Rebel Y-Wing pilot helmet

Hi gang,
Working on something non-Fett related (for a change.)
I've always liked the different looking helmets used by the Rebel Alliance, especially the different designs for the pilots. I ordered a Y-Wing helmet kit from Richie's Armor about 3 weeks ago, and it got here yesterday.
Great looking kit, and he got it out to me nice and quick!

The kit consists of 2 vac-formed styrene shells (left and right), a clear tinted visor, 2 strips of black edging, and several small greeblies for detailing. It even includes a length of flexible coated wire to make the microphone boom. Here's the contents of the kit.



Here's a tighter shot of the resin detail bits. No trimming had been done on these for this shot. These are "as received."



Construction of the main helmet was very straightforward. I cut several small tabs from extra styrene, and after lining up the 2 shells, superglued them in place. I just did that to keep everything aligned while I got my JB Kwik ready. Then I applied that all along the inside of the seam. I worked it in small section cuz that stuff kicks pretty fast!



Once the JB Kwik had dried, I went back along the outside of the seam and puttied it. The stuff I use is similar to 1-part Bondo. I bought it while I was stationed in Germany and I've had this tube for over 4 years. It's still going strong! It dries pretty fast and sands to a really smooth finish.





I applied some extra putty to the chin area, which was kind of "sunk" where the 2 halves came together. I built it up to a flatter surface, taking some extra care to blend it in well. Here it is after sanding.







I'm off to the hobby shop in a little bit to grab some primer, and then I'll see how the putty looks. If it needs touch ups, I'll do that later tonight.

More to come!

Nice kit SJ.... seems very clean and minimal work to put it together.
Can't wait to see what you do with the paint job bro...

Nice. Looks pretty good.

Awesome. Can't wait to see it done

WOW i've never seen one of these before. looks like it'll be fantastic!

sweet! you don't see many y wing helmets out there!

Yeah it's not that common to see one of these in peoples' collections.
I recently saw a fantastic build up over on RPF, and decided to add this to my Rebel line up.

Got some Tamiya primer on the helmet, and after it dried I found that I did have to go back and re-putty the seams. Oh well. So now it's gray with puttied seams! Oh the progress is just staggering!



I'll resand and reprime tomorrow. Then I'll have to test some colors as I'm trying to replicate a specific screen-used helmet from ROTJ.

I love the Y wing helmet. Are you planning on using a paint scheme from the movie or going custom?

oooooo...this is gonna be good.

Cant wait to see this baby finished. I really love this helmet. Great choice!

VERY cool Eric. I'll be watching this one too....

Very cool. Its nice seeing something different for a change!

UPDATE: Feb 12th

Got the first color on. It's. . . white!
I masked off the area I wanted to paint and used Floquil Reefer White. I just misted it on with 2 or 3 light coats to get a "dirty white" appearance. The entire helmet is going to be pretty heavily weathered, so I don't want my base colors to be really pure.





The little split in the top of the chin area doesn't matter as that rounded detail will be covered by some brown vinyl when the painting is all done. It's supposed to look like padding.

Can't wait to see the rest!

UPDATE #2: Feb 12th

Had some more time and the white was dry, so I sprayed the second major color.





Tomorrow the last major color will go on the 2 slightly inset panels on the top/back, and then I'll start on the markings.

Great job!

I can't wait to see the finished helmet

looks great eric!

love ur others projects as always!

Thanks guys!

UPDATE: Feb 13th

OK, got the last major color on the back panels. I used Floquil Dark Green for these areas.





Next will be some more complex masking for some red and gray markings.

Can you post some pictures of the one you plan to replicate?

Tony,

I think this is the one SJ is replicating. Oh BTW, awesome job on the helmet SJ!

GREAT JOB!!!!!


Makes me want to buy another oneeeee!!!!!


Best regards


Alfredo


PM: I havent finish my boba stuff yet, i will send you a pic once i finish it.

Just out of curiosity, why did they go with the different helmet concept in ROTJ instead of the standard helmet for X & Y wings established in ANH?
Mike

TD2253, yes that's the one! Here's a larger pic of the source helmet from ROTJ.



Desloc, not sure why they made new types of helmets for ROTJ. Maybe they just had a bigger budget.

