Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. Let's find this!!!

[GINO]

I already posted this thread on TDH but also posted it here to increase its exposure.


I feel like I've searched the world for what I believe to be the screen accurate visor for the ESB Fett helmet.
It should be dark green like a welding face shield, and approx. .125" (3mm) thick.

Dark green (shade 3) face shields are common, but not in that thickness.
I've only found them in .040" (1mm) and .060" (1.5mm).

If you think about it, it sucks that even after all this time everyone (myself included) has spent on trying to get our helmets accurate, that no one anywhere, ever, has found the correct stuff.

I have .125 transparent green acrylic, but there is only one universal type made around the world and it is too much of an emerald green and is not correct. You cannot go the acrylic sheet route unless you want to have a custom color made and that costs thousands.
I am of the opinion that the original visor was from a welding face shield anyway.


So...


Has anyone ever found a shade 3 dark green face shield in .080" (2mm)? I think they make those even though I've not found a source.

I think that is the best we can ask for until the day (if ever) someone stumbles upon one that is .125" (3mm).


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[tubachris85x]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Unless you make it yourself, I doubt you'll find anyone making fett specific visors to that spec. Your better off cutting one out from a welder's shield.

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Unless you make it yourself, I doubt you'll find anyone making fett specific visors to that spec. Your better off cutting one out from a welder's shield.

I think you need to re-read my post.
I already know no one makes it.
I also know no one currently has it.
No one has found a .125" thick welder's shield face mask.

The purpose is for people who are interested in trying to find an accurate visor and right now, no one has an accurate ESB Fett helmet visor.


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[tubachris85x]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

I think you need to re-read my post.
I already know no one makes it.
I also know no one currently has it.
No one has found a .125" thick welder's shield face mask.
This is for people who are interested in accurate visors and right now, no one has an accurate ESB Fett helmet visor.


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I did read your post. The issue is that there has been so much debate as to what is "accurate." To say that no one's visor's accurate is a big claim. What are your facts supporting that the visor is supposed to be .125" thick?

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

I don't know who was debating this, but as far as I'm concerned, there is no debate.
I'm not saying that it is exactly .125" (3mm) but it is definitely almost exactly .125".
It's a good chance that it is actually exactly .125" (3mm) as that is an industry standard size both here and in the UK.

I truly believe that no one has one yet.
I'm not kidding when I say, I'd LOVE to be proven wrong on it. It would be a happy day for people wanting screen accurate ESB fett visors.
It saddens me that more people aren't interested in screen accuracy.


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[tubachris85x]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

I don't know who was debating this, but as far as I'm concerned, there is no debate.
I'm not saying that it is exactly .125" (3mm) but it is definitely almost exactly .125".
It's a good chance that it is actually exactly .125" (3mm) as that is an industry standard size both here and in the UK.

I truly believe that no one has one yet.
I'm not kidding when I say, I'd LOVE to be proven wrong on it. It would be a happy day for people wanting screen accurate ESB fett visors.
It saddens me that more people aren't interested in screen accuracy.


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I'm assuming you've tried searching UK supplies.

As far as achieving screen accuracy, that's based mostly on what level a person want's to be at. Since the standard for ESB visors is having shade 3 green visors, that's all that most people will go for because they know no one's going to be coming up to them with a ruler and giving them crap because their visor isn't precisly .125" thick.

You want to make every last detail exactly like the movie's. That's great, it's your thing to do it. I can say the same thing about ESB paintjob's I've seen. I've seen some amazing work before, but I can tell you that because of the way the ESB helmet is painted, it would be physically impossible for someone to recreated every last detail exactly like the original by hand.


I focus more on Jango helmets and related props. I would absolutly love to do a Jango for costuming purposes, but I personally won't for the reason that I am just too tall and it won't be "accurate." I feel the screen used jango helmet has a particular "look," by which I feel can only be achieved through the proper placement of the visor on a screencast helmet.

I'm sure that there are companies that sell the shade 3 green tint plastic that you can use for vac-forming. These companies that produces the face shields get their plastic from somewhere.

 

[defstartrooper]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Gino why are you searching for a dark green faceshield thats 2mm thick when the original visor is supposedly 3mm ? surely 2mm is going to just as inaccurate as 1mm ?

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

I'm assuming you've tried searching UK supplies.

Yes, that was were I primarily searched because if I'm not mistaken, that was where they were created.

As far as achieving screen accuracy, that's based mostly on what level a person want's to be at. Since the standard for ESB visors is having shade 3 green visors, that's all that most people will go for because they know no one's going to be coming up to them with a ruler and giving them crap because their visor isn't precisly .125" thick.

I know that the quest for screen accuracy is not very strong amongst most costumers. If they are happy with a lesser level of accuracy, then good for them. This thread is not meant for those people.

You want to make every last detail exactly like the movie's. That's great, it's your thing to do it. I can say the same thing about ESB paintjob's I've seen. I've seen some amazing work before, but I can tell you that because of the way the ESB helmet is painted, it would be physically impossible for someone to recreated every last detail exactly like the original by hand.

Agreed. But I am all about advocating the attitude of "lets get this as close as absolutely possible".
And this is one of those occasions.
For me and some others, .060 thick visor is not satisfactory.

I'm sure that there are companies that sell the shade 3 green tint plastic that you can use for vac-forming. These companies that produces the face shields get their plastic from somewhere.

