Anyone planning on picking up the Target Helmets and "improving" on them?

[MCM]

Matt, perhaps trim the sign material from the inside as close as your comfort level to the lip of the original material, clearing out space for you to open the cheek holes? Does the area around the cheeks require structural backing of fiberglass for structure or something? I'm new at reenforcing helmets (I'm an EVA foam guy) so I'm not sure.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I don't think it's going to even be necessary to fiberglass around the holes of the cheek areas. I might drizzle some resin or something behind them to give them a bit more rigidity, but I'm not going to sweat it.

Now I think I'll go mix up some bondo, fill in the preexisting holes on the right cheek, sand smooth, draw out where the new holes should be, then dremel away. :cool

 

[Famine]

I've got to be blind, but I'm not seeing these holes that folks are trying to fix on the right cheek. Can anyone throw up a reference in MS Paint and highlight what I'm missing?

RE: Surface finish: The ANOVOS helmets show an almost Kevlar helmet texture. I'm thinking I can replicate this texture with a rattle can of Plastidip and a prayer. Thoughts?

 

[MCM]

I've got to be blind, but I'm not seeing these holes that folks are trying to fix on the right cheek. Can anyone throw up a reference in MS Paint and highlight what I'm missing?

RE: Surface finish: The ANOVOS helmets show an almost Kevlar helmet texture. I'm thinking I can replicate this texture with a rattle can of Plastidip and a prayer. Thoughts?

The right cheek details don't match up as well as they do on the left cheek
Right cheek:
Anovos replica
Target Rubies helmet

Left cheek:
Anovos replica
Target Rubies helmet

The holes on the left cheek correspond much more closely between the 2 than do the holes on the right cheek. Hope that clears things up for ya :thumbsup

edit:
The cheeks on the Target helmet are symmetrical whereas the real deal is asymmetrical.

 

[Famine]

OOOH! Ok, I absolutely follow now.

I read dimensional drawings all day at work but I miss stuff at home like this...lol

Edit: Thank you!

 

[Scott D]

I'm wondering if a double layer of screen wouldn't work out? Is this for wear or display?

Gonna try to make it like the Anovos version. Wearable & sturdy.

Maybe put some breathable fabric behind it.

Yep, it looks like that is what was used on the one that was on display.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I don't think it's going to even be necessary to fiberglass around the holes of the cheek areas. I might drizzle some resin or something behind them to give them a bit more rigidity, but I'm not going to sweat it.

Now I think I'll go mix up some bondo, fill in the preexisting holes on the right cheek, sand smooth, draw out where the new holes should be, then dremel away. :cool

That's my plan, too. It should do the job. Gonna try to do the fiberglass work this upcoming weekend.

All I achieved today was joining the two halves together w/epoxy. I made a little mess in the process, but it shouldn't be a problem sanding it away.

Gotta go find the "For Rent" signs in the garage. The wife won't miss them, her rental property has been sold. :thumbsup

I'll break out my tired old Dremel and grind in the minor battle damage, but pass on making the dents and wavy panels.

 

[Famine]

I caved on the dents and fired up my heat gun, added the two main ones. I don't think I'm gonna worry too much about the symetry on the mask, I've already done about as much dremeling on the helmet as I want to do (got the cord caught and scraped up two spots, will now have to sand them down to blend out the damage). This one will be a costume/display piece for my shop when all is said and done. I'm about to finish out the holes with some needle files before I bondo the seam and sand everything down for priming. I may take it into work and prime it there. Cheers.

 

[Lord Magneto]

I'm seriously seriously seriously kicking myself for not picking up a boba fett helmet when i saw one on force friday

 

[Scott D]

I'm seriously seriously seriously kicking myself for not picking up a boba fett helmet when i saw one on force friday

I bought one of those, but after seeing Country Paul Rubies ESB Fett helmet repaint, I'm seriously seriously dreading trying to paint mine. It's a lot of work.

I might go with a white Mcquarrie style paint scheme.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

^ Similar. I've decided I'm going to do mine up as the "Supertrooper" version. If I can find a second at some point, I'm going to clean it up and vacuum-metalize it nickel along with the armor I'm sculpting for that particular kit (Fenn Shysa's "Mandalore" outfit from after the death of the Emperor and the Empire getting kicked off Mandalore in Marvel's old Star Wars #99).

I'm also going to make forms from the insides of the three main pieces and clean them up to use for metal-forming guides, and the outsides of the earcaps for the same. These things are even better than the MRCE/eFX Stormtrooper helmet as far as representing an idelaized version of the particular helmet to work from and use as reference. All the Fett bucket needs is a little detail work and cutting out the "keyslots" (and changing out the visor, which they could have made easier, true). The Stormtrooper helmet, on the other hand, needs work around the frown, rear traps, earcaps, aerators, and on and on...

And I am still baffled at how Rubie's can put out gems like this and their Supreme Edition Royal Guard helmet, but then at the same time put out underscaled, soft, sloppy, and/or flimsy versions of other pieces they could just as easily have gotten right. Like the TFA Stormtrooper -- why is it so underscaled? And why do so many, from Rubie's to Hasbro, so consistently not even bother trying with Vader's helmet? Hrmph.

--Jonah

 

[Celtic007]

I bought one of those, but after seeing Country Paul Rubies ESB Fett helmet repaint, I'm seriously seriously dreading trying to paint mine. It's a lot of work.

I might go with a white Mcquarrie style paint scheme.

