Smitty

Last minute idea for your kids. Every year me and the kids put out a bagfull of reindeer food. Just kinda Johnny Appleseed it across the lawn. Recipe: One bag of instant oatmeal Season to taste with glitter Put it in a bag and shake it up. Hand it to the kids and let'em leave food for the reindeer. My 2 girls love it.

OK I went ahead and fixed the cracks with my caulk fix. I had a tube of Pure white tub and tile polyseamseal laying around. So I took a finger and rubbed it into the cracks. Then I squeegeed it off with a wet finger and cleaned up around the cracks with a damp cloth and heres what they look like. I'm happy with that. It just goes to show the power of pie.

pie is good. Im chin up about it though and I believe my gloss white caulk remedy will work good.

Wow 24 hours later and no "oh dang smitty that sucks we feel your loss, have some apple pie."

TK's are mean and clean no other reasons are needed and they help kids to boot. Plus I wanna play in the local costume events. Definitely going to a bar in mine next Halloween. Its a redneck joint so I could prolly get cleared ahead of time for the blaster. There's a sign out front that says please unload all guns before entering building. Just kidding.

Ok I didnt mention it earlier...I was a little steamed at the time. When putting the neck seal in today I cracked the bondo on the ears. I was afraid it would happen, and it did. However, it does not look bad. At first I was like OMG how do I fix this. I then decided it still looked better than having gaps. For some reason ear gaps bug the crap out of me. So heres a picture of the 2 cracks. In the first one you can see a clear reflection of me taking the picture in the bottom right hand corner. Yeah baby its that good. I have considered doing the repair with gloss white caulk (I work in a caulk factory). Put on a miniscule amount, rub it into the cracks and wipe the spots off with a wet finger. Then I'll wipe the areas around the spots off with a damp rag. I will have gloss white in the cracks and none on the helmets surface. I think it will be an excellent repair. I will worry about this later though because I need to wait at least a week for the paint to fully cure before I introduce it to any new chemicals.

I havent done the screen mesh yet, but its coming, I need to scour the shop and find some good looking screen to use. This morning I put on the edging trim around the opening you stick your head into. I need to find some satin black before I go any further. I'm ready to paint the vocoder and stuff but all I can find is gloss black and flat black. I need to check out a hobby shop I guess.

I really dont think they are salvageable. I would be very leary about using them because I tried to make do with them but they arent lined up perfectly like they were anymore. Why take chances. I will try that method on the new ones. I didnt realize what had happened at first but the stickers werent sticking to the helmet and I was like....wait a minute...durrrr!

Painted the frown and ears gray today used Testors 1138 Grey Enamel. Also put on the stickers and brow trim too. I almost got to put on the tube stripes today but something is wrong. The stickers stuck to the white paper instead of the clear paper so I guess I need to get new tubestripes. Oh and almost forgot, I put in the Green lens film too. Thats stuffs gonna be gone soon anyway. Welders lens for the win!

Heres another pic taken without flash and you can see glossyness under normal lighting. Very cool looking pic! This paint is awesome, its glossier now than when it was wet. Mike Harrison for President!!!!

Ok I couldnt help it, I peeled off the masking...mmmm thats hott!

Gloss white paint is done. Used the recommended 3 coats of rustoleum gloss white high performance enamel. Its so shiney! While doing the first coat, a small gnat landed on the dome. I got it off and the 2nd and 3rd coat eliminated any proof that it was ever there. Now its drying safely in the studio. Did I mention that its very shiney I want to peelthe tape off the eyes and frown so bad right now but I know Im not allowed to touch it.

I'm thinking about going ultimate trooper on mine. They already look fantastic on the outside, I want when someone looks inside mine when I'm done to pause for a second and feel like they are looking into an "actual" stormtrooper helmet. (by that I mean fantastical world of Lucas not actual movie used helmets)Its gonna be tricked out.

total agreement

What do you think would make it worth more? Leaving the inside Plain Jane or modding it out for a killer trooping lid?

Personally I would get a more screen accurate helmet for my money. My opinion of MR stormtrooper helemts is that they are over priced and sub standard. They make really nice blasters and sabers but once again overpriced. Of course tho thats only my opinion.

Got it sanded today and it sure feels great! Going out in search of paint tomorrow!

So the SFS helmet and Dave M helmets are the same? And are also the earpieces on the TE2 and the TE2 faceplate and cap-n-back are from the Brian R helmet....ouchh.....my brain hurts......too many helmets to keep trak of....need more beer.....

Its now primed. I couldnt find the rustoleum primer at Wally World so I used Krylon H2O white primer. First I masked the back of the eyes and mouth with packaging tape and also over TE2's signature and helmet number (wouldn't want to get paint on that). For a paint stand I grabbed a mic stand out of the studio and wrapped the shaft in newspaper, wadded up a ball of newspaper and taped it onto the top to make a head. This allowed me to position the helmet perfectly and also held the helmet steady after painting it while I relocated it to the studio. The primer will be ready to lightly sand in 24 hours. I am extremely pleased with the results so far. Please no comments about yardwork

Very nice looking....but since it is poseable....I'd work on the pose a little bit...looks like he's about to crop dust your corner.

I'd go with decals if you can find them. Is that the fiberglass helmets that come out of South America? If you cant find decals for it, I'd recommend making stencils on the computer and scaling them to the proper size. Then cut them out to aid in your painting. Just about any helmets tubestripe kit will probably work.

No problem. Its a nice looking helmet tho. You gonna hand paint the traps or get decals?

Hero? It looks like a stunt. Are you going to make it into a hero?

I'll do my best. I've done a few custom paintjobs on paintball guns, so I have a little experience but Im still nervous about painting my first helmet. I'm ready for all the bondo to go away....still a little ashamed of the copiuos amounts of bondo I had to use on my ears Im going for a happy medium between screen accurate and what Lucas had intended. My biggest fear though is a stupid bug landing in the gloss white when I'm painting. I'm gonna paint it on a mic stand from my studio, so that way I can just carry it inside like a torch and put it safe and sound in the studio.

The ears are done. I cant begin to explain what a pain in the butt these were. Definitely the hardest part of the project so far. I really did try, I promise, but I couldnt get the fit I wanted so I filled the gaps with bondo and spent ungodly amounts of time sanding. It looks really good though and no gaps. Having gaps would have really bugged me to no end and I would have regretted it from now on. Next step on the list is to wet sand the whole bucket with 600 grit and wipe it clean, then primer it!