Post by Tango Fett on Jan 27, 2011 10:59:57 GMT -5
Dear Marines, I share with you my helmet wip
In this case instead of calling it a bucket, we could call it a flower pot!. Don't laugh. You will see why...
I'm building the helmet from scratch, so I was very concerned about the shape to be straight, symmetrical, conical, not offset, nor skewed, without bumps, etc. so I decided not to shape it from scratch but to take any object as a base so I didn't have to worry about that. After a few comparisons with toy helmets for sizes and proportions, after some research and even considering using an actual bucket as a base, I opted for a flower pot because of it's conical shape, more conical than a regular bucket.
So once I've chosen the flower pot as the base object, I shaped 50mm of foam on top of it to obtain the rounded shape of the helmet.
I poured a few layers of a diluted type of drywall plaster to make the whole thing even and smoother. I decided to dilute and pour it instead of applying as a putty so gravity could help in distributing the plaster more evenly.
The original plan was to make a prototype or plug so I can make a fiberglass mold and then make the actual helmet from that mold, but when I added Bondo to thebucket flower pot and started sanding it, I found that the Bondo and plaster where totally different in their resistance to sanding, and after many "re bondoing - re sanding" I still couldn't get an even surface, so I discarded the idea of making a mold and decided to make the final helmet from what I had done already. For that purpose, I fiber glassed what I have already done so far, with the con that it had a lot of plaster from the previous stage, making it unnecessarily heavy, but I decided to continue and address that later.
After the fiberglass cured, I started again with the layers of bondo and sanding. This is very frustrating because you advance really slow, but as long as you move forward that's ok.
As I said in another post, with more than 100ºF there is a new concept for "wet sanding".
Primed and first coat painted to get the notion if it was going to be possible to come out with anything that may look like a helmet.
This paint helped to renew energy and hope to continue with the project.
So after many days of meditation I decided to proceed with cutting the helmet. This was critical for my project because I saw it as if everything depended from this moment, because for me, the helmet and the look of it is key for the costume. So I started with cutting it to shape
And here is where I've started with my frustration. I first cut very little so I could move forward and sand a little here, cut a little more there, etc. but after many sanding and cutting, I still could not get a decent look.
I also had to remove the foam from the interior because I thought I was going to have plenty of room inside the helmet but I didn't, so I needed all the space possible. After magically removing the foam with acetone it had enough room for use.
But I was worried at this point because after many sanding and changing angles and height of the cut and so, I still didn't get the look. It looked perfect for an AT-ST driver. Or even closer to a Snowtrooper, but nothing to do with a GM.
So I tried to keep calm and decided to proceed with the faceplate to see if that helped to give part of the look, and even I still haven't glued it to the helmet so it's still loose, it did help a little, but I'm still not satisfied with the shape or look. I still have to trim the helmet, cut about 10mm of the bottom because the surface is not finished there (which worries me because I see it already too short) and maybe rise a little the horizontal cut of the face so it goes up a little, but I think I don't have much room for that since for what I've seen in the references, the opening for the face is around 55% of the total height of the helmet and I'm already around that ratio. I also still see it too square and wide in the top (easier to note when in use, maybe not that bad in this pictures) so we'll see when I advance a little more. It looks short but when I try it on, the distance between the bottom of the helmet and my shoulders is minimal, while in the GM is broader, so I think it may be a little out of proportion. I think it also helped a little the angle of it when in use. If the back of the helmet is raised a little it also helps. Maybe with tons of these small tricks I'll get closer to the look.
I hope with some last trimming I get to a more decent shape. I still don't even know how it would fit with the rest of the armor, pauldrons, shoulders, etc. Anyway, if I finish it, I think it will do, because I believe it may be between the shape range of the approved GMs costumes I've seen, but it looks like in the beginning of this project I was too worried about obtaining something symmetrical and conical that I didn't pay enough attention about the proportions like the width of the top or the total height of thebucket flower pot
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you, and I hope it also may be of some help for anybody starting with the project. I'm open to critics as long as they don't involve building a whole new helmet. Hahaha.
Thanks!.
In this case instead of calling it a bucket, we could call it a flower pot!. Don't laugh. You will see why...
I'm building the helmet from scratch, so I was very concerned about the shape to be straight, symmetrical, conical, not offset, nor skewed, without bumps, etc. so I decided not to shape it from scratch but to take any object as a base so I didn't have to worry about that. After a few comparisons with toy helmets for sizes and proportions, after some research and even considering using an actual bucket as a base, I opted for a flower pot because of it's conical shape, more conical than a regular bucket.
So once I've chosen the flower pot as the base object, I shaped 50mm of foam on top of it to obtain the rounded shape of the helmet.
I poured a few layers of a diluted type of drywall plaster to make the whole thing even and smoother. I decided to dilute and pour it instead of applying as a putty so gravity could help in distributing the plaster more evenly.
The original plan was to make a prototype or plug so I can make a fiberglass mold and then make the actual helmet from that mold, but when I added Bondo to the
After the fiberglass cured, I started again with the layers of bondo and sanding. This is very frustrating because you advance really slow, but as long as you move forward that's ok.
As I said in another post, with more than 100ºF there is a new concept for "wet sanding".
Primed and first coat painted to get the notion if it was going to be possible to come out with anything that may look like a helmet.
This paint helped to renew energy and hope to continue with the project.
So after many days of meditation I decided to proceed with cutting the helmet. This was critical for my project because I saw it as if everything depended from this moment, because for me, the helmet and the look of it is key for the costume. So I started with cutting it to shape
And here is where I've started with my frustration. I first cut very little so I could move forward and sand a little here, cut a little more there, etc. but after many sanding and cutting, I still could not get a decent look.
I also had to remove the foam from the interior because I thought I was going to have plenty of room inside the helmet but I didn't, so I needed all the space possible. After magically removing the foam with acetone it had enough room for use.
But I was worried at this point because after many sanding and changing angles and height of the cut and so, I still didn't get the look. It looked perfect for an AT-ST driver. Or even closer to a Snowtrooper, but nothing to do with a GM.
So I tried to keep calm and decided to proceed with the faceplate to see if that helped to give part of the look, and even I still haven't glued it to the helmet so it's still loose, it did help a little, but I'm still not satisfied with the shape or look. I still have to trim the helmet, cut about 10mm of the bottom because the surface is not finished there (which worries me because I see it already too short) and maybe rise a little the horizontal cut of the face so it goes up a little, but I think I don't have much room for that since for what I've seen in the references, the opening for the face is around 55% of the total height of the helmet and I'm already around that ratio. I also still see it too square and wide in the top (easier to note when in use, maybe not that bad in this pictures) so we'll see when I advance a little more. It looks short but when I try it on, the distance between the bottom of the helmet and my shoulders is minimal, while in the GM is broader, so I think it may be a little out of proportion. I think it also helped a little the angle of it when in use. If the back of the helmet is raised a little it also helps. Maybe with tons of these small tricks I'll get closer to the look.
I hope with some last trimming I get to a more decent shape. I still don't even know how it would fit with the rest of the armor, pauldrons, shoulders, etc. Anyway, if I finish it, I think it will do, because I believe it may be between the shape range of the approved GMs costumes I've seen, but it looks like in the beginning of this project I was too worried about obtaining something symmetrical and conical that I didn't pay enough attention about the proportions like the width of the top or the total height of the
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you, and I hope it also may be of some help for anybody starting with the project. I'm open to critics as long as they don't involve building a whole new helmet. Hahaha.
Thanks!.
I definitely hear you on it not being the worst helmet to be admitted to the 501st, I shake my head at a few of them 
