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the 3 states of a stormtrooper armor


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The 3 states of helmets and armours weathering.

 

this is my perssonnal view of the subject and it is debatable and not set in stone...

 

I am trying to do some research on what type of look the helmet I want should have. From what I have seen there are basically 3 states that the storm trooper could be. Please discuss the state or state you want and ad your tips on how you might have achieved a specific state as describe below.

 

 

 

Fresh out of the factory: You make your Helmet or armor but you keep it clean and you do not weather it at all but buff it up as hell to make it shinny which gives it a sort of “coming out of the factory†look.

 

This look is not to difficult to reproduce and is made by a lot of people who “troopâ€

 

 

Screen accurate: Weathering is used and the details on the screen are as accurately reproduced as possible. Troopers like this look also.

 

 

 

Actual present day state of the helmet of armour or Archive look: the state of the helmets as they are now, sometimes missing some pieces, color has changed and other details on the helmet are prominent as seen on starwarshelmet.com

Edited by budspencer1971
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Isn't this something you should decide on your own? I mean you already seam to know of the different looks.

 

what i meant is that you can do a TK or a TD but how far do you want to go with your helmet? do you want to keep it brand new, make it scrren accurate or make it look like one of those star wars helmets.com helmets.....

 

this topic is to share tips and tricks on how to achieve details and i am looking more for paint details like what paint to use, what color to use etc etc etc...

 

example: well instead of a full gloss white to give it a clean look i used a cream colored paint and here are the results....

Edited by budspencer1971
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Clean out of the factory look, just like the TK's in the Death Star. Otherwise, if you want some real weathering, join the sandtroopers.

 

 

i agree the sandtroopers are the ones that get dirty...

 

i am still trying to decide on a method to replicate the paint color and paint scheme of the TD's.... i ll share my ideas as i go...

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well bud.

 

there are ton's of tutorials out there that describe and detail the different methods you're discussing.

 

you should look all those elements up yourself, and build this thread into a source for all the elements you're describing.

 

we have Gino Hdpe helmets that are actually the close "prop forgery" or "replication" style with the chipped paint not sticking

 

to the beige plastic underneath, just as the stunt helmets were created in ANH.

 

from the placement of the hovi tips, and their weathering, to the lens material, and then down to the assembly method- setting the brow height, and then

 

the last detail is the ear and eye and frown trimming, which give each helmet it's "character"

 

then you have the "hero" ANH style with it's different base material, i.e. ABS plastic instead of hdpe, it's different faceplate, assembly method and eye lens

 

material.

 

you can start with TK 4510's excellent photos, video tutorials and threads... the TE2 building thread is a great example.

 

terry - AKA pandatrooper has added some excellent advice on building ABS helmets and such from different makers.

 

there are excellent tutorials for all of these details in different parts of this website here, and you really could have a lot of work ahead of you to

 

gather and present all of the material on one single thread.

 

I'd say that you should develop a "directory" post in this thread with each style of helmet in photos, and then present the tutorial threads and videos

 

inside each directory post.

 

I have created all of my helmets with the same basic brow height, but I have varied the lens material, hovi tips and each of my helmets from ANH Hero, to ANH stunt, and then

 

over to the ESB-hero style TX and finally my WIP TKC lid... all have the same basic elements, but with each there are different things that make them resemble the film type,

 

the style and the weathering type.

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i agree the sandtroopers are the ones that get dirty...

 

i am still trying to decide on a method to replicate the paint color and paint scheme of the TD's.... i ll share my ideas as i go...

 

 

Why not head over to the MEPD forums and find out how they have been doing it for the last umpteen years? :rolleyes:

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It depends what you want to do with it??

 

Troop or leave on a shelf for display?

 

Troop:

Out of the factory: All be it the odd scuff here and there actually add to the suits worn in look.

 

Shelf:

Do what you want.

 

Although I think to base your TKs look exactly like it appeared at day 17 of a 80 day shoot is a bit like trying to replicate a famous F1 racing car, all the way down it's tyre's depth at lap 17 of an 80 lap race.

