Raijlin

Questions on the helmet. Hopefully someone will be able to give me some guidance. Some of the cement that was included with the FX kit got onto the helmet and pitted it. I was wondering if I go to the automotive store, if there is a specific compound i should get to fill in the couple of divits there are? Also, the color of black that would match the TX gear. I'm hoping that I'm not going to have to sand this whole thing down and repaint it, just for a couple of divits. I was thinking of leaving it as a "battle damaged" look. Guess I could do that, but one of the divits is on the nose area and kind of bothers me. Also, if someone could advise me as to the color grey of the frown? I imagine it's the same on the TK and the TX build. I've been searching and can't seem to find the specific color to get at the automotive store. Thank you for the assistance!

Well, I decided to trudge on and try to solo this task. I was hoping someone from the local Garrison would be excited about doing an armor shop, but oh well. Fortunately, I found a great resource on YouTube, Dave's Garage. He breaks down each of the parts of the suit, to include the E-11, and demonstrates what to do. Which was what I was hoping to learn in an armor shop. So I just sat and listened to Episode 10 - Parts 1-5 and then made some great adjustments on my helmet. I went ahead and drilled out the black section of the frown. Then took the exacto knife to trim it more closely. Tomorrow I'll run to Lowe's and get some files and finish up the frown. I also took the advice Dave had by using some of the extra ABS and making washers for the ear pieces, to better disperse the pressure of the screws across a broader surface. This was good, because I did note that what he said was true...the screws were starting to bite into the ear piece slightly. I then took the ear pieces and sanded down the sharp point so that it was rounded, as recommended by Dave. Then, I adjusted the ear pieces down on the helmet so that they came in contact with the bulbous portions. Wallah...no more gap. I may also reshape the portion that overhangs slightly, or I may just take his advice and attach two screws on the underside of the helm to hold the lower portion of the ear pieces to the lower ridge of the helmet. Anyways, it was a learning experience and it's going slowly but surely. I'm kind of hesitant because I want this to be the best I can possibly do, plus be able to make it into the 501st. I hope they take into account novices that have never done anything like this before. LOL... Anyways, there's the update. Didn't think anyone was really interested, but figured I'd post just in case anyone was. LOL...

Well, here's the pictures of the helmet after I changed things around. I must say I think it's a vast improvement. The gap has been majorly lessened. It's still there, but nothing that a little foam and silicone filler will not be able to handle. Here's the pics. Please disregard the rear decal. I will end up having to replace it because it stretched partially while I was applying it.

See, that's what's odd. i found a thread on the forum saying the front should be over the back. I originally had it back over front, and it caused that large gap. Then when I read the thread here on the forums, I went downstairs and changed it so the Front overlapped the back and it was much better. I'll go take some pictures now so that you can see the difference.

Well, I went back and disassembled the helmet and changed it so that the FRONT overlapped the BACK. I had originally had it the other way, as you can tell by the pictures. After pouring over many threads here, I came upon that possiblity and hoped it would fix things at least a little bit. It made a tremendous difference. The gap is not nearly as large and the whole helmet looks much better. Although, now with it this way, the top lid seems to want to pop off all the time. Can't wait to hot glue that down. The gap isn't too terrible now, however I will still want to put in some filler to close the gap, as I want that "environmentally sound" look to my suit. I'll post more updates here. Hopefully this is the right thread to be posting in. Don't want to irritate the powers that be.

I received my TX kit on Monday, and began assembling the aerators. I then began on the Helmet, taking my time to follow the directions provided in the kit. When I connected the front dome and rear dome together using the ear pieces, I noticed a large gap between the ear pieces and the bulbous portions of the lower front and rear dome. I drilled everything where it was marked. If I lowered the comm. assembly so it comes in contact with the bulbous portions, then it will create a large section overhanging the lower ridge of the helmet. The kit was apparently good to go, ready to assemble. It is a beautiful kit that I'm thoroughly happy with. I'm just wondering if I am going to have to heat/sculpt/mold the helmet even though it said it was ready to assemble. I've read on here about this issue, and some people using a caulking solution to fix the gap problem (as in the one thread stating the suit is supposed to be environmentally sealed.) Would I be better to shift the ear pieces down so they sit flush at the top of the tube part, leaving the bottom to hang too low? Or am I better having the bottom portion flush with the mask and just using a filler to fix the gap issue? I'm not very mechanically inclined, and this is my first undertaking of this magnitude, so I wanted to make sure I didn't screw up my expensive armor. Lol... I also noted on another thread that a person said the back portion of the helmet should be inside the front portion, and this will help disguise the issue also. I will go fix that after this post. Any help to a noob would be greatly appreciated.