Working on the last few details on the helmet to finally get it painted. Made up my Casio MQ-1 circuit board (left) that goes in the back of the helmet (right is a photo made to scale & cut out for comparison). Disassembled some old electronics laying around. The couple of different diodes & used bell wire. The main chip was 2 chips from a 56k modem combined together & the other smaller chip I glued a small capaciter to it. Mounted this all on a sintra piece. Lots of detail for something you see very little of but have to have the detail.
Put the Borden connector on the right cheek. Bought a metal & plastic version, opted to use the plastic. Bought them from a dental supply company online.
I mulled it over for quote a while but finally decided to permanently mount the ear pieces on both sides. Debated over making them removable but couldn't come up with any good reason why I needed to do that.
Finally I got the whole helmet & range finder in primer. Have a few things to spot fill & wet sand. Getting so close to paint. I am very anxious to start that process.
That board looks very good, but the lower half of the MQ-1 circuit board is not present on the helmet, it is attached with the keypad in the left gauntlet. The lower portion of the rear keyhole is covered with (what seems to be) a small piece from the T-visor:
The credit goes for Art for pointing them out in the past (I think).
Thanks Raf, your knowledge is amazing & I definitely missed that little bit of info in my research. But is now in the memory bank & on the list of things to improve & make more accurate.
I have been looking for dental files or something I can use that resembles them to go into the lower 2 keyslots. Haven't found anything yet.
I came up with a way to make the 2 dental file pieces to fit into the lower 2 key slots. I found a volume know that had a spline in it close in diameter & used epoxy putty to mold the pieces. Did some hand filing to get the groove into it. Used epoxy to glue attach them to the helmet.
Also did some work on the inside of the helmet getting a ring mounted to keep the helmet firmly located on my head. The head ring was from a face shield. Put some threaded T-nuts in for mounting the face shield. Need to add a few more up near the top of the eye slit. Figured I would get this out of the way before I start painting.
At this time I am either going to use a green shade 3 or shade 5 for the visor. Bought these earlier this year. Did buy a dark smoke gray as well at the time but used too much of it in my wife's Boushh helmet. The shade five was also used on her helmet as well but I have plenty left. In light of recent discoveries concerning the visor color I am going to order another dark smoke gray for the visor. I have a very good template for the visor so it will be very easy for me to make another & switch it out. Been using a piece of cardboard to keep the helmet tied together.
Plan is to start painting the helmet this weekend.
Worked quite a bit on the helmet this weekend. Got the visor cut & fitted. Went with a green shade 5 at this time, but this will be changed. Painted the helmet silver as a base coat & painted the back panels. Using Raf's templates as reference because of shape differences. Did a layering paint with using liquid masking. Applied the liquid masking by eye based on Raf's templates. Need to do some misting of colors for the extra weathering.
In between paint drying got the girth belt dyed red. Used the minwax stain technique. It went pretty well. The cotton absorbed the color very well & it wasn't too messy. It does stiffen the belt up though which I think will work better.
Got the upper & lower cheeks painted, but still need to do some fine weathering details. I plan on doing all that after getting the entire helmet painted. Started on the Dome last night. Using Raf's templates as reference & doing all the masking by eye. There are some things that can be improved upon, but pretty happy with the first go at painting a Fett helmet.
Thanks for all the kind words. Been working on getting my helmet painted. Between using reference pictures & Raf's templates I did all the damage by eye, so a few things are a little off. Already have plans to do another helmet (Imagine that), but I am pretty happy with this being my first helmet. Have to finish the ears & all of the fine detail scratches, kill stripes, & misting. It has been a tremendous learning experience & lots of fun.
Raf's templates are simply awesome the work he has put in to help everyone is amazing & a big thanks from me for all your work & efforts to help us all attain an accurate Fett. Plus thanks to all the guys that have done paint tutorials.
The fine details were all done topically & it recieved some misting as well. After all the paint was applied it got a coat of dull coat to give it a flat look.
Next hurdle is my jetpack now that the helmet is all painted. Plus been working on my cod piece, back plate, & toe spikes off & on as well.
You did an honorable paint job to that helmet! Everything looks good and the colors are pretty well balanced. Keep up the great work and thanks for the kind words!
Progress slowed for me the last couple of weeks. I had to improve my kids Halloween costumes, cause I can't have them looking just store bought. So my stuff got put on the back burner. Plus been busy going along with my wife on troops with the 501st MWG.
But now getting back into things. I did get the first coat of paint on my cod piece & back plate & have started working on finishing my jetpack. Got the trim & "piano" keys in place. Did quite a bit of sanding and filling things on the jetpack. It has now been coated inside & out with smooth cast. It is pretty rigid now. Need to do some finish filling & sanding in hopes to get a coat of primer onto it.