asok
Well-Known Member
I had post this on some other boards and thought you guys might enjoy this as well.
Over a year and half ago I was able buy a mold that was made from the real Jango helmet. My goal was to make a nice helmet for myself. I know that it is not going to be a BMW of a helmet. To me, that is fine. I am not a professional prop maker or photographer.
I did read that the resin that I found for the helmet will yellow if left out in the sun for a long time. But, seeing I leave mine my case, this should not be a problem. That and the resin that will not yellow, is 3 times the price!
I though that would be great. Then I got the molds. They where bad, very bad. I tried to pull a helmet and I could not. So, I asked a real prop maker to see what he could do. He pulled a helmet and started to clean it up.
You can see the pull was good but, what came out, it was bad. What you can't see if the keyslots. It looks like they molded it so quickly that they are off by almost 1 full inch.
And now the clean up.
Here is what the helmet looks like out of the new mold. The are some bumps in the mold the just leaves extra stuff to clean and sand off. To me, no big deal.
See the nice shinny spot? It took about 2 minutes and some #0000 steel wool. This helmet was cast in a method called cold casting. Where you mix a metal and resin. Then it shines just like metal. There is some pitting on the helmet. To me that is fine. It give it more of a weathered look and I did not want to sand pas the cold cast.
Well, I started to cut out my helmet.
Still has some little pits in the top. I would keep sanding but, I do not want to sand past the cold cast layer. And I also broke it. I tried not to cast the section with the keyslots would go to thick. Well in doing that you need to be carefully not to break the bottom like I did. See the very small black line?
After doing the first layer of cold cast, I used 3 layer of a roto cast. This way the inside comes out without air bubbles and smooth. I added some black tint to tint it black. I also sanded it down a little to make the inside smoother.
Notice the warp? We talked about taking that out and decided to leave it in. The goal was to leave the helmet as original as we could. The cool thing is that I was able to look down on the real helmet and saw the same warp.
Now with the ear finished and taped in place.
When I got my visor, I figured I would just use the holes that came with it. They where already there. Why not use them? This is where I got mine http://www.mfasco.com/product_info.php/products_id/8566 This is about the cheapest I have found.
The ears. Well, the molds that came with the helmet where bad as well. So, I had to rebuild the ear. The person who cleaned up the helmet and made the mold started the ear for me. The with the help of a finish carpenter, we finished it.
In my research I found 2 copies of the ears from 2 different people. On the far left is a copy with the range finder molded it. I then laser scanned that in to make a nice CNC laser cut aluminum stalk. The 2 ears on the right is what I got with the helmet. They are bad. Again you can tell it was molded very quickly.
Rebuilding the ear.
Mine is the one on the left and the real thing on the right. The one I made is about 2 mm to tall.
And the first casts!! There is one air bubble and that is it. The next cast should not have it. It is all in how I pour the resin in. I tinted the resin with the aluminum power. The reason is that if was a real helmet, these parts would be metal like the rest of the helmet.
Last the range finder and keyslots. Again, I tinted the resin with the aluminum power to give it a more finished and real look.
I did not need to do anything with the keyslots. They will just need clean up. The keyslots are cast in the same resin as the rest of the helmet. That way they will shine with the rest of the helmet.
This is the RF that I am going to use. I know that it is not correct but, I am going for what I like. This RF is the one that I made for my Boba helmet and I am going to use a real SX-70 lens.
Now it is just ready for paint. Seeing that it at 25 F or -4 C outside, I do not see this happening anytime soon. I bolted the ear to the helmet.
Just need to put the pinstripes on and glue in the mesh. I am not going to bold the range finder stalk to ear. This way when I troop, I can take the range finder stalk out to make sure that it does not break. Or if I want to swap one in with the correct range finder.
Left Side: my Boba RF with a real SX-70 lens
Right Side: the screen cast Jango RF.
And I am now going to call it finished with pinstripe on and weathered! Took me long enough!
