My scratchbuilt progress: cardboard *PIC INTENSIVE*

[never ending fett]

Many thanks go to Alan for his templates and to Honus for the inspiration that a cardboard bucket can be done, and done well.

The work you see here in the first post was all done in a few hours on a saturday. I'll try and explain step by step what each picture is and how it was done for those who have never attempted a scratch build with Alan's templates and maybe it can be used as a "how to" guide to go along with Honus' guide.

* FYI to help match things up, descriptions of each picture will be below the photo

I made the mistake of using packing tape for most of the helmet, which you will see in most of the pictures. In this case I would recommend using tape because this inner form gets removed later, using tape made it easier to take out.

A top down view of the same step: both of which show the helmet base and the inner form.

Inner surface and dome base attached. To curve the pieces, first I attached them end to end, then I rolled them like a newspaper, if that makes any sense.

angle 2

angle 3

angle 4

outer surface attached, inner surface cut into to make room for the cheek, 1 piece of the cheek attached.

angle 2

angle 3

learning from the first side, I traced the cheek onto the inner surface to be cut out before attaching anything.

inner surface cut out.

attaching the outer survace

continuing to attach the outer surface

outer surface attached, cheek attached.

angle 2

brain surgery, Hannible Lecter style. Needed to open the lid to ge the other parts of the cheek in.

removed to bottom, leaving a ring to hold the form, removed the inner form pieces, which folded and popped out easily due to the fact that I was using tape. attached the 2 pieces of the cheeks together and attached it to the upper cheek area and to the bottom ring.

angle 2

without the flash to see the 3D form a little better w/o flash washing it out.

looking down through the top

dome form cut and attached, Kinda. I made a second dome base, so that the dome and the rest of the bucket are seperate pieces, to make working on the inner parts easier.

angle 2

here you can see the 2 seperate pieces

my formerly headless manaquin now has the start of his head.

angle 2

angle 3

I have since completed the dome, taking pictures along the way of course. Pictures have not been uploaded yet.

More to come.

 

[Jimmy BufFETT]

Awesome job so far. Can't wait to see the pics of the dome.

 

[Boba Fett]

That just freakin amazes me.

 

[KaanE]

Wooooooow good job man.

 

[Aaron]

very cool

 

[COPENHAGEN6]

Great helmet.

Nice background too.

 

[wizardofflight]

That is exactly the way I did my mock-up!! Nice work!! Thanks for setting up a tutorial, I don't know when I'll ever get to it!!

Alan

 

[The Clayster]

nice job

 

[never ending fett]

thanks for the comments guys!

on with the dome

this may not have been the best way to do it, but here's what I did: I taped the 3 pieces together then started attaching the triangles starting at the front on piece 1, all without being attached to the dome base or the dome form.

angle 2

angle 3

finished and resting on the rest of the helmet.

the inside view: As you can see, there's just the one piece of tape on the inside, I did all of the taping on the outside. I have since gone back and hotglued the seems, the dome base and the dome form, then removed the tape carefully and smeared elmers white glue over almost the whole outside of the dome.

angle 2 of the inside

and one shot of the helmet with dome resting on top, unattached, on the otherwise headless manaquin.

 

[never ending fett]

That is exactly the way I did my mock-up!! Nice work!! Thanks for setting up a tutorial, I don't know when I'll ever get to it!!

Alan

Good to know that I'm following along how you did yours. Thanks for the comments!

 

[never ending fett]

Great helmet.

Nice background too.

thanks, that's just one wall of my Star Wars room! Maybe one day, I'll get around to posting pics of the whole room.

 

[Honus]

Great work so far! Gotta love cardboard....

 

[Jimmy BufFETT]

Great work on the dome. Gotta question for ya: do the traingles all come to a point once they are placed bended? In a few of the pictures, it looks like the top of the dome is pointed, but in the "angle 3" picture, it looks smooth. Just wonderin' if I am seein' things or if you made an adjustment.

