Bounty1138
Active Hunter
I originally intended to make this a work in progress thread, but I somehow managed to finish my helmet first 
.
This will also serve as my introduction to the TDH community. Much like everyone here, I've been a life-long Star Wars fan.
I built my first Boba Fett costume somewhere around 1996. It was extremely basic and budget, and included an unaltered Don Post 95.
The costume wasn't fancy or very accurate, but I had a ton of fun. It served me well for the theatrical premieres of the Original Trilogy Special Editions and all three prequels. I'd pull it out occasionally for a halloween party or another event that required a costume.
About a year ago, I decided I'd try to improve it and see what would happen if I put some effort into it. I started with the helmet, as I figured anything I did would be an improvement on the stock paint job. That's when I began surfing around the internet and I came across this site.
Here's what I was starting with:
The first order of business was cutting out the "visor" area. I tried using a Dremel, but I found it awkward and not very precise (my skill may have had something to do it). I ended up just using a sharp utility knife. The edges were much more clean. The trick was making the inside edge of the mandibles even. By inside edge, I mean the edge that faces inside the helmet and what the visor will eventually attach to. I didn't really get my head around that before starting out, which would have helped.
I subsequently ordered a visor from tvisor.com.
I think this is the single biggest improvement that can be made to this helmet. A full and proper visor looks way better. This isn't to say that there isn't a ton of other improvements to made, but it just looks "right" with a real visor.
I also popped off the ear cap to removed the rangefinder and stalk. The rangefinder never stayed up and I had to wedge a piece of paper to keep it propped up when I wore it. It seem like a bit of **** shoot to see if the cap would pop off cleanly or break. Fortunately, the plastic cap popped off nicely. I used bondo glazing putty to fill in the LucasFilm stamp on the back and on the bottom of the mandibles to make them more even (not pictured).
I used acetone to remove most the silver paint and some of the green and red paint. I could have removed it all, but I wasn't a big fan of handling the acetone and I don't think it made much of difference in the end (thankfully). After thoroughly cleaning the helmet, I applied Rustoleum grey primer.
It already looked much better
.
I wasn't sure how to approach the painting and looked at a number of tutorial and methods on this site and elsewhere. I had originally intended to just paint it "clean" and topically add the weathering and damage. However, I came across WelshWarrior123's excellent series of tutorials on youtube. I can't recommend them highly enough for anyone considering trying a layered paint job. It's one thing to read about how to do something and another thing entirely to see it being done.
This first part in the 26 episode series can be found at How to paint a boba fett helmet, Episode 1 - YouTube
It definitely gave me the confidence to give a layered paint job a go. He wasn't painting a Don Post helmet and he used an airbrush, but the principles are the same.
I used AFFO$’s PAINT LIST FOR THE AIRBRUSH CHALLENGED with a only a few substitutions for colours I had trouble finding.
I used RafalFetts excellent templates to sort out the layers. The resources on this site are amazing.
I also only used three layers on the helmet (with a few topic touch ups and additions). I combined layers when needed and followed the directions more precisely at others.
I started with the back panels and applied Testors Chrome spray paint, I used RafalFett's templates with reverse tracing paper to mark out the layer, applied liquid mask and then applied the next layer of spray paint (grey). I would peel off the liquid masking fluid, repeat the process and apply the Hunt Club Green. WelshWarrior explains this process well in his videos.
[/ATTACH]
I repeated this for the dome and cheeks, except that the top layer was Rustoleum Spruce Green. It was finally starting to look like Boba's helmet!!!
I taped off more of the helmet, applied layers until I applied the black paint. The third shot above shows the mostly completed back panels. I did some topical touch ups after this pic was taken, but it shows the layered back panels.
I painted the right ear with Krylon Ultra-Flat Khaki, taped off the kill stripes and used Rustoleum Yellow Inverted Striping Paint with misting Rustoleum orange for them. I painted the left ear with the same Spruce Green as the the dome.
This next stage freaked me out a bit. I applied Vaspar flat Merlot and thought it looked pink!!! It looked much better after it dried (and inside) as the subsequent photos show. That was a relief.
I later applied some touch ups, extra topical weathering with brushes and decals from Lucksy31. The DP 95 is a little smaller than the screen accurate helmet, but I feel that the decals still worked. I thought the accuracy of the decals made up for an issues of scale with the smaller helmet. I also glued in the visor with crazy glue and hot glue. It's not going anywhere.
I'm planning to take some better photos of my completed bucket tonight. I'll post those soon along with how I finished the inside and my final weathering and clear coat. TDH has been quite the amazing resource. I'm happy I stumbled across it. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything I did and I'll be happy to answer them.
