keith

This is my helmet which is just about ready for painting. Ignore the bolts, i am painting all the parts separatley so i need to be able to take it apart. I didn't use the stainless steel ANH/ESB screen for the mics. I found this stuff which has larger squares and i painted it silver. Its all in the details..... I formed some bubble lenses (I hate making these!).... More soon, Keith.

Cool! Hope you don't mind me posting these.... Keith.

Thanks! The ears are attached to match how they were back in 1976. The left on is a bit loose now on the original. I'll take a closer look though before final assembly. Cheers, Keith.

Some more... Its hard to tell if i have this label in the exact correct position, but it can always be moved. The following are just some random photos... I like my new brow trim! Keith.

This is another hero helmet replica i've been working on every now and then over the last year. Its my second TM hero which is inted to look as close as possible to how the original would have looked back in 1976. So the mic tip weathering, vocoder weathering and the grey paint on the ears do not match how they look on the original now. I've done a bit of reshaping to match the little indents that are here and there on the original from mold damage, like around the frown, on the tears and traps. I've reworked the grey painted part of the ears to better match the orignal. I also used my own brow trim. There is still a LOT to do. Only the cap has had a tiny bit of weathering started, still much more weathering to add and the face has not been weathered at all yet, as i need to paint the tube stripes first. I spray painted the whole helmet, as i wanted to match the shade of white to the original as much as possible. Its impossible to tell its ever been painted, even with a very close inspection, as i used my wet sand and T-cut painting method. I masked off the inside on this one, so its bare white ABS inside. Painting the inside has been the only thing that gives away the fact that my older helmets have been painted. I've not matched the angles of my photos to the photos of the original very well. I will replace all these photos with better ones when i have finished the helmet. The following photos are in pairs, my replica and the original below it. Thanks for looking, Keith.

Thanks for your help guys! Paul, that would be great! Could you send me two snaps so i can finish one helmet please? I'll buy the rest off ebay rather than using up your snaps. Cheers, Keith.

I want to kit all my trooper helmets out with accurate chin straps. Its something i've been meaning to do for a long time, but just not got around to. I have 1" wide elastic, but without seeing the snap fasteners in person, i don't know which ones to get. What size in mm are they? I just want to buy the fasteners off ebay rather than go looking around in shops, so couldsomeone post a link to the correct ones please? Cheers, Keith.

Looking for a favour from a fellow UK member who has one of those embossing Label Maker things with black tape. I just need a small label making. Please PM me if you can help. Thanks, Keith.

Paul, The only green tinted perspex i could ever find is 3mm, but its the wrong shade anyway. Can you vac form welders visors? I have one set of thin lenses that are shade 3 and they look spot on. Keith.

Has nobody thought about offering an accurate hero vac formed lens? I mean a one piece lens formed from thin shade 3 welders visor stuff with the correct amount of bubble to the lenses (not as bubbled as Jedi lenses). Keith.

I agree, i don't think there is much chance anymore of someone spending a lot of money, a lot of time and taking huge risks in offering replicas of original items when they know people will just rip them off by recasting it. When something is offered, like the ROTJ trooper helmets, so much time and money will be put into making them as impossible to recast as possible, that it bumps the price up, reduces the number of helmets that can be offered due to the time needed for this procedure and spoils the replica in a way, as the interior can't be accurate. It has to be done though. For well over a year now, i'm thinking of different things that can be done to prevent recasting...Adding pitting to the inside with a dremel and then Filling areas on the inside with resin like around the eyes, mic tip wells and vocoder. Using large washers on the mic tip bolts and where the cap and face are joined and gluing up the threads up with epoxy resin, as well as a final all over coating of epoxy resin on the full interior of the helmet. Lots of time and money. As for things like Vader helmets, there is nothing you can do really to prevent recasting. Keith.

I think Gino's Jedi molds came from TE, so they would be the same unless he's reworked them. Keith.

