le1120
Member
Hello folks on the RPF, this is a project that has been a long time coming and just now reaching completion (not quite there yet!) but one that I had created a thread for on TDH, and just now realizing the help and advice that could be gotten from the much greater community over here now that I'm approaching the molding and casting stage.
This is my second attempt at scratch-building the Boba Fett helmet, and one that I began the summer previous. While its structure and internal support were all made from cardboard, most of the exterior is at this point a blend of sintra, Bondo, sheet styrene, and 3D printed parts coated with XTC-3D resin (to smooth them out). I think the pictures will explain the rest of the process. Bondo and sanding featured heavily, haha.
(Pic heavy!!)
Inside support:
Proceeding to dress it up:
I cut out the area for the cheeks:
Here I decided to try using some 1mm sintra for the outside.
Beginning the cheeks:
I ran into a big issue trying to fit in the other cheek piece, which ended up making me replace the entire inner support, replacing the corrugated cardboard for another type that wouldn't warp so much.
Rebuilding the interior:
Split-face....
Then the dreaded dome.
Completed with some detail parts on the ears, which I had 3D printed in order to test fit.
Righto. So then some bondo glass reinforcement on the dome. (looking back I don't think this was necessary)
Then some actual bondo.
More progress. Sanded and primed.
Corrective additions, and some bondo filler:
Plenty of sanding, plus a coat of XTC-3D over the entire helmet, giving it the shine. It auto-levels and dries rock solid and its very sandable, so while advertised for 3D prints I found it just as helpful for smoothing the entire thing.
3D printed dent in.
Further down the road, another test fitting of the ear pieces:
Pretty dirty looking here haha
Pretty looking again:
The detail pieces that I had 3D printed were looking as such then:
skipping ahead, another pretty fitting:
Much father down the road, dirty looking again:
I then went back and worked on keeping the details of the helmet clean, and general smoothness. That's a thin sheet of styrene I glued on the back of the helmet there.
Another dirty progress photo:
The 3D printed rear keyholes were just not working out so I made them from scratch:
Then I decided to replace the dent because it was lacking in detail:
More corrective additions:
And from there I proceeded to work on a more detailed level:
Looking pretty again:
And this stage was only a few weeks ago: (Screen used helmet on the left, mine on the right)
So at this point I've already got my molding and casting materials from Smooth-on, so once I get the helmet finished to my satisfaction I'll move on to that stage. Advice and constructive criticism of any sort is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for looking!
- - - Updated - - -
Progress from today. Now with brown primer! You can see my first scratch build attempt in the background. The lighting and angle on some of these aren't that great but at least you get a sense of what it looks like at this very moment.
- - - Updated - - -
And with some more brown primer on! Getting pretty close, but still many small things to take care of.
This is my second attempt at scratch-building the Boba Fett helmet, and one that I began the summer previous. While its structure and internal support were all made from cardboard, most of the exterior is at this point a blend of sintra, Bondo, sheet styrene, and 3D printed parts coated with XTC-3D resin (to smooth them out). I think the pictures will explain the rest of the process. Bondo and sanding featured heavily, haha.
(Pic heavy!!)
Inside support:
Proceeding to dress it up:
I cut out the area for the cheeks:
Here I decided to try using some 1mm sintra for the outside.
Beginning the cheeks:
I ran into a big issue trying to fit in the other cheek piece, which ended up making me replace the entire inner support, replacing the corrugated cardboard for another type that wouldn't warp so much.
Rebuilding the interior:
Split-face....
Then the dreaded dome.
Completed with some detail parts on the ears, which I had 3D printed in order to test fit.
Righto. So then some bondo glass reinforcement on the dome. (looking back I don't think this was necessary)
Then some actual bondo.
More progress. Sanded and primed.
Corrective additions, and some bondo filler:
Plenty of sanding, plus a coat of XTC-3D over the entire helmet, giving it the shine. It auto-levels and dries rock solid and its very sandable, so while advertised for 3D prints I found it just as helpful for smoothing the entire thing.
3D printed dent in.
Further down the road, another test fitting of the ear pieces:
Pretty dirty looking here haha
Pretty looking again:
The detail pieces that I had 3D printed were looking as such then:
skipping ahead, another pretty fitting:
Much father down the road, dirty looking again:
I then went back and worked on keeping the details of the helmet clean, and general smoothness. That's a thin sheet of styrene I glued on the back of the helmet there.
Another dirty progress photo:
The 3D printed rear keyholes were just not working out so I made them from scratch:
Then I decided to replace the dent because it was lacking in detail:
More corrective additions:
And from there I proceeded to work on a more detailed level:
Looking pretty again:
And this stage was only a few weeks ago: (Screen used helmet on the left, mine on the right)
So at this point I've already got my molding and casting materials from Smooth-on, so once I get the helmet finished to my satisfaction I'll move on to that stage. Advice and constructive criticism of any sort is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for looking!
- - - Updated - - -
Progress from today. Now with brown primer! You can see my first scratch build attempt in the background. The lighting and angle on some of these aren't that great but at least you get a sense of what it looks like at this very moment.
- - - Updated - - -
And with some more brown primer on! Getting pretty close, but still many small things to take care of.
)
