There has been spirited discussion over in the ANOVOS Stormtrooper thread about the relative merits of faithful, asymmetrical, warts-and-all recreation of the movie prop versus idealized, symmetrical, "what-if" sorts of creative endeavors. Also, debate over whether the asymmetry of Liz Moore's original sculpt was intentional "artistic imperfection (highly dubious), due to the impossibility of achieving anything close to symmetry without a computer (bogus), or whether a combination of rushed schedule and production not needing perfection led to something that was "good enough" (99.44% likelihood).
I offered to post up comparisons between Master Replicas' Collectors' Edition Stormtrooper helmet and a TE2, with decently-documented lineage to an original film-used bucket. For those who don't know, the MR CE (or the same dies inherited by eFX after MR lost the license, and used to "re-pop" it) is derived from them taking an ANH Hero helmet, scanning it, and mirroring the left side to make it symmetical, then tweaking a few things and breaking the 3D model apart and making the components ready to mill into injection-molding dies.
I consider it the best base to use to make a symmetrical Stormtrooper helmet, i.e., one that would actually be made by an impersonal, technological, galaxy-spanning Empire... and also one that looks good up close at a convention, whereas the originals only had to look good from ten feet away for a few seconds on the movie screen. There are purists who decry anything that doesn't recreate all the wonkiness of the original prop, which is fine from an "appreciating cinematic history" standpoint. Others, meanwhile, strive to capture what was trying to be conveyed by that original prop, to whatever degree they're able (or crazy enough to try).
So rather than muddy the thread that's supposed to be about the ANOVOS Stormtrooper with debate about non-ANOVOS Stormtroopers, I present one of my mods for approval (the other is much further along, but I was sans camera at the time I was working on it so it isn't documented, and is now buried in tape for painting once the weather improves enough).
Let's start with the face. It's arguably the most egregious offender. With the original, for symmetry. With the MR CE, for questionable alterations. First, one of the most glaring points of asymmetry, the aerator shrouds:
That right there is why I went with the MR CE instead of trying to "fix" the TE2. Everything else would be able to be addressed with a modicum of time and effort, but that shroud would have to be entirely reculpted. So using the MR CE as a base saved me a ton of time and frustration right there.
Moving up, the frown. As the MR CE was based on the Hero helmet, I already knew I was going to be spending a bit of time on the frown, to reshape it to look more Stunt-y, and to address the number, size, and placement of the teeth. One thing Master Replicas fixed was centering the previously off-center center tooth. So that made a good guidepost for the rest. I used the TE2 to rough out spacing and height, using the right side of the Stunt frown:
...as reference for this:
...because the left side is drastically different, and -- in my opinion -- doesn't look anywhere near as good:
The red line shows, roughly, where the top edge would need to be to make it match. Here, the TE2 and MR CE looking straight down at the opper edge of the frown. You can see I've got it roughly corrected, but I need to fill in the bit nearer the center tooth and push the arc further out toward the corner. The epoxy putty is curing as I type this...
I'm also building new teeth, but that's not being addressed yet.
Moving back to the tears, we get to the next example of noticeable asymmetry on the original:
And yes, those decals are exact mirror images of each other, so that's not off:
Since it's mirrored from the left side, the MR CE is closer to that one, but not exact -- the front curve is too flat and needs to be built up a little rounder:
No problem -- I have plenty of epoxy putty.
Moving up, the eyes are just fine -- and don't have the bump in the right one that I'd need to smooth down. The only other thing I'll need to address apart from filling and blending the seam where the chin was attached to the face... is the undercut. Starting a little way around the back half of the neck opening, coming up through where the earcaps cover the join, and all the way up to the front, Master Replicas cut a goodly bit out of the undercut. I presume, to make it easier to put on straight. Here's a comparison:
The notations are how much I need to add on to get it right (the second one, both say "+10mm", but it got a bit smudged):
Thank you, MR. That's gonna be fun... :rolleyes
Moving on... The back is actually in pretty good shape. It needs a little cleanup, and to blend in the restored width to the undercut at the sides, but that's all minor:
So let's move up to the cap. Because of the positioning of everything for Hero-ness, I trimmed an eighth of an inch off the bottom edge in front to make a little bit of white brow visible after assembly. The front trapezoids aren't awful, but they definitely needed to be taller, partly to match the original, partly so more of them was visible after the brow trim covered the bottom half-inch.
The lower strip of tape shows roughly where the brow trim will be. I need to round off the hard edges, obviously, but I'm going to wait and do all the traps in one go. Which brings us around to the back, and another of the "wow-how-did-they-miss-that" points of asymmetry. Using the decal for the right side rear trapezoid, here's a comparison:
"Wait," you might ask, "where's the left trap?" It's hiding behind that decal:
Here's what that comparison is on the MR CE:
Since the MR CE came with two symmetrical smaller traps, and I thought that looked so wrong, I knew I was going to use the larger one as my template. Here's the right one cut out:
And the comparison before I cut the left one out:
All that's left are the earcaps, which... need some work. I mean, here are what the originals looked like:
...so, on the one hand, anything symmetrical is an improvement. The round part at the top, though, is visibly narrow in diamter:
...but I can fix that. The bottom arm lines up pretty good on the back edge -- just needs that flange at the botten extended out:
...but the front edge needs some building up all the way along:
No problem -- once again, epoxy putty will serve me well.
