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[Tyno Krast]

I've got a main build thread going on but since I'm just focusing on the bucket at the moment I thought I'd post the helmet WIP here.

The journey begins with a fine cold cast helmet from Asok.



I took this to show the difference between the sanded areas and the un-sanded areas. If anyone is considering getting a cold cast helmet stop thinking about it and just do it already!



Sadly the dent was filled. A 2 part epoxy putty was used then sanded flush. I'll either use rub-n-buff to go over the spot or just hit it with some metalic silver spray paint.






Next is getting the visor installed.

The visor itself is a beauty from t-visor.com! Great product!



Although there are many ways to mount the visor I opted for a system that would allow me a bit of air flow as well as the ability to remove the visor for cleaning or replacement. Like many before me I anchored bolts directly to the bucket.

Basically what I did was measure out where I needed the visor to be anchored. I decided on bolts at the top center, inner points of the cheeks, and one on each mandible.
After learning the hard way on a Night Owl helmet I put together, I did the forehead bolt first. This let me get and keep the visor centered while I did the other bolts. I then did the mandible bolts followed by the cheek bolts. I found that by doing the bolts in this order I was able to keep everything lined up.



After drilling each hole in the visor I used a small hand file to open the holes up a bit more. Then I placed the visor into the helmet with the bolt in the visor in order to get the proper placement.



I then used a few drops of CA glue (Zap-A-Gap) and a pinch of baking soda to tack the bolt into place. Next I removed the visor and added more CA glue and baking soda to fill the gaps and cement the bolt into place.



I'm a huge fan of CA glue and baking soda. If you haven't used it yet give it a try. While CA glue does bond well for seems and gaps it can be brittle when it comes to other applications. Especially anchoring. However, when you sprinkle baking soda onto the CA glue it not only dries the glue instantly but it also creates a rock hard bond. Of course it helps of you score the area well before using this method.


 Finally got the dent blended in. You can still see it a bit but I'm thinking with the base coat and come creative weathering I should be able to get it virtually invisible.

I think this baby is ready for paint. Please let me know what you think and as always critiques/suggestions are welcome









Made some progress today. This took A LOT longer than I thought it would. Typical rookie mistake.

Although this was really time intensive I tried not to rush it.

After doing some research I really like the layered weathering effect and decided to go with that technique.

My first step was to draw out where I wanted damage. After that I grabbed a tube of Pepsedent and a small paint brush and went to work.

The paint brush was actually one I was going to toss out because the bristles had dried paint on them. But it seemed to work out ok for applying toothpaste :-)

After over 3hrs of painting on toothpaste I hit the bucket with 2 coats of grey primer. Then took about 2 hours to clean off the toothpaste.

Here is the result........













This is where I'm at so far. Please let me know what you think.

[Naren Sprax]

Awesome! Chipping seems a bit heavy for my tastes but I think you know what you are doing. Plus the great thing about layering is if you think it's too heavy in one spot just don't mask again on the next layer. I am about to paint over my masking fluid this morning, just wanted to get the muses going, and I'd say I need more masking on mine after looking at yours  , may have gone too light on mine.

Looks great vod, keep it up

[Tyno Krast]

Thanks vod

Yeah I went kind of nuts with the damage lol

I've spent the last couple of years doing screen accurate costumes. So when you get a chance to build a mando you taste freedom! It's easy to go overboard lol.

[Niabi]

Very Nice work vod very nice indeed im looking forward to following this one

[Tyno Krast]

Thanks Niabi. I hope I do you proud!

Ok....I pulled off the tape, cleaned up the toothpaste and this is what I got...





And here's poor Tyno sitting on the shelf next to little "Mr. Perfect"



I'm not 100% happy with the way it's turned out so far. But I've still got 3 layers of color, topical weathering, and the final detailing to go. I'm making a lot of mistakes but it's a learning experience.

A few words of warning for those who might be looking to do this......

1- If you use any type of masking fluid plan out and mask off an area smaller than you actually want. Otherwise you'll get chips/scratches that are much bigger than you initially planned.

2- If you're going to use toothpaste on a cold cast helmet see how it reacts to a small area first. I'm using Pepsident brand. Sure it's got a minty fresh smell and my bucket doesn't suffer from gingivitis but the toothpaste did darken and discolor the helmet a bit. It's not too bad, not all metal is shiny. But it's darker than I would like. For the rest of the helmet I'll be using actual masking fluid.

3-As I was writing tip number 2 I forgot tip number 3. Sorry.

Tomorrow the plan is to start laying down color to the visor and the jaig eyes.

I'm still not 100% sure what color to do the cheek wells and the back of the bucket. initially I was going to go with a tan/beige color for the cheeks and an almond color for the back. Any thoughts from the pros would be most welcome.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

[asok]

Love the build!  It is so cool to see what people do with the helmets I cast.  When I cast a helmet I do sometimes wonder what it will look like when it's done.

[Pointoforigin]

Looks great! Mmmm Asok CC with jaig eyes, where have I seen that before?

Very much looking forward to seeing where this ends up.

[Tyno Krast]

lol Don't worry....my Jaig eyes will be a little different. If mine turn out half as good as yours I'll be happy :-)

Asok it has been a pleasure to work on your helmet! This is the first time I've had a chance to really cut loose and use my imagination on a costume. All my other costumes have just been replicas so I've been kind of confined. Until now!

We're lucky to have helmets like this to work on. I don't have the skills to scratch build so I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate the effort that has gone into producing this beast.

