Bondo touch ups, Painting, and Visors

    In my last post I commented on how much easier the cereal box cardboard was to use for the cheeks. Here I replaced the regular cardboard with an Eggo box on the first helmet.

On the right you can also see how the helmet looks once the initial cut is made for the rest for the T-visor.
This is best done with the original pattern lined up and traced. Slowly scoring the plastic with a matte knife seems to be the most effective way of getting smooth, straight lines for this part.



If you remember from my vacuum form post, I mentioned that the dome form was a little too deep for the vacuum form process and caused some wrinkles that needed to be cut off and filled with Bondo. I did this by covering the outside of the holes with scotch tape and filling them from the inside with Bondo.

Having extra 5-gallon bucket pieces lying around makes a great platter for mixing and using Bondo. Because of the relatively small amount of Bondo used for each touch up on the domes, a tongue depressor was an adequate tool to apply a thin layer.
You can also see the Bondo that appears on the seems of the cheeks. While seems are close they seem to rarely match perfectly and the Bondo provides a good way to smooth those edges out. For this part I actually used my fingers, a) to limit the amount that ends up on the cheek and, b) they are about the right width to effectively cover the seam. (**Note to self and others: when using fingers with bondo, gloves are a good idea. Its hard to wash off.)

Currently the 3 helmets are undergoing a final round of sanding and painting. By the post next week the tinted visors should be installed as well.

Dome construction, Vacuum Forming, Cheeks, and the Rear Vent

Its been a while since my last post, so I have a lot of pictures to put up!
In this post you will find:

• Dome construction
• Vacuum Form table construction
• Cheek construction
• Rear vent construction

Making the dome might be my least favorite part about making the helmets because of the time and attention to detail required since the dome can make or break the helmet. In the last post you saw that I was using a triangle template out of card stock and using some paper machete on the inside to give some more rigidness. After taping these triangles together I tried two different processes, the first was using Easy-Flo 120 (a two part plastic resin) and the second being Bondo. I ended up abandoning the Easy-Flo since painting it on the shape resulted in a lot of paint drips which were painful to remedy. I defaulted back to Bondo, which was what I used to make my first two helmets. It is very ridged and takes a little bit less energy to sand and shape. 

The biggest thing with the Bondo is to make sure the you have the dome covered all the way down to the helmet lip. Next hardest thing is to try to get the closest to perfect rounding that you can. It generally take 1 coat with major sanding followed by 3-4 touch up coats with more detail sanding to get the smooth rounded shape.

In the next section you can see the fully sanded dome sitting on my homemade vacuum form table. As I mentioned before I do not enjoy the lengthy process of making each individual dome. In light of this I spent about $30 at Lowe's using plywood, some 1x2's, and peg-board and created my own vacuum form table to make domes faster and easier.

 In retrospect I am confident that I made the table  too large for this particular project, in addition to having a frame to hold the plastic that could not fit into my oven.
The hardest part about the vacuum-forming is the taper that occurs where the helmet meets the pegboard surface. It is very important that the edges are straight in order that they can fit intro the helmet frame. It would also be a good idea to sand the lower edges slightly more to create more of inside taper to slip into the helmet frame.


Since the bottom edge will not be seen it doesn't need to be as smooth as the rest of the dome.












Here you can see the rest of the setup. A hole drilled into the plywood on the bottom to allow for the shop vac to be attached. The 1x2 frame that holds the .40" plastic sheet that you can get from US Plastics. The best part is that the leftover plastic will work great to make a sturdy and clear visor. This setup works great in my kitchen, conveniently next to my oven. (Did I mention you need to measure the width of your oven before you build your vacuum table? Anyway, you should.)

So now to the cheeks. Here you can see both the inside and outside views of the two ways I made the cheeks. the version on the left is made with card-stock with a cardboard support. On the right the cheeks are made completely from cardboard. You can see a little bit, but low temperature hot glue is a pretty good medium to use on this part of the construction.  

Cardstock Pros: Its generally easy to work with and has an ability to allow for sharper edges while maintaining the intended shape for the cheeks. It also allow for some easy trimming. If your pattern goes over the edge a little you can run a razor blade over the edge and clean it up nicely. Cons: a downside is that it is not a sturdy as other materials. Because it is so thin you need to be careful with the hot glue so you will not have to clean up golds the sneak out under the edges.

Cardboard Pros: Its a very sturdy material that will hold the shape you want very well. Cons: it tends to be hard to get the right shape since it likes to crease with the configuration of the inside ribs. The edges do not meet with the plastic as sharply as the cardstock. Some of the creases require a Bondo touch up.

For the Third practice helmet I am going to try a third material of cardboard from a cereal box and see if that gives me the right middle ground. 

The main reason for painting before finishing allow you to judge how close you are to having a final version of your helmet since the paint will reflect the flaws in the current version (Bondo holes and cracks, uneven surfaces, excess glue on an edge). I normally have at least two practice coats on to do touch ups.

Next is the Rear Vent. These were constructed out of cardstock and held together with hot glue. Looking back I think that the inner construction is done well with cardstock, but the outer rectangle should be something with a thicker material. I think that It makes the vent more sturdy and makes it easier to blend with the rest of the helmet.

 Here are a few more process photos for you to enjoy. Hopefully these helmets will be done before Thanksgiving!

Helmet T-Visor Structure

 The First part is putting the two halves mentioned in the last post together. When using 5min epoxy it is best to sand or rough the smooth surfaces that you will be gluing to ensure a better seal between them. Here I sanded a little too much. Try to leave the back edge smooth when sanding. You only need the area between the inner and outer layers.

