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[Catra Veshok]

Update continued...

Here's some work on the smaller pieces. (The first photo looks like it's actually before reshaping the cheekbones.)





I decided to make the back vent a little wider so the helmet overall wouldn't look so wide in the back, with so much empty space between the vent and the earpieces.



I decided to use an old salsa container to cut out the vent pieces. Again, these are based on the WOF Boba Fett templates, but modified somewhat.







Epoxy worked a little better this time. Also, I lightly sanded the pieces first.



Epoxy was tricky on this. I added multiple layers of it. (It's fast drying .) My mistake, though, was putting the vent in before doing some more heat shaping on the back band. A little melting happened. So I'll have to replace the vent.



Preparing for inside bondo resin, I duct taped the outside to help the hot glue keep things together during curing. But I had to go to work and didn't get to the resining till that night.



So the bondo lid had sealed shut. Not sure why, unless the hardener tube leaked a little, or I touched it with some hardener on my gloves the last time. Any ideas how to unstick a sealed on lid?
So I picked up a small repair kit from ACE. It was enough to do the job. But it's smellier because the resin is in a plastic container instead of metal.



Here's my nocturnal bondo job. I learned that I should do smaller pieces of fiberglass fabric around the curves instead of longer strips. Still, it's pretty solid. I might eventually sand down the bubbles where the fabric didn't stick as well and add some smaller pieces. As it was, I did two layers in most places.



Next morning. It was kind of a mess, but since I didn't wait two days to touch it like last time, cleanup was a lot easier. The resin was hard, but not totally cured and difficult to sand or cut down.



Back to the earpieces for a minute. I had no idea how I'd get around the inside curves with an Xacto. So I though, hey, a drill makes a round shape, about the size I need! So there's that.



I don't remember what was going on when I took this photo. But I can tell you, it took me forEVER to pull and cut the hot glue out around the cheekbones. I did too good a job, I think. Or maybe it was what I should've done, to hold everything together while the bondo cured. Either way, it was a pain getting that stuff out. I'd done it at high temp.

After extracting the hot glue, I used epoxy in its place as something more sure and solid.



At some point after the epoxy, I broke down and bought a Dremel tool. So glad I did. I used it to sand off excess epoxy, and for other things later.

[Catra Veshok]

I stayed up till 3 one night bondoing and sanding (bondo filler). Maybe that was a mistake. I had no idea it would take so long! I'm feeling it now. But I really wanted something Star Wars to wear to Salt Lake FanX! Cosplay is half the reason I go. The other half is writing panels.  .

I had some fun taking pics in this lighting as I went. (Don't worry. I didn't get TOO distracted with it. The artist's daughter in me just appreciates stuff like that.)

This was my first time using bondo filler. (Okay, it's my first time with a lot of things on this helmet.) I think if I hadn't been staying up so late, it would be my favorite part of the process. I felt a little like a sculptor. After shaping the wet material, the trick was sanding it at the right time, not too dry, not too wet. Not the end of the world, but it's just easier at a certain point.

Speaking of the end of the world, this first photo kind of reminds me of what we've seen of Mandalore onscreen.



Filling in to make multiple pieces look like one



The tools I used for shaping. Also, there's an earpiece. I discovered that Command strip velcro wouldn't work for temporary attachment. It doesn't stick to sanded bucket plastic.



I used the Dremel to to make a clearer line between the upper and lower cheekbones after the bondo dried for a bit.



Getting ready for primer.



I decided I didn't want paint getting inside yet.



I'm Batmando...
Based on previous paint tests and inspiration from others, I used black as the base primer. It makes the silver on top look more like solid metal.



As you can see, I'll need to sand down and fill in some places, then sand, then repaint, then sand...









It looks better in some lighting than others.

[Catra Veshok]

The visor. Also took me till 3 AM. And I'll have to replace it. But I learned stuff.

Working out the pattern. The bottom had to be wider than that blue template because of the curve.



