“Idealizing” a lineage Vader helmet

[lethyry]

A few weeks ago I was asked to do the touch up/finishing work on an ESB Warren helmet, I was asked to remove all the warts/dings/runs etc. from the helmet and make it a cleaned up "hero" ESB helmet. it sounded interesting and like a cool project to do, so I thought i'd share that process on here as its much more interesting than some of the other Vader projects I do.

above are some shots I got of the helmet in the current state a few weeks back. The photos do make the helmet look worse than it actually is there is a thin layer of resin on both the dome and face plate which will be removed with a quick sand. well It finally turned up today and I had some free time to get some bits done to it, started off with the dome; the dome seemed to have been roughly trimmed (was originally purchased as a kit so it makes sense) so first thing I did was clean up those edges up and get them to a relatively nice spot, will more than likely shave them done a touch more, got the mouth and chin vents tidied up and gave the face a quick sand over to take off some of the high spots.

 

[lethyry]

Had some more time to work on this guy today so I took that time to strip the dome back down raw. Took a little bit of time due to the thick filler primer and resin put on, but the paint stripper I use worked quite nicely on it. Also started the face place with another sand down and started the process of filling in the larger/more obvious spots.

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

Very excited to see this finished! I've always been a fan of Idealized props, something about streamlining an original design is just so satisfying to me.

 

[Grievous]

Thank you for sharing! I always enjoy the behind the scenes work!

 

[lethyry]

Very excited to see this finished! I've always been a fan of Idealized props, something about streamlining an original design is just so satisfying to me.

I too am excited to see how this turns out. I'm one that loves all the bumps and intricacies of original props so this one was a bit out of my comfort zone lol. I'm interested to see how this will compare to an unaltered one. since most of the work being done is subtle little changes/tweaks.

Thank you for sharing! I always enjoy the behind the scenes work!

likewise, always enjoy following others WIP thread so I thought I'd do one myself for fun

 

[Imperial Weapon]

This is great but wouldn't the client be better getting a JMC instead?

 

[lethyry]

Dome got its first light coat of primer today wanted to see if there are any problem areas left I need to touch up.

Not a whole lot left to do to the dome, a few pin holes here and there left to fill followed by another coat and a nice wet sand and it should be ready for paint. Face plate isn’t too far behind either.

 

[Halliwax]

A lot of work man. My hats off to you

 

[lethyry]

A lot of work man. My hats off to you

Thank you, Honestly I was expecting it to be more work than it has been based on the original photos I got , I've worked on some rough helmets in the past lol.

 

[Halliwax]

Keep up with the photos, enjoying the progress!

 

[lethyry]

Faceplate got its final coat of primer this morning and is curing now, it will get a wet sand before first coat of black goes on in the next few days. The details are all nice and crisp, quite happy with how it’s turning out

 

[lethyry]

It’s been a few days since I had any updates to share, was taking some time to work on some other stuff I had in the shoot, but I got the base coat of black done on the face today, I will be clear coating tomorrow, I still have the dome to paint but that will be done before clear tomorrow likewise the gunmetal. the finish line is in sight lol.

 

[Halliwax]

Intense

 

[Grievous]

Looks awesome!

 

[lethyry]

Intense

Lol, yes a bit but the clear adheres better when the paint is still fresh.

Looks awesome!

Thanks! I’m a bit nutty when it comes to paint finish on a project like this, so I always do a light base coat, wetsand in between then a heavier base coat layer. If I were trying to give this a more authentic finish I wouldn’t be as worried with surface texture since the originals had a lot of orange peel on them.

 

[lethyry]

What a he this day it was but it ended on a high lol, helmet is painted and curing at the moment. I won’t show any more pictures till this guy is finished, it was my first time in a while using 2k clear from spray max, and I must say it gave a great finish. Super pleased with it.

Excuse my crappy phone photos, will get the finished product photo’d with a much better camera

edit: for some reason the dome looks much worse than it actually does in person, i guess thats what i get when you drop your phone as much as i do lol

 

[lethyry]

Well, after the holiday break I took from working on helmets I thought I’d finally share with you guys the finished product here, after a few days of letting the clear coat cure, I wasn’t 100% Happy with how the clear went on, the finish was meh to me. It wasn’t something I felt I could put my name behind so I decided to resand the dome and refinish it . I slightly tweaked the way I clear coated it which I think made a big difference, it has that slight organge peel but still is smooth and reflective. So without further a do…

What a project it was, I’m quite happy with how it turned out. On to the next one lol.

 

[Grievous]

Absolutely gorgeous- great job!

 

[Imperial Weapon]

Looks great LFL may want that to advertise their products.

 

[Halliwax]

Wow