Upgrading a Rubie's Helmet

Justino42

New Member
Hey guys,

I've never actually built any props before, but I have a lot of time this summer and since I have a friend who's building a stormtrooper kit it got me interested. Although I definitely don't have the patience or skill to do a full kit, I thought a helmet would be a fun first project. Since I know diddly dip about prop making I figured posting here and getting help from others would be a great way to learn.

Basically my attempt is to turn this (a Rubie's Stormtrooper Helmet)
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To that (Battlefront Magma Trooper)
BattlefrontStormTrooper2.png

Granted the actual Rubie's helmet doesn't actually look that bad :lol, but it could be so much better. So my plan is twofold: 1) paint the helmet 2) build the respirator
I'll just be sharing and posting my progress here - any comments, tips, suggestions, criticism, everything is welcome - thanks for taking a look :thumbsup
 
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Day 1:
So I actually bought the helmet used from my friend (the same aforementioned friend) who had previously done some minor work to it
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As you can see he: 1) dremeled the eye sockets so they're bigger 2) painted the eyebrow and nose/mouth black 3) Replaced the Rubie's Bubble lens with welders lens

So today I did a whole lot of cleaning - duct tape residue is a pain to clean (but I found out that cooking oil is great for removing it so that made everything a lot easier...an hour after I started). Didn't throw out the foam just yet. Thinking of using it for the respirator. Anyways I primed and painted the interior afterwards - straight black and it looks a lot cleaner (sorry friend)
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Day 2:
Realized I should've top coated after some paint chipped off, so I bought some top coat (matte + clear)
While waiting for the coat to dry decided to start the respirator
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The Force be with whoever uploaded their stencil (I would share the author and his thread but whitearmor is down at the time of this typing). Not done yet and of course I might have to change some of these values later because the Rubie's helmet is slightly smaller than say an Anovos helmet or something. For those of you who are interested the values are in mm. (Also I take no credit for this - go thank the OG creator)

Also started the lenses. They were a bit rough around the edges so I sanded them (I think 100 grit?).
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The left lens was prior to sanding and the right was after. Haven't decided if I'm going to use them yet or not and haven't figured out how to attach them. They're bendy, but they don't stay in place. In the original helmet the lens were duct taped on and even then they came off. I used a heat gun on them in the hopes they would mold better, but I accidentally warped one of the lens. (Actually it's really not that bad, minuscule really, but knowing that it's there bothers me). If anyone's got any suggestions or changes feel free to comment.

Day 3:
Started this thread. lol
Just been researching on what I should do. Right now the biggest questions on my mind are: 1) How to attach lens 2) How to paint tube vents, trap vents, and tear vents
Why so focused on the lens? Well I'm thinking that it'd be easier to attach them with the helmet disassembled. For those who don't know the Rubie's helmet is a 2-piece bucket (4-piece if you include the ears) and I'm planning on using bondo to seal the seams in the helmet. Until I attach the lens, I can't paint the exterior (which sucks 'cuz I really wanna paint it). As for the vents, I've been looking for stencils online, but can't seem to find anything for free so I might just make my own stencils and freehand...maybe.
 
Day 4: Did nothing lmao

Day 5: Today was a pretty productive day. Basically I said firetruck the lens, let's just start the helmet. A lot of people attach lens in a completed helmet and I'm ordering new lenses anyways. So before I can bondo I had to glue the helmet together. This was a beetch cuz the pieces weren't uniform - when you squeeze one part of the helmet together, another part falls apart. What to do? Glue a section and wait for it to cure before going on to the next. Super annoying but it got done in about an hour.
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How to bondo: never did it so and couldn't find any decent tutorials but basically add a layer, spread, wait for it to cure (~30 min.) and sand - then repeat. Also don't forget to sand the surface as it gives the bondo a surface to grip onto... Or something like that. It's obvious I was cautious at the beginning and then got braver towards the end lol. For those new to bondo spread perpendicular to the seam. This might seem obvious but I'm pretty stupid and figured this out by the third layer.
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So yeah bondo-ing took pretty long so if you do it just take care of some other documents or something.
 
will the helmet be for display or wearing? suggest you reinforce the seam inside by using a product called Fiberfix ( fiberglass tape), keep up the good work!
 