UPDATE #2: Feb 13th

Started some of the markings. First ones are the gray stripes along the jaw line. If you look at the pic I just posted of the real helmet, you can see on the right side there's a section that's darker gray. I added some darker gray while everything was still masked off.





The real helmet is extremely dirty. Once I get all my base colors on, I'll go back and add all the weathering and scorching and chipping. You know, the fun stuff!

Glorious!

Originally Posted by future9er24

Glorious!

It seriously is!

are you going to do a run of bucket display stands Eric? if so, i'm in
is that a Vodka bottle???

Glorious? Wow! Thanks. :o

UPDATE #3: Feb 13th

OK, I can't stop. . .
I added the first set of red markings to the right 'temple' area. I'm hitting these areas with primer first so I'll get an even red tone no matter what color is beneath it. I'm using Floquil Caboose Red for my markings.



Please keep in mind that as I'm doing this paint job, it's necessary to slightly alter the shape/positions of some of these markings, as the proportions of the RA kit are slightly different than the screen-used helmet. I'm trying to keep the overall proportions/spacing of the markings as close as I can.
Next will be the red stripes over the forehead area.

Looking great. I love the rebel helmets, they are the only part of any of the rebel costumes I like but the pilot helmets all rock. You are doing a great job of painting this one up.

Thanks!
Ben, nope, not doing any helmet stands. That's an Asbach bottle from when I was stationed in Germany. It's my "change jar" now.

UPDATE #4: Feb 13th

Whew! OK, this will be it for today. I got the forehead stripes on. Again, I masked everything off, then hit it with Tamiya primer, waited a while, then sprayed on the Floquil Caboose Red.





Tomorrow I'll start on the weird script on different parts of the helmet, then the basic painting will be done! I've already primered the greeblies. They'll receive their basic color coat (very dark gray) then they'll be attached for the weathering phase.

Wow !

That is just too cool ! Great job man ! I love those helmets. I had no idea anyone made them

A couple of things come to mind ...

I think it's awesome that you're using RS's paint colors !!! Why? Because they most certainly weren't just used for Fett IMO. Way to innovate there

And lastly - every time I take my eye off you, you have another character either finished or underway. If you keep going like this, you'll have the whole primary and secondary cast of all 3 films done by Halloween !!!!!

But I'm sure it's nice to do something NOT fett related once in a while (sure, that was blasphemy I know, this is TDH after all) But still !

Outstanding work as always

FP

Why did you do this? Do you realize you are feeding our addictions?

One more thing for me to buy!

Anway, looks incredible.

The only thing I would point out is the gray stripes are a bit long comapred to the original. But it still looks awesome.

What are you going to do about the chin? Looks like the original had some sort of patch or logo on it.

Keep up the outstanding work!

I love it!

Thanks, FP! It's not a helmet that many people have, plus it's just cool looking.

Originally Posted by azheat01

Anway, looks incredible.

The only thing I would point out is the gray stripes are a bit long comapred to the original. But it still looks awesome.

What are you going to do about the chin? Looks like the original had some sort of patch or logo on it.

Keep up the outstanding work!

Well, as I said in an above post:

Originally Posted by superjedi

Please keep in mind that as I'm doing this paint job, it's necessary to slightly alter the shape/positions of some of these markings, as the proportions of the RA kit are slightly different than the screen-used helmet. I'm trying to keep the overall proportions/spacing of the markings as close as I can.

And as far as the chin goes. . . wait till tomorrow!

Eric, this looks fantastic already. One question: Do you actually sleep at all??

IMHO, the introduction of new helmets for ROTJ was due to the expanded wings and inclusion of new fighter types.

Different sized cockpits dictated different sizes of helmets I guess. Plus, it does help identify different pilots during the ensuing dogfight chatter!

I was always under the impression this helmet style was worn by the B-wing pilots - must watch ROTJ again for referall

Looking good My BF just picked one of these up to wear with his A-Wing pilot costume since there isnt an A-Wing helmet made (though someone we know is working on a sculpt) and all the figures have Y-Wing helmets anyway.

