ANH Stormtrooper Helmet Project

[chris08234]

Well, here it goes, first attempt on a fan made ANH Stormtrooper Helmet, armor to follow. I started with air drying clay......big mistake......shrinkage and cracking was my worst enemy. And when done with the mother mold, I made a casting using a fiberglass overlay....another mistake. I didn't post the picture of it in the trash can where it belonged. With about a half gallon of bondo and glazing putty, I am nearing completion of the mold to vacuum form from. I intend to add the mouthpiece as a resin piece at a later time. I was also contemplating machining the frown from aluminum and install as an inset. Same goes in lieu of decal at the temple and rear. Any criticism is greatly appreciated.[attachmentid=10939]

 

[RKW]

Well firstly welcome.

Were you stood close to the subject when taking the photo? It's best to stand back to avoid lense distortion and some more pics from different angles would help us.

Another tip would be to have some reference material to hand when sculpting.

This project should prove to be a good learning experience for you.

 

[Tim Allen]

Also when sculpting, try using an "oil base clay" no need to cover it up and it will never dry out on you.

 

[Gilmortar]

Welcome to the boards bro,

You are DEFINITELY off to a great start on the helmet. A few suggestions I would have for you that should help you out with the helmet.

the main parts I saw were the side walls, the dome and back tube.

Flare the sides out a little more, build the dome a little higher, and your back tube piece of the helmet, proportion it alittle bigger with the mods, and i do believe sir, you will have the best fan sculpted trooper helmet out there.

 

[chris08234]

Wow. Thanks you all for the great info. And thank you for the wecloming. I had attempted to by a damaged helmet for reference at one time (I think it was a Don Post) but was unsuccessful. As for the clay.....yep, I was an idiot....I just grabbed the first clay I saw when I walked in the store. The only advantage to the air dry clay is that you don't necessarily have to make a secondary casting, if you know what you are doing. This weekend will be spent reshaping the sides, tube, and dome. I will follow with more and better pics. Thank you again.

 

[Darth Kahnt]

Good luck with it. I can imagine sculpting your own helmet is quite an undertaking, I personally wouldn't have the patience for it.

By the way, welcome to the wonderful world of the RPF.

 

[chris08234]

Okay, after about 9 hours of reshaping my helmetthis past weekend, what a difference. LOBH, thanks for the input, it really helped. All that is left is to make the indents. I will follow with pictures.

 

[troopermaster]

Hi Chris,

Good job on the sculpt so far :thumbsup The best advice I can give you for making a helmet is to gather as much reference as possible and then print out lots of profile shots the original size using photoshop or similar.Then cut them out and trace onto cardboard,cut them out too and you have the shapes you need to make a really good helmet.You need to use the outside shapes of cardboard then offer them up to your sculpts and fill in or take away clay as needed.That's basically how I made mine though after 7 years I'm still tweaking my moulds.Good luck and don't give up,you can do it :thumbsup

-Paul.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Looking forward to seeing more progress. :thumbsup

 

[chris08234]

Okay...I have managed to attach the link to all photos to date. The latest ones (The last four (4)) are with the revisions as suggested here. The pics with the fiberglass coating are of when I tried to make a secondary cast using structo-lite plaster. Unfortunately the cast was too flimsy to take the weight of the plaster. There is a picture of the plaster cast in the trash where it belongs....(Ugh, what a disaster). Of course some "tweaking" is in order, but after making the indents for the vents, I make go for the gusto and try my first pull (hopefully it won't be as disasterous as my fiberglass mold incident).

Thank you all again for your input.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/christopher_s08244/my_photos

 

[Too Much Garlic]

I only get an error message when clicking that link. :unsure

EDIT: the page is showing now... never mind.

 

[GeneralMayhem]

If you use oil based clay, remember to go with a sulpher-free variety, as it can cause cure-inhibiting problems later on if you use anything but plaster for your molds. I reccomend Prima Plastilina or Chavant clay. Just my 2 cents.

 

[chris08234]

I've completed the indents and everything is looking pretty good, however, I have never done vacuum pulling before. I am not sure how sharp my edges should be in relation to how the .125" ABS will curve around it. I guess it'll be trial and error. I also think I should drill holes where the aeraters go to allow those indents to form easier......Any suggestions?

 

[M Bison]

I will be watching this thread closely as I plan on doing something very similar.

I love the work you have done so far. Looks great.

 

[kivas]

great work so far, I too will be watching the progress of this one as I hope to try my hand at sculpting.. or filling the garbage can very soon.

 

[chris08234]

All two cents are welcomed. :thumbsup

 

[Darkside]

great work so far hers a site with infromations

helmet sculpting

i hope i helps a little

 

[chris08234]

Just an update. I tried my hand at vacuum forming the sculpture. Unfortunately my oven is WAY undersized for what I need to heat the ABS Plastic. It worked a little and I can start to see some possible problem areas. Any one have a used pizza oven for sale?

 

[chris08234]

Well, I tried again. A small convection oven just is not working. I will experiment some more, but looks like I may have to settle for fiberglassing my helmet sculpture or sending it out for vacuum forming. Maybe I'll try the microwave tonight. Just kidding

 

[jackdoud]

You could try winding your own nichrome wire heating elements or bust apart a few electric grills to make a heat source. Check out Studiocreations, http://www.tk560.com/vactable4.html and the book "Do it yourself Vacuum Forming" by Douglas E. Walsh book URL for more info.