.This will also serve as my introduction to the TDH community. Much like everyone here, I've been a life-long Star Wars fan.
I built my first Boba Fett costume somewhere around 1996. It was extremely basic and budget, and included an unaltered Don Post 95.
The costume wasn't fancy or very accurate, but I had a ton of fun. It served me well for the theatrical premieres of the Original Trilogy Special Editions and all three prequels. I'd pull it out occasionally for a halloween party or another event that required a costume.
About a year ago, I decided I'd try to improve it and see what would happen if I put some effort into it. I started with the helmet, as I figured anything I did would be an improvement on the stock paint job. That's when I began surfing around the internet and I came across this site.
Here's what I was starting with:
The first order of business was cutting out the "visor" area. I tried using a Dremel, but I found it awkward and not very precise (my skill may have had something to do it). I ended up just using a sharp utility knife. The edges were much more clean. The trick was making the inside edge of the mandibles even. By inside edge, I mean the edge that faces inside the helmet and what the visor will eventually attach to. I didn't really get my head around that before starting out, which would have helped.
I subsequently ordered a visor from tvisor.com.
I think this is the single biggest improvement that can be made to this helmet. A full and proper visor looks way better. This isn't to say that there isn't a ton of other improvements to made, but it just looks "right" with a real visor.
I also popped off the ear cap to removed the rangefinder and stalk. The rangefinder never stayed up and I had to wedge a piece of paper to keep it propped up when I wore it. It seem like a bit of **** shoot to see if the cap would pop off cleanly or break. Fortunately, the plastic cap popped off nicely. I used bondo glazing putty to fill in the LucasFilm stamp on the back and on the bottom of the mandibles to make them more even (not pictured).
I used acetone to remove most the silver paint and some of the green and red paint. I could have removed it all, but I wasn't a big fan of handling the acetone and I don't think it made much of difference in the end (thankfully). After thoroughly cleaning the helmet, I applied Rustoleum grey primer.
It already looked much better
.I wasn't sure how to approach the painting and looked at a number of tutorial and methods on this site and elsewhere. I had originally intended to just paint it "clean" and topically add the weathering and damage. However, I came across WelshWarrior123's excellent series of tutorials on youtube. I can't recommend them highly enough for anyone considering trying a layered paint job. It's one thing to read about how to do something and another thing entirely to see it being done.
This first part in the 26 episode series can be found at How to paint a boba fett helmet, Episode 1 - YouTube
It definitely gave me the confidence to give a layered paint job a go. He wasn't painting a Don Post helmet and he used an airbrush, but the principles are the same.
I used AFFO$’s PAINT LIST FOR THE AIRBRUSH CHALLENGED with a only a few substitutions for colours I had trouble finding.
I used RafalFetts excellent templates to sort out the layers. The resources on this site are amazing.
I also only used three layers on the helmet (with a few topic touch ups and additions). I combined layers when needed and followed the directions more precisely at others.
I started with the back panels and applied Testors Chrome spray paint, I used RafalFett's templates with reverse tracing paper to mark out the layer, applied liquid mask and then applied the next layer of spray paint (grey). I would peel off the liquid masking fluid, repeat the process and apply the Hunt Club Green. WelshWarrior explains this process well in his videos.
[/ATTACH]
I repeated this for the dome and cheeks, except that the top layer was Rustoleum Spruce Green. It was finally starting to look like Boba's helmet!!!
I taped off more of the helmet, applied layers until I applied the black paint. The third shot above shows the mostly completed back panels. I did some topical touch ups after this pic was taken, but it shows the layered back panels.
I painted the right ear with Krylon Ultra-Flat Khaki, taped off the kill stripes and used Rustoleum Yellow Inverted Striping Paint with misting Rustoleum orange for them. I painted the left ear with the same Spruce Green as the the dome.
This next stage freaked me out a bit. I applied Vaspar flat Merlot and thought it looked pink!!! It looked much better after it dried (and inside) as the subsequent photos show. That was a relief.
I later applied some touch ups, extra topical weathering with brushes and decals from Lucksy31. The DP 95 is a little smaller than the screen accurate helmet, but I feel that the decals still worked. I thought the accuracy of the decals made up for an issues of scale with the smaller helmet. I also glued in the visor with crazy glue and hot glue. It's not going anywhere.
I'm planning to take some better photos of my completed bucket tonight. I'll post those soon along with how I finished the inside and my final weathering and clear coat. TDH has been quite the amazing resource. I'm happy I stumbled across it. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything I did and I'll be happy to answer them.
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Keep up the great work! 
