JunesBanunes

But does it really look like an FX? It's not that big and doesn't have the squareness or the exaggerated features:

Thanks for the appreciation guys! Any theories about the helmets origin would be welcome, I can't find a similarity to any "brand" ones so the claim of it being an amateur copy seems reasonable, and as far as I can tell it has accurate shapes so the possibility of an orignial prop mold isn't too unlikely.

Sorry to wake up an old thread, I just wanted to post a link to my build thread with photos of the "naked" helmet as requested.

And then some trim and decals and here's the finished project! And as it sits in my display piece "Evolution of helmets", past, present, future. And now I'm ready for the epVII premiere

I painted the inside of the helmet in the closest colour I could find to the orginal plastic of the props. Any future flaking would just look authentic. Then I coated the inside with black rubber paint and as the edges were a bit flimsy I reinforced it with some glas fiber. I have future plans to put in a speaker system so I made mic tip attachments with wide openings. I found a juice cart cap fitted nicely. Which put some structure on the outside to secure the hovi tips. Then it was time for the white coat on the outside. I almost wanted to keep the helmet like this as well, a marble trooper.

The paint prooved much more difficult to remove than the flaking indicated. After much research and testing I found that a coat of breakfluid setting over night in a closed plastic bag loosened the paint up enough to scrape it off with tooth pics. After many painstaking hours I found I hade discovered a ghost trooper! The mysterious clear plastic is another sign of a homemade copy, possibly of an original mold as claimed. I was almost tempted to keep the helmet like this.

I've long been craving a stormtrooper helmet for display so when I found a cheap one on ebay I couldn't resist. The seller said it was vacuum formed over an original prop mold and it had the wonky shape to back it up. However when I recieved the helmet I found a very poor budget job on it. The paint was runny and flaking, the decals were illfitting and poorly placed, the trim was inaccurate and the lenses were barely seethrough. Actually rather clever, the mic tips were faucet ends wrapped in electrical tape. So looking at the helmet I decided I could make a better job and decided to go for an ESB trooper.

I'm planning on posting a build thread when push comes to shove, so be on the lookout and see your desires of nudity fullfilled! But how about the advice, anyone got any good ideas about the reinforcing? And what about the lenses, what gives the best visibility (while maintaining no visibility for the outsider)?

Alrighty then... here's an imgur album.

Request and thou shall recieve. *edit; attachment deleted and album posted below.

I've come across a TK helmet from ebay, it's some sort of scratch build that was fairly cheap. But according to the seller it was vacuum formed over an original mold or helmet and judging from the authentic wonky shapes that appears to be true. It's made out of an unidentified transparent plastic, about a millimiter thick, which is quite sturdy except for at the back rim where it bends and wobbles if you apply pressure. It's then, rather poorly painted with white gloss spray paint with several areas of running. The paint has also start to flake here and there, revealing the transparency. The details are a mix of decals and more sloppy paint job. The lenses are of some flimsy film with crap visibility and again rather poorly glued to the helmet with something like UHU por. The mic tips are, quite brilliantly, faucet tap ends wrapped in black electrical tape. I actually couldn't tell from the pictures as it looks pretty good, so there's a nice tip for those low on budget! It has no lining or padding. Despite all this I don't feel cheated as like I said, it was significantly cheaper than the professional models out there. I'm also quite thrilled about the total renovation ahead and until then, it looks pretty good (from afar) on my shelf. Enough background and onto the matter at hand; advice on said renovation. I am as quite many seem to be here, torn between the real and the "real" look, i.e. off the set or off the screen. As I don't expect any trooping (I'm just a collector) I was leaning heavily towards prop forgery. But then my girlfriend said something that completely stopped me in my tracks; "But you´ll know it's not a real prop so what's the point?". Hence I've now (almost) decided to pursue the off the screen look, although not idealised. I've also decided to go for ESB as that's my favourite of the movies. I want my bucket to look as good on the inside as on the outside and my questions are as follows; Reinforcement, as the plastic is a bit wobbly around the rim I would like to strenghten it a bit. I saw someone here who applied cheesecloth and plasti dip which made a cool look but would it work as reinforcement? Another thought I had was coating the insides with glass fiber strips, any thought on that or other suggestions? Lenses, I've seen trooperbay's darker version of acetat film and heard of people using welder's shields, also I've heard about coloured acrylic. What would offer the best visibility while still hiding ones eyes from the outside. Electronics, In the long run I'm interested in equiping the helmet with both voice amplification and environmental. I have however no experience of circuitry or electrical work, how difficult is it to get into? I've seen the various ready made systems offered but I'm a bit of a do-it-yourselfer and drawn to the possibilities of making it exactly to my own liking. The biggest obstacle to me seems to be how to find matching parts and know they'll work together?

Wow my search skills must suck, almost exact same title Anyway thanks a bunch!

I've been reading around this forum a bit and have come across a divide between preferring to keep it as close to the movie props as possible, to achieving a more functional and lets call it fictional true look. I myself is torn between these two for my helmet. On one hand I want it to be like a replica of the actual prop but on the other hand I also want to optimize it for wearing as well as making it look as good on the inside as on the outside. Of course it's all down to personal preference but as I am having trouble to choose, could followers of both camps provide your arguments to help me? (I searched but could not find a thread about this even though there are plenty of comments on the subject in other threads. If there already exist a thread, please guide me to it)