Aliens Dropship Pilot Helmet

[Art Andrews]

So, this is one of the more sucky parts of the build. I wish I had taken "before" photos to show you what we started working with.

EDIT: I think i found the previous owner. Birdie was this you?



The last owner started cutting out the ears free-handed, and the end result was wavy lines in the cutout. The one nice thing was that on this side the cut was undersized, so I had a lot of room for correction.

Before I go any further, I have to wonder if Ferro's helmet was a "regular." I wonder this because I was surprised at the amount of material I did have to take away for the left ear cluster to fit... and even now, when I feel like I have taken away MORE material than is seen on the original helmets, the cluster BARELY fits. So, be advised, there may be sacrifices you have to make due to the size of the helmet.

With the previous in mind, I started with @noble's template, but it was a bit hard to apply since there was already a cut on my ear. I finally gave up, printed out a number of pics of the original helmet and just eyeballed it.

Another thing I will note is that the left ear cutout almost makes itself. How? In order to try to make it flat and straight, I used a large flat file and began filing away. As you do so, the kidney shape begins to make itself. Conventiently I had an extra casting of the greeblie at the temple and I temporarily hotglued it to the helmet as a reference marker. Using the boom mic hole, the temple greeblie and number of screw holes as markers, I used the flat file to work over the overall shape and I am pretty pleased with it. I will go back once more and check the shape before adding the base platform for the cluster, but overall, considering the sacrifices I feel had to be made due to helmet size, I am pretty happy with this side of the helmet.

 

[Art Andrews]

Much, much less pleased with this side. Again, it was cut prior to us receiving it and this one was particularly rough.

Edit: Here is how it looked initially, back in 2007.



Unfortunately, it was cut almost exactly to the right size, but again was cut in a wavy manner, which left me with little room for correction. On top of that, a full circle was cut, as opposed to a nearly complete circle, leaving a long stem coming down from the 12 o'clock position. On top of it all, this ear area is broken in two areas.

I have smoothed it out, again, primarily using a large flat file, but it is still pretty wavy. I am going to try to repair the fiberglass breaks tomorrow and then see where things go from there. My biggest concern is that I simply can't continue to make the cutout larger...

 

[LDR]

Well it looks like its coming on nicely Art.

I remember the hole cutting being the hardest part, even with a template. Very hard trying to draw a flat shape onto a curved area.

 

[Art Andrews]

I think I may have a bit of a discovery. Based on this scaling, I feel very confident that the clip that holds the two hama shutter release cables was created using cut down parts from the mic boom. Now this image is of a short mic boom, but I believe a long mic boom would be just long enough to complete the clip we see on the helmets. Thoughts?

 

[LDR]

Good find. It would make perfect sense especially with the ball end.

 

[Art Andrews]

And going to put this right here. You guys found way too many parts for us not to know what that last major component is.

http://www.therpf.com/f10/ss-model-builders-i-need-your-help-reward-find-216841/

 

[Art Andrews]

Well.... @#$@&^%#*&%!

This was going along SO nicely... and then I broke it. Guess I am going to try to drill the ball out with a dremel and then buy some easily bendable brass wire and go at it again. I probably should have heated the wire up instead of trying to bend it cold. Still, I am convinced this IS indeed what this part is.

Will make it VERY easy to mount to the helmet, since I can just add a small countersunk screw into that bottom plate.

 

[Art Andrews]

Hmmm... wondering if this is right or not. The angles are off a bit, but right here it is looking a little large...

View attachment 344064

 

[Birdie]

Art

Yeah, the original pics you have there are mine. My recollection was that I was basically building the helmet as we went along with the thread in AL. In hind sight that was a bad way of going at it, since so many discoveries and reference would turn up further along the line. The initial cut-outs and left hand scratch-build were about as far as I had got with it when I met my (now) wife, and I kinda lost interest in props for a while :lol

A couple of years later I came back to it, decided I wasn't going to get it done, and the rest you know. It's a daunting build, I'll be following your progress with interest.

 

[Art Andrews]

The initial cut-outs and left hand scratch-build were about as far as I had got with it when I met my (now) wife, and I kinda lost interest in props for a while :lol

A couple of years later I came back to it, decided I wasn't going to get it done, and the rest you know. It's a daunting build, I'll be following your progress with interest.

Finding the right woman can certainly change your focus. It is a bit ironic that your woman took you away from this build and my woman brought me to it!

It is indeed a daunting task but we are going to give it a try and see how it goes.

 

[dropshipbob]

I think many people who build this helmet make that clip part out of a paper clip and a plastic bead (my self included).

But that's for those of us who don't have source parts.

 

[Art Andrews]

Been working to update Birdie 's right ear cluster. This is more of a test than anything else and while it isn't 100% accurate, I am pretty happy with it.

BTW, the screws that are needed are 2-56 pan heads.

 

[Art Andrews]

Making progress on the front of the right ear cluster.

 

[Art Andrews]

Got in the Ban Dai Attack Tomahawk today.

 

[Oneminde]

Subbed and jumping on the band wagon. Time to locate a US Army SPH-4 Helicopter Helmet

 

[Art Andrews]

Just got in a part I had to have shipped from freakin' Malta, thanks to Malta's king; Alan Castillo.

 

[Alan Castillo]

Any time bro, glad to help out :cool

I see you went for the black one , not the beige. From the look of it, I think the beige one would have been a tad too large.

I think I'll send the shop guy a link to this thread and put him out of his misery :lol

 

[Art Andrews]

Indeed. The black one is the correct size and even though it is supposed to be beige it is all being painted anyway, so I went for correct size over correct color. Thank you again for your help!!

 

[Art Andrews]

Got in an old Polaroid 635CL (seems to be the most popular model on eBay) and wanted to show what is in it. This thing is not at all intuitive in regard to disassembly as there are NO SCREWS! Everything is pressure fit with little clips. The firs thing I did is pull out the two side of the flip up flash so that it was only hanging on by the connector strip. Next you have to pry out the two outside walls of the camera and just keep fissling with it until the front face comes off. After that, more of the same (it isn't overly difficult, but I wouldn't say it is easy either) until you worm the guts out of the body. From there, dissassembly is much more easy, although you do need to take care as you can easily snap off small arms/pegs that DO need to be present on the dropship helmet.

For the primary helmet assembly, there are three pieces of the camera used BUT, if you plan to build Spunkmeyer's Rapier sight don't throw away anything as there are other pieces in the camera that go to that piece.

Will post more later with a breakdown of each part used.

 

[Oneminde]

Good news girls and guy's. I'm in for a conversion. This one is in very nice condition.