David Neth's Boushh Helmet WIP

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

Hello There!

So I've been working on this Boushh Helmet build for my fiancé Alex now for about 3 months(on and off). It's my first attempt at a Boushh helmet and I've been trying to take my time to do it correctly the first time which I failed to do during my ROTJ Fett build. I've been posting these progress pictures on my Instagram (@meganeth66) but I figure there's some people on here that might get something from it as well as help me. That being said, the helmet paint work is nearly complete so I'll post the progress pictures starting with the raw cast I got from Todd (Sandman on the TDH). I can't say enough about the quality of the helmet and the communication I got from Todd. Highly recommended! I started by bonding the few imperfections where the two halves of the helmet come together.

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

Next, I went to a buddy of mine to start work on making an aluminum piece for the rangefinder. My buddy has a lathe in his garage and he's pretty sharp so we went to town trying to improve upon the cast resin piece that came with the helmet. Looking at the reference pictures, there were some definite improvements to be made. There will be straight knurling and more fine tuning but in the end, I think we got a great start to the piece.

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

After some Bondo work, cutting out of the visor and display openings, assembling and attachment of the "ear" greeblies, Dremeling and hand filing in the damage, and some taping off of the snout area, it was primer time!

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

Given the awkward shape of the helmet, it was difficult to get in and smooth out the inside edges of the visor and display openings so that the lenses would fit nice and tight with no gaps. Eventually, I figured out that I could use an empty cat food can with some emery cloth glued to it as a hand operated sanding drum. The emery cloth was really there just to grip the backside of the 60 grit sandpaper I used wrapped around it. It worked perfect!

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

I have heard that these helmets are notoriously hot so I added some little vent holes in the "tusk" area. However, they stood out like a sore thumb as round holes so I filed them into little squares that fit between the tiny "fins" that are part of the edges of the center greeblie. Once I paint the center portion black and back it with some black micro stainless mesh, I don't thing they'll stand out at all. I also cut a slot in the helmet where the the holes will back up to where I'll add a fan.

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

Okay, this next post may get kinda messy since this is where I started the paint work. The first picture is of the paint I ordered from Humbrol. I certainly didn't use all of them but I did use a lot of them and probably some leftover from my Fett build. I did a poor job of keeping track of what I used because there was a lot of mixing and trial and error so I apologize if I don't post which exact colors I used for what. I went with Humbrol enamels because that was what I used on my Fett costume and they're great. They were also the only brand and type I had familiarity with I just went with that. Also like my Fett helmet, I went with a layered paint job as opposed to topical. Looking at the reference pictures, I didn't see any other way of doing it other than layered if it was to look correct.

In the first few pictures, it looks like I had already painted the whole thing a mix if Silver 11 and Chrome 191 and done the initial masking out of the silver damage. Then I gave the whole thing a nice dark gray base of Gray 79 with a bit of Black 33 mixed in. There are lots of spots and large portions of the helmet where this color is at the base. After more masking, I then added the dark brown coat which was just a trial and error mix of various browns and Black 33. Th then added in the lighter brown mix which was mostly a mix of browns 70 and 113.

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

The rest is kind of a blur where each step went very quickly and was extremely satisfying. Stripes, lettering, and more little details were added witch varying levels of sanding with 0000 steel wool in-between.

David Neth · Dec 30, 2019

Here is the helmet with the paintwork nearly complete. I still need to add some details on the ears and repaint the thin black stripe that goes around the top cap because I got a little too aggressive with the steel wool. I found some deer skin scraps from deer my dad killed back in the 80s at my folks place durning a visit and they looked pretty close in color to what I could tell from the reference pictures. I glued them on using Brage contact cement. The leather needs weathering still but I'm happy with how it came out. Next on the to-do list is to finish painting the "tusks", mount the lenses and light kit, and then buy a sewing machine and learn how to use it by watching YouTube videos so I can make the cowl.

David Neth · Mar 15, 2020

Leather work all finished.

