Mini Tie Pilot Bust Display

[Nick K]

Hello again. I had been asked by a Forum Member to start up a thread for my Mini Tie Pilot Bust I had been working on for a couple of years now. So without further or do, here it is.
I received the helmet from Badges2nz and thought that I needed to make some armor for it to make a great display.
I asked fellow forum member Blaxmyth if he could print off a reduced size PDF File of the Stormtrooper Chest and Back Plate for me. The helmet worked out to be about 1/4 scale.

Here I have added a piece of scrap card to the bottom to finish off the edge.

 

[badges2nz]

Looking good, the finished product should be really great, nice job so far.

 

[Nick K]

I next cut a piece of Thin Line to the size of the Chest Box Mounting Plate and the cut some stiff card to go on the side profiles.

I then did the pack armor covering the recess with the same stiff card.

 

[Blaxmyth]

Looking good, Nick. We need to get you a new cutting board though!

 

[Nick K]

Next came the application of resin and fibreglass cloth.

Once the resin was dry it was trimmed.

 

[Nick K]

Next came the Chest Box. This was made from 25mm thick MDF and the Round pieces on the side were cut from an old broom handle I had in the garage.

View attachment 976689

 

[Nick K]

Next I made the Rocker Switches from balsa wood.

I then cut up some thin strips of tape and put these in position, and cut up some reflective vinyl and stuck this on as well.

I then turned up a greeblie from Ali rod and put that on.

Next came the indicator lights on the corner face of the box. These were concave Ali discs, one painted with Tamiya Clear Red and the other painted white.

 

[Nick K]

I next made the sprockets from a sheet of plastic, cut into discs and then used a round chainsaw file to cut the teeth around the edge. These then had a couple of small rods added and grooves cut into them. Then they were primed and painted silver, and added to the box.

I then moved back to the Helmet and started by reworking the Mowhawk.

Being resin there were bound to be air holes in it and after Black primer was applied, these could be seen more easily. Modelling putty was applied all over and then sanded again and again and again, until the surface was smooth. The finish will be Gloss Black.

I re-cut a Mowhawk strip and glued this on.

 

[badges2nz]

I love your attention to detail for the chest box and the reworking of the helmet, that casting was more probably towards the end of the mold that I had made for that helmet, I'll have to get my master out and redo the mold again for some new helmets.

 

[badges2nz]

We also need to do another prop party, perhaps around Easter time for that weekend as a possibility.

 

[Nick K]

I'm game.
Would be good to catch up with everyone and see what they have built or designed since the last time. I loved doing the helmet, it was a nice challenge.

 

[Nick K]

Next came the Top Coat. I painted the helmet with a gloss black and let it dry for a day to make sure it had hardened.

I noticed a build up of resin in the back of the neck area inside the helmet, and knowing that this would possibly be seen once finished, I decided to grind it out and thin the wall down a bit. It turned out quite well, and looks good.

... and looking at the pic, it looks like a Snow Drift.
Then I had to decide how I was going to mount the helmet to the neck. I had intended to put a tube in it and then fill the helmet with foam, but on refection, this was going to look awful underneath. I found an old LED Torch Case that I had for a long time. and decided to use that. I mixed up some Builders Bog (filler) and poured it into the helmet Mowhawk area. I the stuck the case into this, making sure that it was vertical, and let it harden. I also rolled up some thin plastic and stuck it inside the tube, so the rod in the neck of the Torso would fit better.

 

[Blaxmyth]

Coming on nicely! I wonder what it'll look like when it's all finished.

 

[Nick K]

I next decided to make the ears a bit deeper so went about cutting up a couple of small pieces of MDF Thinline and gluing these to the bottom of the existing ear shapes. I then faced the ears in thin plastic and cut out a disc on the top portion to take the turned Ali Greeblies as these are recessed in. Looks a lot better and more prototypical. The Ear Greeblies were then turned on the lathe and stuck in position, once the helmet had been primed and painted, using epoxy glue and clamping them until the glue had dried. I also decided to use a Yellow Reflectorized Vinyl on the Mowhawk instead of Blue to give the helmet a bit of interest.
The six small buttons supplied with the helmet were then glued in position below the ear bits. The Imperial Cog Logos were then added as well and these really made the helmet.

 

[Nick K]

Next came the biggest challenge of the project and that is the torso.Using the Helmet and Armor plates to get an idea of its size I set about drawing it on a piece of paper to get the proportions about right. I also went on the NET and had a look at Shop Display Mannequins to see what the shapes were like.

I then drew a front profile and a side profile onto 3mm Thinline (MDF) and cut these out on the bandsaw with locking slots in each.

Next came the corner pieces which were cut and slotted into the sides giving contours and a rough body shape.

 

[Nick K]

Hi all.
Well I'm back again to carry on listing photos of this build. This is how I went about building the Torso. Cut out of 3mm MDF and glued with PVA and then filled with expanding foam. Yes it is under there somewhere .

 

[Nick K]

Sorry I have been away for soooo!! long but I had trouble uploading the images and then one thing led to another but here I am again. After the foam had set I sanded it back to the frame with coarse sandpaper and then tried the helmet and chest box on it to see what it would look like. Happy with the outcome, I turned up a neck ring and drilled a hole off-centre to provide the angled effect I was after once the helmet was positioned.
I then glued the ring in position and proceeded to apply Builders Fill to all the foam to seal it. I then sanded this back and filled in any blemishes with Tamiya putty. It was acase of, sanding, filling, sanding, filling until you were happy with the surface.

 

[JudgeLalor]

fantastic work

 

[Nick K]

Thanks JudgeLalor. I enjoy doing this sort of thing because I get the 'BUZZ' when it is finished. Anyway the next thing I did was mount the neck ring in place. I placed it on angle looking down so that the helmet position was a little more menacing. In the fourth pic you will see that I am placing card strips down the front to represent the zip flap on the Flight Suit and around the waist to represent the belt. I then sprayed some grey primer on to see if there were any imperfections visible. I then placed the Front and Back armor to work out the size of the shoulder straps. I cut and assembled these from scrap cardboard and curved them before painting.

 

[Nick K]

I made the belt buckle from a piece of flat aluminium and drilled a hole in the centre of it for the greeblie. The disc was turned on the lathe and glued in position with epoxy glue.