Creasing the paper into the weird shape where I'd cut the helmet above the eyes







Cutting was slow. As with the bucket plastic, I used heating, scoring, and bending to help the process. People like me who aren't buff have to be creative with getting stuff like this done.

Heat shaping was . . . interesting. It took awhile to warm up enough. But then it got too warm, and I put my fingers all over where the eyes would be. The surface was kinda melty, so my gloved fingerprints stayed.



I was tired and didn't have extra material, so I just hot glued it in for now so again, I'd have SOMETHING to wear to FanX. I could . . . sorta see out of it vaguely. So yeah, a redo will be in order. Also, I put padding in the sides so the helmet wouldn't wobble. I didn't put padding in the top because a thick headband I used to keep my hair out of my face was sufficient.





Test run at FanX. I only have some top soft parts done otherwise, and I wore a poncho thing over that, which won't be there most of the time when the armor is finished.  With the pauldrons, the helmet should look better proportioned.  But hey, I got to briefly meet some Mandos! (Briefly, because I'm just awkward and shy in new situations.) I saw some really cool kits! Very insipiring! And getting a helmet nod or thumbs up in passing made me really happy. 

Soon, I'll get on to finishing this and the rest of the kit! Thanks for the support so far, online and in person! You guys are awesome!

[Cattriss Wren]

Wow looks someone has been very busy!! I like the silver and black paint. It also sounds like you had a great time at fanx.

[Vercopaanir]

Look at all the progress!  Well done 

[Catra Veshok]

Wow looks someone has been very busy!! I like the silver and black paint. It also sounds like you had a great time at fanx.

It was kind of a whirlwind for a couple weeks leading up to FanX! Then I took a week off from my kit. Haha.
The black and silver does look a little different than it did on my plastic spoon tests. Probably because I had to layer on more silver for coverage on a helmet than on a spoon.  And different material...

Look at all the progress!  Well done 

Thanks!  I've been learning so much along the way, thanks  a lot of it to vode like you!

[Catra Veshok]

Su'cuy, ner vode! It's been a bit since I've worked on the helmet. I've been focusing on the soft parts and working on armor templates. I'd planned to start cutting out some armor this week, but now I've got a case of whiplash and figured I didn't want to put those muscles under a lot of strain. I've never dealt with sintra, so I don't know what to expect. But I wanted to do SOMETHING. So I started working on what's been bugging me with the helmet. I think the eyes are too narrow in proportion to everything else (see previous posts) and that contributes to the whole helmet looking super wide. I hope to be able to cut the eyes a little wider. So what I did last night was make a pattern for the modification. I cut it out of black poster board and taped it on so I'd get an idea if it would actually look good. What do you guys think? Also, I might add some material along the top edges of the eyes because I feel like they're pretty wide open and too high up on the helmet. Honestly, I've considered just starting a new helmet. It's so wide! But I've put so much work into this I want to at least try to make it satisfactory.

I'm glad I kept these templates around. I drew, then markered a shape around one of the eyes.



Then I cut it out and tried it on both eyes.





Then I tried it on along with armor templates. The armor plates will be more curved. I just wanted to see if changing the eyes would improve the overall look. The helmet and armor will be painted darker colors, as you can see in my profile pic and concept. I think the darker colors will make the helmet look smaller than it does with the silver.

[Second Son]

At first I for-real thought you'd already trimmed out the eyes in that last picture - but it's just the marker showing the proposed line. 
I think that expanding the openings as you show would improve the proportions, or you could incorporate the "eyeliner" into your paint job and get a similar effect if you don't want to chop into the structure of your helmet.

 Your shoulder plates IMO also do a good job of expanding your profile and keeping the helmet from appearing too wide.

[Catra Veshok]

At first I for-real thought you'd already trimmed out the eyes in that last picture - but it's just the marker showing the proposed line. 
I think that expanding the openings as you show would improve the proportions, or you could incorporate the "eyeliner" into your paint job and get a similar effect if you don't want to chop into the structure of your helmet.

 Your shoulder plates IMO also do a good job of expanding your profile and keeping the helmet from appearing too wide.

Thanks! It's good to get another opinion on that.