(and kimelius, this is totally not a B-Wing helmet lol, b-wingers also have weird looking helmets that kinda remind me of popcorn popper machines from the 70s lol) here's a pic of one with out the yellowish glass shield (the glass shield makes it look like the popcorn thing to me, in the visual dictionary pics)

Yeah, the A- and B-Wing helmets are pretty wild looking. I'd love to get hold of a kit of either one of those if they were ever made available!

Scott, what is this "sleep" thing you speak of?

UPDATE: Feb 14th

OK, these pics show work I did from last night through a little while ago. I meant to take some in between pics, but I was just having too much fun.
I had some left over black vinyl from another project, and I used it to make the "Aurabesh" script and symbols that are seen on the helmet. On the left temple, it's just a couple of strange geometric symbols.



Here's a closer shot showing some of the chipping. I'm using good ol' Zinc Chrom. Yellow and Reefer Gray. Some areas have a darker gray and for that I'm using SP Lark Dark Gray.



On the right temple, there's some script. Again, I hand cut some black vinyl and laid it on.



Here's some of the chipping done above that area. Once the weathering is completed, it won't look so stark against the bare white.



Across the forehead there's more script. Just to its right (as you're wearing the helmet) there will be a raised dark red rectangle. I'll make that out of some sheet styrene and glue it on once it's painted.



I also used black vinyl to make the thin black stripes in between the red stripes. More chipping here.



On the chin of the screen used helmet are the remnants of a sticker. From what I've read it's a "Radio Free Bolinas" sticker that came from an old pirate radio station in Bolinas, CA. I've seen a graphic of the complete sticker, and there's a big white "RFB" on a red background with Radio Free Bolinas in a curve around the top. On some photos of the real helmet it's plainly visible. I used one of these pics to trace a stencil and just painted it on there.



It will still get some more weathering and some color variation. I'm not sure if I want to add the "Radio Free Bolinas" lettering around the top or not. . . with all the other script on there, it sort of seems odd to add wording that's so clearly readable. I may do it, I may not. So there!

Closer view.



This is a fun helmet to paint!

Absolutely bad *** work there SJ!

Cheers Wolfie - I stand corrected! Those are the biggest set of headphones money can make or buy?!

Originally Posted by Kimelius

Absolutely bad *** work there SJ!

Cheers Wolfie - I stand corrected! Those are the biggest set of headphones money can make or buy?!

s'ok mate! I live with an A-Wing Pilot, our roomie is a B-Wing pilot, and I'm an X-wing pilot LOL. We're thinking of making a Flight within our Squadron for Rebel Legion and call ourselves Rainbow Flight LOL since we go troop together and when we're in pilot gear together its Red, Orange, and Green and we look like a rainbow.

We just need Scott Will to troop in his Y-Wing while we're decked out and we'll have all 4 lol.

Scott is the guy working on the a-wing sculpt, Super... so if he gets to making the things ever, I'll let you know

and your helmet looks freakin' awesome. I've only seen one other of this paintjob...

This just keeps getting better and better. You're doing a great job!

Thanks all!

UPDATE: Feb 15th

OK. . . got a lot done! I've done most of the weathering, with the exception of the greeblies. I know I said I was going to attach them and then weather them all together, but I decided it would probably be easier to do them separately. So sue me!

Once all my base colors were on, I took a very pale gray and added some large chipped areas. These are visible in my reference pics, so I painted 'em on there!





I used several weathering techniques on this helmet. I airbrushed a couple of different gray shades on the entire helmet. Lighter gray everywhere, some darker gray in certain areas. On the white portion, I also mixed a "muddy" gray brown for some variation in the tone.



After airbrushing, I went back with an X-acto blade and made some scratches all the way down to the white styrene. I also took a toothbrush and spattered some of the base yellow color back on over the darker areas. Really broke up the dark gray and gave it a "deeper" appearance.



Here's the forehead, showing the gray and muddy colors.



And the left side.



On the green dome panels, I first airbrushed the same dark gray shade I used on the rest of the helmet, then went back with a toothbrush and flicked on some slightly lighter green in random patterns. Then I took some light gray and a very stiff "stippling" brush, and added some gray damage. The final step was taking the X-acto blade to it, scratching down to the raw styrene.





If you notice, in the shots where you can see inside the helmet, I've also added the "car door trim" around the bottom of the helmet. This was included in the kit, and really makes an excellent looking finished edge!
On to the greeblies!

