The Ultimate X-Wing Pilot Thread

[Darth Lars]

Im finishing up an APH Helmet that I intend to have molded to offer Fiberglass helmets.I will post pictures soon.

That's great news! I'm looking forward to seeing it.
The demand for X-wing pilot's helmets is higher than ever.

Personally, I would like a fiberglass helmet made out of three pieces: helmet shell, visor cover (the APH-6B cover, only modified a bit, with rails for the visor) and separate mohawk.
I started sculpting my custom visor cover onto a motorcycle helmet (not APH, unfortunately) last summer with the intention of layering fiberglass onto the clay,
but later I chickened out and bought a crappy styrene shell on eBay anyway. :$

After studying stills, and repeated viewings of ANH in high def, to my eye, all the leg flares and belt mini-flares look the same - wood dowels painted silver.

If you want to go over the top, you could get Kenny's flares and then have them anodized grey.
I wish to have real-world items instead of dummy dowels - items with some useful function but of accurate size. Hollow containers would suffice.

I have started to build my own chest box. I have cut a wooden "buck", which I intend to lay some grey ABS over and fold the edges by hand after heating it in a household oven with a weight on top to prevent warping. I have previously made a RFT helmet comm box this way, but that was with thinner plastic.

 

[M Bison]

Any suggestions on making a liner for inside a X-Wing helm?

I'm finishing up a Wilco kit and I am trying to come up with liner ideas.

 

[rickrickrick]

delete

 

[superjedi]

Any suggestions on making a liner for inside a X-Wing helm?

I'm finishing up a Wilco kit and I am trying to come up with liner ideas.

I used the padding from a batting helmet inside my Wilco helmet. The batting helmet was about $13 and the padding was in four sections; 2 for the sides, one for the "crown" and one that goes at the forehead. I cut them out with an X-acto blade and used some spray adhesive to glue them inside the X-Wing helmet.

 

[LizardJedi]

I used the padding from a batting helmet inside my Wilco helmet. The batting helmet was about $13 and the padding was in four sections; 2 for the sides, one for the "crown" and one that goes at the forehead. I cut them out with an X-acto blade and used some spray adhesive to glue them inside the X-Wing helmet.

Mine is basically the same. Try going to a used sporting goods store, get the same thing for cheap.

Mine came from an "adjustable" batting helmet... all of the foam was in one piece. All I had to do was cut a thread, take some screws out, and yank it out
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/LizardJedi/X-Wing/v1-inside01.jpg

 

[stormtrooperguy]

Kenny makes great stuff and I have many things of his myself, but why aluminum belt flares? Aren't the screenused flares grey?

i think it's a difference between accurate and looks good up close.

a kid will point at you and ask why you have silver wood things on your belt/leg. but the shiny metal will be more impressive.

same with my fett suit... my helmet and armor are all metal. the movie suits weren't, but this is more realistic up close.

 

[Treadwell]

Oh, believe me, I'm totally behind doing idealized versions of costume and prop elements.

In this case, though, it's just that the original pieces don't even look like they even tried to make them look like they were metal. They're not even painted silver. Just gray. I don't think "metal" was the intended impression, so to upgrade to shiny aluminum just seems a mite "blingy".

But to each their own! I do admit they look nice.

 

[stormtrooperguy]

I don't think "metal" was the intended impression, so to upgrade to shiny aluminum just seems a mite "blingy".

well, the funny thing is that i do intend to weather them down to make them less shiny.

so you know... the more i talk about this... the more *i* wonder why i bought them

 

[Treadwell]

I can be such a killjoy...

 

[stormtrooperguy]

what can i say... i'm just a metalhead! \m/ \m/

 

[Gil_JediXXL]

I'm still bummed the CB suits don't come in XXXL :cry I really need a new suit!

 

[stormtrooperguy]

i got my elvistrooper metal bits today, and i'm reminded why i got the aluminum leg flares... i think they really seem more like a "real world" item than the dowels i used last time...

 

[Brinn 71]

i got my elvistrooper metal bits today, and i'm reminded why i got the aluminum leg flares... i think they really seem more like a "real world" item than the dowels i used last time...

I got these leg flares too. They ROCK! I rivited them to my leg flare holder, so they'll NEVER fall out!

 

[Mr. Bojangles]

I just finished up 5 flack vests this week. They are for the Where Science Meets Imagination Exhibit at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute. The grey one is for Baron Fel.
So I am taking order now. Please PM me for more details.

 

[JHVanOphem]

Wow! How many pilots are we going to have there?

Looking forward to seeing those.

 

[bleyd]

Those are sweet! How much are those going for?

 

[Gil_JediXXL]

Those are sweet! How much are those going for?

Ditto! nice work as usual! PM sent

 

[Darth Lars]

So, I have a formed, puttied, sanded and primed my chest box, and is ready to paint it.
It is for an ESB costume, where the chest box is a bluish grey. I knew that Humbrol #5 was used for the stormtrooper helmet, and I tested it, but I think it looks too dark. Anybody know which hue is the correct one?

 

[JHVanOphem]

The real thing is just plain grey, only in ESB do you see the blue tint, so my guess is it is an artfact of the film processing.

However I painted mine with Krylon Primer, and then added a semi-gloss coat. Under the right lighting it actually does show that same bluish tint.

 

[Darth Lars]

I checked my bootleg transfer from pre-SE laserdiscs, and they are grey there. However, there are still blue chest boxes in many still images - images that predate the oversaturated tinted '04 DVDs. For instance, the pic of Luke in the Visual Dictionary has a chest box that is clearly bluer than the ejection straps.