Redoing my old, inaccurate ANH Stormtrooper helmet

[TheOrdner]

Hey,

for the past few weeks I've been redoing my selfmade old and inaccurate Stormtrooper helmet. It was kind of rushed and I had exactly zero experience. But I learned a lot and now, 3 years later, I'll try my best to do it more accurate and with more skill again.
Here you can see my old progress.

(please ignore the 9gag watermark... I posted it a few years back there, and lost it on my PC. Only there I found it again)​

It was a school project, so I had a deadline which was the reason I couldn't make it for perfection.

So yea. I had an imperfect cast of my old helmet sitting in my room for some years. Over the years, I repainted it a few times (from white, to black, to chrome), put hundreds of stickers on it for the lulz, and made it... yea, kind of ugly.
Early this year I decided to redo everything on this bucket.
I began to smooth out everything. Unfortunately I don't have many progress pics of the beginning, but I will update almost regularly now.
I just post some pics I found.

​

Here is what I have now. The surface is nearly perfect now, which Iam happy about. I now need a Dremel to proceed. I need to completely redo the ears, the lip, the rectangles, the vocoder, the circles for the mic tips and the eyes... Thats a bit tricky to do it by hand

​

Iam not going for the 100% exact screen accurate model. It should look and feel good.
If I really like the outcome of the helmet I may consider making a mold and cast a few more of them

If you have any tips or hints I appreciate them very much.

Thank you!

 

[TheOrdner]

Re: Redoing my old, inaccurate Stormtrooper helmet

Here are some more higher quality pictures. Can't do much work since I have an exam next week.
I ordered a Dremel, it will arrive soon. Then I can continue



Edit: Okay, something went wrong... New edit coming soon
Edit2: Hm, not how I wanted them, but theyre there

 

[TheOrdner]

Re: Redoing my old, inaccurate Stormtrooper helmet

Just a quick (maybe unnecessary) little update.
My Dremel arrived, so natuarlly I had to try it.

As the mighty terra1 once said

one step backward to go two steps forward [...]

I cut out the vocoder area and the the teeth. Also I cleaned the lip and widened the eyes a little. I have a lot of work to do :/
I want the 'face' at least to be nearly symmetrical, so I have to a lot of modeling there. I think I will take milliput to do the general modeling and fine bondo to finish the surface (that was my go-to technique).
- I need to fill all the rectangles with bondo and cut them out in their right shape again.
- I will cut off the ears to remodel them again (maybe 3d print the little antenna thingies)
- Vocoder needs to be remodeled completely

Thats just the beginning

 

[GEEK1138]

Re: Redoing my old, inaccurate Stormtrooper helmet

Coming along nicely dude!

 

[TheOrdner]

Re: Redoing my old, inaccurate Stormtrooper helmet

Slooooooow slow progress.

I'm quite busy learning for uni, so I can spend around an hour a day working on the bucket.
I managed to put some more Milliput on the lower jaw, and I think the shape is getting there. I will sand it in the next few days, apply some more fine putty and call it a day (hopefully).
Also filled the tears roughly with Milliput (had some excess).
I plan on removing the ears completely, filling the other rectangles with bondo and sand them flush, get the shapes of the eyes correct and working on the vocoder (to be precise, by working I mean thinking about a method to build it...)







Here's a little extra for you guys.. Three little AT-ATs

Coming along nicely dude!

Thank you, I appreciate that!

 

[TheOrdner]

Phew, long time since the last update, but I picked the helmet up again (like the 4th or 5th time in the last 2 years)!
I really, really want to finish it this time
Just a small teaser. Sealed all small scratches with wood filler. Next up is a full day of sanding. Then i will try my best at the vocoder and the teeth.

Edit: wow, the picture lost all its quality needsmorejpeg.jpeg

 

[TheOrdner]

Remodeling the vocoder area. Cut out some areas. Need to widen some and then fill them with foam core and milliput.
Still no idea how to do the teeth.