Some top notch weathering bro. Great pics.

I... erm... WOW!
Eric, only echoing others comments -
#1 Do you sleep at all?
#2 This is the dogs dangle bits!

Awesome paint up bro.. can't wait to see this finisheed... in about 3... 2... 1...

Jeez, your paint-fu is strong!

Thanks! This has been fun as it's given me a chance to practice with my new airbrush. My last one was a cheapy little Badger set up and it was on its last legs.
So I picked up a Testors double action set. It came with 2 different nozzles; one for "general" work, and one for fine line detail. I've never gotten to use a double action airbrush before, and I think it's just tremendous fun!
I practiced for about 10 or 15 minutes just shooting paint onto a couple of sheets of white paper before I started on the helmet, getting the feel of the trigger.
I was amazed at just how fine a line I could get with the fine nozzle!! Of course I didn't have any need to work that fine on this helmet, but it's nice to know I have the capability to do it if I need to.

Hey great job on the helmet eric!

Also, love the weathering paint job!

Wow! You did that in, what, a week? Outstanding job!

I dont think there is a word invented for this level of awesome.

so I made a few up...

splendiferous and spifftastic.

Originally Posted by WOlfie

I dont think there is a word invented for this level of awesome.

so I made a few up...

splendiferous and spifftastic.

Wow! High marks, indeed.
That reminds me of one of the SNL skits with Will Ferrell as James Lipton from Inside the Actors' Studio:
"Your performance in that film. . . has forced me to create a new word to describe it. And that word is. . . scrumtralescent!"

funkidicious

Originally Posted by Kimelius

IMHO, the introduction of new helmets for ROTJ was due to the expanded wings and inclusion of new fighter types.

Possibly, however, that doesn't explain why in ANH the Y and X wing pilots wore the same helmets and in ESB the X, Y AND snow speeder pilots all wore the same helmet. Only thing I came up with is over the "years" helmets changed due to improvements much like the HPU-4 evolved into the HGU33 and further into the HGU-55. Did any of the X-wing guys wear the new style?

While I do thing you are doing a great job, I never really liked any of the "new" helmets from ROTJ. For me, I will stick with the standard rebel helmets from ANH. However, keep with the outstanding pictures.

this is looking great!! I want to do one now!

Getting really close now!

UPDATE: Feb 17th

Whew! OK, pretty much all that remains is to put in the visor and add some padding for my noggin.
All the detail bits are done now. Here's the styrene plate added next to the lettering on the forehead. I used Polly Scale Rock Island Maroon as a base coat, then sponged Wisc. Central Maroon over that. The reference pics show this as having a random, broken pattern.



I bought some brown vinyl and made a paper template to match the curve of the jaw. I sort of eyeballed it, and I adjusted the pattern about 4 times to get the curve right. I transferred the pattern to the vinyl and cut it out, then attached it using CA glue. I just did a bit at a time, slowly working around the curve. It's folded over the "top" edge and glued to the inside of the rim. (My fluorescent kitchen light is killing the colors in these pics. . . when it's all done I'll get some shots in natural light. :o)
In these pics you can also see the mic boom assembly. The resin piece is glued to the helmet, with a hole drilled for the large piece of wire. The mic has a depression drilled into the backside and is attached to the wire with CA. Inside the helmet, the wire was bent around and epoxied to the helmet shell.





I also did lots of work on the greeblies today. I decided to remake some of the resin parts that were supplied with the helmet. They're nice casts, but some of the parts weren't quite as "crisp" as I wanted them to be. I added a couple of details that can be seen in the ref pics, but weren't supplied with the kit.
Here's the right side, showing the remade part (the gray assembly) and the bits I added. It's hard to tell exactly what these are, but they seem to be some kind of latch. It's possible the back of the helmet shell was supposed to swing open or something. I built the latch parts from Sintra and some sheet styrene.



Here's a closer look.



