Helmet One more for old time's sake...**Finished**

tubachris85x

Well-Known Hunter
Seems that I have been prepping my initial prop-building "career" just for this build. Maybe I'm overly dramatic. All I know is that my wonderful girlfriend was prepping to do a Jango prior to meeting her. The fact I was in the process of building a Montross couldn't have been a better combo. Unfortunately, we've both decided to get these costumes ready for Celebration in April. It's March.

While I've gotten a significant amount of work done, it's still got a ways to go. I do anticipate to have the majority of it ready in time, but it's gonna be a close one. The problem, however, is that I'm building BOTH costumes...granted, I'm not handling any soft parts, but still..

As such, this will be probably the quickest Jango bucket build I will have done before. I've done about 5 or so commissions so I know what I'm doing..right? After all, I told myself I'd never do another Jango helmet, but that was back in 2009...Can't skip a beat here though.

The helmet is from the late Asok, who acquired molds (or a casting?) of an "ILM Screen cast" helmet that had a unique physical deformation along the visor which, at least to me, makes it stand out to experienced Jango prop building enthusiast-I'm sure there's not many of us these days). So I can finally say after all this I've worked on one of each known maker's helmets -BKBT-FettPride-Asok

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Just for historical purposes (and those who are doing research as for what to possibly use on their builds)

Rangefinder ear cap and RF box topper hardware

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Visor mounting hardware (See Cruzer's thread here: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/showthread.php?t=48739&highlight=cruzer+visor ) NOTE: I'm using a different size T-bolt due to my local Lowe's being a disorganized mess and I don't really have the time to wait for the other size if I order)

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Visor and Devcon epoxy. Cruzer uses a specific brand of CA glue, however, when I did this mounting method for my Montross helmet, Devcon was the thing that held it all down without fear of breaking off the mounted T-bolts

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So yea. I'll try to keep at least a photographic log of the build progress...this will be fun /s

-TC
 
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Got a lot more done today. Got up early and got to work on getting the visor installed. It took awhile but it's in now. Due to the shape of the mandibles/cheeks, for some reason, the upper-inside of the visor has a considerable gap. I'm probably gonna try and do some more internal grinding, however, I don't think it's something that I can fix, so I may just leave it alone to not risk ruining it. The more visible portion of the visor is tight as I like it to be.

Additionally, I went ahead and installed the threaded rods into the RF ear as well as attaching the RF box to the stalk. I decided to use a spare screen-cast RF box I had instead of the one w/ this specific kit she had since it'd need a significant amount of clean up work and I just didn't want to spend the extra time.

So yea, the harder part is done. I've just got to do a bit more surface cleaning to the helmet, the inside of the visor/mandible to clean that edge up and then fix up part of the RF ear, then polish up the helmet a it more. I've also got the rear key slots I need to clean up and attach. Shouldn't be more than an hours worth of work for that...


Didn't get pics of my RF ear cap install, just the visor stuff...it's not perfect but it works

Mounting hardware, lower mounts were trimmed to fit the thin space

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Cut down the shaft reduced profile

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Placement of mounts on the lower-visor area

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Measurements for cutting the visor. FYI the internal width of the visor should be 1 1/2" across

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You'll notice the lower holes are not full "holes" w/ open end. This was due to the size of the mounting hardware. Would have worked better with a BKBT/Cruzer bucket, size wise..

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All good to go!

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Mostly done w/ prep work...

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Stay tuned!

-TC
 
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Progress from last night. Not many pics since it'd just be a bunch of filler/spot work. The last major thing to be added was the key slots. The cast was rather thick, so I used my table sander to grind it down, clean up the edges and just overall reduce it's profile.

What I used to do with key slots was to individually clean each one out with needle files. This process could take a solid hour or so to do it correctly, but my previous work with them had the key slot already a part of the helmet's cast. Fortunately, at least for this process, I was able to thin out the material w/ the table sander until you could see a faint outline of the key slots from the backside.

After achieving this, I was simply able to poke out the thin resin that was left, leaving a perfectly clean set of key slots.


The 2nd image, I was tweaking the fit and had to thin out the walls significantly. Still not perfect but close enough. What I didn't take a pic of was the application of magic sculpt to secure it all as well as fill the gaps. Should be able to clean it all up tonight.

