A Comprehensive Reference Guide for the Lando Skiff Guard Helmet

[TheDragon]

Hi,

This is a part of a bigger project I’ve been working on for the past few months and wanted to create a singular place to compile all the known information on the construction of this helmet. I’m planning to regularly update this as I go to try to make this as comprehensive as possible, If I’ve missed something let me know.

This thread will cover exclusively the hero and stunt helmets in Return of the Jedi, not the helmet seen in Solo.

Additionally, I won’t be regurgitating any information on the origins or design process of this helmet, Brandon Alingers’ book as well as various other sources have explained this many times before.

This post is still a WIP

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Assembly​

I think this is the best place to start in order to familiarise you with my nomenclature and then go into materials etc. The helmet has two main components the Shell Ⓐ and the Jaw Ⓑ in the below diagram:

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Hero Vs Stunt​

There are two main differences between the Hero and Stunts, the Hero helmet differs to the stunts as it has a pitted finish on the Shell and an adjustable Jaw, whereas the Stunts had a smooth Shell, and the Jaw was set in place.

Ⓐ The Shell​

Again, I will breakdown the shell of the helmet into its component parts:

*A9 not shown in diagram​

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A1. Shell​

The main component of the helmet is a vacuum formed white haircell (textured) ABS sheet, with the texture on the interior of the helmet. ​

On the Hero helmet, the outside is covered a pitted finish (post-forming) while the 3 stunt helmets are smooth on their outer face.

Shell Interior​

The interior of the Shell is seen to have a textured finish as seen on many other ROTJ helmets and sits on the head of the wearer with an off-the-shelf helmet harness. There is no evidence (I’ve seen) of a screen used helmet having a foam liner.

Shell Paint​

Brandon Alinger’s book has a direct quote from Peter Ronzani stating that the helmet was given its patina with rub and buff and a lot of scuffing. Still to figure out colours.

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A2. Boot Stud​

There are six of these on the helmet, 3 on either side. These studs are the same part as seen on the Luke V2 Lightsaber and Endor bunker bomb. The found part has been previously identified here. This is most likely a decorative piece that obscures the structural fixture for the Jaw. A representation of this part is pictured below.

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A3. Leather Moulding​

Either one piece or several sewn together beneath the belting. To be expanded on further.

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A4. Round Leather Belting​

Holes are present in the front and back of the Shell to allow for these to thread through. To be expanded on further.

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A5. Leather Trim​

Consisting of two seperate pieces of leather, outlined in yellow and blue below. To be expanded on further.

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A6. Brow Trim​

To be expanded on further.

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A7. Brow Tacks​

To be expanded on further.

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A8. Harness Rivets​

Structural fixture for the Harness. On the stunt helmets these rivets are beneath the leather moulding whereas on the Hero they are seen to be on top.

Stunt (Left) Hero (Right)​

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A9. Fibre Metal Harness​

This internal harness is a found part, the exact harness is apart of a Fibre-metal 880-3C welding helmet (Fibre-Metal 3C headgear) though there are similar harnesses that are still produced today with minimal differences.

Above: Welding harness seen on stunt helmet, César Villar Toro, 2009

Above: Photo from an ebay auction of a 880 3C welding helmet​

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Ⓑ Jaw​

The Jaw is a sculpted part cast in a red semi-rigid urethane (Alinger, 2014), of the same material as the slave Leia outfit.
To be expanded on further.

Paint​

Haven't got to this yet.

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Unknown Stuff​

These are things that I still don’t have a definite answer to.

Jaw attachment method​

In the below photo of a stunt helmet there is 3 methods of attachment to the Shell; Glue, string and some sort of fastener.

César Villar Toro, 2009​

My belief is that both the stunt and hero helmets have the same attachment method of the single fastener, however as that isn’t enough support to hold the jaw up on its own the string and glue was added to hold it in place on the stunt helmets to keep the jaw from falling down.

Jaw Sculpt​

The Jaw sculpt has 6 cords on the outside that were painted gold, as these cords change slightly between each helmet, I’m opening the possibility of them being separate pieces added to the Jaw after it was cast. There is a sculpted piece behind them on the helmet that also supports this hypothesis however without a photo of it on 2 different helmets I cannot confirm whether or not that was a cast element as well or an element sculpted into the back on each helmet to support the corded section of the Jaw.

César Villar Toro, 2009

César Villar Toro, 2009​

 

[bobasfett]

Cool thread

 

[BudaFett]

I've always loved this helmet. Clothears does a great replica!

 

[TheDragon]

I've always loved this helmet. Clothears does a great replica!

It's pretty solid but they don't offer the hero version of the helmet.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

 

[Captain Dunsel]

 

[TheDragon]

This helmet, and the other propstore auctioned helmet are very interesting. I'd like to know where they came from and whether they truly are prototypes.

Unlike the other propstore helmet, this ones jaw looks to have come from the same sculpt as the screenused helmets though it has different tusks in the middle (which were glued on pieces on the final helmet).

Unfortunately, unlike the shell which has a "safety casting", i'm not aware of direct moulds of the jaw existing in private hands.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

This helmet, and the other propstore auctioned helmet are very interesting. I'd like to know where they came from and whether they truly are prototypes.

Unlike the other propstore helmet, this ones jaw looks to have come from the same sculpt as the screenused helmets though it has different tusks in the middle (which were glued on pieces on the final helmet).

Unfortunately, unlike the shell which has a "safety casting", i'm not aware of direct moulds of the jaw existing in private hands.

I didn’t hear them describe it as a prototype helmet (?). Was it?

 

[TheDragon]

I didn’t hear them describe it as a prototype helmet (?). Was it?

Definitely not something that was a final production piece, the ones seen in the film put that helmet to shame lol.

 

[TheDragon]

Updated information regarding the welding harness, still to ID the fastener used inside the helmet if anyone had better photos of it.

 

[TheDragon]

Although I'm still not certain this is how the 'Jaw' section was formed this is my best guess to how the jaw section was constructed. (Until i'm certain this won't be added to the initial forum post).

From what I can gather, i believe the Jaw piece was cast flat without any of the teeth or horned parts before being bent into shape.

This is a crude drawing of what I mean:

The jaw was cast in a single part mould with the back face exposed to the air:

The cast piece was then bent in the directions shown to form the shape seen on the helmets:

What supports this assumption?

• The jaw was constructed in a semi rigid urethane (allowing for deformation)
• The bottom left horn on the propstore auctioned 'prototype' was missing with clean separation (no apparent fracture etc.)
• The spiked teeth change positioning between helmets (glued on during assembly not moulded)
• The lack of detail on the inside of the jaw piece* (supports assumed casting technique)

*The jaw piece does have a ridged section on the inside of the center ribbed section which I believe was added after the Jaw was initially cast (no great evidence to support that) this is also not a feature of the 'prototype' helmet

There looks to have been different material used on the prototype as well (latex?)

The photo below from the propstore shows the missing horn as if it fell off.

The 'test components' also auctioned may also support this however as you can see this is a very crude 'test'.

This is opposed to how I've seen replicas made where the Jaw is cast in a thick rigid urethane resin piece in its final bent look.

More to come... (Hopefully)