WIP Cardboard Helmet

[NoahFett]

Hey guys! I'm working on a cardboard helmet based off of WoF's templates and Antmans tutorial and I was hoping you could help me out with a quick question. I bought a skate helmet and cut it down, but not sure if I cut it down enough? If you can tell from the picture, I would love some feedback. Its about 4" tall from the white part of the helmet.



Thanks,
Noah

 

[NoahFett]

Not going to use skate helmet after all, it wasn't quite the right size. There was too much of a gap between the side of the helmet and the side of the dome.

Also the shape wasn't quite right.

Going to do the "pepakura" style dome instead I guess. Wish me luck.

 

[gt8mar]

Good Luck! Looks good so far!

 

[StrumFett]

Good luck! this is a hard way you choose but with hard work, it will worth it.

 

[NoahFett]

Thanks guys! Might stick with the skate helmet after all. lol Started on the pepakura and wanted to cuss about 3 minutes into it

 

[NoahFett]

Guess I should have posted these pics first:

I printed WoF's templates and followed Antman's tutorial. I started with a 24" x 36" piece of matboard from Michaels and cut out the inner helmet part and the mask part and traced them onto the matboard.


Then I cut out the helmet base, helmet form Rt/Lt, and helmet form Frt/Bk. Then traced them onto the matboard and cut them out.


Next I put them together. (The fuzzy black kitten is crucial to this step) I put the dome form together before I took pictures, doh, but here it is in the picture!


Here it is put together with the mask (forgot to take pics of that too).


And I cut out the mandible area from the helmet and "dry" fitted the mandibles and cheek plates. I used Antmans trick of misting the matboard down with water to make it easier to form the pieces and taped them in place until they dried.


After they dried I glued them in and this is what I have so far.


I'm going to tackle the ear pieces next, but minus the electronics. My goal is to have a full suit done by May the 4th. My comic book store, 3rd Eye Comics, is having a May the 4th celebration. Its free comic book day and it is their 5 year anniversary so they're going to do all kinds of cool stuff.

 

[HathegKla]

I like the skate helmet idea. it might save you some thine down the road with fitting.

 

[NoahFett]

I can't take credit for it, got the idea from somebody else on here. I had to cut a section out of the middle to shorten it up, but it's working out good so far.

 

[NoahFett]

I've been slacking! Here is my helmet now, I have the right ear piece done I just need to attach it. I also have to do the stalk and rangefinder which I hope to have done by the end of the week.

 

[gt8mar]

Nice Progress!

 

[NoahFett]

I've been slacking on my build! Stupid life Also I traded a Blood Bowl team paint job for 2 big boxes of Star Wars books\m/ So i've been busy painting a Chaos Blood Bowl team. Here's what I have done from my last post. I've been freehanding the damage so its not quite accurate, but its good practice for when I get a real bucket! Let me know what you guys think. Also, a pic of the rest of my costume. I kinda blew it on the shoulders, so I'll have to redo them and I think need to work on the armor a little more. I'm going for ROTJ so I'll need to lighten up my flight suit and darken the flak vest. My ammo pouches are cell phone cases I found at the Dollar Tree so they're a little big, but I'm trying to do it on the cheap.

 

[NoahFett]

Here's some updates, I feel like such a slacker! I know my damage isn't quite right, but it should be pretty close. I couldn't get the templates to fit quite right and lost patience with it, so I freehanded the damage:/ In hindsight, I should have kept working with the templates to get them to fit. I'm going to totally redo my armor, so I'm just trying to concentrate on getting my helmet finished for right now. Let me know what you guys think, any feedback is appreciated. Positive or negative. I'm not going for 501st with this, but I do want it to look fairly accurate. Also, my visor is just taped in for now. And sorry for the picture quality.

 

[Syper]

Amazing work for a scratch build Mr. keep the pics coming.

 

[NoahFett]

Thanks Syper! I hope to have some more done this weekend and I'll be sure to take more pics, hopefully ones that look a little better. . .

 

[ABarveLikeThat]

Looking great so far! Doing it all by hand may not be what the 501st is after, but it still looks hella cool and I am sure you are having a blast wearing that thing. I have a 3 year old who would freak out in excitement if boba walked up, and he wouldn't care about screen accuracy! Its more about the experience and the fun in making something iconic like that!

If you don't mind my asking, why did you go back to using the skate helmet instead of going with the pep dome? I am starting (slowly) a build and have the parts for the visor and mandibles all cut, but just cannot decide to go with a prebuilt dome from a cut skate helmet or making a dome from the WoF or RFHv2 templates.

 

[NoahFett]

Thanks for the kind words Barve! I would like to try for 501st some day, but not with this helmet. I really just lost patience with the pep dome. I had it all cut out and while I was trying to fit it together I started thinking about all the bondo and sanding and I've never worked with bondo before, so I was like forget this. I had seen another member (can't remember who) post about using a skate helmet, found one at the Goodwill for like 2 bucks and that was that. I took out all the padding and had to cut about a 1-1/2" strip out of the middle and it fit pretty good. Just had to fill a couple of ventilation holes in the helmet and cut "The Dent" in after that.

 

[NoahFett]

Some updated pics of my paint progress:


Visor is just taped in at this point. Really should have taken more time on my sanding and filling of the dome. Still need to learn how to take a better picture:/ I've got more pictures, but need to go through them and see which look the best. Since these were taken I added some damage with pastels and have the first layer of paint on the dome.

 

[grenater]

Are you using very fine steel wool in between paint, it helps smooth out the surface.great work btw!

 

[NoahFett]

No, but I will definitely give it a whirl!

 

[RichHFB]

Thanks for all the info especially the wire wool am just about to start work on the filler on my dome Cheers