Stormtrooper ESB MKII fan sculpt

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and I wanted to share one of the biggest/crazier project I've ever made.

In summer 2014, I felt the sudden need to own a stormtrooper helmet. I couldn't afford a replica and I was used to build every SW stuffs I wanted to have, so I started with a space cowboy pepakura model.....but wasn't satisfied with it for obvious reasons.



Here began a growing obsession for Stormtrooper helmets...

Two years later, after months and months of research, dust, work and trials, I ended up with that guy.



That helmet is made from four pieces of vacuum formed HIPS (back/cap, faceplate, ears). I painted it off white to match the ESB MKII from the propstore of london (I love that helmet).
I'm not truly obsessed with total screen accuracy so I was pretty happy with it.



some progress pics:

first I had that pretty sad pepakura attempt.



I took it as base to sculpt vacuum form bucks. I separate the helmet in two pieces and started to fill the blank parts with whatever I could find (fiberglass, bondo, wood, cardboard, resin, epoxy putty)





Here started the painful part of the process: sanding, sanding, sanding, bondoing, sanding, comparison pics, then resculpting, bondoing, sanding, sanding, sanding.....
At that time, I wasn't looking for a super accurate helmet so I've stopped working on it at that point. I've started to sculpt the ears bucks and built a vacuum forming table:





Then I've made my first pulls out of 3mm and 2mm HIPS in my kitchen oven:



Not that good but pretty encouraging for me. The back/cap piece was the hardest part to pull, I had to try many many times to obtain something correct ad usable.

At that point, I was able to build one first helmet.


....But wasnt satisfied AT ALL with my sculpt. To me, that helmet looked terrible.



Even painted I didn't like it that much


That one first helmet made me understand I needed a much more accurate helmet, so I worked a lot with comparison pics, re-sculpted the bucks, made some pulls, resculpted the bucks again and again and again. Here are some trials

It took me months, lots and lots of pics and comparisons to obtain a satisfying sculpt

from this
to this

I was discouraged at the end but the pulls I obtained gave me hope



some progress pics of that final helmet




Today I got four helmets to build for people who want to have their own. My first attempt was to have a ROTJish/MKIIish helmet, but now I'm trying to reproduce the ANH/ESB helmets by pulling 2mm instead of 3mm to have sharper pulls:



and I also have a ROTJish attempt with an older trial. I've sculpted the left ear.


There's CFO and many trooper makers out there, they all provide a fantastic job, and honestly I feel a little stupid for having spent so much time and money to build a less accurate helmet, on the other hand I learned a lot from that project and I'm quite proud of the result .

This is pretty damn impressive, both the sculpt and the great pulls you're getting from that little vacuform box! What are you using for vacuum?

Pedro Benjo is an impressive builder ^^ everything is hand made

Pedro said:

This is pretty damn impressive, both the sculpt and the great pulls you're getting from that little vacuform box! What are you using for vacuum?

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Well, Thanks a lot ! I use my vacuum cleaner. It always worked fine (2000 W/ 30kPa as depression rate). I was worried about the size of the box but, finaly, I never had any trouble with this, even with that huge back and cap piece.

FolkyPatrol said:

@Pedro Benjo is an impressive builder ^^ everything is hand made

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Thank you soooo much !

Impressive, most impressive!

This is crazy impressive. Excellent work!

Thx for your comments guys, I'm truly happy to read that.

Waow, that's very impressive !

Il en faut du courage pour faire tout ça.

Thx ! that was a huge pain in the ass but that worth it

Indeed ... you've got a really nice workshop and great helmets pumping out of it ... keep going ... and welcome aboard

Chaïm

Thank you very much, it's freaking awesome to read that

Really really nice work indeed, home made vacuum former !! That's impressive, when you have the ( screen accurate ) bug !! You my friend will be turning out some fantastic helmets, your first attempt is also truly fantastic