When I glue I do not try and put both pieces together all at the same time. Sometimes if you are not fast enough it can dry where you started before you can get the clamps in place. To give it maximum time to set I gave each glue section at least 20 min before handling the helmet again for the next section.

These next few pictures are the building of the dome. These patterns were printed on card stock and cut out with either regular scissors or a matte knife. To help avoid the corners created by taping the helmet together I gave each triangle a slight bend using the curve of my thumb. Now because these patterns are made for a complete paper build the dome has to be modded slightly. Notice I have removed a #8 triangle from the rear pattern. This allows for the dome pattern to fit well inside the decreased circumference inside the buckets. Trimming numbers 7 and 9 a little bit do not hurt to help them fit more flush.

Start of Practice Runs

This week the Kickstarter campaign for this project exceeded the goal for funding the project! In light of this I began to work with a few of the 5 gallon buckets in order to get a better idea of how I wanted/needed the structure to work out. Currently I am building two different versions changing around the Alan Sinclair patterns listed in the first blog post.

Typically I had always put the patterns together in the opposite way than what you can see in this picture. The main issue I had found with that way of using the patterns with 5 gallon buckets is that both joining the seam int he back of the helmet and adding in the vent detail proved difficult to get a smooth flush finish. I was hoping to eliminate visible seams by using the pattern in this way. The reasoning would be that the middle seam down the front of the helmet would be mostly eliminated by the cut out of the T-visor.

 These are the other pattern variations taped to the buckets for outlining. After making the cutouts I think that I want to both combine the new pattern cuts that I was looking at with the ones that I was using in my making of past helmets.

The inner surface patter I think will work better with the seam in the front of the pattern. This will eliminate the basic seam in the middle of the vent and allow the small seam in the front can be covered up the outer pattern.

The other consideration is that, unlike the practice builds, the final build will be double layered with sheet metal over top of the plastic of the buckets. The combination of this could provide another opportunity to avoid seams in the

plastic by covering them with the metal.

The next thing to consider before gluing the two patterns together is to figure out if I want to make the cuts for the "ears" of the helmet. I want to be able to make as few cuts as possible to keep the pattern structure strong, but enough cuts that I can secure the ears, that are gutted from the Fett helmet prop, while using as little glue on the outside of the helmet.




The tools I was using for this part were just a basic construction box cutter and an attempt at a heat knife. In the past I have also used a Dremel tool. I think that the most effective way is to use the box cutter. It requires a slightly time consuming process of scoring multiple times before making the final cut, but it is the most effective way to get a clean, straight cut. Below you can see the problems with the speed of the heat knife.













That's all the details that I have for now. The next entry will likely be about the dissassembly of the walkie-talkie in prep for the helmet.

Project Concept

My name is Owen, I graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree and love to have side projects that allow me to explore ideas I have not been able to have experience with. Previous projects have included sets of armor, trebuchets, and custom electronic lightsabers. Many times the projects I have will advance through several versions and/or upgrades. The purpose of this blog will to be to document the progress of the 3rd version of my Mandalorian Helmet. Currently I have experience with two Mandalorian Helmets. You can see these below. The first two are version 1:

 This Second one are a more recent build I did using sheet metal instead of cardboard and plastic to get a weightier feel and opportunity for some cool weathering. You can't see because of the painter's tape, but I did this one with a reflective visor.

Both Helmets were built using Alan Sinclair's 2006 paper patterns. You can find them yourself here at the Mandalorian Mercs forum where you can find several other patterns as well.

My brother has also spent time in building Mando Armor;

 And this is where my idea for the current project came from. After realizing it was difficult to talk to each other with helmets on I decided that I wanted to insert a walkie talkie into our helmets so that we could communicate without having to take them off. The other difference is that you can notice that he built his using the Rangefinder. This is where my second idea comes into play: I want to place a camera into the Rangefinder than then run the image down to the wrist gauntlets where it can be displayed and recorded.

This Project has been posted to Kickstarter to obtain the remainder of the funding that I need for the project. I own all the tools that I need for the project, and just need to acquire the build materials. The list is here:

• Cobra MicroTalk Walkie Talkies ($30)
• For the comm unit
• 2 5 Gallon Buckets ($7)
• For the main helmet construction
• Two Part Epoxy ($16)
• Plastic Resin EasyFlo 120 ($25)
• To smooth out and strengthen the dome
• JB Weld ($6)
• JB weld is great for the metal parts that I will be adding to the outside of the helmet. Seals and holds metal better than epoxy.
• 1 Sheet of Steel ($10)
• This allos for a cleaner, harder surface of the outside of the helmet as well as an opportunity for some excellent weathering
• 2 Speakers ($9)
• To replace the single speaker with stereo sound.
• Video Camera ($100?)
• I plan to purchase a used camcorder off Ebay or Craigslist. I would rather not buy a brand new camera for dis-assembly. Another option could be to use a car rear view camera and viewscreen.
• Costume Fett Helmet ($35)
• This will be for the ear sections with the viewfinder. It is far easier to harvest them off this toy helmet than creating my own from scratch with enough space for electronics. Also comes with a decent visor plate that can be tinted and trimmed to fit the custom helmet I am creating.

With the shipping for some of the internet items I cannot pick up in-store the project total comes out to about $250.

This Blog will continue to document the progress of the Kickstarter campaign and then the build process. I will be trying to include as many videos/pictures as possible in order that others can duplicate and improve upon the work that I have done.