 

[bradb55]

Thats sweet. You've got some talent. Keep us posted

 

[never ending fett]

Great work on the dome. Gotta question for ya: do the traingles all come to a point once they are placed bended? In a few of the pictures, it looks like the top of the dome is pointed, but in the "angle 3" picture, it looks smooth. Just wonderin' if I am seein' things or if you made an adjustment.

It did come to a point. At least at first. I put a piece of tape temporarily at the center on the inside to help bring it all together. The top now very smooth after the dome form pieces were glued into place, or once the top was glued to the form, depending on how you think about it.

I'll get some shots of the inside of the dome with the forms in place when I get the chance.

I haven't worked on the helmet for a few days, so I haven't taken any additional photos. If you have an specific parts of the helmet you want me to photograph, let me know and I'll try and get them for ya.

 

[never ending fett]

****UPDATE****

here you can see the dome section before i started coating/sealing it with Mod-Podge, which you can see in the picture. The dome form pieces have been glued in at this point which flattens out the top making it less pointy

more of the same, with less flash

started sealing it. The stuff goes on white and dries clear.

Here I've cut off the outer surface around the back to get the ridge, however the cardboard I used was not thick enough to create the ridge

very washed out view, but i'm inserting 2 more layers of cardboard between the inner and outer surfaces to get a bigger ridge

adding the layers

sealing the helmet

No details in this shot due to the flash washing it out, but i was going for the outline anyways, to show the form of the top of the dome: no point.

I couldn't find an exact shape of the dent, so I kinda winged it (that would be something to add to the templates Alan, the location and shape/size of both the arrows and the dent.) I took the 25mm by 25mm measurements listed on tk401's site and the general shape as shown in the painting stensils progress photoed by AFettFullofDollars traced it onto the helmet in my best guess location. Then I poked a hole in the center, and cut from the center to the corners. After that I just stuck my finger in the dent to push it in then started using hot glue on the outside and inside (not shown) let it cool a little then rounded it a little with the cap of a sharpie pen.

angle 2

dome resting on the rest of the bucket

angle 2

angle 3

I am currently adding more layers of Mod Podge to seal it, Mod Podge is sandable so once I've got a good number of layers built up, I can sand it and prime it

I also still need to make the keyhole section as well as the ears. I would also like to put a metal ring on the inside of the rim as well as the base of the dome to help keep it's shape.

 

[COPENHAGEN6]

I feel as if I'm there adding layers of Mod Podge with you. :cheers

Don't keep me in suspense......

Keep up the good work.

 

[TeamFett]

Great work. I think the dome is just a tad too high, though.

 

[never ending fett]

Great work. I think the dome is just a tad too high, though.

that may be the case, or it could be the camera angle...

i'm not sure what i could have done wrong if it is too high... the dome is already a good 1/4 inch smaller than the rest of the helmet all the way around, so if i shrunk the dome template any more that ridge would be even bigger.

how too high does it look to you? I'd rather change it sooner than later.

 

[never ending fett]

****UPDATE****

keyhole setup started

from the pictures I've looked at, it looks like the keyholes slant inward into the bucket the farther towards the bottom, i wasn't sure how to do this with the pieces in the templates so I made 2 skinny triangles and a skinny rectangle to attach the whole thing to the inside of the helmet to give it that slant

with the keyholes installed into the helmet

slightly different angle after everything dried

the ridge and the rangefinder side w/o the ear, i had to build it up with layers of cardboard. I think I used about 6 sheets or so cut to the correct shape then hot glued together and into place

angle 2 from the front

the dent and the top of the dome filled in and ready for sanding/primer

a view of the inside

another look inside with the dome attached

hopefully this will help determine if the dome is too tall

tape measure in front

i neglected to take a shot of it from the sides with the tape measure. i'll get those taken tomorrow. after that, some final touches and then primer.

I appreciate all the feedback I can get. This is the first time I've attempted anything like this so if i'm screwing something up let me know so I can fix it now. That's a big part of why i'm documenting it so much so I can get the feedback so things can be adjusted along the way.

Thanks for looking and that's for the feedback. More to come pending hight correction if needed.