Hi all,
As with my armour WIP, I've already built and worn my helmet once, but this will cover the work done, and then the modifications that I'm planning to make to it.
I first started with 3D Printing a helmet, which seemed like an awesome idea at the time, however due to the size of the printer, I had to cut the helmet up into smaller pieces, then glue it together.
It's sort of hard to see in the pictures, but the 3D print, unfortunately, warped during the print, and I wasn't able to get it to sit well.
Also, I thought that the dome seemed to be too tall, giving the helmet a slightly distorted look (apart from the obvious warping).
In discussions with my dad, he suggested that I work in metal, instead. His help and advice was beyond helpful with this, given I'd never worked with steel or fibreglass before.
I started with Wizard of Light's helmet templates. Over the build, we made some changes to how the helmet was put together, but they were a great help initially.
We formed the dome using a shallow dish, in two halves.
The helmet was rolled roughly to shape. It was kind of wobbly, so we twisted it to get it to sit correctly.
The cheek inserts were formed as one piece, beaten to the proper shape, then welded into place.
Once everything was in place, the visor shape was cut out, leaving the last part in the bottom for support. I later decided to keep it, both for support's sake, and the fact that I liked the look of it.
One of the last things that we did before painting the helmet was to put fibreglass over the dome and in the cheeks, to smooth out the curved surfaces.
I spent a few weeks working on the armour, then once I had everything built, I started getting everything ready to paint.
Here are some photos of the painting process.
The visor of the helmet looks rippled for a very simple reason. I didn't check the size of the helmet compared to my head before fibreglassing and painting it.
When I put the plastic material in that I was planning to use for the visor, my nose pressed against it. Since I had left it till the night before Supanova to complete the helmet, I didn't have time to be doing anything fancy, so instead of applying tint to the plastic and sticking it in the hole, I simply put the tint film into the hole. With a second layer covering from the intersection of the T-slot of the visor down (again, so my nose couldn't be seen), I had a visor in place that successfully made it through a day of convention-ing.
The sides of the helmet I shaped in timber, for ease of construction.
I was originally planning to build a Bardan Jusik suit, from the Republic Commando novel Triple Zero. Since Bard'ika is still a Jedi at that point, I didn't think he would need a Range Finder. So, I was always planning to build the helmet with an antenna.
After some trouble finding the right flightsuit and deciding to build a custom suit of armour, I opted to keep the design of the antenna. I'm glad I did, I like the look of it.
A photo of myself with Jar'yn from the Sandhawks at Supanova Sydney, 2016. He was kind enough to lend me his rifle for the photo.
So, that's where I'm up to for the time being.
The funniest thing in all of this is that, even with the helmet being made out of thin steel sheet (0.9mm), it isn't too heavy when you're wearing it. I've padded out the inside with thin layers of foam, and it's perfectly comfortable.
Future plans, I'd like to put an audio system into the helmet, and a ventilation system, so I can wear the helmet for longer without melting. It was winter here in Australia when I was wearing that thing, and it was still pretty hot. I can only imagine what it's going to be like in warmer months.
And, of course, I still need to put the <> on the front of the helmet.
Thanks for reading through my build so far. Any thoughts, questions, comments, etc. are more than welcome.
