shaunpug

Thanks for the info Tony. I just sent him a message. Hopefully he can help out!

Did some tests with the decals and have discovered that the ink scratches off incredibly easy on the Vinyl I have. At this point I need to get a different type of vinyl for printing. In the meantime I'll move on to the Plastidip!

DECALS I decided to get to work on the decals before I Plastidip. Based on some research I've done, and corroborated by this video: and this page: http://www.starwarshelmets.com/original-ESB-stormtrooper-armor-helmets.htm and specifically this picture: http://www.starwarshelmets.com/2014/ESB_Type2_02.JPG You can see that the gray color of the ESB decals was very close to the handpainted details of the ANH helmets. It seems the very slight difference in color was most likely due to the process of printing the decals. You can see that when they reconditioned the helmets to be used in ESB, they didn't repaint the ear details. They only added more black stripes...this says to me that the color of the decals was meant to be the same. Because of this I'm going to "remake" the Trooperbay decals in the "dark admiralty gray" The tube stripes look great the way they are, so I won't be changing them at all. To do this, I first took the Trooperbay decals and used an Xacto knife to help me remove everything on the sheet except for the actual decals. Like so: Before After Once I did this, I scanned the sheet at 600dpi. You want to do the highest quality scan available to you to ensure no loss of edge detail when bringing it into your photo editor. I used Adobe Illustrator and did a quick Image Trace (this is an automatic process and the results were very good). After that I simply changed the gray color to this color using the eyedropper tool. Here is a JPG of the result: The next step is to print this out onto a sheet of White decal vinyl. I'll post pics of the print out once I have it! If the color ends up printing a tad too dark, it's a simple tweak in illustrator.

Haha. Ok. I stopped over thinking it and just did it. [emoji38] I couldnt find accurate screws anywhere near me so I got them from Trooperbay. The ears on my bucket were trimmed a bit too much from the get go, but lowering the brow helped alot to get them as flush as they can get! And another front angle. Next up is Plastidip! \m/

This hobby is a curse. I'm too much of a perfectionist and I've decided to try again on the brow placement. I slept on it and took a second look at it and saw that the brow wasn't quite snug enough. I'm also going to do some more trimming on the indented teeth. I forgot to do that earlier! I may also do some very minor reshaping/trimming around other areas of the helmet to bring it closer to what I feel like the screen used ESB helmets look like. The right ear on my Anovos helmet was already trimmed too much so I'll need to do some additional work to get that to fit flush against the helmet (a personal preference). Any tips would be greatly appreciated! [emoji4] \m/

I could really use some help from the masters. I repositioned the brow to a place that I liked using my screen used helmet reference from my first post, but now it seems that the right earpiece (as you look at face on) won't fit correctly. The other side seems fine as you can see. Is there anything I can do to "reshape" it before I rivet the cheeks? \m/

Got some more done today. Installed T Nuts using E6000. I cut the barbs off using a dremel. I also marked and cut the lenses out with my Lexan scissors. I might cut down the lenses a tad more. But it's fine for now! \m/

Glad to see another ESB fan! I wish I would have gone with a belt from Tkittle...I'm debating on whether or not to cancel my order from RS for the accurate assembly pack and just order the parts seperate from guys on the boards. I'd be able to finish faster! \m/

Got the helmet all clean! Well...clean enough at least. I figure since I'll be repainting the whole frown black I don't need to clean off the gray. I lucked out and got a helmet without significant over spray so the black will cover everything up nicely. I did need to remove the other paint apps though so the decals had a nice clean surface to bond to. I settled on using Mr. Color Thinner to remove the paint apps. Those of us who build model kits are familiar with this stuff, but it's a bit hard to come by here in US. That being said it took me only 20 minutes to remove everything I wanted to remove. Like the frown, I'll be painting satin black over the chin so the excess isn't a big deal. \m/

Only that one was glued. The other one was just screwed on! Pretty weird. \m/

Ok. I'm a little bummed. I got the other Hovi off but it took a bit of the helmet with it. I was as careful as I could possibly be and even used some solvent. Ugh! So frustrating! Thankfully any Hovi tip will cover the area removed, but I'll have to get a bit creative on how to reinforce it. If anyone has any thoughts on how to "fix" this I'm all ears! \m/

Haha. This may just be the push I need! \m/

Helmet disassembly = scary I got most of the helmet disassembled last night. This thing is so fragile! If anybody else attempts this please be VERY careful! The ear pieces are especially thin. I also noticed that my new decals don't come with the ear portion. So I'll be leaving these the way they are and just adding more black bar stripes that Anovos provided. I can't seem to get one of the Hovi tips off. I can barely pull to try and take it off because the plastic is so thin. It started to stress and "krinkle." It is glued, but I'm not sure what kind...any ideas on how to get it off? \m/

Well great news! A very generous member of my garrison arranged a helmet trade with me, so I now have a new Anovos bucket! Thank God I won't need to go through their return system! I also have in my hands all of the components for the conversion to ESB. I'm going to get started on rebuilding the helmet following Gazmosis' helmet rebuild thread tonight! The handguards are from Troopermaster, the holster is from Gazmosis and the decals are TrooperBay's new ESB decals specifically for Anovos buckets. \m/

Great paint job! \m/

Thanks guys! I heard back from Anovos. Here is what I've been told: "Shaun, Thank you for your patience and for bringing this to our attention. With regard to the helmet, we can work on an exchange for this when we receive replacement stock available. We'll follow up with the return label as soon as possible." I assume it will be a while. I'm going to stave off my hunger to work on the helmet by starting on sizing. \m/

Still trying to figure out the Helmet replacement with Anovos, but in the meantime I discovered that Trooper Bay released a line of helmet decals just for Anovos buckets! Scratch one more item I need off of the list!

I wanted to start with the helmet and ran into a snag. I just noticed it and it seems that it happened either when it was pulled or in shipping. I was wondering if anyone knew of any way to fix this rather than trying to get through a painstaking return process. \m/

Are you referring to the ones I posted? If so that's great! \m/

So, I went to my local home Depot and Lowes and surprisingly neither had the right angled screws for the helmet. Or at least they didn't have what I think are the right screws....would someone be willing to post a link the proper hardware I need to buy? Thanks! \m/

Just found a set that's a bit cheaper (and prime eligible! ) https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0055YUZ6U/ref=pd_aw_sim_200_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=51AVeMXEa6L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C100_&refRID=F2WMFZ9D8H3HW51BP5KG \m/

Haven't tested them yet. I found them in an old dresser I was refinishing. They were being used for hardware on the drawers. \m/

Sorry to sidetrack this, but would this work to mount the lenses? Back Front \m/

Alrighty! I've got everything ordered for the conversion: (minus the Sterling....I'm gonna have to wait a bit on that) -TM ESB Handguards - ordered - gazmosis ESB Holster - ordered and on it's way! - Silk gloves - as recommended by Walter - Humbrol Paints My RS accurate assembly kit has not shipped yet, but I did at least order it before it went out of stock. I'm hoping it will arrive in the next 2 weeks or so. Also, I haven't ordered any ESB decals yet. I'm still asking around to see if anybody has a set and can show them next to an Anovos bucket for comparison. I'll be using this helmet as my main reference. I always remember this particular shot of this guy in ESB so I thought I'd make hime my go to! ------------- While I wait for everything to come in I'll be doing some test fitting and pre-assembly, as well as "rebuilding" the Anovos bucket following gazmosis' thread. I'll be getting pics and video as I go along!

Looking great! Because I'm going for ESB I can't have my traps handpainted...do you know of any templates or decals that would fit the Anovos helmet for ESB? \m/