Scratch-made Helmet - Pics and Updates

[TBone]

-Edit -
OK, I was just going to post these pics, but I thought I would keep them all in my old thread. And the thread is quit long, so I adding them to the top of the thread.

This is my pleasure to present to you the final product - painted by a very awesome artist from the TDH, Rogue Studios. See the attached area for some pics of this bad boy.

I am really happy how well it turned it. Lee did one awesome paint job on it. The attention to detail is superb for such a small bucket. The colors (which may seem a little odd in the pics because of the flash) look dead on. I cannot say how glad I am to have this for my son.

One thing makes me mad though...While I was working on this bucket and getting it ready for priming, I left it in my shop for 2 days. Well, the heat got to it, and you can see in the front shot that visor area is a little warped. I tried to fix this before I sent it to Lee, but it seems that it is still very warped. I hope that I can get this fixed without it damaging Lee's awesome paint job.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can complete the rest of Will's suit before Halloween.

- End edit mode -

OK, I have been wanting to start on my son's bucket for awhile now, and I actually had some time off during Thanksgiving to start it. No offense to JD, I would've loved to have one of his buckets, but I just hate to spend money on something my son may or may not wear.

On to the nitty-gritty... The base I am using is an old army dress-up helmet my son had rarely ever worn. I am using styrene and sintra to mod it. I didn't get a pic of it before hand, but all I did was cut the flare off of the front of the helmet.

Next, I took cardstock and created/fit patterns to get the size of the pieces needed. Then I cut them out of some thin styrene I had. I also heated a spot up on the dome to create the dent. This is what it looked like:

The edging around the the visor and the ears will be sintra. I took my original template and used it to create a template for the edging. I then cut, heated, and shaped the pieces out of the sintra it to fit around the styrene:

I am now in the process of gluing the sintra to the styrene. It should look something like this when it is done:

 

[sarlac_snack]

Looks great so far. Wish I could help out with the cheeks, but I am still trying to unwarp my DP97, lol.

 

[judz dwedd]

Looks like you're off to a fine start. Don't go showin me up, now.

 

[jarodpenn]

Scratch-made Helmet - Pics and Questions

After the overlying piece is fitted on, you could cut that section out entirely and rework it with more material. Just a thought...

 

[TBone]

judz dwedd wrote:
Looks like you're off to a fine start. Don't go showin me up, now.

Stop it, dude...your stuff is rocks!

What I'm thinking is I may cut the area where the flat green areas should be, then make smaller cuts into the area that will be black "swoops" under the red mandibles, so I can curve it slightly.

I wish I had a heat gun, maybe I could shape it without cutting, but unfortunately I'm limited to hot water for shaping

 

[Geo]

Try a hair dryer, maybe that might give you enough heat.

 

[Bama Trooper152]

T-bone, you could make a few more layers of the face plate, with the cheeks getting smaller, then bondo the cheek edges to get that curved look?
-Bamatrooper

 

[TBone]

Bamatrooper - I think it would probably make it too heavy in the front, but thinks for the idea.

I remolded the cheeks last night. I took some photos but...I don't have a way of posting them here with the TDH photo pages down. I'll try imagedump or something tonight. They turned out better than I expected.

My next big item to do is the key slots in the back. I drew out a template and I will have to cut it out of sintra, cut a hole in the back, and attach it. May get it done tonight

I'm not going to cut out the visor slot until I get that part done. I ordered a shade #4 visor yesterday that I hope to have in by Friday.

 

[TBone]

Updated pics below:

Here is the cheek.

Compared with my DP '96. The visor on Will's helmet is taller in comparison with mine. I think when I get ready to cut it out, I'll try it smaller, but I want him to be able to see out better than mine.

Here is a shot next to his chest armor. I still have to do the green layer and add the decals from Vash.

 

[Tambo Fett]

Mann that's starting to look real good t-bone.

 

[TBone]

Thanks, Glenn. I haven't really put alot of hours into it yet...just wait until I start the bondo work.

Here a few with Will wearing it, both cheeks are shaped now.

Thanks for looking!

 

[wizardofflight]

Exellent work. Your one cool dad.

Keep the pictures coming

Alan

 

[TBone]

Thanks Wiz...I try to be

Not much of an update today. I smoothed some bondo on the helmet in the cheeks and filled in the dip inbetween the army helmet and the styrene.

 

[Badger]

nice work! this is really cool.

 

[judz dwedd]

That's really coming along nice. Your process is not that different from my own. I eagerly await seeing it's completion.

 

[jarodpenn]

Scratch-made Helmet - Pics and Questions

If your son doesn't think you ROCK yet, rest assured that everyone else does!

 

[TBone]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

I didn't get anywhere with it last night, but I plan on sanding it down tonight. I'll get some pics posted after I'm done.

 

[TBone]

Got some of the ear pieces made. Cut out the visor to see if Will could see through a smaller hole. I think he can, so I'll be able to get the visor closer to the right look. Sanded the second coat of Bondo down.

Front and back view

Nice perspective view...

The black at the top of the cheeks will get some pieces of sintra added and <sigh> more bondo...

All that's really left to fab now is the RF, stalk, and ear cap...and there's only 9 days left till Christmas!

 

[ACSS2]

Looking good!! Will you have a tutorial?

 

[TBone]

I'm not so good on making tutorials...I may try though. I documented it pretty good with pics.

Finished making the RF, antenna, and ear cap. Cheated a little on the RF. It is actually from a Rubies '97 bucket, but the scale looked ok to me. I made the antenna from 1/8" thick aluminum bar.

I had to put a coat of primer on it. I'm nowhere near being ready to paint, but the primer will help find those bad spots that need to be filled...and it made me feel a little better by covering up the all the different pieces that went into it and made it look more whole.

I got one side of the eye slot fixed. Still working on there other. Also started filling in the pinholes in the bondo.

The ear cap is just taped on here. I won't stick it on till later.

This is the eye slot I still have to finish.