Stormtrooper Helmet Build - Quest for Chrome

themrdaniel

New Hunter
Hello Galaxy,

I am brand new to the site and am glad to have found it! I saw a post of a friend of mine making a Starlord mask (Guardians of the Galaxy) out of cardboard, and that inspired me to make something of my own. Obviously I turned to Star Wars, my first love, and wanted a Stormtrooper helmet. Looked at a few prop-making forums, found a Pepakura file, got a bunch of supplies, laid out a giant piece of cardboard on the garage floor and got started! For this first one I am not looking to make it into an authentic looking movie prop, but more of a display piece that wont necessarily be worn. Lenses will be painted over and I want a chrome finish.

Here we go!

Started with cutting all the pieces and adding them together to get a general shape. Good thing I had Netflix nearby cause this part took quite a while.

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Nacelles attached and the basic shape is ready to go. I will create the earpieces and some of the other accessories after most of the Bondo-work is done.
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Now that it is all put together, I went ahead an added Fiberglasses resin and a few layers of fiberglass cloth to the interior of the helmet. I made sure to make sure the edges around the neck were nice and thick since that is the area to be handled most. Don't want cracking!

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Well.... I just gave myself WAY more work than I needed with this new-guy mistake. Since it was my first time with Bondo, I overdid it and caked it on. Now I need to use a dremmel tool to remove excess fiberglass as well as a sanding block to bring the Bondo down.
**shudder**


View attachment 95987

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Added an additional layer and sanded it down a bit. The rounded shape is beginning to take its form. I know the teeth and some of the accessories will take a lot of time to sharpen up.


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Went and covered the entire helm in glazing putty (yes, not the most frugal approach, but im learning.) I wanted to fill in the low spots and pin hole cracks.

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Even though the low spots are generally filled, I sanded down a bit too far. I still see some fiberglass poking through.

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Covered it with a layer of sandable primer. Made it much easier to locate flat spots that will need to be fixed up down the road.


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Taped it up to get make a layer of Bondo for the headband and chin-piece.




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Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures about the process of making the ear pieces and chin piece.


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Added some more quality primer to the helmet. At this stage I was also washing it over with water to see how light reflects over it. Saw lots of spots where it will need to be rounded.

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I got some flexible, but durable, plastic for the lenses and attached it to the interior of the helmet with some JB weld. Also added more Bondo to give it some shape.Also added more glazing putty over the helmet to make things very smooth and rounded.


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Added some more primer and will do some last minute fixes before adding some high gloss white paint.

*note: the accessories inside the nacelles will be added later on. I want to make a silicon mold of the helmet so that I can make additional helmets quicker. Adding the pieces after will make it easier.

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Sorry for the low quality pics. Ill make sure to get some good ones for when this is all completed. The high gloss paint is all applied and I need to get the Chrome paint added. We will see how it goes.

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is this your first attempt at making a helmet? either way its amazing work

Thanks. Yes it is my first time. I know more about woodworking but I have always wanted to get into some prop-building a bit. Definitely has taken a lot of time, and mistakes, to learn some things on this build.
 
WELL! The chroming solution I used isn't great and leaves things foggy looking. I will either look for a new chrome option or go paint it up in a more classic movie style.
 
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