70's Galactica viper helmet

[Reactor drone]

Finally finished my viper helmet after a a couple of months hard sculpting and mould making so I thought I'd post a few pics of the process and the finished piece.

Started out with a few profile shapes glued together .The top domed section was blocked in with florists foam and sanded to shape before being coated with a layer of fibreglass.

The smooth rear section was added by laying fibreglass onto a sheet of thin PVC sheet and wrapping it around the forms until the fibreglass had set-peel off the PVC and voila,a nice smooth bit of fibreglass with a nice even curve.The dome section was smoothed out with a few skim coats of body filler applied with a hacksaw blade to give a nice smooth curve and sanded down smooth.

The chin peice was added next using florists foam and fibreglass

Side pieces were added with body filler,using the PVC sheet method again to get a smooth curve.

Final details were added and the mould was made.I built the mould to allow conventional fibreglass layup but I also wanted to try and rotocast the helmet so I'm currently building a rig to test that idea out.

Finally the galactica crest was sculpted and the microphone,speakers and clear components were made and moulded.

The first one I made was for a charity auction at a galactica convention so I'm currently working on one for myself which I'll add lights to to add that finishing touch.

 

[SurferGeek]

Very nice. Great to see the in procces shots as well. Although you might want to edit your title to include "obscenely large images inside" :lol Even with cable it took a few to load all those huge photos. Great stuff.

 

[temponaut]

Fantastic WIP pics, leading to an awesome final product. You've got some skills, man. :eek

Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

 

[ywingfighter]

Great work...... :eek

 

[Jimbo890]

Great work. Any chance you might do a small run for your TOS BSG RPF fans?

 

[spcglider@aol.com]

Fantastic work. Lovely in all categories.

So, just a question: with as many Viper helmet kits out there as there are out there, why did you decide to do a scratch build? Was it a self-imposed personal challenge? Just curious.

-Gordon

 

[Skyler101]

Well, for all the oldschool RPF members, Im still looking for a Viper helmet.
For those who weren't arounf for thee great "CommanderCain and BSG.org" days, you can read all about the saga in the saved forums...

I'd be interested in one...

"For those who beleive" LOL

-Skyler101

 

[Spankuh]

Nice work.

HH

 

[Reactor drone]

Why scratchbuild?Making stuff is half the fun...or 70% of the fun...something like that.

I wanted to try my hand at doing a silicone case mould for a helmet and there was a Galactica con coming up so I though it'd be a good project,something to add to the portfolio.

It works out about the same cost as a bought one too,even if I only made one for myself, but since I have a couple of friends who are interested I can pretty much recover my outlay on materials.

Sorry about the huge pics,I do compress them so they're not huge files but I'll have to resize a bit too in future :unsure

 

[RoCKo]

be proud of these beauties. fantastic work... :thumbsup

as i stated in another thread, if star wars wasn´t my lifetime favorite movie, it would definatly battlestar.
i always enjoy seeing beauties like this helmet. i don´t think i will change my mind from star wars to battlestar but i feel like i´m gonna have some battlestar props too in the future...
threads and pictures like yours feed this desire... :lol

as for the pictures... the are very big, indeed.

 

[OB10]

SHWING. :thumbsup


Obi-Bob

 

[Galactifan]

A great helmet from a great show.

 

[Apollo]

Beautiful work.

 

[jedicouncil]

Nice work. Its always more satisfying (well, to me anyway) when you build it yourself.