ESB Bucket Progress

[MacRory]

Thought I'd share some progress on my helmet. At the time I bought it I had yet to find TDH and thus I was unaware of many things including re-casters and as such I found myself purchasing a fiberglass bucket off of eBay for what I believed was somewhat of a good price. However in the amount of time spent afterwards in salvaging, in my approximation and from comparisons here on TDH, a subpar (at best) fiberglass Fett helmet.

I have taken pictures of the bucket out of the box up until this point where I have masked it off for painting the dome and lower cheeks.

For anyone who is interested or would like to provide constructive criticism on any observations it would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

**Here it is right out of the box. I wasn't sure if I needed to be happy or frightened seeing a fiberglass Fett for the first time.

**Here it is after about 15 hrs spent cutting out the visor section and key holes and trying to level out the inside so later I could affix a visor.

**Here it is after sanding is finished and I've added about 20lbs of Bondo (I KEED I KEED) but really I filled quite a bit :cry and the first couple of coats of primer have been applied sanded and washed...ready for this chrome overcoat.

**And here it is getting a nice masking prior to the *yet* to be applied Panzer Olivgrun

Stay tuned...

That's approx. 25 hrs just babying this helmet so far. I wasn't sure it would have taken that long but it has been great so far although I wish I would've found TDH sooner .

Cheers!

 

[Fett prop artist]

looks nice, keep us posted.

 

[MacRory]

How does this box car red look? Those bumps in the paint are latex masking underneath to reveal the chrome underneat if anyone wanted to know

I didn't know if the mandibles came out well or not? Colorwise that is.

 

[fettprop]

I might be a newbee, but that is just the very type of inspring think I need to see! I'm looking for a helmet too and eBay just isn't for me. It does look like you've made that one work out well for you! I guess time and dilligence pays off. The red looks good too. So you are going for the 3D layering effect, I think it'll look great when your done.

Robert

 

[MacRory]

Thanks for the kind words fett prop. Here are a couple other photos of the back which I prepped with a hand drawn stencil and the cheeks I had done but had problems with the masking tape as it pulled up some paint >.< lol. No worries though as I went back and re-painted the lower cheeks and dome with multiple coats .

I figured I'd do the mandibles<above> and then redo the upper cheeks by hand as described by RS in his tutorial. I've used Steve the Swede's ESB tutorial for help with the ideas for tracing <eyeballing it> and then applying the latex masking fluid.

Unfortunately I couldn't replicate the exact color on the back but I figured the green will take up atleast 2/3s of the back and I can fill in the rest of the tan with lark dark grey topically along with traces of silver and the light gray.

Thanks to RS, Marrow Sun, Evan, and Steve the Swede for some direct and indirect help on this project. Otherwise I wouldn't have come this far! :cheers

 

[TK2177]

How does this box car red look? Those bumps in the paint are latex masking underneath to reveal the chrome underneat if anyone wanted to know

I didn't know if the mandibles came out well or not? Colorwise that is.

I would have to say it looks spot on! I am right about where you are with my helmet. I posted some new pics of my progress today. Page 6 shows the boxcar red which I just finished up...

http://www.ontiq.com/gallery/TK2177BobaFett

 

[imperialissue]

Nice job!
Your paint job looks first rate!

 

[SarlaccBits]

Lookin' good!

 

[MandalorFett]

Great job so far! The red looks good, I'm sure it looks light because of the flash photography. Once you do a couple washes to dirty it up, it'll look fine.

 

[MacRory]

Thank you for the compliments. I adjusted the red somewhat but didn't remember to take my digital home last night so no updated photos. It looks great though. Now to do the back of the helmet with the latex masking and hit it with the green.

 

[evan4218]

Looking good man... for the back I used a mix of acrylic blue that I got at wall mart super cheap with RLM 82 Dark Green and just add a touch of black or white till you get it where you want it... I had to play with it to get it there but I am quite happy with the color. Here is a picture of the acctual helmet color corrected by me. After pulling out the contaminant colors you see that the back of the helmet has a decent amount of blue in the green. I just kept adding green till I hit as close to that color as possible then made sure it wasnt to light or to dark.

Dont forget to test the color on something, it wont look the same dry as it will wet. Also test out what your weathering and wash will do to the color. One thing that I have done to my latest helmet to give it a realistic weathering job is used a fine grit sandpaper and scufed the paint in places. This gives a warn appearences and adds discoloration and blimishes to the paintjob. Make sure you have a good couple of coats of paint down before doiing this other wise it will just reveal silver.

One last trick to matching the ref photos... take a picture indoors with a flash camera... that was the setting that was used for the ref pics and will give you a better comparrison of color and effect to the real deal.

 

[MacRory]

Great advice and thanks!

Here are some progress pictures as of last night.

Here it is with the visor temporarily occupying its future home.

Obviously I have a long way to go. Touch up on some of the revealed silver/chrome. Hand paint the upper cheeks. The back of the helmet I need to buy the right paint for as it seems I bought like 4 bottles of that RLM Green (way too much) for just the ear piece and didn't grab any Brunswick or Dark green with any of my previous paint purchases online DOH!

Anyways I'll play around with the back colors a bit to get it right and start working on the detailing/weathering once that is all completed.

How's it look so far?

 

[fettprop]

It just keeps getting better and better. Like I said before, inspiring.

Robert

 

[Spideyfett]

Wow...the work I've seen on these boards here lately...is just AMAZING !!

Great Work.

MORE PICS!!!

 

[MacRory]

Anyone have recommendations on how to get your kill stripes on without noodling it up? Trying to use the mask from TK409's website and it just doesn't want to lay just right and I haven't had any luck with it yet. I don't want to just hit it with paint and have it look cockeyed at me sooo...

Any tips?

 

[AFettFullofDollars]

Masking tape and mustard. It takes a little while but you can't argue with the results.

 

[Fett prop artist]

Masking tape and mustard. It takes a little while but you can't argue with the results.

yeah. his method is the one I am trying to use.

 

[TK2177]

Yo Mac! Your helmet just keeps looking better and better! Great work! Can't wait to see it finished!

 

[Ronin677]

MacRory - that is a sweet looking bucket. You have done really well on it. Can't wait to see the end pics :cheers :cheers

 

[MacRory]

Here are some update photos of the handpainted upper cheeks and the latex masked back that I was able to do freehand using reference photos.

The cheeks ( I don't believe came out well ) were difficult and my hands weren't as steady as I would've liked. The revealed base chrome was reinforced with chrome metal silver paint applied topically to smooth out some of the scratching involved when the latex was being a pain.

The back seems to have come out nicely.