A Helmet For A Marine

[LiveWire401]

My life long best friend and fellow Boba Fett fanatic was recently injured while deployed in Iraq during his second tour in country with the Marine Corps.. I thought building him a Mando' helmet would be a cool way welcome him home and say thank you for his service.. I want to make something unique and thought I'd try to make it as personal as possible.. I drew up an outline of my plan, trying to theme the helmet around the Marines.. Heres what I've come up with so far..

Basic image:

Very large detailed image:
(magnifies and explains some of the detail)

(I have his name on the back of the helmet just below the rank insignia in Aurabesh, but omitted it here for his privacy)

Obviously its a work in progress, but its a start.. Any ideas, critiques, suggestions, etc, anything would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Mike M.]

i'm not familiar with marine dress uniform, but perhaps using that color scheme might look really cool. maybe put the chevrons on the left ear and the rank bar (i don't know what that's called) on the front over where the turn signals would be, or enlarge them and place them along the side in place of the killstripes.

 

[charlie]

I would definitly slap the globe and anchor right on the forehead of that helmet. BTW, it's an awesome idea that you're doing this for your friend. Rock on!

Charlie

 

[samlynn79]

I'm a US Marine as well. I would definitely say it would look better with the awards bar where the killstripes would be. Keep in mind that the Marine Corps colors are red and gold, and use that in your scheme. Great idea tho!

 

[NovallTalon]

Thats really cool of you to do that for your Marine friend! Charlie and Sam both have awesome advice for this...I'd use it!

 

[MandalorFett]

Great idea, and great suggestions too.

 

[LiveWire401]

i'm not familiar with marine dress uniform, but perhaps using that color scheme might look really cool.

Keep in mind that the Marine Corps colors are red and gold, and use that in your scheme.

I started with that color scheme actually, kind of modeling the color scheme off the dress blues, and then just off the red and gold. I ended up with the current colors because this is part of a suit of armor, so I tried to use colors from the USMC BDU's (battle dress uniform). I'm still struggling with how to use digital camouflage, but I think its beyond my painting ability..

I would definitly slap the globe and anchor right on the forehead of that helmet.

Agreed! the EGA has been on the list since the start, just taking a little longer to make up a drawing of it. I'll have it on there soon though.

I'm a US Marine as well. I would definitely say it would look better with the awards bar where the killstripes would be.

I struggled with where to put those, or if I should use them at all. Are you thinking two on each side, or all on one side or the other? I bunched them all together at the back just because thats how they sit on the dress blues, but obviously theres room for interpretation here.

Thanks for the input!! I'm going to rework another drawing in pure USMC colors and see what I come out with this time, keep the suggestions coming! Thanks again

 

[LiveWire401]

A very quick rework with a dress blues theme, didn't have time to make the other suggested changes, sorry. Thoughts?

The actual dress blues uniform for comparison:

 

[Rokeim]

wow... the that color scheme just... 'pops' . very nice.

 

[RevolverOcelot]

Cant forget the weathering. Nothing says marine like a nice battle worn helmet. They arent the chair force after all.

 

[LiveWire401]

Cant forget the weathering. Nothing says marine like a nice battle worn helmet. They arent the chair force after all.

If I went with the BDU themed helmet I would obviously include weathering and damage from use in battle.. A dress blues themed helmet would be clean and pristine because dress blues are always kept very clean and tidy. One theme is that battle hardened tough look, while the other is very ceremonial.. I really like both but not sure which direction to go at this point.. I'm working on a few more color schemes for both ideas..

 

[samlynn79]

I would say to find out which awards he has, and use those. There are 3 ribbons to a line, with 1/8" space between lines. The bottom row is centered, and placed 1/8" above the breast pocket, so I would say you could definitely use that in your design as well. Center the rows above the left side of the helmet, 1/8" above the seam between mask and dome. Depending on whether you were planning to paint them on, or have them made from vinyl (preferrable), this could work out very well. I love how you did the dome in white to match the white cover of the dress uniform.

If you have any questions about colors, measurements, or uniform regulations, I'd be more than happy to answer any.

~Sam

*P.S.*
As far as the weathering goes, you would never see a Marine wearing something stratched, dirty, dented, broken, or otherwise imperfect.

 

[LadySewforus]

Do you want to make a complete costume???