I'm not sure the face shields are made out of sheet stock polycarbonate. I think they might be injection molded. Can't say for sure.
Either way it wouldn't matter. They wouldn't have .125 sheet stock lying around unless it was being used for a specific product. And I've not found any products that do. If I did, it would be cheaper and easier for us all to just go and buy that $15 product.

I'm hoping this thread will spark others to do research as well and maybe one of us will stumble upon a source or maybe even do a group buy if necessary.


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[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Gino why are you searching for a dark green faceshield thats 2mm thick when the original visor is supposedly 3mm ? surely 2mm is going to just as inaccurate as 1mm ?

You are totally right.
I suppose I feel like our chances for finding the correct thickness is slim, so in lieu of more accurate stuff, I'd be okay to use the .080 (2mm) thick stuff as a placeholder.
I'd be okay with it, but not satisfied and I'd still keep looking for the right stuff.
.080 is a better placeholder than .060


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[tubachris85x]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

I'm not sure the face shields are made out of sheet stock polycarbonate. I think they might be injection molded. Can't say for sure.




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Thats a possibility. The imprinted warning/markings I've seen on welder's masks, etc are too fine to be from vac form, so they'd have to be mold injected.

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Not necessarily.
They could be pressure formed which is like vac forming but the material is heated and pressed between two dies. Now that I think about it, I'd say that is the most likely (and efficient) method that was used to make them.


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[stormtrooperguy]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Where is the 3mm number coming from? Is there some shot where you can see the underside of the ESB bucket well enough to scale it?

I'm not an ESB fan myself... I'm an RotJ sort of guy. As such, I'm not well versed in what's out there for reference.

One area that I think the thickness would be relevant for costuming purposes too would be how much light goes through it.

If you take 2 sheets of plastic with the same tint, one thicker than the other, the thicker one, I would assume, would be darker.

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Yes, there is fantastic reference of the inside of the ESB helmet showing the visor thickness. It's not a secret photo or anything.

The PP2, PP3, and ROTJ, and ESB appear to all be the same thickness, only they are smoke tint where as the ESB is dark green.

I am not interested in costuming advantages/purposes in the least, so it would be awesome if we could leave any discussion of that out of this thread. It is of no consequence for the purposes of finding the accurate material.

I didn't say before, but I should have said that you cannot double up on shade 3 material to get the desired thickness.
It would have to be .125" rated at shade 3. If you placed two shade 3 sheets together, it would be like shade 12 (if there was such a thing).
Two layers of shade 3 is not just slightly darker than shade 5 (which is too dark anyway), it is like 3 times darker.


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[razorsharp192]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

i'm not sure what shade "shade 3" is, but a quick google brought this up, this any good? dark green 3mm acrylic


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DARK-GREEN-TI...75792e81240a0e201b39a03fc7bf9ac#ht_1706wt_913

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

Unfortunately not.
Perspex is just a brand name of acrylic, like acrylite but in the UK.
I've found that it is the same transparent green as the acrylite acrylic and it is not dark enough. There is only one transparent green made anywhere that is a standard stock color. Anything else is custom made and more expensive than any of us (all put together) would be willing to pay for.
This was one of the first things I looked into way back when.

When you hear shade 3 or shade 5, it refers to a material usually polycarbonate that lets a certain amount of light pass through it. The higher the number, the less light that passes through. We want shade 3 or something on par with it.


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[razorsharp192]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

have you thought about tinting a piece yourself with spray tints?

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

I am not interested in costuming advantages/purposes in the least, so it would be awesome if we could leave any discussion of that out of this thread. It is of no consequence for the purposes of finding the accurate material.

At least that's something, compared to the other times you asked the community for help finding accurate stuff that was never intended for community public domain, but only intended for your privilege, such as the TIE pilot hose and AT-AT driver greeblie.

Look, I'm not saying this to start a fight, but it may explain why there's so few responses.

I have a near 3 mm plexiglass visor, but unsure what particular shade it is. That thickness does not correspond with welding visors, which are generally thinner, iirc. More likely formed from plexiglass sheets.

If I'm totally off here, then I apologize, only have Danish standard visors to go by.

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

have you thought about tinting a piece yourself with spray tints?

No not at all, because I'm pretty certain that is not what they used on the original prop.
The point is to find a material that is extremely close if not identical to what they used.

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[razorsharp192]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

how do you know that its shade 3 btw? can you post the photo showing where you're getting the thickness and shade from?

 

[GINO]

Re: Accurate ESB Fett helmet visor search. What has been found?

At least that's something, compared to the other times you asked the community for help finding accurate stuff that was never intended for community public domain, but only intended for your privilege, such as the TIE pilot hose and AT-AT driver greeblie.

In that specific instance, I was tying to put out a bounty on finding a specific part for me personally and privately. In hindsight, the approach I took and the wording I used ended up not being clear enough and a lot of people misunderstood my intentions and for that I'm truly sorry. The intent was not to mislead people although that is the way it came off.

In this specific instance, this is not a private search. I have no problem sharing it with everyone if we find something. In fact, I'd be fine to do a split group order on something if it ended up being a large piece.

Look, I'm not saying this to start a fight, but it may explain why there's so few responses.

I don't think that's why there are so few responses. I honestly think that this is not something people will find easily. I've spent an enormous amount of time already and came up dry.

I have a near 3 mm plexiglass visor, but unsure what particular shade it is. That thickness does not correspond with welding visors, which are generally thinner, iirc. More likely formed from plexiglass sheets.

Can you post a pic or share the source? What type of item did it come from?

If I'm totally off here, then I apologize, only have Danish standard visors to go by.

No not at all. I think it is a good thing to explore anything remotely close.


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