

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??

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

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.

Originally Posted by Rytil

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.

I think its hysterical that the Testors Grey/stormtrooper grey is 1138!!!!
Am I the only one that got this or am I REALLY late to the ball game and you all stopped laughing about that a long time ago>
I LOVE my CE helmet and am getting at least two more but I will be doing the ear mod and working on the frown. I think that center tooth needs to be taller so Im going to put a veneer on it and prob drill out an extra tooth space on either end of the frown. I like this helmet FAR more then the FX and with fix ears and a little work I thinks its teh best troopable helmet out there. Thing is sturdy too!