I'll keep y'all updated on this as I work on it this week. I want to have it ready to be painted, too, once things warm up enough. Discuss.
--Jonah
I offered to post up comparisons between Master Replicas' Collectors' Edition Stormtrooper helmet and a TE2, with decently-documented lineage to an original film-used bucket. For those who don't know, the MR CE (or the same dies inherited by eFX after MR lost the license, and used to "re-pop" it) is derived from them taking an ANH Hero helmet, scanning it, and mirroring the left side to make it symmetical, then tweaking a few things and breaking the 3D model apart and making the components ready to mill into injection-molding dies.
I consider it the best base to use to make a symmetrical Stormtrooper helmet, i.e., one that would actually be made by an impersonal, technological, galaxy-spanning Empire... and also one that looks good up close at a convention, whereas the originals only had to look good from ten feet away for a few seconds on the movie screen. There are purists who decry anything that doesn't recreate all the wonkiness of the original prop, which is fine from an "appreciating cinematic history" standpoint. Others, meanwhile, strive to capture what was trying to be conveyed by that original prop, to whatever degree they're able (or crazy enough to try).
So rather than muddy the thread that's supposed to be about the ANOVOS Stormtrooper with debate about non-ANOVOS Stormtroopers, I present one of my mods for approval (the other is much further along, but I was sans camera at the time I was working on it so it isn't documented, and is now buried in tape for painting once the weather improves enough).
Let's start with the face. It's arguably the most egregious offender. With the original, for symmetry. With the MR CE, for questionable alterations. First, one of the most glaring points of asymmetry, the aerator shrouds:
That right there is why I went with the MR CE instead of trying to "fix" the TE2. Everything else would be able to be addressed with a modicum of time and effort, but that shroud would have to be entirely reculpted. So using the MR CE as a base saved me a ton of time and frustration right there.
Moving up, the frown. As the MR CE was based on the Hero helmet, I already knew I was going to be spending a bit of time on the frown, to reshape it to look more Stunt-y, and to address the number, size, and placement of the teeth. One thing Master Replicas fixed was centering the previously off-center center tooth. So that made a good guidepost for the rest. I used the TE2 to rough out spacing and height, using the right side of the Stunt frown:
...as reference for this:
...because the left side is drastically different, and -- in my opinion -- doesn't look anywhere near as good:
The red line shows, roughly, where the top edge would need to be to make it match. Here, the TE2 and MR CE looking straight down at the opper edge of the frown. You can see I've got it roughly corrected, but I need to fill in the bit nearer the center tooth and push the arc further out toward the corner. The epoxy putty is curing as I type this...
I'm also building new teeth, but that's not being addressed yet.
Moving back to the tears, we get to the next example of noticeable asymmetry on the original:
And yes, those decals are exact mirror images of each other, so that's not off:
Since it's mirrored from the left side, the MR CE is closer to that one, but not exact -- the front curve is too flat and needs to be built up a little rounder:
No problem -- I have plenty of epoxy putty.
Moving up, the eyes are just fine -- and don't have the bump in the right one that I'd need to smooth down.
The only other thing I'll need to address apart from filling and blending the seam where the chin was attached to the face... is the undercut. Starting a little way around the back half of the neck opening, coming up through where the earcaps cover the join, and all the way up to the front, Master Replicas cut a goodly bit out of the undercut. I presume, to make it easier to put on straight. Here's a comparison:
The notations are how much I need to add on to get it right (the second one, both say "+10mm", but it got a bit smudged):
Thank you, MR. That's gonna be fun... :rolleyes
Moving on... The back is actually in pretty good shape. It needs a little cleanup, and to blend in the restored width to the undercut at the sides, but that's all minor:
So let's move up to the cap. Because of the positioning of everything for Hero-ness, I trimmed an eighth of an inch off the bottom edge in front to make a little bit of white brow visible after assembly. The front trapezoids aren't awful, but they definitely needed to be taller, partly to match the original, partly so more of them was visible after the brow trim covered the bottom half-inch.
The lower strip of tape shows roughly where the brow trim will be. I need to round off the hard edges, obviously, but I'm going to wait and do all the traps in one go. Which brings us around to the back, and another of the "wow-how-did-they-miss-that" points of asymmetry. Using the decal for the right side rear trapezoid, here's a comparison:
"Wait," you might ask, "where's the left trap?" It's hiding behind that decal:
Here's what that comparison is on the MR CE:
Since the MR CE came with two symmetrical smaller traps, and I thought that looked so wrong, I knew I was going to use the larger one as my template. Here's the right one cut out:
And the comparison before I cut the left one out:
All that's left are the earcaps, which... need some work. I mean, here are what the originals looked like:
...so, on the one hand, anything symmetrical is an improvement. The round part at the top, though, is visibly narrow in diamter:
...but I can fix that. The bottom arm lines up pretty good on the back edge -- just needs that flange at the botten extended out:
...but the front edge needs some building up all the way along:
No problem -- once again, epoxy putty will serve me well.
I'll keep y'all updated on this as I work on it this week. I want to have it ready to be painted, too, once things warm up enough. Discuss.
--Jonah
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