Gundam helmet WIP

[IMIM2]

I am not a fan of Gundam, I haven't even read the comic or watched the movie. I just wanted to see if I can made the helmet of such an iconic japanese mecha.

I used 4mm foam, I guess for this structure I shouldn't have.
It turned out my scale is too big. It is very hard to calculate the scaling since it has extended horn. Even the depth, since the helmet is actually have a "cap".

This is not finished yet, as the side "vents" and the bottom has not been cut. The forehead area need to be strengthen so the cap do not tilted down. Need to add crown on the inside too.

 

[Annadill]

im a gundam fan so its great to see people working in gundam stuff, even if its just for fun.

looking good so far, nice curves and most of the proportions seem spot on, the face looks a little off in the last picture but it might be the angle
(not that i can talk lol im still getting around to starting my first set of armour)

looking forward to seeing how this turns out

 

[IMIM2]

Thank you for your kind words.
The side vents has not been installed, so the helmet actually is not a complete circle.
I used triangle cushion, so the helmet can stand, but I guess I pushed it too much so the lower parts actually bigger than the upper, so the face is slanted too. Hopefully the disproportion will be fixed, once I complete the helmet. Still trying to figure it out how to do the vents (lazy trick vs detailed)

Hope I'm not disappointing Gundam's fan so much :lol

 

[Annadill]

dont worry im not disappointed lol (i fact im learning what i can from looking at your work as i hope to make my own RX-78 gundam costume)

im sure with little fixing you can get the face back in to shape and i'm hoping you go for detailed on the vents (and all over for that matter) as it would make a great show piece,

if you want any ideas for extras try looking up the G-system resin busts they have a crazy amount of detail in them

 

[chubbyasianlove]

looks good still, keep it up!

 

[IMIM2]

Thank you all.
It took me two days to convince myself to continue this with detailed vents.
It took me two hours to do so. I used 8mm foam.
So here it is.

Annadill, you were right in the first place. The face is off, I tried to fix it, but gave up. I use 4mm foam, it was to thin to start with. I put several "columns" at the inside, but it didn't help, as the column pushes the "skin" and created bumps. I also need to learn to make symmetrical cut. My batman cowl ended up the same, which is now I remember why I bought 4mm foam in the first place.

Now off to seal and paint.
Does anybody have correct color reference? My search gave me a lot of variations, for example, the top "square" is it green or black? The eyes are yellow or green? The horn is white or yellow? So I already bought white, red and yellow paint. Is there decal on the helmet? It'll be cool if I can eletrocut the decal and place it on the helmet.

Hope you'll like it.

 

[Annadill]

looking great love the vents

yay its now the fun time of working out version to go with lol

the normal colour for the square up top is green (metalic) the large v-fin is normally white (although yellow can be used, down to what you like)

and the eyes are yellow

decal wise there isnt any, if you wanted to could add some gundam style baseic warning signs ect, some of the more detailed kits and models have them
if you wanted i could look around and scan some of my decals from my kits for you to do vectors of (i cant do them my self never got on with the program

@edit@ have a look here for some ideas on details and decals
http://www.g-system-shop.com/product_info.php?products_id=361

 

[IMIM2]

Thank you so much.
Finished sealing the foam. Right now it was painted with white at second coat. I used brushed paint (bad idea). But I thought since this is budget and quick build, I don't want to waste my money on spray.
The paint took longer to dry.
I'll do the V-fin yellow perhaps. I don't have metallic green ATM, will figure it out somewhat.
As per decal, I might want to try inkjet printer transfer. It might or might not work, I've read it but never try it. If I do digital print, it'll be bad (print on transparent sticker), electrocut is not possible too.
Still thinking on the eyes, perhaps iron man style eyes.

That G-system site is dragging me, must stay away.....:unsure.

Anyway, my aim will not be Gundam, but VOTOMS. It is my childhood dream. I already 60% finished making the template, but still need to justify myself to actually build a human size one.

 

[IMIM2]

Finished 90% of the helmet. I don't have any dummy, so I had to put it on my iron man body, apologize for that, no disrespect.

I had to put spiderman mask inside the gundam helmet, because the helmet is so big.
I haven't made the eyes yet, so the red eyes were caused by spidey mask under it.
I painted the V-fins as yellow, because I felt it lacks of colors. If I build the whole suit, perhaps is okay, but I build the helmet only, so....

Will try to take a picture under the sun for better quality

 

[IMIM2]

Here are better pics

 

[Annadill]

looking goooooooood

any ideas on doing the decals yet?

 

[chubbyasianlove]

not bad at all

 

[merkava74]

Great job! I'm just starting on my helmet too. Yours look great!

 

[IMIM2]

Yay!
Thank you for the positive comments!

@Annadill: I'm not quite sure about decal, since the paint is actually very glossy. I read that we can transfer the ink from inkjet printer, but I'm not sure if the ink will stay on glossy finish. The G-system shows that there are a lot of "panel lines" as detail. I can achieve that by drawing with permanen marker. Using wood burner at this stage will be too late. I never know that Gundam actually have "panels" like that. I always see the surface as flat (a bit cartoony) without details. I tried to cover some imperfection brush job by using black lines anyway.

@Chubbyasianlove: not bad for a quicky, yes. the whole project didn't take much time, but it took me more to convince myself to do this.

@Merkava: looking forward to see yours. I think the V horn and the front mask should be paper, or foam lined with paper (hybrid). Otherwise it'll be very hard to do.

 

[Annadill]

yer the cartoons do lack alot of detail, it wasnt till bandai made the master grade and perfect grade kits that all the panels and details came in to play, then of corse the resin kit makes just had to go crazy with it lol,

would some thing like water slide decals work on glossy paint? (i only do glossy as top coat so only used them on mat paint) i know you can get sheets that fit in printers

 

[IMIM2]

I used water decal long...time ago, during model kit building time.
Is there a water decal that we can print via inkjet printer?
For sure water decal can work with glossy surface, but it has to be covered with clear coat (any water decal need that anyway).

I just read recently a member sharing the technique on using regular inkjet paper, wet/damp it with water, than use something like a spoon to rub it into the surface.

I heard my friend also mentioned if we Xerox an image, we can transfer it using same technique, it is the toner transfer, but inkjet? I want to try, but not a promise. To me, detailing the helmet will make people look at it with frown face (like what the....)

So this might be enough work and put this along with my other helmet collection
(just in case you haven't seen it, here ya go)