With the exception of cleaning this up, the rest of the helmet is good to go for paint. Might need to do a quick once-over w/ steel wool and polish before masking but just to help make it easier after painting is through.




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-TC
 
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Alright, moving right along with this build. Trying to have this completed by Saturday. We're hosting a 501st meet and greet type event at a local geek-themed bar. They made me the "NOVA Regional armor" so I get to do a small brief/panel on armor building. It'd be nice to show this off as an example to the new folks

Last night was really finalizing the clean up and tweaking it all before paint. I finished cleaning up the key-slot area. Looking at reference pics, the side-walls should be a bit thinner but I'm still happy with how it all turned out. The interior profile is substantially low, which is nice, making it easier for my girlfriend to wear.

I also spent some more time trying to tighten up the visor's placement. I am not entirely happy with how it's sitting since the top part of the visor just isn't actually touching the inside of the helmet. I have to accept that this is partially due to the cast itself, It's not noticeable unless you're looking up at the helmet at least, but I may throw on a piece of weather stripping on the inside of it to close it up. The rest of it is sitting much better than it was in the earlier pics, so I have that.

Once I got these issues done, I went ahead and polished the helmet. After hitting it with sandpaper to eliminate any other surface imperfections or miscellaneous gunk that gets on the helmet from time to time, I then went over the helmet w/ 0000 steel wool until I got an even appearance. Satisfied, I used Mothers Aluminum polish to get it shiny. It's this part of the process that makes me sad sometimes to have to paint it as I absolutely love the look of it all shiny.

Lastly, after taking the following pics (one on the helmet stand), I noticed that the bottom part of the vertical-visor portion was slightly wider than the top. I went ahead and corrected this by removing some visor material where the lower visor mounts meet, so all is good now.

As you can see, I've got a coat of primer down, so hopefully I can get the first blue on tonight. I had mistakenly thought that I had brought up my other special paints after my move from south Florida, to include Model Masters French Blue, however, that was not the case. Panicked, as I have a small window of opportunity with all this cold weather to paint, I searched local stores unsuccessfully. The last resort, is defaulting back to Krylon Ocean Blue, which my local Joanne's had plenty of. I swore off this paint years ago, as after their formula change, it had become an extremely finicky paint to use, resulting in a lot of hours of extra work to get it to go down smoothly...so I am not entirely sure how well this will work for me this time, but got no choice at the moment.

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More to come
 
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On the home stretch now

A miracle took place yesterday in my home, the krylon ocean blue went down near perfectly with no issues on the first pass. Whatever act of force in the universe caused it, the prop gods have shined upon me

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Funny thing though, since the Rustoleum Royal Blue appears to have been discontinued, at least in spray form for awhile now. The girlfriend received a can of it along with the helmet when she purchased it. I go to that can first, obviously, since it was relatively new....however, there's something functionally wrong with it, and doesn't actually release paint. Maybe something is clogging the tube to the nozzle, but I don't have something to stick down in there. What I had to do was go through my bin of paints I had brought up, and lo and behold, an ancient can of it, possibly one of the first cans of the stuff I ever bought, all rusted over. Thought this was gonna be bad...NOPE. Nozzle had to be replaced but other than that, the paint worked like a dream...

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Additionally, I cleaned up the RF stalk/box and the RF ear cap, then threw paint down on them

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So all in all, it's coming along smoothly, and I should be good to finish it all by saturday. I checked this morning, the paint on the ears (RF and helmet) are all 100% cured. The top side of the RF box however was slightly tacky, but hopefully it'll be fine by the time I get home OR worst case tomorrow. What I will need to do today is change up the masking to throw down the blue on the inner cheeks. Once that cures by tomorrow morning, I'll be able to gloss-coat all the blues on the helmet. Of course, once that's done I'll be able to add the pin-stripping, weather it and slap the visor back in- Done.


