group invite for OT snowtrooper helmet scratch build

kevin926

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I have had a long fascination with snowtroopers. Kind of ironic seeing how I hate the cold. Born and raised in Connecticut and moved to sunny Florida when I was 20.

This is my favorite of the trooper helmets.

Any way. So far, all of my builds have been as close as possible to film accurate, and I would like to keep this build the same. I have seen a few helmet kits but they are all symmetrical and uniform. I believe a scratch build is the way to go.

These are photos taken by a fellow astromech.com member that was gracious enough to allow me to share.

Photos by DBOZ .
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As you can see, this helmet is uneven and sloppy. Just the way I like it :rolleyes

Also looks easy enough to scratch build. My plan is to use vacuformed party hats and 1/2mm styrene sheets to reach the 1 1/2 mm thickness. I'm not completely sold on the party hats as of yet. I'm also looking at plastic army helmets.

These are the dimensions of the finished cuts
These photos were found on Google and do not belong to me. Only used as a reference
mech_helmet.gifmech_helmetfaceplate.gif

You can get small sheets of 1/2 mm and other thickness sheets from Buystyrene.com
I use this site for all my styrene because they are reasonably priced and ship fast.

Styrene is really easy to work with and very forgiving. I'm also using weldon 16 for the adhesive. I don't have the dimensions for the boxes or cubes on the back side of the helmet. If anyone has these, please share .

This is an open invite for anyone interested. Also, an open invitation to share advise or better alternatives

Looking forward to replies and suggestions
 
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This is awesome man! I am following this with great interest! I am curious how you plan to do the cloth hanging from the helmet?

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This looks like a cool project. I can see myself getting involved. I love scratch builds!

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This is awesome man! I am following this with great interest! I am curious how you plan to do the cloth hanging from the helmet?

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That would be the easy part I believe. I thin white vinyl sheet with some simple adhesive should do it.

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This looks like a cool project. I can see myself getting involved. I love scratch builds!

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Please do. It's a wide open project where everyone is welcome as well as input
 
I need to scratchbuild my snowy helmet anyways so this is great that you decided to take this build on! I definitely see myself helping on this!

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I was thinking of modeling one in 3d and then 3d printing the parts. Might be hard to get the correct sheen and smoothness in it doing it that way. That's my main concern.

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This is a very quick and crude moc up for my planned design. The idea was to use thinner hats and sheets to build up to desired thickness. I used an already cut sheet to use as an example.

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You know you like my pumpkin hat, so don't hide it:lol
 
I was thinking of modeling one in 3d and then 3d printing the parts. Might be hard to get the correct sheen and smoothness in it doing it that way. That's my main concern.

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There are many ways to build this helmet. All the kits I have seen are uniform and I believe printed will give the same results. That's why I'm scratch building.

The lid would be a good print as well as the cubes (or boxes if you will) behind the neck.

The goggles have my attention. They may be a nice print job. The only thing is, we would all have to have the same size opening or some helmets wouldn't fit.
 
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I'm watching this, I'm might even have a go at this good luck with your build


If I stay with the party hats, I'm only at 10 dollars in materials. Projected costs wouldn't be much more, however, I do have most of the materials nessesarry from past projects. I'm guessing from scratch, would cost around 50 or less depending on how you go.
 
Just an fyi, these helmets are pretty large. I'd review reference of general veers as his helmet is based off of the main body of the snowtrooper and you can visually see how it looks on a person's head uncovered
 
Just an fyi, these helmets are pretty large. I'd review reference of general veers as his helmet is based off of the main body of the snowtrooper and you can visually see how it looks on a person's head uncovered

From what I understand, these are the same helmets as the commander helmets. Of course without the goggles and sheets. I believe the dimensions above are correct but awaiting further endorsement by the folks from whitearmor.net, as most of those members are also 501st members.
 
From what I understand, these are the same helmets as the commander helmets. Of course without the goggles and sheets. I believe the dimensions above are correct but awaiting further endorsement by the folks from whitearmor.net, as most of those members are also 501st members.

