I know there are lots of threads here about building a Fett helmet, but I'm excited to just be back in the hobby in some capacity and I had to share.
After several years of not really being able to do much in terms of prop building and collecting, I'm finally able to start working on some projects again.
This time I decided to focus on Star Wars helmets and have a whole wall dedicated to the major OT helmets. I have 6 so far (2 in progress including the Fett) and I have room for 9 or so.
This thread is to chronicle the progress on building my Boba Fett helmet. I've always shied away from this helmet as it is so complex in terms of paint job. I always wanted one but figured I'd have to contract someone to do it for me. But my buddy DarthMiller convinced me that with a little patience I could do my own helmet and have it turn out really good. Huge props to him and Alex (spideyFett) for helping me along the way with tips and techniques, and as always huge gratitude to RebelScum for letting me hang out in his shop over the weekends to work on it. I'm having a blast hanging out with these guys. It's been a long time.
Anyway, Here we go!
Started out with a FettPride helmet. I spent lots of time cleaning up the imperfections, evening up the lines, wet sanding, etc. Then primered it.
I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm just following Jason and Alex's instructions. So here's the initial base coat. After the green, I stippled a slightly lighter green on with a sponge to make it look oxidized. At this point I was sure they were insane. The color looked all wrong to me! But of course I trusted them.
And just as they said, after hitting it with a dull coat, it immediately darkened it to the perfect shade. We used Philips vinyl cutter to cut out stencils of the main scratches to hopefully make it a bit easier to paint (and hopefully more accurate than I could do on my own)
I had to go ahead and throw some silver on the dent as a test to see how it works. So cool.
The next weekend I finished airbrushing the base coat colors. First time using an airbrush. Me likey. I learned lots of good tips for masking off difficult curves and corners. Here's Alex taking a break from his responsibilities to show me how to airbrush. Thanks man!
Then I took the helmet home and spent some time referencing all the Dented Helmet resources to place the ramaining stencils for all the major scratches.
And here's the result! I'd feel like I was cheating if I didn't have to take so much time picking out the scrap material from these decals! Especially those back panels!
The next step was to prep and apply the stencils to the mandibles, mask everything off and hit it with silver. This part always makes me nervous.
And here's the result! Starting to look like Fett!
Then today I went back and met up with Jason who did a bang up job airbrushing the kill stripes on my helmet, evenly blending from yellow to orange. Again, this is using the adhesive stencils cut out on Philip's vinyl cutter.
After that, I probably spent a good 30 minutes picking the sluff material out of the stencils in order to paint the first layer (concrete/tan) on the back panels.
And here's the reveal of that first layer.
Once I got home this evening I started hand painting the gray details. It definitely makes a huge difference. I can't tell you how appreciative I am for all the reference material provided on the Dented Helmet forums. Complete color diagrams of each tiny little scratch and ding makes it SO easy to do. I just hope it turns out have as decent as some of the fantastic helmets I've seen here and on TDH.
And here's where I am right now.
There's still a lot left to do! I have to apply two more layers of stencils on the back panels to get those finished up. I need to paint the ears, assemble the range finder, cut the visor, attach it, paint the fine silver, red, blue details, etc. I'd say I'm about half way done. But it's starting to look familiar, no?
I'm anxious to hear what you guys think of my first ever prop related paint job.
And just as an FYI, this is what is involved in picking out those stencils for the 2nd and 3rd layers of the back panels. Holy crap, getting everything lined up and applied with no bubbles has to be just as hard as hand drawing all this stuff.
After several years of not really being able to do much in terms of prop building and collecting, I'm finally able to start working on some projects again.
This time I decided to focus on Star Wars helmets and have a whole wall dedicated to the major OT helmets. I have 6 so far (2 in progress including the Fett) and I have room for 9 or so.
This thread is to chronicle the progress on building my Boba Fett helmet. I've always shied away from this helmet as it is so complex in terms of paint job. I always wanted one but figured I'd have to contract someone to do it for me. But my buddy DarthMiller convinced me that with a little patience I could do my own helmet and have it turn out really good. Huge props to him and Alex (spideyFett) for helping me along the way with tips and techniques, and as always huge gratitude to RebelScum for letting me hang out in his shop over the weekends to work on it. I'm having a blast hanging out with these guys. It's been a long time.
Anyway, Here we go!
Started out with a FettPride helmet. I spent lots of time cleaning up the imperfections, evening up the lines, wet sanding, etc. Then primered it.
I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm just following Jason and Alex's instructions. So here's the initial base coat. After the green, I stippled a slightly lighter green on with a sponge to make it look oxidized. At this point I was sure they were insane. The color looked all wrong to me! But of course I trusted them.
And just as they said, after hitting it with a dull coat, it immediately darkened it to the perfect shade. We used Philips vinyl cutter to cut out stencils of the main scratches to hopefully make it a bit easier to paint (and hopefully more accurate than I could do on my own)
I had to go ahead and throw some silver on the dent as a test to see how it works. So cool.
The next weekend I finished airbrushing the base coat colors. First time using an airbrush. Me likey. I learned lots of good tips for masking off difficult curves and corners. Here's Alex taking a break from his responsibilities to show me how to airbrush. Thanks man!
Then I took the helmet home and spent some time referencing all the Dented Helmet resources to place the ramaining stencils for all the major scratches.
And here's the result! I'd feel like I was cheating if I didn't have to take so much time picking out the scrap material from these decals! Especially those back panels!
The next step was to prep and apply the stencils to the mandibles, mask everything off and hit it with silver. This part always makes me nervous.
And here's the result! Starting to look like Fett!
Then today I went back and met up with Jason who did a bang up job airbrushing the kill stripes on my helmet, evenly blending from yellow to orange. Again, this is using the adhesive stencils cut out on Philip's vinyl cutter.
After that, I probably spent a good 30 minutes picking the sluff material out of the stencils in order to paint the first layer (concrete/tan) on the back panels.
And here's the reveal of that first layer.
Once I got home this evening I started hand painting the gray details. It definitely makes a huge difference. I can't tell you how appreciative I am for all the reference material provided on the Dented Helmet forums. Complete color diagrams of each tiny little scratch and ding makes it SO easy to do. I just hope it turns out have as decent as some of the fantastic helmets I've seen here and on TDH.
And here's where I am right now.
There's still a lot left to do! I have to apply two more layers of stencils on the back panels to get those finished up. I need to paint the ears, assemble the range finder, cut the visor, attach it, paint the fine silver, red, blue details, etc. I'd say I'm about half way done. But it's starting to look familiar, no?
I'm anxious to hear what you guys think of my first ever prop related paint job.
And just as an FYI, this is what is involved in picking out those stencils for the 2nd and 3rd layers of the back panels. Holy crap, getting everything lined up and applied with no bubbles has to be just as hard as hand drawing all this stuff.
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