Malaxor's ESB Fett Helmet Build-Up

[xanthis02]

looking good

 

[Jesuit24]

Nice. I didn't plan for the magnets in the earpiece when I was making it so mine looks a lot rougher. I also put a magnet in the rangefinder stalk in the up position because it was getting slack, but you may not have that problem.

 

[Malaxor]

Thanks guys, I didn't plan for the magnets the first time either so this is a rebuild of that part of the earpiece.

Right now it seems as if the rangefinder stalk has enough friction to stay upright, but I may have to do something like you suggest if it isn't that snug when installed (or do to wear)


Sent from my iPhone

 

[FosterFett120]

Awesome idea with the magnets! I've been trying to figure out how to non-permanently attach the the ear cap. I'll definitely try this for my mark II build. Keep up the great work.

 

[Malaxor]

Awesome idea with the magnets! I've been trying to figure out how to non-permanently attach the the ear cap. I'll definitely try this for my mark II build. Keep up the great work.

Thanks for the props. While I'd love to take credit for the magnet idea, I got the idea from many others here on TDH, this is just my implementation.

What I will say is that I did experiment with a number of different magnets before I settled on these tiny super magnets with the washers. If you go the same way, I should let you know that the washers on the outer piece tend to attract off-center if the washer isn't exactly centered over the magnet, so careful alignment on the build helps a lot. It's not a big deal as you can just slide the piece to a snug position once it's closed. To ensure it can't move, I built the small tab on the inner piece to fit into the slot on the outer. I saw this on builds other people did and it does help the piece stay in precise position.

good luck!

 

[FosterFett120]

Yes, I can picture the issue your talking about and I see the tab you added in your pictures, I was wondering what that was for. Very nicely done.

 

[Malaxor]

I started working on the attachment method for the earpieces. Here you can see the holes I pre-drilled in the helmet itself:



I then lined up the earpieces, and made a mark on the from the inside of the helmet onto the earpiece. I then ground-out a larger hole in the back of the earpiece large enough to completely recess a #6-32 machine screw head.:



I then hardened each hole with a little bit of fiber glass resin. After that was cured, I then set each screw in the right location while lining it up on the helmet using a dab of quick set epoxy. I then pulled the piece off the helmet and then used some JB weld to make the screws solid:

 

[Malaxor]

I also was working on a much improved range finder stalk that was hollow for the potentially of running wires, if needed, as well as some screws to support easier attachment of the range finder itself. I settled on using a 4mm outer-diameter brass tube which is just small enough to fit within the stalk dimensions. I used various thicknesses of cardboard so that the total thickness would add up right. You can see each peice here, with the hole at the base of the stalk cut out:



Here the stalk is partially put together. You can see the brass tube with the end cut and shaped for the base end of the stalk (the brass tube will actually go in face down from what is shown here, but this way you can see the shape I made at the base).



I ended up using some jb weld to really hold the screws in place. I epoxied the tube in place, and then glued the remaining layers and clamped it all very tight over night. Here you can see the base and the end of the complete piece, after some initial filling and sanding. The stalk is also quite strong with the tube giving the stalk a lot of structural integrity:

 

[Malaxor]

Here's my latest. I primed the helmet using an all-purpose gray primer to find all the imperfections, of which there very many...

One thing I found is that I didn't like the all-purpose primer as it took well over 24 hours to fully cure to the point where I could use glazing and spot putty without dissolving the primer. In any case, here is the helmet in a after spot putty and sanding down to about 320 grit:



Due to the primer issue, I switched to an automotive sandable primer which worked out much, much better. After a couple of rounds of priming / putty-fixes / sanding / priming...I went ahead and put in the visor temporarily (it's just set in, not secured at this point) Here's the final helmet wet sanded down to 600 grit. It is really smooth and really looks great in person:



I have some adjustments to make on how the right ear pieces sit, but that won't be too hard to fix. I also need to get a borden and an MQ-1 from somewhere, as well as complete the rangefinder.

 

[Scurvy]

Looking fantastic!

 

[syllander]

Man that has to be a cool feeling to build your own! That lid looks fantastic too. Only thing I notice that appears off is the band that runs around the back appears too wide. Could be just the pics though, but regardless awesome work man.

 

[Malaxor]

Thanks guys... I'll do some research on the back band to see if I got off a bit on that so that I'll remember if I make another lid at some point. I appreciate the feedback!

 

[paucarmelbea]

Ok...so I was thinking of trying to build a Boba fett costume, so checked this out.....and OMG...WOW....I am totally amazed by this...I am now going to go and throw up at how inadequate I feel looking at this amazing pice of art !
This is beyond belief to me.....WELL DONE (and to everyone else who can do this kind of thing)....I'm now going to go and start saving some more and buy one

 

[Malaxor]

Thanks for kind words...I hope to post more on this as I complete the range-finder and start painting, but for know I'm starting on my gauntlets...I'll start a thread on that progress before too long, hopefully. Thx again.

 

[Malaxor]

Well,

I've spent quite some time working on getting this lid painted up, so I thought I'd go ahead and show the results. I am pretty happy with it as this is first helmet. I still have a few minor details here and there in addition to possibly using the 0000 wire wool to tone down a bit of the carbon scoring / weathering in a few places. I have the borden, but I forgot to put it back in when I snapped these pics. Oh well. I am looking for a good ESB style MQ-1 circuit board for the back if anyone can suggest a good source. Anyway here are the pics:



edit: fixed pictures

 

[hamsandwich72]

Good work, sir. Job well done!

 

[IG88death]

do you have a pdf file of the helmet

 

[Scurvy]

Beautiful scratch build!!

 

[Malaxor]

Thanks for the props guys...

IG88death: The only pdfs are the templates I started from, in this case the WOF templates that are in a sticky in the helmet forum and the stencils (also in a sticky).

 

[dustblackangel]

Wow that's an amazing job! Super awesome to see it built from scratch. Great paint job as well.