David Neth · Mar 15, 2020

Finally got around to doing the straight knurling on the aluminum scope piece. The main scope body I made from Delrin with some adjustments based on reference pictures to make it more accurate. The body we machined on a lathe and then cut the inset slots using a rotary table on a mill and some complicated math. I squared up the slots with a 1/8" chisel.

David Neth · Mar 15, 2020

Installed the scope with (4) 6-32 stainless screws. I was able to shim them to get the angle just right. I used 3D printed greeblies from ToolGuy on Shapeways. I used a couple of layers of silver and gloss black paint to weather the scope body. That's pretty much the exterior of the helmet finished.

sutt_hero_rotj · Mar 16, 2020

Very nice job !

WhyItMatterz · Mar 16, 2020

Great looking build!

David Neth · Apr 20, 2020

Time for an update! Lots of progress. First, I made a tunic thanks to patterns from alvomedia with some tan suede material we found at Joann Fabric. I have next to no experience with a sewing machine, but I learned a lot making it. I'm still unclear on the sloppy 2" return edge stated in the CRL. If anyone has any suggestions on how that should look, please let me know. t also need to get rid of the hems I put on the sleeves and the bottom edge and do a bit of weathering. The sizing is still maybe a little bit off so I might remake it with some real pigskin suede.

David Neth · Apr 20, 2020

Then I did the shoulder armor. Lots of fitting, cutting, gluing, bonds, and paint but I think it turned out pretty good. I also made a pad that'll attach after I fit the tank attachments.

David Neth · Apr 20, 2020

I made some sleeves as well. The fabric is also a suede look alike fabric from Joann Fabric. I used one of my fiancé's flannels for all the measurements. The studs I found on Amazon and they are backed with some of the extra deer skin leather left over from the helmet build. They still need to be sewn into a shirt. I may remake them with real pigskin down the road.

David Neth · Apr 20, 2020

I moved back to the helmet to install the rotary switch I dreamed about installing about halfway through the build. Since I machined the scope piece with a real aluminum antenna deal, I was able to run the end into the helmet and couple it to the rotary switch with some stainless 6-32 screws and a small pice of .375"x.065" aluminum tubing. The switch has 4 positions. The first I set as off. The second or first click over turns on the visor lights. The second click over keeps the lights on and also tuns on the 2 blower fans inside the helmet. The third keeps the first two systems on and then adds a vent fan that blows air out of the tusk area. The 2 blower fans and rechargeable batteries are from eqdizzle. I got the extra 40mm square blower fan on Amazon. Since the holes I had put in the tusk area are so small, I optimized the air flow by making tiny little duct to direct the air into the exit holes. Since each one of the rechargeable batteries lasts about 2-2.5 hours, I wired both batteries in and added a battery selector switch so you can easily switch between batteries during a long troop. I could not be happier with how it all turned out!

David Neth · Apr 20, 2020

I just started on the tanks. I ordered a kit with pieces made from PVC pipe and cast resin but the dimensions of the pipe looked to be quite different from the reference pictures. So like most other things on the project, I went a bit overboard. I scaled up the reference pictures and got some aluminum and made by own tanks! They are much closer to the real size. For anyone wondering, the larger tank is just over 4.00" outside diameter and 7.75" long (excluding the caps). I believe the original was made from plastic so it was probably 4.217" outside diameter sewer pipe which to be fair was the pipe size provided in the kit I bought. In aluminum however, 4.500" OD with a .250" wall thickness was the closest size I could find so we machined it down to 4.200" OD. This left us with almost the exact same ID/OD of the plastic sever pipe. This will make cutting the windows for the greeblies look more authentic as well. The smaller tank is right at about 3" outside diameter and 6.75" long (excluding the caps). My dad (who builds race cars for a living) was kind enough to machine the end caps for me. The caps on the larger tank still need a bit of machining to lighten them up but other than that, I think they look fantastic. The profiles of the caps also seems to match those of the real thing pretty well. More updates soon.