Boushh Todd's (Sandman) Boushh Helmet Build

merkava74

Hunter
COMPLETED PHOTOS: post #39

While waiting for my gadzillion ESB Boba's parts to arrive (likely over the next 3 to 4 months), I decided to start on another helmet project: Boushh. I've always found her (his, since Boushh was supposed to be male, and Leia was only cross dressing) helmet to be cool looking.

Bought the bucket off Sandman (Todd), and he is a friendly and accommodating guy to work with. Awesome dude!

The kit came in a nicely sealed box with lots of cushioning, and the packets of resin greeblies neatly packed in ziploc.

The main attraction, the helmet, was a crisp, smooth and well cast block of resin. Except for the seam that ran through the cross section of the helmet, It was a very nice cast! Truly excited!

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And so the project begins.

I intend to do this slowly, and try to reference this as closely as I can to the screen-used prop, as there are many nice clear photos of it.
 
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The first thing to do was to cut our the visor and the head display slots.

The visor was pretty straightforward/ You just had to cut straight into the helmet, and take care at the rounded sides. The thing that needed some work was the inside top of the rim was longer than the inside bottom of the rim (not sure if you get what I'm saying), which would result in the visor being tilted backwards when viewed from the side. I wanted the visor to be perpendicular to the slot, so I had to trim the inside of the top rim to get it in line with the bottom rim. Test fitting the visor regularly helped to ensure I did not take away too much, or it would tilt forward!

For the head display slot, what I did was mask out the area that needed to be cut using graphic tape, and put my dremel to work.

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Turned out pretty nice, If I may say so myself! ;)

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Now the problem I faced while doing the top display was that after cutting the slot, the visor could not sit neatly against the edge, as the resin inside of the helmet was thick and uneven. I had to use a cutting bit to flatten the inside of the slot in order for the visor to sit.

As you can see, a photo from the inside showing the flat groove that I created to allow the visor to sit neatly against the slot opening.

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The view from the outside showing the neat groove.

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The visor had to be trimmed too. It was too high and too long, so both the length and width had to be trimmed to fit into the small space at the display slot.

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Finally, a dry fit with the visor in place. Pretty satisfied with how it looks.

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Next up, I tackled the piece at the front centre of the helmet. The resin part came with a straight edge, so a lot of grinding would be needed to get it to sit nicely with the curve of the top of the helmet. Take note that there is a nub on either side of the resin part. Not sure why Todd casted them. The photos of the SU piece did not have them. So I removed them. The tiny holes running down the centre of the piece were also not found in the original. I will fill them later.

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The nubs removed:

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To know how the curve will be in order to grind the resin piece properly, I masked the contour of the curve, and transferred the masking to the back of the resin piece. The curve is symmetrical and so would be ok even if it was reversed when transferring to the resin piece. This would give me a good guide as to how far the curve went, and take care not to remove too much of it.

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The masking transferred to the back of the resin part:

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Also, the curved part was lesser at the top than the bottom. So you can't just grind it away vertically following the masking line. You had to angle it a little, which was done with very very very regular test fits. Remember, "measure twice, cut once"!

This was how it looked after grinding:

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The final fit. There is some slight unevenness at the top of the helmet preventing the resin piece from sitting flush with the top. That will be resolved when gluing the piece down.

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Of course I do Arturo!!!!

Merkava, your build is looking great and you are off to a solid start! Can't wait to see how it turns out!!!

Todd

Thanks Todd! Your helmet quality is amazing! Such a breeze to work with!

Seeker, look no further. Sandman is your man!

- - - Updated - - -

So here's the next update.

Decided to tackle the head antenna thingy. While the supplied part was ok, I wanted to do another one myself. Maybe because I wanted sharper edges, maybe because I wanted rounder tubes, but mainly because I'm anal this way.
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So this began with sourcing for the right sized tubes and a little bit of thinking behind how to fabricate it, comparing closely with the kit part.

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From the main tube, 6 slots were marked out with graphic tape to be cut out:

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Slots cut and the tube sanded down to see better:

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Next, a larger size tube was cut into 4 rings, one complete ring, and 3 cut further to form 2 arches each. I need 6 of these. The first ring done:

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All 6 arches done.

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The inside was filled with several tubes of different diameters as per the actual prop, and the hole for the antenna drilled.

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I inserted a screw thread on the back for easy installation into the helmet later:

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The completed part primed:

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That's all for today. Gonna be travelling for work for a week, so won't be able to continue this till next week. In the meantime, if anyone can help me to identify the metal greeblies that go on the end of the antenna as shown, that would be awesome!

Those metal things along the rod. What are they and where can I find them?

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Thanks, 22ssplt!

- - - Updated - - -

By the way, Katscan from The RPF ID'ed the part:

"That metal piston is the same prop used for C3PO's chest pistons. Well, part of it anyway!

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"
 
Had some time this morning to tackle the dent on the top of the helmet as seen in the screen-used one:

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Marked it out and ground it down. Good thing Todd's helmet is thick in this area, so no filling is needed as it did not go through the helmet:

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The completed dent:

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Now for the battle scars!
 
The right ear greeblies done. Had to deviate from the instructions, which called for an acrylic plate to support the pieces. After looking at the photos of the original, it seems that it's actually a box-like thing under all that. Also, the greeblies were "fused" to the underside of the helmet, including the tube that went into the helmet. Wrapped some epoxy putty around that to simulate the fusion. Would have to sand it down later for a more natural look.

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The lower tube is also supposed to enter the helmet at both ends. one end had to be rounded down to simulate that as it would be tough to try and heat and bend that exactly:
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Left ear greeblies done. Pretty much the same as the right, except that the squarish greeblie is inverted, and the kit is missing a box-like thing at the back as per the original.

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What's left now is to wait for the epoxy putty to dry, sand the whole helmet down again, and prepare for the paint job!
 
So while overseas and unable to continue on my project, I did further research and lo and behold, discovered that I had made a mistake with one of the battle scars! They were streaking in the wrong direction! Something I need to remedy when I get back:

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Great thread so far! I have always liked Boosh been trying to convince my wife to wear a setup and let me make one for her. Not an easy battle ha ha :D
 
Have not been able to continue the helmet over the last week as I was overseas, and now that I'm back, I'm a little busy with other projects and errands. Nevertheless, here's a little update:

Thanks to Katscan, I ordered the C3PO part for the Boushh Rangefinder antenna thingy. It arrived today, and here it is:

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To be honest, I've never ordered 3D printed stuff before, and I'm quite puzzled by the grainy feel to it. It's not outright rough, but not smooth either. Luckily, this is a small part, and then only part of it will be used (red rectangle), there are only a few areas that need to be smoothened out. I'll see how it goes when I get to it.
 
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