I am the 501st Blizzard Force detachment leader. Yes, all of the snowtrooper helmets looked like this. The commander version was uncut. AFAIK The commander helmet was originally suppose to be the snowtrooper "hero" with the standard snowtrooper helmets being stunt helmets.


As far as the measurements above, those derive from studio creations website. Additionally I don't think you're going to get much confirmaton from whitearmor.net because that's the stormtrooper detachment, and they're more than likely going to refer you to the Blizzard Force. I have other reference sources to determine a close scale reference but even then those iirc are what the studuo creations measurements are based off of.

There's not been any definitive set of measurements for the helmets yet. Unlike stormtrooper armor and a few other armor variants that have had been thrown into the public from production for replication, the snowtrooper has not. There are a few private collectors who own a couple helmets and one I know of that owns either the original sculpt OR casting from the first snowtrooper helmet w/ the first version of the commander''s face- cowl. These collectors however refrain from disclosing details I feel pertinent to my research.

So the only next best thing that will be coming out is the Anovos snowtrooper helmet, whenever they get around to it. They switched back to using their 3d scan data of the exhibition suit, so in terms of accuracy it would be the closest thing we get to "production cast" for the immediate future. My biggest issue however is that exhibition suit's helmet has been significantly warped from age and mishandling, so it's not a true representation of how it looked during filming.

But again, there's no definitive set of measurements. The studio creations references you found are based off of an individual using iirc 2 laser pointers set at 1" apart, pointing it at parts of the armor and taking photos. It's not a bad idea, rather I'd take it as a loose form of reference.
 
I am the 501st Blizzard Force detachment leader. Yes, all of the snowtrooper helmets looked like this. The commander version was uncut. AFAIK The commander helmet was originally suppose to be the snowtrooper "hero" with the standard snowtrooper helmets being stunt helmets.


As far as the measurements above, those derive from studio creations website. Additionally I don't think you're going to get much confirmaton from whitearmor.net because that's the stormtrooper detachment, and they're more than likely going to refer you to the Blizzard Force. I have other reference sources to determine a close scale reference but even then those iirc are what the studuo creations measurements are based off of.

There's not been any definitive set of measurements for the helmets yet. Unlike stormtrooper armor and a few other armor variants that have had been thrown into the public from production for replication, the snowtrooper has not. There are a few private collectors who own a couple helmets and one I know of that owns either the original sculpt OR casting from the first snowtrooper helmet w/ the first version of the commander''s face- cowl. These collectors however refrain from disclosing details I feel pertinent to my research.

So the only next best thing that will be coming out is the Anovos snowtrooper helmet, whenever they get around to it. They switched back to using their 3d scan data of the exhibition suit, so in terms of accuracy it would be the closest thing we get to "production cast" for the immediate future. My biggest issue however is that exhibition suit's helmet has been significantly warped from age and mishandling, so it's not a true representation of how it looked during filming.

But again, there's no definitive set of measurements. The studio creations references you found are based off of an individual using iirc 2 laser pointers set at 1" apart, pointing it at parts of the armor and taking photos. It's not a bad idea, rather I'd take it as a loose form of reference.


You are a mind reader for sure. I just got home and yes, whitearmor all replied go to blizzard force

Wow that's funny! So glad you joined in.

Are there any numbers on the back boxes or cubes that are being used seeing how there's not an exact measurement?

I would love for you to be a part of this build, because, as you stated, not much info out there.

Thanks again
Kevin
 
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You are a mind reader for sure. I just got home and yes, whitearmor all replied go to blizzard force

Wow that's funny! So glad you joined in.

Are there any numbers on the back boxes or cubes that are being used seeing how there's not an exact measurement?

I would love for you to be a part of this build, because, as you stated, not much info out there.

Thanks again
Kevin

I don't have any off hand at the moment but could probably figure it out later for you.

I am all for seeing people make snowtrooper armor or parts which is why I wanted to chime in. Just like anything else in the star wars costuming world, there's a lot of finer nuances that the average person won't really notice. It's not easy but the snowtrooper is something I've been staring at since at least prior to 2009, and it's what I know best.