Thank you all for going on this long ride with me!
Over a year and half ago I was able buy a mold that was made from the real Jango helmet. My goal was to make a nice helmet for myself. I know that it is not going to be a BMW of a helmet. To me, that is fine. I am not a professional prop maker or photographer.
I did read that the resin that I found for the helmet will yellow if left out in the sun for a long time. But, seeing I leave mine my case, this should not be a problem. That and the resin that will not yellow, is 3 times the price!
I though that would be great. Then I got the molds. They where bad, very bad. I tried to pull a helmet and I could not. So, I asked a real prop maker to see what he could do. He pulled a helmet and started to clean it up.
You can see the pull was good but, what came out, it was bad. What you can't see if the keyslots. It looks like they molded it so quickly that they are off by almost 1 full inch.
And now the clean up.
Here is what the helmet looks like out of the new mold. The are some bumps in the mold the just leaves extra stuff to clean and sand off. To me, no big deal.
See the nice shinny spot? It took about 2 minutes and some #0000 steel wool. This helmet was cast in a method called cold casting. Where you mix a metal and resin. Then it shines just like metal. There is some pitting on the helmet. To me that is fine. It give it more of a weathered look and I did not want to sand pas the cold cast.
Well, I started to cut out my helmet.
Still has some little pits in the top. I would keep sanding but, I do not want to sand past the cold cast layer. And I also broke it. I tried not to cast the section with the keyslots would go to thick. Well in doing that you need to be carefully not to break the bottom like I did. See the very small black line?
After doing the first layer of cold cast, I used 3 layer of a roto cast. This way the inside comes out without air bubbles and smooth. I added some black tint to tint it black. I also sanded it down a little to make the inside smoother.
Notice the warp? We talked about taking that out and decided to leave it in. The goal was to leave the helmet as original as we could. The cool thing is that I was able to look down on the real helmet and saw the same warp.
Now with the ear finished and taped in place.
When I got my visor, I figured I would just use the holes that came with it. They where already there. Why not use them? This is where I got mine http://www.mfasco.com/product_info.php/products_id/8566 This is about the cheapest I have found.
The ears. Well, the molds that came with the helmet where bad as well. So, I had to rebuild the ear. The person who cleaned up the helmet and made the mold started the ear for me. The with the help of a finish carpenter, we finished it.
In my research I found 2 copies of the ears from 2 different people. On the far left is a copy with the range finder molded it. I then laser scanned that in to make a nice CNC laser cut aluminum stalk. The 2 ears on the right is what I got with the helmet. They are bad. Again you can tell it was molded very quickly.
Rebuilding the ear.
Mine is the one on the left and the real thing on the right. The one I made is about 2 mm to tall.
And the first casts!! There is one air bubble and that is it. The next cast should not have it. It is all in how I pour the resin in. I tinted the resin with the aluminum power. The reason is that if was a real helmet, these parts would be metal like the rest of the helmet.
Last the range finder and keyslots. Again, I tinted the resin with the aluminum power to give it a more finished and real look.
I did not need to do anything with the keyslots. They will just need clean up. The keyslots are cast in the same resin as the rest of the helmet. That way they will shine with the rest of the helmet.
This is the RF that I am going to use. I know that it is not correct but, I am going for what I like. This RF is the one that I made for my Boba helmet and I am going to use a real SX-70 lens.
Now it is just ready for paint. Seeing that it at 25 F or -4 C outside, I do not see this happening anytime soon. I bolted the ear to the helmet.
Just need to put the pinstripes on and glue in the mesh. I am not going to bold the range finder stalk to ear. This way when I troop, I can take the range finder stalk out to make sure that it does not break. Or if I want to swap one in with the correct range finder.
Left Side: my Boba RF with a real SX-70 lens
Right Side: the screen cast Jango RF.
And I am now going to call it finished with pinstripe on and weathered! Took me long enough!
Thank you all for going on this long ride with me!
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