Anyone ever done a vac-Formed Helmet?

JD,

I'd definitely like to see pictures of the helmet! I'm interested in seeing how its looks vac-formed, and as a fan-made helmet made nearly 15 years ago.


Post those pictures!

Phil
 
JD,

I'd definitely like to see pictures of the helmet! I'm interested in seeing how its looks vac-formed, and as a fan-made helmet made nearly 15 years ago.


Post those pictures!

Phil

Phil,

You got it. I will take new pics of it after work and post them either tonight or tomorrow.

I have old pics of it in a box somehwere along with MARCO's catalog of items he sold. I still have the Trooper blaster he made as well, very well made.

JD
 
This does sound like a great idea for paint practice/variations and customs. I'd eventually (like a looooong time from now) like to have multiple complete costumes PP2, ESB, ROTJ, etc. anyway and this might be a more economical way to do it.
 
Eventually I would also like to have every version of Fett (but only the helmets), and this is a great way to accomplish something like that without taking a loan out on the bank.
 
a bucket at $50-100? I would definitely be interested in that since I'm on a very tight budget. this sounds like an awesome idea(y)
 
You would use a negative mold for vac-forming. Vac-forming is taking a sheet of plastic, heating it up till its soft, and then placing it over a mold on a table with a vaccum attached, and pressed over the mold, with the suction of the vac, pulling the soft plastic around the mold until the plastic cools.

It appears that someone has tried this, with impressive results - http://www.tk560.com/blaxmyth/blaxmyth.html

This is an example of vacu-forming over a positive mold. The details seem to be okay because the plastic he used is pretty thin. Ideally it would be a negative mold, so the details would be more crisp.

I'm really interested in this from a durability/troopability perpective. It would be great to have a helmet that I could let someone else put it on without being stressed that it would shatter if they dropped it.
 
JD,

I'd definitely like to see pictures of the helmet! I'm interested in seeing how its looks vac-formed, and as a fan-made helmet made nearly 15 years ago.


Post those pictures!

Phil

All right, I took some pictures of my MARCO vac-formed Boba Fett helmet. Sorry for the crappy photography. I wanted to take them in sunlight but it is raining here right now.

Follow this link: MARCO Boba Fett helmet

JD
 
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R2-JD,

Only 2 of the pictures show up for me...

But from what I can see, not too bad- especially for that time period!

Accuracy aside, the Marco helmet is a good example of the kind of detail you'll get with vacuforming. The only two areas where I would be concerned about 'soft' detail are the dent and the 'turn signals'. I do however, think I could improve some over what you see in the Marco helmet.

A negative mold IS a bit better for capturing detail like this. However, the time and expense of making and using those kind of molds is a bit more than what I was thinking of. It would raise the per-helmet price a bit.

I was actually considering making the helmet bucks (molds) with no dent at all- that way the helmet could be used for Boba OR Jango OR other customs.

As far a 'movie sized' helmet goes, I have the one fiberglass helmet that came from a re-worked Don Post Deluxe helmet, and I may have access to a mystery helmet as well. I'm not well-versed in the size difference between those two, so I'd appreciate some input.

Vacuforming would increase the overall size of the helmet by about 1/8- to me, that's not a big deal. I'd like to hear other opinions though.

Another part of my plan would be to have the 'visor' part of the overall mold. The builder could just paint it gloss black if it's going to be just a display piece, or cut it out and install a tinted lens.

Mark
 
Do you guys want me to try to tackle this project? I have access to Mystery helmets, I could have one made to turn into some vacforming bucks.
 
OK folks, take a look at what I've been working on:

IMG_0013.jpg

IMG_0014.jpg

IMG_0015.jpg

IMG_0016.jpg

IMG_0017.jpg

IMG_0018.jpg


Keep in mind this is the very first pull of all the parts just to see how it works. Excuse the rough-cut edges here and there- I hacked it up pretty good just to test fit everything. Also, the visor will be filled in on the final mold (working on that today).

The 'ear' pieces (as well as the rangefinder top, not shown) are resins. The rest is vacuformed styrene (3 pieces; front, back, top). I've determined that the 'turn signals' in front should be cut out with an exacto using a template (which I can provide).

Also note that this one is a Jango (no dent) version. I figured folks can either add their own dent, or they may not want one at all for custom Mandos. I may also consider making an alternate crown mold with the dent built-in.

Looks like I can probably do these for around $75 each (shipping extra).

I'm pretty pleased with the results myself. Everyone let me know what you think.

Mark
 
Hehe... Thanks! I'm excited about it too. I'm resisting the urge to slam together a few for myself and start painting!


PS: anyone interesed in one should PM me here.

Mark
 
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