ESB Boba Fett helmet (lots of pics, sorry)

SaxeCoburg

Active Hunter
I recently finished painting this helmet for a fellow 501st member (I’ll let him speak up if he wants). It’s one of the FettPride “proto” castings. All in all it’s a great helmet with very little clean up. I’m always impressed with FP’s fiberglass work. The paint colors are loosely based on Lee’s list from years ago. The helmet didn’t turn out quite as accurate as I would have liked, but it’s one of if not the best Boba helmet I have painted to date.
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This is how I received the helmet. It's cast by FettPride in fiberglass with a white gel-coat. Unfortunately, when I received it, there were three major cracks in the helmet (I marked them with red lines in the pic). Otherwise this casting was flawless and required very little clean-up.
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Cracks repaired, visor and vent-slots trimmed. Primed, wet-sanded and ready to paint. Also magnets installed on the ear-cap.
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Cracks repaired, primed, wet-sanded and ready to paint. Also you'll notice a couple of nicks and scratches I dremeled into the helmet to match the damage on the screen used helmet.
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Dome and cheeks airbrushed on
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Rear panel dark green painted. Also note the colors are a little splotchy looking, this was just the first coat and "evened out" with a couple more lite coats.

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Masking off the mandibles.
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Mandibles airbrushed and underside of the cheek hand painted (just like the original)
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I created a vector file of the "kill stripes" and had our good friend Scott "Phinz" Kirkham cut a vinyl decal to use as a stencil.
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Day-glow orange and yellow airbrushed on.
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Kill-stripes turned out just a little "heavier" than I wanted, but still looks great. When the helmet gets the final wash/weathering it will tone-down the stripes. Also note, I painted the left "ear"
 
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Masking off the right-ear.
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Airbrushed the gold/tan on the right ear.
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Started drawing out the chipped-damage on the rear-panel.
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hand-painted the tannish color
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On to the grey battle-damage
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Than the silver paint. Also note I am painting the weathering in a "topical" fashion to *try* and get the accurate shaped detail
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Started working on the grey damage on the cheeks
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Than the silver details on the cheeks and started working on the mandible damage
 
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Working my way around the helmet, filling in the "damage" on the red band
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And that finishes up the chipped detail/damage on the red areas. At this point I was going cross-eyed
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Now onto the dome... grey and silver
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working the details around the kill-stripes. A little heavy-handed in some spots, but I think it's really starting to get the feel and look of the screen used helmet. So many layers, so much damage, scratches and chips.
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"Cat-Scratch" detail... done
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Drawing the dome damage
 
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Grey and silver dome damage... I think I may have placed this a little bit too forward, it's really hard to tell from the reference pics though
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DENT... painted
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airbrushed the "scorched" burn around the edge of the dent
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Silver on the right ear...
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Decals applied to the right ear
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Decals applied to the left ear... this one really fought me, for some reason
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Chipped damage painted on the left ear
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And there you go, outside of a little black-wash and light weathering, the paint work is DONE
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Oh, I almost forgot my *favorite* part of the helmet, the "thumb-smug". This was actually on the original helmet. If you look closely, you can even see it in the screen-caps. Looks like somebody accidentally dripped some white paint on the helmet and said "oh nos" and tried to wipe it off LOL
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Chipped weathering painted on the right ear
 
Looks awesome. I think someone should sell the kill stripes vinyl decals (the negative ones) of each version so it would be easier to paint them.
 
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Range-finder.... this isn't the one that came with the helmet, but is more of a hybrid, put together from several different kits
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Visor, trimmed and mounted...
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Range-finder installed and weathered
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And... DONE... Not shown, but the helmet was given a liberal black-wash and touched up in a couple of places and then given a light clear-coat. I usually do not not clear-coat these helmets, but I knew this one may be used for costuming purposes and wanted to be as durable as possible.
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Back... all done...
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The helmet is currently living in our dining room (per the wife's request). Will be delivered to its owner this weekend.
 
Well Done Well Done. I have yet to take the plunge in doing a topical paint up but after see your work here you have made me think twice.
 
Superb! That's a great looking ESB bucket. :)

I'm curious whether you used the dome green on the left ear? Lots of differing opinions about that. I use a slightly different shade on my paint-ups.
 
Well Done Well Done. I have yet to take the plunge in doing a topical paint up but after see your work here you have made me think twice.
Blasphemous you do your thing VERY well dont stop...
You did a great job on the topical paint, I think the green is a bit darker than Id like but the damage looks great very nice topical job
 
I'm curious whether you used the dome green on the left ear? Lots of differing opinions about that. I use a slightly different shade on my paint-ups.

I'll dig through my notes and post what color I used. But no, I didn't use the same color as the dome on the left year. I'm 95% sure they are different.
 
Wow, great job! You sure have a great eye for all the detail. When you were drawing out the chipped damage, did you do that by looking at a reference picture and hand drawing it or was there a way to project an image onto the helmet and outline the chipped damage?
 
I'll chime in with the others and say, Bravo! for an outstanding job. I'm trying to do my FP layered, but yours makes me reconsider that approach. Speaking of which, how long did it take you to complete the paint up, from start to finish?

Again, awesome work!
 
If I'm not mistaken, this is the first painted helmet that used my ESB stencils from start to finish. An excellent paint job and attention to details! I love it!
 
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