 

[LiveWire401]

I would say to find out which awards he has, and use those.

I included the ribbons for the awards currently on his dress blues in my drawing
-Purple Heart
-Combat Action Ribbon
-Navy Unit Commendation
-Navy/Marine Corps Overseas Service

From what I understand, on uniform those should look like this:

There are several more medals on the left breast of his uniform but they are not accompanied by ribbons on the right breast, I'm unsure what medals they are but will do the research to find out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, sorry for the poor quality, I don't have access to his uniform so I just pulled that off a picture

As far as the weathering goes, you would never see a Marine wearing something stratched, dirty, dented, broken, or otherwise imperfect.

The gear of his I've seen is pretty beat up. The weather I would do on the BDU themed helmet would be much less extensive than on most helmets (boba's for example) I would mostly want to make it look used. Again, a dress blues themed helmet would be nice and shiny

Do you want to make a complete costume???

Very much so, but the reality is I cannot afford to do it (college student funds are highly limited)

 

[mattrinck]

I'm a Marine and I think this is looking awesome. What I would do with the EGA is put it where the dent is/was and make the center the globe part . If you are doing a dress blue uniform theme the dent should be filled in and the helmet needs to be polished and shining like how we ar that uniform. If going with the utilities theme, then leave in the dent.

If he was in Iraq he has to have medals (GWOT-E, NTL DF, Good Conduct probably, and others) . I would put those wher the kill stipes are and for the remaining ribbons, leave those where you have them now since not every ribbon has a medal counterpart.

Maybe since he was a NCO as well and every NCO needs the blood stripe on their uniform, the stalk could be annodized in metallic red. Just a thought, but would take more work and time.

Semper Fi and it's looking nice

 

[mattrinck]

L to R

Purple heart - ? - Good Conduct - National Defense - ? - Global War on Terrorism (assuming Expiditionary but it looks like the Service version). Those are what I can clearly see , but it looks there are 2 more

 

[shortimer52]

Search for "Ribbon Builder" and youll be able to find what your looking for.



Well I cant get the pics to work for me but it should look like this. From Left to right.
PH, NAM with 2 stars, GC, ND with 1 star (I think it should be a star or a Oak leaf), Iraq Camp, and GWT Service medal.

Since he has the Iraq Medal can can get the GWT-E this time if it's his second time. Only one medal can be issued per trip over there.

Should be getting a over seas service ribbon as well if he over there 90 days or more.


Marine Corps dont have BDU's it's Cammies or utilities. And I like the blues idea. Cammies would be cool too but a pain to paint.

 

[LiveWire401]

Thanks for all the input guys, its a serious help! I should have apologized in advance for my lack of knowledge on military details (ie BDU's, medals and ribbons, etc) I do want to do this right, just don't know all the detailed stuff, sorry about that. I'm leaning more and more towards the dress blues theme but not totally sure yet, funds allowing I'd do both for sure!

...every NCO needs the blood stripe on their uniform...

I realized I missed the blood stripe when I made that dress theme this morning, its usually down the outsides of the pants (right?) The range finder stalk in red is good idea, I'll play with that and a few others I have and see what comes out.

Thanks for the info on the medals, I will work on getting a better picture this week and nail down whats on his dress blues for sure.. I'm not sure if having the medals on the helmet makes sense, I'm leaning towards just using the ribbons as they fit the helmet better.. A few people have mentioned putting them along the sides of the helmet in place of the kill stripes.. Which means either they'll go on one side, both sides, or divided between the two, which I'm not sure how to do.. Any ideas?

What I would do with the EGA is put it where the dent is/was and make the center the globe part

Awesome idea, was really struggling with that, I'll get on that and post an updated picture. Coloring.. Gold?

Final thought, I replaced the rifles under the rank insignia with EE-3's (i think thats what they're called) just on a whim, thought it would look cool.. Any chance this is a little inappropriate as its not how the USMC Sgt. rank is supposed to look?

Thanks again for all the input and suggestions everyone, keep them coming and I'll keep polishing this thing up..

 

[shortimer52]

Cool idea on the EE-3 but id stick with the real NCO rank.

Can do the blood stripe in the ears.

 

[LiveWire401]

Thoughts on putting his unit info on there? (i.e. X Battalion X Marines, X Company.. or smaller like platoon, squad, fire team info)