I stressed the size earlier on due to seeing you deciding to use a party-hat as a base. While party hats come in difference sizes (i'm not a party-hat expert however) I saw the size in comparison to your hand, and know it's already going to be too small. That being said, depending on how much $$ you want to put into this or just how accurate you'd like to go, I'd suggest a different approach. There's also alternatives such as either buying a helmet from a vendor or going into a full-fledged sculpt/mold/cast route.

It's not to dissuade you from doing a scratch build, just throwing that out there. Everyone has different goals in mind.

I do have more pics from different angles of that particular helmet from Celebration when I was there. My only regret was not getting a side-by side with my personal snowtrooper helmet. My armor kit is from Dan Laws. I own his version from 2009 and currently own his newest version of his helmet. I can say that roughly the helmet on display here, which would mean the other production helmets as well, are approximately close in scale to Law's newer helmet, but perhaps that Law's helmet is slightly larger than the production helmet. But like I said earlier, the Anovos one "should" be identical in terms of size when it does come out.

One other tid-bit- the helmet dome is NOT symmetrical; it has a front and a back. Some film used helmets are oriented differently. This one in particular, the front of the dome is "flat" compared to the rear, i.e., the front slope of the dome is much steeper compared to the back of the helmet.

To note, this helmet at celebration is strictly "production made," not used for filming. It's missing the cowl, obviously and the helmet-rivet cap at the top-center. They advised me that this was in possession of a prop-builder for the film. The backpack that was there had the grey panel on the bottom (cleanly) cut and made removable, so that the owner's son at the time could use it to store his toys.

I'd also suggest googling the snowtrooper helmet that was auctioned back in 2012. It's screen used and complete, great reference available. This helmet at Celebration, at least to my knowledge, is the first "unfinished" snowtrooper helmet to surface publicly.

It certainly bothers me what kind of "common knowledge" about these pieces there are among the private collectors, though, one point in particular being the nose/snout indentations. It was something that's been suspected over the years, but this confirmed it. However, apparently, this was "common knowledge" in those inner circles of collectors.

I get it, it's their property, their information. Just kinda irks me.
 
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All the kits I have seen have been symmetrical so that's the main reason for the scratch build. I just put a request in to join blizzardforce.com

I also try to go to the source when ever I make a prop. Whitearmor.net was used greatly during my E11 and bucket build. Hopefully blizzardforce.com will allow me as well.

Agreed on the party hat. That's why I mentioned I wasn't sold on it. I have been looking at adult size plastic army helmets. They aren't symmetrical but will require cutting (not affraid of it)
 
If you want to scale it out then I suggest looking at the Veer's / AT-ST helmets.
The side greeblies where identified and you can use those as a ruler for scaling out the rest of it.
 
If you want to scale it out then I suggest looking at the Veer's / AT-ST helmets.
The side greeblies where identified and you can use those as a ruler for scaling out the rest of it.


That's not a bad idea. Where might I find the info on the greebies.

Also, as far as the greebies on the snowy helmet, are all snowtrooper supposed to have these? I don't see them on every helmet, however, it's possible they are painted white so they are harder to see.
 
All the kits I have seen have been symmetrical so that's the main reason for the scratch build. I just put a request in to join blizzardforce.com

I also try to go to the source when ever I make a prop. Whitearmor.net was used greatly during my E11 and bucket build. Hopefully blizzardforce.com will allow me as well.

Agreed on the party hat. That's why I mentioned I wasn't sold on it. I have been looking at adult size plastic army helmets. They aren't symmetrical but will require cutting (not affraid of it)

Eh the truth is that the snowtrooper helmets largely appear symettrical. The most significant variance you see with them concern the outer shroud (the portion that have the squares recessed) but that's not terribly noticed unless you're looking at it from the back. Currently the only vendor that I can recall to purposely make their helmets asymmetrical is Troopermaster's. I know Dan makes his with the asymmetric dome but again that's a detail not widely known.
 
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