Scott D
Sr Member
Remember the Rubies Boba Fett helmets? I purchased one in a Target store back in 2015. I thought the dimensions looked a lot closer to the original than the only other Fett helmet that I had ever owned, which was a Don Post '95.
For five years I looked at it, trying to decide what to do. The first thought was to try to paint it up to look like the ESB helmet, but I didn't think I could do a decent job.
The second idea was to do something that looked like The 48th Ronin's Custom McQuarrie helmet. Not his recent (and amazing) Black Series helmet repaint, I mean his first one from the late 1990s.
The third idea was to just copy the McQuarrie helmet paintwork, but add ESB/ROTJ paint damage, and that's what I started to do.
After getting a burst of inspiration from purchasing The Black Series Fett helmet last May, I started on my Rubies conversion in June of 2020, talking to The 48th Ronin from time to time via PM. He was working on his Black series repaint at the same time, so we were both sounding boards and probably creating some additional inspiration. I had a lot of unfinished prop projects around 6 years ago and got overwhelmed with it, but I'll discuss that in another thread soon.
There's nothing ground breaking here, just the usual refinements.
Filled in the turn signals and the dent.
Fabricated a longer rangefinder stalk out of a piece of aluminum with a pivot pin at the bottom. A shim and a small o-ring on the pivot pin allows it to be snug and still move up and down smoothly.
Cut out the original visor and made a new one of of a welder's shield. I glued some shortened T-nuts inside the helmet and bolted the visor in with some screws with hard rubber washers. A small steel bracket holds the helmet together at the bottom and keeps the helmet "flared" properly.
Cut out the keyslots in the back and cleaned them up with some mini-files.
I started the painting process last year, trying to recreate the paint damage seen on the ESB and ROTJ helmets. The rear panels of the helmet looked pretty good, but I wasn't happy with how it was looking everywhere else.
So...I took a break for a few months. I eventually got back to it, doing some more paintwork and suddenly said "Wow, this looks terrible."
I stripped it back to bare plastic and decided to make a Prototype/Supertrooper helmet. "Keep it simple, Scott," I thought to myself.
Once I got it all painted up, it then looked too darn clean. I then decided to add some McQuarrie graphics and dirty it up with some graphite. After some trial/error and one partial repaint, I was happy with the results.
It's a little grubbier in person. The top always looks washed out, no matter what lighting I try.
I added some vintage greeblies. Here's a viewfinder from a Eumig Servomatic. In the "Tales Of The Bounty Hunters" paperback, I think there's there's a moment where Fett was using his built in camera to look at someone behind him, so I added one,
I think these two came out of a vintage Seagull camera. It was originally one piece. I cut in half and they pressed right into the holes I had drilled for them..
I remember one of the original helmets had an Easter Egg on the rangefinder screen, (A movie frame from a western film, I think?) so I did the same.
It's kinda like "Yo, I heard you like McQuarrie Fett, so we put McQuarrie Fett in your McQuarrie Fett," but it really is a genuine tribute to an artist that I admire and wish to have even a sliver of his talent. RIP, Ralph.
The molded-in Borden connector looked terrible, so I sanded it off and did something that looked a little more McQuarrie-ish. It's off of a Heiland flash.
And here it is on display with the Black Series helmet.
George Lucas once said "Movies aren't finished, they're abandoned" and I kinda had that feeling toward this project when I finished it yesterday. Sometimes it's tough to keep things simple, but the more I added, the less satisfied I was with the results.
For five years I looked at it, trying to decide what to do. The first thought was to try to paint it up to look like the ESB helmet, but I didn't think I could do a decent job.
The second idea was to do something that looked like The 48th Ronin's Custom McQuarrie helmet. Not his recent (and amazing) Black Series helmet repaint, I mean his first one from the late 1990s.
The third idea was to just copy the McQuarrie helmet paintwork, but add ESB/ROTJ paint damage, and that's what I started to do.
After getting a burst of inspiration from purchasing The Black Series Fett helmet last May, I started on my Rubies conversion in June of 2020, talking to The 48th Ronin from time to time via PM. He was working on his Black series repaint at the same time, so we were both sounding boards and probably creating some additional inspiration. I had a lot of unfinished prop projects around 6 years ago and got overwhelmed with it, but I'll discuss that in another thread soon.
There's nothing ground breaking here, just the usual refinements.
Filled in the turn signals and the dent.
Fabricated a longer rangefinder stalk out of a piece of aluminum with a pivot pin at the bottom. A shim and a small o-ring on the pivot pin allows it to be snug and still move up and down smoothly.
Cut out the original visor and made a new one of of a welder's shield. I glued some shortened T-nuts inside the helmet and bolted the visor in with some screws with hard rubber washers. A small steel bracket holds the helmet together at the bottom and keeps the helmet "flared" properly.
Cut out the keyslots in the back and cleaned them up with some mini-files.
I started the painting process last year, trying to recreate the paint damage seen on the ESB and ROTJ helmets. The rear panels of the helmet looked pretty good, but I wasn't happy with how it was looking everywhere else.
So...I took a break for a few months. I eventually got back to it, doing some more paintwork and suddenly said "Wow, this looks terrible."
I stripped it back to bare plastic and decided to make a Prototype/Supertrooper helmet. "Keep it simple, Scott," I thought to myself.
Once I got it all painted up, it then looked too darn clean.
I then decided to add some McQuarrie graphics and dirty it up with some graphite. After some trial/error and one partial repaint, I was happy with the results.It's a little grubbier in person. The top always looks washed out, no matter what lighting I try.
I added some vintage greeblies. Here's a viewfinder from a Eumig Servomatic. In the "Tales Of The Bounty Hunters" paperback, I think there's there's a moment where Fett was using his built in camera to look at someone behind him, so I added one,
I think these two came out of a vintage Seagull camera. It was originally one piece. I cut in half and they pressed right into the holes I had drilled for them..
I remember one of the original helmets had an Easter Egg on the rangefinder screen, (A movie frame from a western film, I think?) so I did the same.
It's kinda like "Yo, I heard you like McQuarrie Fett, so we put McQuarrie Fett in your McQuarrie Fett," but it really is a genuine tribute to an artist that I admire and wish to have even a sliver of his talent. RIP, Ralph.
The molded-in Borden connector looked terrible, so I sanded it off and did something that looked a little more McQuarrie-ish. It's off of a Heiland flash.
And here it is on display with the Black Series helmet.
George Lucas once said "Movies aren't finished, they're abandoned" and I kinda had that feeling toward this project when I finished it yesterday. Sometimes it's tough to keep things simple, but the more I added, the less satisfied I was with the results.
