Are blast shields like this really useful? It seems pretty limiting to not be able to see at all.
I have figured since sometime in the '80s that the vision systems on the helmets
in-universe are a bit more complex than tinted plastic. The cutaway of the Stormtrooper helmet in the Visual Dictionary, when it was eventually published, made me happy because it reinforced that impression. The lenses on a Stormtrooper helmet are protecting sensors of some kind that feed into a display system.
This, actually, was why Boba's rangefinder never made sense to me. So, what, in the GFFA they haven't invented picture-in-picture? You need to have your external sensor system feed into an easily snagged sticky-outy thing that has to swing down into -- and block part of -- your field of view to see what it's telling you? Looks cool. But bad design.
So I figure there's still something displayed inside the helmet, behind the blast shield. It serves to protect the visual sensors from superbright (possibly atomic) flashes that might burn them out, or shrapnel that might physically damage them or the protective shields. The one I showed above for that Mando helmet will be servo-actuated, from a momentary switch in my glove. Defaults to "up". So, in actual use, it'd be, like... *fires proton missile* *blast shield drops down* *missile explodes* *blast shield returns to stowed* A momentary thing, where you'd likely turn away or shield your eyes with your hand, so you don't have to do either.
There remains the problem of how some of them would "actually" deploy. Like the ones on the
Tantive IV troopers (still actively working to alter the perception of them as "Rebel Fleet Troopers", 'cause that's stupid). They built some with the smoked piece up on the forehead, and others with it down over the eyes. But there's no mechanism to make it move from one to the other. It's just presumed to through magic SW tech.
Then there are also the ones that likely don't move, and just serve as semi-decorative ablative overpieces, like the ones on the Stormtrooper garrison helmets (also erroneously known as "Imperial Navy Troopers"), Shore Troopers, AT-ACT Drivers, Stormtrooper Tankers, and Agent Kallus, as well as the Mimban Stormtroopers. I like both styles, and am working up a template. Unless some enterprising soul is already offering blast shields and I haven't found it yet. *lol*