Day 6: Happy Fourth guys (at least at the time of this writing)
TIL: that painting the interior black was a waste of time since so much crap got inside anyways (always paint last I guess)

Well I finished bondo-ing (did about 6 layers I think?) and it came out okay
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Ideally the entire surface should look like the picture on the left, but I couldn't sand off some ridges on the right for some reason without grinding all the way to the plastic - dunno why but some wet sanding helped (it looked a lot worse and a lot rougher)

Also attached the ears but primed the exterior first (just so the inside could be gray too and no red bits would stick out)
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Well here it is:
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So nice to finally see it coming together - although the ears stuck out a bit - to "remedy" this I super-glued the interior of the ear pieces and attempted to bondo the seams. Didn't really know how this would come out and was hesitant since it would be super annoying to sand such tiny quarters.
....I was right
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Overall it kinda did nothing - I tried to superglue the edges to the helmet too but the plastic was too thin for the glue to cure properly (or at least the way I wanted it to) - it was a good attempt, but it kinda made the bucket uglier - time for some A1 paint jobs to hide it lol :thumbsup

Now for my favorite part: PAINTING - or more specifically priming - but we getting there
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Like I said I should've just painted everything last because I primed the interior again
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You can see the gap I was talking about earlier in the ear piece. Actually the bondo wasn't so terrible - it's flush in some areas but open in others - can't really blame the plastic or be surprised - after all it is a Rubie's and can't really complain with a $30 price point
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Overall I'm pretty pleased with my handiwork. The top of the bucket is...actually pretty flush - I'm surprised - it actually looks like one-piece - still some cracks but it looks better with more coats - and this compensates for the rather crappy ear work I did

PS. you can see my poverty paint station
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Gaps on the ears-to-helmet section isn't anything bad persay... The originals all had some sort of gap where no everything lined up perfectly so don't take it too close to heart with that one. It's looking great! What lenses are you looking into?

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that's looking nice!

Well I finished bondo-ing (did about 6 layers I think?)
Just an FYI, that bondo you are using is a spot putty, for small scratches and final coats. For something like the joint seam on the helmet, I would suggest using the regular bondo you have to mix with the hardener, then doing a final coat with the scratch filler. Then it would only take a couple of coats, it is much stronger, and I think that will give you better results, as the spot putty can crack over time on an area that gets stress.
 
Gaps on the ears-to-helmet section isn't anything bad persay... The originals all had some sort of gap where no everything lined up perfectly so don't take it too close to heart with that one. It's looking great! What lenses are you looking into?

Yea but the in game models look pretty flush but oh well - and I just ordered another set of welders lens lol - this time I'm just going to keep it one piece so I can still bend it and fit accordingly to the helmet
 
Gaps on the ears-to-helmet section isn't anything bad persay... The originals all had some sort of gap where no everything lined up perfectly so don't take it too close to heart with that one. It's looking great! What lenses are you looking into?

Yea but the in game models look pretty flush but oh well - and I just ordered another set of welders lens lol - this time I'm just going to keep it one piece so I can still bend it and fit accordingly to the helmet
Very nice. So flat lenses like sandtroopers and stunt helmets?

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Yea - I know it is supposed to be bubble lens (modeled after rotj right?) but I just like flat and I'm not going for super accurate anyways

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks Redwillow!
And yea now I realize I should've just spent the extra $3 for regular bondo - at the time I thought "eh what the hell - how different could it be?" lol
Yes it's supposed to be bubbled lenses for Roth hero helmets. I love the flat green stunt lenses myself but everyone goes their own direction with this sort of thing I was just wondering what way you were going with it :D

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Day indefinite time since last post...Day 7 we'll call it:
Well there was a brief hiatus since my last post - started summer classes so that kinda took up my time.
Since I had some time to relax decided to get back to the bucket. Today I'm going Rolling Stones and painting it black.
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Not bad. Standard stuff. Kinda makes me wish I was doing a shadow trooper build just because the paint app was so easy. You might be wondering why I decided to do a black base coat. Well I found this ingenious paint thread that showed how to do "damage" paint on helmets. Link here: https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=172696
I know it's more applicable to phase II and III helmets than stormtrooper helmets *I think in the lore the former are made of metal while the latter is plastic?* but it looks so cool I wanted to do it. Basically in short: you do a black base coat, use toothpaste to cover the damage areas, paint the surface white, then wipe off the toothpaste.

Day 8:
Went to a Rubie's store today with my friend because he was looking for a e-11 blaster (he couldn't find it) but I did find this
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lol - o how far we've come
Anyways let's start with the white coat
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Basic stuff: cover the parts you want to keep black - now for the toothpaste:
I used a painter's knife to spread the toothpaste - you don't need one, but I had one so I figured why not
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Pretty happy with how it looks - can't wait to see how it turns out
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Starting to look more like a stormtrooper - anddddd
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VOILA - damn - talk about progress :) - having a lot of fun with this build so far (and I haven't even started the respirator yet lol) - the beard, mouth, and eyebrow could use some work however but I'll fix that up with some brush work instead.
Also I should say be careful with your painters tape *specifically removing it* - It's kind of hard to see at that angle but the tape removed some paint underneath the eyebrow (on top of the left eye) - the rest of the paint everywhere else stayed on so I don't know what happened but I'll be more careful next time.

Addendum
As far as removing toothpaste goes, use a wet cloth and don't be so forceful - it's toothpaste, what did it ever do to you?
Also try avoiding the minty ones with the gels - gives the helmet a nice smell but it smudges everywhere when removed lol
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