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[Peregrinus]

I know I promised to start this about a week ago. A cold can really knock one off one's stride. >_< I'm more-or-less caught up to where I wanted to be before I started this thread, so here goes.

As I have remarked elsewhere on the subject, I am not aiming for "make it look less like a toy". I am aiming for "as close as I can get it to an idealized film-accurate Boba bucket". With changes, since it isn't gonna be Boba, after all. I'm still girding my loins for another foray into the wonderful world of sintra to see if I've ironed out the bugs in my template system for my eventual metal scratch-builds. And in the meantime, this makes a fun diversion that I'll probably keep around as a backup or secondary helmet.

First of all, we are all familiar with the raw materials in question:



After entirely dismantling it, I could get to work. Incidentally, I got the entire sound system out, including both earcaps, completely intact, including the connecting wire. If anyone wants 'em, let me know.

Most significantly, to compensate for the oversized earcaps, I had to take about twelve millimeters off the front half of the dome:



Here's the revised front half matched against the back half:



Then I had to bring the back skirt up to the correct length (again, idealized symmetrical, of course):



And cut off...:



Taking care of the keyslots is one of the next steps, so I'll get back to that area in a future post.

Next the dent had to go. It's pretty deep, and I didn't want to add that much filler unless I had to. Besides, I had other ideas for the iconic dent, so I removed it...:



...And here it is:



Then the dome got epoxied together:



And here it is cleaned up and ready for the next step:



Next I have to fill the dent hole (much more shallowly than if I'd left it in), putty over the dome seam and moulding defects, revise the keyslot area and finish off the back skirt line... And a few other minor cleanup details. Then I get to go to town on the cheeks and ears. Here's a preview...




Part of what's taken me so long also is that I'm working on an MR CE Stormtrooper helmet and four Hasbro Clonetrooper helmets alongside this one. Those WIP threads forthcoming, but not tonight.

--Jonah

[Belleg Com]

any chance of an update? ive got a hasbro and have been putoff by the ears and would really love to see how this one worked out.

[Peregrinus]

ive got a hasbro and have been putoff by the ears

Yeah, those are pretty... impressive... earcaps. Mine are sitting on my "free to good home" pile. *chuckle*

Anyway, UPDATE! Cuz, y'know, I've been working on this thing and stuff...

And remember -- when I say "right" and "correct" I'm referring to the measurements of the original Boba helmet that I'm using as base inspiration, not saying it's the only way to do things.

First, capping off the last picture of the helmet in progress, the filled in and smoothed over dent:



But before that, I'd superglued strips of sintra to the inside of the dome seam and epoxy-puttied the edges to reinforce and blend:



I also filled in the existing "turn signals" and placed correctly-shaped ones the right height above the brow band -- this is them mostly shaped and still in need of a little cleanup:



And I added a 1mm strip of sintra to the bottom edge of the brow band to widen it to the correct 13mm:



And prepped the leading edges of the back skirt to anchor the new side pieces:



Which, speaking of:



Glued in place on the right cheek piece:



From the outside:



I also glued a strip of sintra along the inner edge of the mandibles to help anchor the reshaping:



And an assembly of scrap sintra bits at the bottom of each "tusk" to extend them to the right length:



Then epoxy putty to reshape the curve of the cheekbone to something more like the original:



I built up the lower edge of the visor opening, as well, but seem to have not taken any close-ups of that while I was doing it. Thought I had.

At any rate, here's the left side glued on with the join to the back skirt puttied over:



And the whole shebang reinforced on the inside:



When I cut the cheek pieces off, I did so straight level, and shortened up the side of the upper part to 8mm, so once I added the strip of sintra, the corner of the visor opening is the correct 7mm high:



Then we get to more stuff I thought I took pictures of -- the second laminate layer of side pieces cut from 1mm sintra and glued onto the first, and then the epoxy putty over that to get the get the depth and contours right. Here's the current result, partway through cleanup:



Those reference lines mark the front and back edges of the scratchbuilt earcaps, and the midline reference.

If I do another one of these, I'd move the corners of the visor slit and the back edge of the cheek insets back several millimeters, and -- depending on what that does to the mandibles' positioning -- maybe leave off the vertical strips on the insides of the tusks. As I have it now, if I were to take those off (which I might), then the vertical part of the T would be the correct width. Since it's only a millimeter on each side, I'll probably just leave it as is.

Which is currently still in need of a bit of cleanup and finishing off the keyslot opening, but:



Getting there...

--Jonah

[Bairu Wapek]

Nice mod, with the removal of the ears you could make this s brilliant deathwatch helmet

[Kora]

Deathwatch helmets, from what I've seen, have longer cheeks and are more squinty eyed (just going off the few I can find on the forums to look at as I've never messed with one in person). While a lot of HBF mods do tend to look more DW, this one has been shortened and is going off of Boba measurements so it's just a standard Fett helmet. Though the HBF does certainly lend itself very well to make a DW style helmet, I think.

Perhaps some comparison pics with my 2 piece and Commando just to give a more accurate idea of the size to the viewers at home? *chuckle*

[Peregrinus]

Kora's right, the Death Watch helmet is a more stylized design. Mine won't look as "long and skinny" once I have the new earcaps on.

Incidentally, when using a good superglue, be careful about seepage. At least I know the parts of my helmet are securely bonded...



--Jonah

[Raya Ka'ra Travee]

XD! Nice job! You're gunna hafta teach me some of your skills once I get out there. And I've had similar experience with superglue... Sticky stuff!

[Mav Nexu]

You're going above and beyond what's required to make this helmet troopable. Very nice work. This is gonna be a great bucket.

[Raya Ka'ra Travee]

Perfectionist. With everything.

[Kel Toi]

Great work and well done, but i will stick to buyin one ! I had enough -censored- with my first bucket (2-piece) . No more ! No Frkn More ! LOL

[Niabi]

This is one good looking HBF mod so far. Keep it up Vod and you’ll have an awesome bucket

[Drichar]

Space marines!
Howling Griffins?

[Klynn Targh]

I was thinking lamenters myself.  But howling griffins is what they be.  Does someone love badab war?

[Peregrinus]

Love you guys. Yup, those are a goodly chunk of my Howling Griffons. I, ah... >_> I originally started them to protest the drab colors GW painted them in 3rd Edition. I used Bad Moon Yellow and Ruby Red, which is why they might look brighter to ya than what you'd expect these days. *chuckle* Here's a closer look at most of my Command section, in progress:



Once I get back home, I expect to be done with the modding phase of this project quite soon and have it primed right after. I can't wait to see what it ends up looking like either.

--Jonah

[pyromastermuaddib]

Great looking helmet dude! And nice Howling griffins, If we ever troop together I'll have to bring my eldar or blood angels and we'll have a quick game!