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[hereticdave]

Hello all, so I started a bucket from the WoF templates a while ago, didn't document the start of the build but this is where I am now:

Pleased with it so far so I gave it a light coat of primer to check for any areas that need attention:



How's it looking so far?

[Bowfanny]

It's a good start so far Vod. Have you decided on your ear caps yet?

[Markonnen]

I've seen his ear caps, they look good. Keep it up Dave Vod! I'll be round at the weekend

Is there such thing as Mandalorian Ale or fruit juice? Like Coca Cola but Boba cola? 7hutt? Jango Orange? Jango Cherry? The list goes on... Han Soda?

Keep up the work Dave, it's looking awesome!

[hereticdave]

I've got some resin ear caps and I've made my own rangefinder with LED's. I'll post pics of that up when I'm happy with the bucket. Reyn Vok'chi has rightly pointed out in my Vok'Chi thread that the vertical part of the T-section is slightly tapered rather than parallel. I'd wrongly assumed that this was the case on Boba's helmet but after looking at more images I see that it is parallel all the way down. Is this a problem? I kind of like the look of the taper but I'm not sure if that's just because I made the bucket and I'm biased.

@Markonnen, corellian ale will be fine, but I believe in this system it comes in a bottle with a blue label with a picture of a hobgoblin on it...

[Markonnen]

Therein I must wholeheartedly agree.

Masking for white either tonight or in the morning... your helmet looks good, glad the primer layer revealed how much of the imperfections you've already removed. Excellent.

[Markonnen]

Also, while I remember, the Great Mandalore...one of them...his helmet has a major taper into a point...

[Bowfanny]

My helmet tapers from bottom to top. Meaning I widened it at the bottom but only a bit.

[Ferahgo]

Sweet bucket, vod!

[hereticdave]

I fixed the tapered T-section:

It's now a smooth 38mm gap all the way down (give or take a mm here or there).
There's still a bit of clean up to do on the inside edges and a few small areas here and there. I've added keyslots to the back and small sections behind the ear plates to hide the areas I was having trouble sanding smooth:


There's still a bit of sanding to do around the keyslots and I've made them solid as I intend to cast this up when it's ready. I've spent so long getting this thing smooth and right that I'm paranoid something dreadful will happen to it, so I'm casting it up to make myself a single piece resin version. I've got experience casting on a small scale, but nothing this big so it should be fun.

[Ram'or Kranak]

That is one nicely shaped dome, vod!  I wish I could get my domes that nice.  Very good work.  I'll be following this.

[hereticdave]

Thanks all, here is where I'm at after a weekend of working on my bucket:



Not much to look at with 1kg of silicone over it so far, for those with casting experience how much should I use? It's had 5 layers so far, and I'm halfway through my 2kilo supply. I put some loose weave cloth over the T-section in between the 2nd and 3rd layer as I'll be making a cut there in the mold to help remove the finished cast.

[Talos Kot]

how much rubber you use depends on  the quality of mold you want and how long you want it to last, the rubbers tear and sure hardness rating,  ..   ...  Don't make a cut in your mold !! ..... without knowing where you got it  / what tear and sure rating it has etc , your silicone mold should be flexible and durable enough to remove even at 1/2 inch thickness,  just be patient when you remove it .. .... using gauze was the right idea if a release slit is needed,  but if i were you I would Not cut the mold, your helmet doesn't have any extremely deep undercuts etc to need a cut !

[hereticdave]

Thanks Talos, I only intend to make a few copies right now, one for me and another one for a friend. If the mold survives then great as I can make a few more in the future and try different upgrades or ideas.  I'm hoping to get away without cutting the mold like you say, but the gauze was put in as a "just in case".

[Kris Jasra]

Looking like a very alien helmet right now. Afraid I have no casting experience so all I can say is, looks silicone covered

[hereticdave]

A quick update, it's up to 1.2kg of Silicone now, I've added some keys after some sterling advice from Talos Kot, and I've added a fin ready for the mating faces of the mother mold. I need to carry the fin underneath the helmet for the undercut you can see in the first post and round off the keys a bit. Part of me wants to take the silicone off the master just to see if the mold has worked but I reckon that could be a very bad idea...

Here's how it looks now:


Edit: I haven't finalised my ideas for the finished bucket yet and the more I look at the image above with the fin I can't help thinking how cool it would be to have something like the senate guards:

(Image from wookieepedia)

Has anyone done this before, or is this kind of thing best kept for actual senate guards?