Rebel Y-Wing pilot helmet

superjedi

Sr Hunter
Hi gang,
Working on something non-Fett related (for a change.)
I've always liked the different looking helmets used by the Rebel Alliance, especially the different designs for the pilots. I ordered a Y-Wing helmet kit from Richie's Armor about 3 weeks ago, and it got here yesterday.
Great looking kit, and he got it out to me nice and quick! (y)

The kit consists of 2 vac-formed styrene shells (left and right), a clear tinted visor, 2 strips of black edging, and several small greeblies for detailing. It even includes a length of flexible coated wire to make the microphone boom. :) Here's the contents of the kit.

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Here's a tighter shot of the resin detail bits. No trimming had been done on these for this shot. These are "as received."

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Construction of the main helmet was very straightforward. I cut several small tabs from extra styrene, and after lining up the 2 shells, superglued them in place. I just did that to keep everything aligned while I got my JB Kwik ready. Then I applied that all along the inside of the seam. I worked it in small section cuz that stuff kicks pretty fast!

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Once the JB Kwik had dried, I went back along the outside of the seam and puttied it. The stuff I use is similar to 1-part Bondo. I bought it while I was stationed in Germany and I've had this tube for over 4 years. It's still going strong! It dries pretty fast and sands to a really smooth finish.

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I applied some extra putty to the chin area, which was kind of "sunk" where the 2 halves came together. I built it up to a flatter surface, taking some extra care to blend it in well. Here it is after sanding.

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I'm off to the hobby shop in a little bit to grab some primer, and then I'll see how the putty looks. If it needs touch ups, I'll do that later tonight.

More to come! :)
 
Nice kit SJ.... seems very clean and minimal work to put it together.
Can't wait to see what you do with the paint job bro... ;)
 
Yeah it's not that common to see one of these in peoples' collections.
I recently saw a fantastic build up over on RPF, and decided to add this to my Rebel line up. :)

Got some Tamiya primer on the helmet, and after it dried I found that I did have to go back and re-putty the seams. Oh well. So now it's gray with puttied seams! Oh the progress is just staggering! :lol:

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I'll resand and reprime tomorrow. Then I'll have to test some colors as I'm trying to replicate a specific screen-used helmet from ROTJ. (y)
 
UPDATE: Feb 12th

Got the first color on. It's. . . white! :lol:
I masked off the area I wanted to paint and used Floquil Reefer White. I just misted it on with 2 or 3 light coats to get a "dirty white" appearance. The entire helmet is going to be pretty heavily weathered, so I don't want my base colors to be really pure.

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The little split in the top of the chin area doesn't matter as that rounded detail will be covered by some brown vinyl when the painting is all done. It's supposed to look like padding.
 
UPDATE #2: Feb 12th

Had some more time and the white was dry, so I sprayed the second major color.

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Tomorrow the last major color will go on the 2 slightly inset panels on the top/back, and then I'll start on the markings. :)
 
Thanks guys! :)

UPDATE: Feb 13th

OK, got the last major color on the back panels. I used Floquil Dark Green for these areas.

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Next will be some more complex masking for some red and gray markings. (y)
 
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