Rebel Trooper Helmet

[TatooineMachine]

I picked this up off Etsy and it's a really nice kit. Came with a heavy duty helmet liner, com box, antenna, and all the vacuum formed pieces. Thought this would be an easy, quick, and fun build!

As it came out of the box -

Even had directions...

Star Wars Costumes Book for accuracy

Trimmed and sanded the edges

Made sure the black overlapped the white front

Cleaned up the chin cup

Com box

Helmet liner

Masked off the insides for paint

It's raining here and I decided to wait a bit for it to warm up here in California to shoot primer, LOL! Hope to have this done by Monday or Tuesday!

 

[PropReplicator2]

Looks nice! I remember seeing something a while back saying the original "visor" material was a smoked grey see-thtough plastic.

 

[3DImpact]

Yes, looks like a good kit. I found that Montana Gold brand "Marble" white is just about the exact 'not quite pure white' color to match the ANH versions. Not necessarily that it is the best actual paint to use texture/finish-wise, but the color looks like a near-perfect match to my SDS copy...

Dan

 

[TazMan2000]

I've purchased two kits from the same guy. I had a lot of fun building them. I believe costuming requirements say that you need to have the visor smoke or opaque, but since mine won't be used for trooping and sitting on a shelf, I just painted mine gloss black. It looks fine.

TazMan2000

 

[TatooineMachine]

Looks nice! I remember seeing something a while back saying the original "visor" material was a smoked grey see-thtough plastic.

True, Star Wars Costumes book says this and that the visor was moveable....never seen on screen

I stand corrected, see below! LOL

 

[TatooineMachine]

Got a little paint work done today - main helmet

Visors

Rear

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

True, Star Wars Costumes book says this and that the visor was moveable....never seen on screen

There is some info here: New Page 1

 

[TatooineMachine]

Hey very cool, thank you for the info. I will put this in motion. I know the com box of this “kit” isn’t accurate, so I will modify it or make a new one. Thanks again Mara Jade’s Father, I really appreciate the info!

Chad

 

[baptizer]

you've been killing it with these build threads! Thanks for posting all the details, etc. Can't wait to see your progress.

 

[TatooineMachine]

Here's some photos of an SDS helmet that Mara Jade's Father provided a link to off of Star Wars Helmets and he's 100% correct on the visor. I have also shaped the rear section a little differently based on these photos. Thanks again MJF!

The disc appears to be a vac formed dishwasher thermostat like on the Snowtrooper Commander and nubs on the com box are easy. Visor and com box need attention!

 

[geordietrooper]

Here's some photos of an original helmet

i think that would be classed as a replica & i don't think it's the snow trooper disk part
it always reminded me of a hand line fishing weight ( not saying that's the part )

this is a real helmet RFT

 

[Darth Lars]

i think that would be classed as a replica

Indeed. I've heard somewhere that the original RFT helmets would actually have been a light grey but they looked white on screen. (Similar to AT-AT drivers)

I would also not be happy with how SDS had trimmed that helmet.

 

[russellsch]

This is a dangerous thread. You all are making want one of these!

 

[TatooineMachine]

I got word today that the tinted transparent pull was complete and being shipped soon!

 

[TatooineMachine]

I had a little time to work on this and made some progress with the pre visor and the cut out the tinted visor and got it all attached.

Pre Visor aligned and centered

Rough tinted lean visor piece I received

It's pretty thick

Traced out the cuts

And pre visor and tinted visor attached to the main helmet

I broke the rear swoop and ordered another one. I'll make a new com box, add the helmet chin strap, head padding, paint these parts, and wait for my new swoop. Pretty happy with it!

 

[TatooineMachine]

I poured over the opening screen on the Tantive IV with the RFT crew in the hallway scene and can’t see any of the helmets with the SDS visor design - all rounded at the edges. As cool as this looks, not really correct. I made my visor as close as I saw to the screen clips & grabs I reviewed. The Star Wars Costume book only shows a helmet without a visor and a running & slightly blurry running shot of two RFTs running and the visors are as I shaped.

Need to get slotted pan haed screws so they sit flush to the visor as much as possible. Now On to the com box and painting!

 

[russellsch]

Spot on, man!
I'm loving the progress on this.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

HB1098S, the screws on this and the Imperial version have always looked flat-head, countersunk, to me. If that helps at all.

Aaaaaand a personal nit. I refuse -- utterly -- to call these "Rebel Fleet Troopers". Given Leia and Captain Antilles were passing themselves off as an ambassadorial craft from the Imperial Senate, I would think having uniformed Rebel Alliance troops aboard would be the sheer height of stupidity. Moreover because Antilles was wearing one of their helmets while protesting his innocence. I have felt, since I first started thinking about it in the late '80s, that these are the "garrison" (that is, non-formal) uniforms for the Imperial Senate Guards. Thus their being on a Senator's ship as her protection detail makes total sense.

So. That's a very nice Imperial Senate Guard garrison helmet you're working on, there.

 

[TatooineMachine]

Thanks IP!

 

[nailuj]

Imperial Senate Guards. Thats a clever and quite fascinating idea. I will be mulling that over all day today. Makes perfect sense. I never look at these in the same way again.