You don't have to do it the same way to get a similar look. For the damage on the top of my helmet and the back, and some on the front, I didn't do any layered masking techniques. I just painted it up as I went. But it looks fine to me.

After painting my modified Rubies Vader helmet, it was nice to paint the Boba helmet and not have to worry about it being perfect or shiny or anything like that. I could make a mistake and who would know? As long as I got the general idea down for the damage and the colors right, I was happy.

 

[Country Paul]

I've posted some pics on my build thread but thought I'd post some here too

got my ROTJ version put together & nearly finished

again like my ESB I know it's not 100% accurate but it looks close enough to a ROTJ that it'll keep me happy

not sure why but I found this was actually harder than my ESB one

I do love these Rubies Fett Helmets & hope they're released again at some point soon

excluding the cost of the paint I got 2 helmets for less than the price of one eBay resin cast helmet

 

[Mr Mold Maker]

I finally completely finish the helmet.
I removed the original visor and replaced it and also finished up the range finder.
https://fandfsports.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/img_4416.jpg?w=848
https://fandfsports.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/img_4417.jpg?w=848
https://fandfsports.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/img_4421.jpg?w=848https://fandfsports.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/img_4422.jpg?w=848

I also made a little stand for it.

I I actually thought that was my helmet for a second there. :lol
I notice your mandibles don't quite sit flush with the visor, I couldn't make mine either and believe me, I tried... Out of curiosity how did you end up attaching the visor in?

I had to screw mine in, grind off the tips, and then do some touch up with bondo... If I do another helmet I'd like to avoid all that work if possible.

 

[akidnamedcesar]

Re: Anyone planning on picking up the Target Helmets and "improving" on them?

I stocked up [emoji14]

View attachment 544644

Great Christmas gifts. Couldn't help myself. Every Time i walked into Target and saw one, I bought one. They also sold me ones missing the range finder (seems common) for $15 each.

Reel


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Would you be interested in selling me one of the buckets missing the range finder?

-Thanks!

 

[VeryExciting]

Here is my almost done Finn stormtrooper helmet. I just need to finish glueing in the mesh and get something for the eyes... I think I will put a few satin clear coats on it too, just for protection.

 

[Scott D]

You don't have to do it the same way to get a similar look. For the damage on the top of my helmet and the back, and some on the front, I didn't do any layered masking techniques. I just painted it up as I went. But it looks fine to me.

I painted up a Don Post Fett helmet like that in the late 90's. It does look nice, but you don't get the "depth" in the paint work.

Made some progress on the Kylo helmet this morning. I had to move out of the downstairs workshop. The fumes from the fiberglass resin are pretty rough. I did have the respirator, though.



I first roughed the inside of the helmet up with a right-angle grinder with one of those 3M scuffing pads on it. The fiberglass cloth was put in place first with dabs of 5 min. epoxy and I did the resin application in 2 passes.

I was freaking out, thinking that I didn't use enough hardener because it didn't seem to be curing at first, but it was pretty cold this morning. It all worked out OK.

The wife's "For Rent" signs were too flimsy to use for the lower cheek/front fangs, so I'll work on that later. After the fiberglass cures, I'm going to cut away some of the lower cheek details and make it look more like what is seen in the Anovos reference pictures.

 

[bahamut443]

Very interesting thread! Amazed by the work posted here!

 

[Famine]

Made some progress on the Kylo helmet this morning.

I'll say!

 

[MCM]

The wife's "For Rent" signs were too flimsy to use for the lower cheek/front fangs, so I'll work on that later. After the fiberglass cures, I'm going to cut away some of the lower cheek details and make it look more like what is seen in the Anovos reference pictures.

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums...eplica Progress Pics/DSC03952_zpsdjwqy3fo.jpg

The ones that I used are fairly flimsy, too, but they were easy to cut with scissors which was nice. In fact, I need to modify the shape a bit yet before I reinforce the new jaw parts with another layer of sign material. I figure that if I double up the layers and reinforce with fiberglass that the helmet ought to be sturdy enough. Nice, clean fiberglassing job, btw :thumbsup.

 

[Scott D]

The ones that I used are fairly flimsy, too, but they were easy to cut with scissors which was nice. In fact, I need to modify the shape a bit yet before I reinforce the new jaw parts with another layer of sign material. I figure that if I double up the layers and reinforce with fiberglass that the helmet ought to be sturdy enough. Nice, clean fiberglassing job, btw :thumbsup.

Thanks. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm out of my comfort zone and learning as I go. I had taped off the holes in the cheek areas, but I neglected to tape off the visor area. Fiberglass resin oozed out while it was upside down and ran up on the forehead. I wish I had caught it earlier...it was starting to eat into the helmet. I got it sanded down the best I could.

More progress this weekend. I found this (broken) black plastic file holder at work and it became the donor material for the lower jaw details. I started wet-sanding the helmet with 320 grit and the lower jaw pieces were wet-sanded with 400 grit. The lower jaw parts are a softer plastic (the same kind of plastic that 5 gallon buckets are made of) so they were sanded with a finer grit.

I saw in another thread where someone used multiple layers of metal screen door material (painted black) to make a see-through visor and it looked great. After some thinking, I found some nylon(?) screen material that was left over from some past project. I think this will be used for the visor and the cut-out areas in the cheeks. Not sure how these parts will be attached yet.

MCM, did your helmet already have the horizontal groove that runs around the back of the helmet?

 

[MCM]

MCM, did your helmet already have the horizontal groove that runs around the back of the helmet?

Nope. I carved that in with a needle file.