Char Aznable Helmet

[Kommissar]

So i had abit of an itch to scratch when i am waiting for a friend to finish making a few molds for me,
so i got started on a helmet for a friend of mine.

we took a bargain hunt, rubies vader helm and i'm putting it to good use for him,
Hes planning his first real convention costume, and really wants to start out looking good, so he has been taking a class in sewing and pattern making, and while he works on the coat, i promised him i would assist by making a helmet.

well the convention is coming up in a few months, so i needed to really start working on it all,

the original character, for those who don't know, is an (often) masked mech pilot ace by the name of Char Aznable, aka The Red Comet from the Gundam series.

and while in the anime, the helmet bears a striking resemblance to Darth Vader, once i got started with the construction of this project, i very quickly started to see and feel much more feudal samurai influences in his helm, something that kind of made this project just that extra bit more involving for me.

so i've begun to cut some slits in the back of the helm, so i can heat gun it and fan the edges out a bit more,
as well as lightly sand the whole helm for some surface for my first stage of bondo shaping to begin (pictured)

the most notable feature of the helmet is the crest, similar to those of the gundam mechs in the series, and one of the main reasons ive began to see a samurai connection with the design.

i picked this method up by observing one of Volpin's recent builds, in which he made an angled guard on a sword by kind of building a 'skeleton' out of styrene (im using a mix of styrene and sintra for mine) and then filled it in with an epoxie.
i'm undecided if i should use his direct method and buy a tub of the apoxie sculpt, or go with what i have available,which is bondo.

this is a rough cardstock doodle i put together to test out a good scale for the crest.

i'll be posting more, as i get more done.
thanks for reading!

 

[CSMacLaren]

Nice! Keep up the good work!

 

[Ozymandius]

I dig it. Something different. Reminds me of how I always wanted to do a Zaku head helmet.

Hmm, may have to add that to the to do list.

 

[Wes R]

The original gundam series doesn't get much love over here after Gundam wing stole the show so it's nice to see something different.

 

[Kommissar]

The original gundam series doesn't get much love over here after Gundam wing stole the show so it's nice to see something different.

my first introduction to gundam was wing... i have been shown the error of my ways,
the original storyline, which is still on going with Gundam: unicorn, is great, and the feature length 'abridged' version of the original series was a very effective way of getting all the best parts of th original series.

 

[Kommissar]

Okay, part 2 now.

bondo'ed up the crest spikes, with the first layer. and a little demo of how i work with bondo.
i apply it, wait for it to start to kick, and when its still tacky, but solid, i shave parts of it down with a straight razor blade, it saves a lot of sanding time

after some cutting and sanding the basic shape is ready

i tend apply a second layer of bondo, kind of scraped over the top, and start sanding again.

ive applied abit more bondo to the dome, and done some more sanding. similar to my steps for the spikes.

and then more bondo, and sanding and shaping.

 

[kursosawa]

This is frickin sick! Now all one needs is a 1/1 Zaku then we'll be in business....

 

[Kommissar]

Update time.
added a fin to act as the spine for the ridge going along some of the helmet

bondo, go!

i done a bit of hand sanding, and used my dremmel to get some good surface area for the crest spikes, and presto!
a little more bondo, and the joins are covered
still needs some shaping and abit of fiberglasss on the inside just to be safe, but i'm really thinking this is coming along well.
i also trimmed the sides of the helmet abit.

 

[ItalianNinja86]

Awesome work dude the original seris has always been a favorite of mine and this just reinforces that

Can't wait to see it finished

 

[BGHUNTER]

This is very cool , I really like it,
Was that the smaller size vader helmet :confused

 

[Volpin]

Looking great Kai!

On that top ridge, is the entire cavity filled with bondo? If that gets a tad heavy, you might look into filling these areas with foam to act as a lightweight filler beforehand.

This may be a master for a mold though, and in that case, nevermind. Keep up the great work!

 

[Fifthrate]

Awesome!

 

[Kommissar]

Looking great Kai!

On that top ridge, is the entire cavity filled with bondo? If that gets a tad heavy, you might look into filling these areas with foam to act as a lightweight filler beforehand.

This may be a master for a mold though, and in that case, nevermind. Keep up the great work!

it could very easily become a master, but i'm unsure how many people would want to get one, so i'm a little hesitant to go ahead and make a mold for something like this if it were to just be a one time build.
thoughts?

the weight is actually pretty good, i think its pretty much all bondo, as you feared, but it doesn't seem to weigh down the helmet or cause any discomfort or balance issues in the (limited) time ive been wearing it.

i think i might try the idea of a few blocks of foam to act as 'filler' to lighten the weight of things like this in future though. thanks!

This is very cool , I really like it,
Was that the smaller size vader helmet :confused

it was the rubies 'deluxe' helmet + mask combo, my buddy got it on sale for about $25 online somewhere.

 

[chachov]

Hallo,
Sniff!!! Gundam... Hisashiburi... It´s been a long time... And you did a super Job with your helmet. Are you building the mask too? Here is a link from a Japanese cosplay store... That might help you.

http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=...1&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&biw=1024&bih=681

Keep the good work.
Regards from Germany
Alfredo

 

[Blue Leader]

As a huge fan of the original Mobile Suit Gundam (and pretty much every Gundam series following), I must say that is some awesome work. Man, I would totally kill for one of those.
Great job on this.

I've got a Gihren Zabi costume myself. Doing a Char costume would be wicked cool.

 

[Chuey]

Very nice. Great to see a symbolic anime piece brought to life.

 

[Starchwreck]

Woahhhhhh!!! Awesome! How did I not see this earlier haha. Looks amazing so far!

 

[HeroWorship]

Many thanks from this Gundam fan!

 

[Kommissar]

the helm is coming along great, i fiberglassed the inside for a bit of extra support (the less flex i can have, the less bondo cracks, so i want it to be tough) but got a few airbubbles under the fiberglass, so i had to cut the holes open and fill em up with resin.
it's looking a lot better now, i'm taking some time off it to, yes, as someone mentioned, the mask.
though it will not be a mask for wearing without the helmet (i don't feel like making the full accurate segmented bands around the head, and i think when the helmet will be worn by my buddy the whole time (he freaking loves it btw) there is little point in making the mask fully accurate.

As a huge fan of the original Mobile Suit Gundam (and pretty much every Gundam series following), I must say that is some awesome work. Man, I would totally kill for one of those.
Great job on this.

I've got a Gihren Zabi costume myself. Doing a Char costume would be wicked cool.

if i thought there was enough interest, i would do a run of these, but it would need to be more than a couple of people alone.

 

[JustVan]

Brand new to this forum and signed up just to post a comment. I'm not in the market for an Aznable helmet yet, but I was googling to see if any were available, and your thread popped up first. It looks awesome, and if down the line you were interested in doing a run of them, depending on price and my finances at the time, I'd definitely be interested. Not sure how many you'd need to make it worth your while, but I think you'd probably be able to find people to put together a run.

What do you estimate the price would be?