JohnnyChaos

There's a stickied armour builders thread about here somewhere with a couple of UK builders. CFO and RS Propmasters. Have you joined the UK garrison forum too? The armourers there are helpful in giving advice. Im new here and there too and just starting to build my armour and gone CFO

Im going CFO. Looking at the build threads it seems one of the easiest to put together and looks great. Not that I have any experience with any others.

I guess youre always wary of taking too much off to start with. I looked at loads of pics and the ears varied a lot so as soon as I got them to fit nicely I stopped really. The brow isn't glued on so might trim it a little. Going to leave it for now and see how I feel once the rest is built.

Thanks. I think if i did it again I'd raise the brow a bit and make the ears flatter. But I do like it as is. Now to save up for the rest of the armour

Helmet exterior done! Cut more out of the frown too. Real pleased with it now, painting the frown and vocoder really made it. Got to add some mesh behind the frown and add padding inside so it's wareable. Need to research some padding options next

lol. Well to be honest, now I've actually finished my lid exterior (did all the paint today) my opinion has changed quite a bit. its amazing how much adding the frown and vocoder changes the look and makes it all look much cooler Ive enjoyed doing it too.

I just painted the frown, then the vocoder, then started on the ear bits and while doing them rested the vocoder on my jumper!! Thankfully it was just tacky and didn't smudge so a fresh coat smoothed it out. Also the hot glue for the lenses got away from me slightly and melted the edge of one eye socket. Thankfully it turned out I hadn't cut them out nearly enough so the damage was easily cut out. phew!

Have you used a more satin black rather than gloss for the frown and vocoder on yours? And do you use the same black on the rank markings

Went and looked at those review pics you mentioned and then redid the eyes again taking even more off. Here's a quick pic at the same angle as the one above to show the difference.

I have taken a little more off the bottom edge since these pics. With the lenses in it looks like I could cut more out, but when I took them out it looked like enough. I'll post another pic once I've painted it

I also need or reinforce the helmet behind the mic tips. It seems a natural place to grab it. I've read a tutorial using milliput so will grab some of that too while I'm out.

After looking at other build threads I decided to go with CFO's ROTJ Armour. Helmet first which arrived on the 23rd, so after work I got on with it. It cut out pretty quick and I left the sides gluing over night. (That's a magnet not a screw/rivet) This is where I'm at so far. Mark from CFO has been good answering any build questions Took a while to do the "ear" bits sanding down with my dremel. Not sure if the size of the frown holes matter? I cut them how I think look nice, but have seen them quite big. I have trimmed a fraction more off the eyes since this pic, but only v slightly and installed (but not glued) the neck trim. Just need to pop to the model shop over the weekend and pickup some paint.

Congrats. I'd say May the 28th at 9.05pm

Ive got a big head too lol. 24.5" round. so i was concerned too about fitting, i needent have worried though. These helmets are BIG. You don't notice it when people are suited up.

Being totally new to this, this thread stood out at me. A couple of weeks ago I knew nothing about the helmet differences between films and thought they were all the same. I've just built a screen accurate ROTJ helmet with a view to getting the full armour and then 501 clearance, and one of the first things my wife said was "a couple of your stickers are a bit creased", Me - yeah it's supposed to be like that Her - and how much was it....are you sure they aren't having you on? I like it, but yeah, part of me does feel it's a hell of cash of a lot for a wonky shaped helmet and iffy stickers. I can see that it looks right though and the general public wouldn't notice anything, but it's definitely not what the real empire would make. I'm thinking of getting a master replica one for my main and use this just to get clearance and for display.