On the left side there are 2 greeblies. The one closest to the chin is the stock piece supplied with the kit. It was really nice and only needed some quick sanding. The round heat-sink looking piece was scratchbuilt to replace the resin part. The vanes on the resin part were kind of uneven and even after heating and bending them, they still slowly moved back to their original position.
I rebuilt the part using a section of round styrene tube for the central core, then added the 10 vanes. The part that sits on top of the vanes was just a flat resin disc. I took a thin piece of styrene and marked and cut out the X shape, then glued it onto the disc and sanded the edges smooth. The disc was attached to the vanes, and I attached the whole assembly using a small sheet metal screw from inside the helmet.



A tighter shot.



Something occurred to me as I was painting today; the greeblies are the only parts on this whole helmet that have any silver on them! Quite a change from Boba.

So, tomorrow I'm off to buy a batting helmet to rip apart for padding. Then I'll attach the visor, and we'll call this puppy done!
Hope everyone's enjoying the progress.

Dude go to bed; it's after midnight!

The helmet looks fantastic! I'm blown away by your work.

Dude that thing is sick..just awesomely sick..great work....

looking good!

That helmet is looking fantastic SJ!

Thanks a lot, guys. Here's the final

UPDATE: Feb 18th

Done! I added some batting helmet padding inside the helmet, and used some industrial strength velcro for the visor. I may go back at some point and add 2 small support brackets on either side of the visor, but for display, it's great.
I also added a couple of final details. In the reference pics, there are 6 small screws visible. Not sure if they were functional or not, but I added them anyway. There are 2 on either side of the face opening, and 2 on the right side of the helmet. One right next to the strange script, and one above the 3 wide red stripes.
Here's a final gallery of pics, taken in natural lighting out on my messy table on my balcony.











Here's a final painted detail; three black "vents" just over the visor. I masked them off lengthwise, and did the rounded ends of each vent by eye.



The natural light gives a better look at the variance of the green on the rear panels.





And a final look at the greeblies.





This was a really fun build, and it looks very unique among my 3 other X-Wing style Rebel helmets. Hope everyone's enjoyed the progress!
Eric

frakkin' awesome.

Originally Posted by WOlfie

frakkin' awesome.

Seconded. This thing is beautiful.

That is so freaking awesome. Props to you my friend, that is some amazingly high quality work.

All I have left to say is "I want one!!!"

Eric....all i know is, when you come in APRIL (YES, YOU ARE COMING!!)..you better bring that with you....

Amazing!:thumbup

PM sent.

YAY!!! Awesome job Eric!

"there's too many of them!!!!!!!"

I love this helmet dude.

I just found this thread and I must say it almost inspires me to do one of my own.

Almost, because I need to finish one project at a time and I'm already working on a Mando Merc suit.

Thanks for the adventure. Job well done!

David.

Wow. I never thought rebel helmets looked good.

Until today. *smile*

Charlie

Great job as always. It's really interesting to watch the process. I'm especially liking the grayish/scratched off looking patches on the temple area of this side:



Did you spray the dark paint, then sand or scratch through to the white, or did you brush paint in the scratches?

Are you planning to weather the lens and the chin pad? They look so new next to the paint job. Maybe some sort of black stain with the brown vinyl worn through might look cool.

Thanks, all! It's an interesting helmet design and I'm digging the way it came out.

Count D,
The darker weathering was airbrushed on, then I scratched thru it with an X-acto blade and used some medium grit sandpaper very lightly to break it up a little more.
Not sure if I want to mess with the chin pad or not. I was considering giving it a darker brown mist with some Createx fabric paint that I have left over from other projects, but for now, I'm just enjoying having it on display.

Golly! Amazing work!

Awesome Rebel Helmet :thumbup Guru

Thanks, Wampa!
I was surprised to see this thread back on the first page all the way back from Feblueberry.

WOW, haven't look at this thread in awhile!

that build up is fantastic, such a simple kit and you've made that thing look like it came right off the set.

fantastic work. love the greeblies and the writing on the side

Wow! I missed this thread altogether. Outstanding!

You would never think the end product is a plastic shell. Looks great. The paint job is not so different from that of a Fett lid.

As You Wish !!!! hehehe

This is just amazing work! Congratulation on this masterpiece!

Awesome, just awesome!

stunning level of detail, and the photos are a great tutorial, I hope to get myself a y wing helmet and your thread was an inspiration. thank you

Ooooh, Fett 4 Real is gonna write you a citation you for a necro-post revival. LOL!

Great buildup and nicely documented too!