Joe, I'm sure there were only two versions of ROTJ helmet, not three. Its good to see the ROTJ helmet from the TE molds AT LAST, but i think the reason we have not seen pulls from these molds in the ten or so years they have been around is because the molds needed so much work. I don't know what molding process was used, but looking at the uneven surface on the cap/back in other photos of this replica in other threads here, it looks like it may have been done without taking the helmet apart, maybe even from the outside of the helmet. Or done in a real hurry. Either way, there must be a reason why the cap/back surface has turned out like that. Is this face from the ROTJ molds? I don't see the lump in the right tube. Not sure the ears are ROTJ either unless the helmet was the background/SF style helmet. I'm not calling this helmet, i think it looks great when finished. And whatever problems people may have with TE, i still say he had the guts to take an original ANH helmet apart and have it molded and thats the only reason we have the replicas we now have. But something went wrong molding the Jedi helmet. It would be interesting to know the story. Like i said though, it looks really nice when its all painted up and finished. Keith.

Hi Jez, The overall look of the SF helmet is more like the ANH/ESB. It has ears that have been cast from a ANH/ESB also. If both versions were painted up to look like a ANH helmet, then the SF would quite close to a ANH/ESB, but the RF would look more different. There must be a reason why the ears were resculpted for the RF version and the only reason i can think of is that the ears on the helmet they were molding were missing. Experience tells us that it wouldnt be strange for an original ANH to have missing ears. This is my opinion...The RF molds were taken from a ANH/ESB with its ears missing. The SF helmet was molded from another ANH/ESB helmet that didn't have its ears missing. That would mean two different helmets being molded probably at different times, by different people in different places. Both molds would therefore have some differences other than the ears. Both molds were cleaned up which would have produced even more differences between the two. Even if both versions came from the same molds other than the ears, the RF is much softer in detail than the SF which means at least that the new molds taken from both of these original versions are different and can only be used to make the version of helmet that they were taken from. But i do believe that both of the versions of original helmets came from different molds. Keith.

There are two sets of molds for Jedi helmets as Joe has said. The "background" mold looks like a ANH/ESB helmet, the "hero" helmet mold looks, well, like a hero (you know like the SE troopers) ROTJ helmet. I'm surprised, as i thought everyone knew about the two different versions already. I could be wrong, but I think that the background version may have been made here in the UK, while the hero version was made in the US. Keith.

Assembled set for stun style Keith.

Looking good Joe, should keep you going until the we have some new ones ready Keith.

I know, i mean this thread though.

Thanks Tony. Marcus, post your photos or something, as it sounded as if you are offering the mic tips in the photos i took. Cheers, Keith.

Yes, i'm sure its just a matter of time before this item is found. Here are some close up shots of mine (sorry i don't offer these ones for sale). Please don't use these photos anywhere: Keith.

Cool, glad you still like it. Have to sort you out with a ROTJ soonish Keith.

WOW, NICE! Is that my old move along helmet you have there? Keith.

Andy, no need to scratch build your own. Please contine with your comlinks as they are. Keith.

The tell on mine is a little mark i made on the edge above and a little to the left of the hovi-mix text. These are the photos i seen of the comlink a few months ago: --------- I tried to get a photo of my master cast, which is white, but the flash was just making the white tip look like a bright light, so i took some photos of one of my reject tips blasted with some black paint: ----------- ----------- ------------ ------------ --------------- I don't want you to stop making the comlinks at all. Its just that i paid TE for the "rights" (if thats the correct word) to make these tips, so when i noticed AJCG's thread for his stormtrooper helmets and he said: "I used humbrol paints, Evo aerators and Mike's ESB decals" i got a little pi%*ed off. I did used to make them in a tan coloured resin, but i have never made solid tips. I'm not going to say anything else about it. Please continue to make your comlinks. Keith.

No problem. I don't want to take your thread off topic, so i'll just make a note of it and leave it alone. Keith.