New Rebel pilot helmet :)

Hi gang,
During the past few days, I was kind of on hold for a member's armor project (waiting for a new piece to arrive) and I took the opportunity to finish an X-Wing pilot helmet I recently bought.
I already have a couple of these in my collection and I wanted to do a paint scheme that I hadn't seen attempted before. This is the helmet of Red 9 from ANH, who is only listed in EU info as "Lt. Naytaan." He was one of the many pilots who died in the Battle of Yavin.
I always thought his helmet was wicked looking. Sort of a futuristic tiger design.
Here's a screen cap from the film to see what I was going for.



The kit was from Wilco Models and it arrived as a plain white styrene helmet. Wilco's products are really nice, but I've had 2 separate "ordeals" with them taking a reeeeeeeeeeeally long time sending kits. I don't know if I'd order from them again, which is a shame because it's hard to find a nice X-Wing helmet kit!

For the main color, I chose Floquil Zinc Chromate Primer, which gave a really nice red-brown tone. The overall paint scheme on this helmet was pretty simple (compared to some of the other pilots!) and I simply masked the areas to remain white, and spray bombed the whole helmet.
The "V" markings, the "sliced onions" on the Mohawk portion, and the "flying ball" on the cheeks were decals from Lucksy31. Thanks Scott! I finally got to use them!





For the "tiger stripes" on either side of the Mohawk, I masked and painted them with Floquil Engine Black. These were trickier than I thought they would be to mask off, with a couple of shallow angles.



The eyes on the lower cheeks were also masked and painted. I had to do this in 3 stages; first masking and painting the main black portion, then masking that off and painting the gray outer portion, then masking it all off again the painting the yellow pupil. I hate waiting for paint to dry, so this was really tedious for me! The eyelash details were hand painted with a 3 0 brush. (Yes, there are eyelashes on the screen caps, so I added them! )



After everything was nice a dry, I went back and did a heavy black wash over the entire helmet. I don't usually do washes, and I worked quickly to keep it even over the whole surface. I dabbed it away in certain areas to leave a little more of the base tone, but basically the whole thing was "slopped" with thinned flat black acrylic paint. Gives it a really nice, grungy appearance.







So now I have another Red Squadron helmet to add to my collection!
Thanks for looking!
Eric

sweet!

where do you get your helmet kits from? i'm trying to get one, and don't really want to wait months and months...

That looks great!

From the screen cap it looks like his helmet is shiny and not a matte finish. So you plan to do a thin clear coat to gloss it up?

Really nice lid Eric....
How you manage to get these done is awesome skills buddy... :thumbup

Nice paintjob Eric! That helmet always sort of stood out to me as being the different one. Tiger striped helmets must be bad luck, at least for this guy and the Cincinnati Bengals

Thanks guys. TK, I mentioned above that the kit came from Wilco Models. I have mixed feelings about them because both times I ordered from them, it did take several months to receive my kit.
The first time it took close to 7 months (!!!!!), and this time it took just over 3 months. The guy who does the vac-forming/assembling is an Air Force guy, and being that I'm in the Air Force myself, I can understand stuff happening that can delay orders. But in my 2 experiences, the wait was excessive. (*shrug*)

Eric,
My god, do you even sleep?? Tremendous work yet again man!!! It really does look nice...

very nice Eric. great paint job as always especially the matt finish. I like the term "sliced onions"

Ben

=)
Nice!

Great looking Helmet! I'd love to have at least one full-size rebel pilot helmet for display. Does look like the screen cap helmet has a slight satin finish. Cool choice for paint scheme!
Geo

Originally Posted by superjedi

Thanks guys. TK, I mentioned above that the kit came from Wilco Models. I have mixed feelings about them because both times I ordered from them, it did take several months to receive my kit.

doh! i forgot all about the RPF thread on that very subject!

yeah, i've dealt with bill and had the same experience... that's why i'm trying to find someone else

i REALLY don't want to be buying a vintage helmet and modding it!!

Hey Eric ... now you got something for you to shoot your EE3 at!

Thats one very nice helmet.......Now only if it weren't Rebel.