Modding my MRCE Stormtrooper Bucket - Complete Overhaul

Matty Matt

Active Hunter
The other week I was looking at my MRCE helmet and I was overcome with the urge to strip it down and fix all the things that bugged me about it. My wife bought this for me when they first came out, and the plan was always to turn it into a stunt helmet, but I just never got around to starting it. I think it was less than $100 at the time, and that's really the only reason I wanted it. I'm not a TK guy and this is the only Stormtrooper bucket I've ever owned. I think everyone pretty much knows the reputation these have, lol.

First, the before pictures.

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The plan is to strip everything down, fill all the seams, remove all the weird random lines, enlarge the frown, thin down the ears, raise the brow, spruce up the mic tips, and paint and weather the whole thing. I will be going for the beat to hell look of the existing stunt helmets.
 
So here we are all stripped down. All the seams have been filled, including the ones on the ear caps. The ears have been thinned and the correct screws added. The brow has been raised, the frown has been enlarged, and I added the eye bump with some epoxy putty. I was able to get the trim off mostly intact, so I will be reusing it. This is another budget project all the way!


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I love the MRCE lids. They're symmetrical, and I'd like to think a galactic empire nearly limitless resources would be able to get some helmets that aren't all wonky and uneven.

That being said, I troop in a screen accurate helmet. ;)
 
Well said MisterFubar. Of course I would love to have a wonky screen accurate kit, but that's not an option for me now. The MRCE is actually a pretty well constructed helmet and I'm not afraid to let my 3 year old run around the house with it on. :D
 
Next I primed and gave it a coat of a khaki spray paint I had laying around. Then I masked off damage with liquid mask.

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The whole helmet got a sloppy coat of white primer brushed on. I used a chip brush to give it lots of brush marks and texture.

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Next was a couple coats of Krylon high gloss white. The liquid mask was removed and all the gray was hand painted. The vocorder and black detailing will be next.

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I'm really liking how this is turning out.
 
Ok, a little more progress. All of the gray and black has been handpainted. Rather than tempt fate by trying to paint the tubestipes, I ordered the "hand painted look" decals from Trooperbay. VERY good move on my part. They went on in minutes without incident and look fantastic. Just those alone are a huge improvement over the stock MRCE.

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Next I will be painting and weathering the mic tips, giving the whole helmet a little more weathering, and then finishing up with trim and chin straps.
 
When I had a trooper, I gouged the rear vents out, and the mouth grill... I installed black metal mesh for an actual ventilation system (With the help of interior positive pressure from two 3" computer fans in the rear vents)
 
Ok, I'm calling this finished. This was a lot of fun and now I'm proud to have it on display. It's got a lot more character now, wouldn't you say?

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It's like night and day man, looks like a completely different helmet! Changing that frown really made a world of difference. Great work again on this!
 
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