It's so much easier to work with something well made. i've worked on 3 other mando helmets for friends and they were rough coming out of the box. One looked like my 6 year old daughter sculpted it in her kindergarten art class...and my friend paid $250+ for that stinker. But this bucket was a work of art out of the box. Can't say enough great things about this helmet. I only hope I can do it justice.

Speaking of that I need some expert opinions....brutally honest opinions please.....

A buddy of mine who saw the helmet in person said the weathering looked a little too deliberate. I tried my best to randomize the shape, size and pattern of the weathering but now I'm looking at it again and wondering if I should strip and start over. But I've still got more to do and I'd rather look at the finished product before I decide to strip it.

What do you guys think?

[Pointoforigin]

Nah. Once you have the final coat of colour on it, hit it with some sandpaper to blend it all in.

Even Boba helmets at this stage look like deliberate weathering. Because, well, they are

[Vhett Naast]

Naw, that looks real good man  8)

[Niabi]

Very Nice work vod This is turning out to be a great bucket

[Proph]

I'm diggin it vod. You have a nice lid there

[OriKad]

That's reminding me of doing my wife's last bucket.  Yeah, once you get all the colors in, the weathering starts looking less deliberate.  The chips, dings, dents, and scratches you put in with some of the chips helps that a lot...

Now for what I found out:  Don't forget to add weathering spots on each layer, for chips that only took off the top layer, or the first two layers, rather than all the way down to metal.  You might also try gel deodorant as a masking fluid.  It works better than toothpaste in my experience.

[Naren Sprax]

Looks great! Great example to follow along as I do mine. My 5 year old son told me my helmet still looks fake the other day. Ouch. But he said it looks good though.  I don't think you should start over at all. Like the others said, it's hard for some of it to not look deliberate in the early stages. Gonna look super when it's all done.

[Tyno Krast]

Thanks everyone! Coming from you guys it means a lot!

 After about 327 hours of masking I was finally able to start laying down some color to the jaig eyes and visor. If all goes well I should be able to get the eyes and visor fully painted tonight.

OriKad I'm already on it. I've been using Boba as a referance for the paint so I'm making sure to leave different layers showing through at different levels. 

Adam I'm thinking the brutal honesty of a 5 year old is the best way to go 

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to watch the rookie work and for giving me some much needed advice. 

[Tyno Krast]

First layer of color is down.









For the next layer should I do an esthetic primer between the blue and the next layer or just put the next layer right over the blue?

[Vhett Naast]

This is looking real good  8)  I've never done a primer layer in-between coats, so I'd say just put on your next one.  But it is up to you 

[Naren Sprax]

Looks great! Not sure I understand what the "aesthetic primer" layer would do. Wouldn't that just cover all that pretty blue? Or would it just be a dusting of color?

[Tyno Krast]

Thanks vode! It's getting there. Going to slap down the next layer of color today. No aesthetic primer.

The "aesthetic" primer is just supposed to simulate an "in universe" primer or old helmet color. For example...if you didn't have a cold cast helmet you might want to hit the lid with a primer, then lay down a coat of metallic, then add the aesthetic primer. But because of the cold cast there really isn't a need to do that. However, I was thinking that maybe a mando might prime before adding a new layer of color. But really....would a mando give osik about more primer? Probably not. So I'm just going for color over color. 

The blue does look kind of cool but it's not my primary color. Because I've done two different Cpt Rex costumes old man Rex has been a pretty big part of my life for a couple of years. So the blue is my nod to him. Also the backstory for Tyno includes Rex and the 501st Legion. So Tyno himself has a lot of respect for Rex. So for a long time he honored the Old Man by wearing his colors.

But I think if I went with just the blue then it would be too close to Rex and either not acceptable for OM or confusing for civies. Hell, whenever I wear my TIE gear people call me Darth Vader. So I'm pretty sure if kids see a guy in white armor with blue markings and blue jaig eyes I'd be called Rex. I want the nod to be visible but not overly obvious. So the pretty blue will be mostly covered with red. It'll show through in a few areas. but for the most part it will be subtle....at least that's the plan. I'm not very good at subtle. 

[Tyno Krast]

Not very happy with the results. Still have all of the topical weathering and grime to do. As well as the color for the cheek well and back of the helmet. But at the moment I'm not thrilled with the color scheme.

I think I'll also touch up the jaig eyes a bit. I like them but I think they are a little too damaged.

[Naren Sprax]

I know you have more weathering and grime to go and perhaps that would tone the blue down a bit? With your experience I'm sure it'll end up looking good. But to be brutally honest, I get a painters tape vibe off the blue bits, but I'm guessing that is mostly because I have been using it a lot lately.  Civies probably wouldn't see it like I am. Maybe more blue as a top color somewhere might help?

[Pointoforigin]

I'd be pretty happy with that

Yeah maybe use the blue for the upper cheeks there? That wold tie it together nicely.

[Vhett Naast]

I think that looks pretty doggone sweet.  8)  I agree with Point, blue on the upper cheeks might help tie it together.

[Naren Sprax]

I'd be pretty happy with that

Yeah maybe use the blue for the upper cheeks there? That wold tie it together nicely.

That's what I was thinking. And I agree the overall look is great!

[Tyno Krast]

Thanks for the feedback vode. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Initially the plan was to do the cheek wells in a beige/tan type color. But you guys think the Rex blue would be best?