-TC
 
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Question, did you shoot the entire front of the helmet in 1 single color? I was under the impression that the T-Visor area and the upper cheeks were 2 separate colors (The visor area being the Ocean Blue while the upper cheeks and ear caps being the Royal blue)
 
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Question, did you shoot the entire front of the helmet in 1 single color? I was under the impression that the T-Visor area and the upper cheeks were 2 separate colors (The visor area being the Ocean Blue while the upper cheeks and ear caps being the Royal blue)

Yes, that's the correct paint scheme, however, for my paint jobs, I coat the mandibles, sides/ears/back, etc. in the ocean blue, or I call it the "primary blue." I add the Royal blue over this. The reason I do this is for a few reasons, the biggest being ensuring that there's no gaps in coverage, additionally, if I were to do the curved portion on the mandibles where the 2 blues meet, I run the risk of potentially having an inconsistent line OR a distinctly noticeable, physically apparent line where the 2 paints would meet. I do the "primary" blue first as the rest of the helmet just needs that and plus the rustoleum is also a thicker, epoxy-based paint, which I normally do not use for my other prop paint jobs. This is due to it's finicky nature, much like my past issues w/ the krylon ocean blue, except epoxy paint is exponentially more difficult to strip than the ocean blue.
 
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Yes, that's the correct paint scheme, however, for my paint jobs, I coat the mandibles, sides/ears/back, etc. in the ocean blue, or I call it the "primary blue." I add the Royal blue over this. The reason I do this is for a few reasons, the biggest being ensuring that there's no gaps in coverage, additionally, if I were to do the curved portion on the mandibles where the 2 blues meet, I run the risk of potentially having an inconsistent line OR a distinctly noticeable, physically apparent line where the 2 paints would meet. I do the "primary" blue first as the rest of the helmet just needs that and plus the rustoleum is also a thicker, epoxy-based paint, which I normally do not use for my other prop paint jobs. This is due to it's finicky nature, much like my past issues w/ the krylon ocean blue, except epoxy paint is exponentially more difficult to strip than the ocean blue.


I'll be interested in seeing the pics from your masking process once you are ready for the Royal Blue then. I am curious as to how you will apply the masking in order to get a smooth transition of color between the cheeks and visor.
 
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I'll be interested in seeing the pics from your masking process once you are ready for the Royal Blue then. I am curious as to how you will apply the masking in order to get a smooth transition of color between the cheeks and visor.

I'll see if I can dig up a pic from one of my previous commissions. I initially started out using multiple straight pieces of masking tape to create a curve, but I then switched to using pin-stripes to create the curves. I know they make masking tape specifically for this kind of thing, however, I haven't found anything decent locally, and from what I was told, the stuff I did find is notorious for lifting paint when you remove it.

If you look at post #4 here, the last set of 3 pics, on the lower-left, you can see that I did that there for masking off the lower-cheek panel. I matched the curve with the pin-stripe and then reinforced it with masking tape.
 
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@Kdogg211187


Here's a clearer pic to show you the process applied to the lower-cheek panel. I don't have any pics of the pinstripe use how I intend to do it here unfortunately but I'll get a pic this time around today

I'm using the same exact pin-striping you use for the helmet's lines on the dome. May not be "proper" use of the stuff, but hey, I can't argue with the results. If you search my thread history, you can see some of my previous helmet jobs too


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Cold came back around to Northern Virginia. Might see some snow in the next few days...so I had to improvise and do the final paint work inside.


Got the inner cheeks painted now, letting it all dry, so that I can put the clear coat on first thing in the morning.

As for the range finder assembly. It was all perfectly fine up until I applied the clear coat. No issues with the RF Box, but the ear cap had a small, but noticeable build up. Perhaps I went slightly heavier w/ the clear coat than I thought. Since it was only on the outer face, I stripped just the one side to the edge and then reapplied the royal blue..like nothing ever happened, though I'll need to be a little more careful tomorrow!

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Should be done by tomorrow afternoon!

-TC
 
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Well, I would have updated yesterday but we got really busy with a brief "armor party" in the afternoon then a transition to a local joint for a 501st meet and greet, which was fun. I brought this helmet out for our display and was pretty well received.

All in all, I'm happy with how it came out. I'm not going to be happy w/ the visor but it's probably just me.

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I'll get better quality pics, the ones I have at the moment, after looking at them, are pretty bad...Have a few other WIP pics I'd like to add here too, but hope you like it!

-TC
 
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Great work Chris! I am also working on a jango. Never worked with cold cast stuff. But learning a lot from your posts and cruzers also.
 
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