 

Personally I prefer the out of the showroom look :)

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I build the suit clean, but unless something major happens (parts break) i don't clean or maintain it. after a few events it's got scuffs and dirt that feels pretty much right to me for what a trooper would look like.

 

Yep, normal wear and tear from trooping lets the armor weather naturally :)

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Yep, normal wear and tear from trooping lets the armor weather naturally :)

 

 

I gave my new kit a wax and polish when I built it last year and the only cleaning its had since is a swipe of the duster to remove the dust from the lid.

 

And thats all its gonna get. :D

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what i am trying to achieve is the textured look of the helmet as they are in the films...

 

as we all know and from what i understand these were made from hdpe plastic and painted over, probably with paintbrushes since they are paint streaks on many of the helmets.

 

that alone gives the helmets a definitive texture and look and i am trying to formulate different ways to simulate this.

 

also the color is an issue. ok most of us will paint their helmet gloss white with krylon or the rustoleum stuff but i do not think that the helmets were pure white to begin with.

 

they looked white on screen because that is the way the eyes perceive them due to photography and most of the time your point of view was not very close to the helmets for very obvious reasons so we could not really tell if these were pure white and i would say no...

 

why? well the HDPE color makes a difference i would say...because you got sorta of kakhi color and you try to paint a white over it...so you are basically trying to hide a very saturated color with white with paintbrushes which most of the time does not give a smooth cover and it looked like porous paint so the mix of hdpe and the white gives the off white color to the helmet plus the tiem effect and other natural events like the chemical change in the paitn over the last 3 decades + ....

 

For all appearances the helmet looks like a light cream to me...ok dont scream! i know you are gonna say it is aged and sunlight and other things have afffected the color and i am gonna say that you are right also.

 

but if you look at reproducing the archive look ( as i call it) it is going to be damn hard... that is what i am trying to figure out...

 

i am gonna run some test on spare plastic parts when i get the helmet and when the snow has melted here. Looked like Hoth here a couple of weeks ago!

 

 

Krylon has some different ones and dover white seems to be the color that is white but with that hint of yellowing into it which the archive helmets looks like.

 

It may or may not work... but i am sure as hell gonna find a way to have that HDPE color under and have some off white color above by hook or by crook.

 

 

also looking at some still from ANH i think that move along was chipped a bit in some few places to make him look used and i would not be surprise if the helmet was not dipped in a bucket of hash and cleaned off just before the shot...if you look at the still it looks more like hash than dust on his helmet.

 

 

and also it looks like this as entirely cleaned off after since the helmet does not seem to have that dirty Mos Eisley's look anymore. it was sure as hell not something they sprayed on to make it look dirty..

 

personnally i dont like the idea of spraying brown paint on the helmet to simulate desert sand because it looks too fake and people tend to overdo the effect too much...

 

but i am a very picky man and that is my opinions which you may not share and i agree to disagree.

 

but because i like this stuff too much. i ll share my findings and it it helps anyone then it will be all for the good of the troopers.

 

 

Bud Out! for now...

Edited by budspencer1971
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You just need liquid latex masking fluid dude

I use masquepen, not sure if it's in the states though.

 

Spray the kakhi undercoat, apply the masquepen where you want it.

Spray all over with white primer

Spray all over with final white spray

Rub the latex off to reveal the green underneath.

Simples :)

 

There is a thread of someone on here doing just this.

This is me chipping my E11

Add silver underneath, add fluid. spray black

2FTz3wh.jpg

let dry and rub off fuild to expose silver

CC2Ly86.jpg

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of all the ways i have seen to try to recreate the look of an helmet, i think this rates pretty high.

 

-----

 

of course he re-created an archived look for this helmet but i would say that i would consider this also just a notch above being screen acurate with all the paint chip offs that probably happened over time and after the movie was made.

 

like i said in a previous thread, i think Bobba as the best way to do this so far... as least for the helmet...

 

i was also toying with the idea of trying to roll the paint on the helmet with a small paint roler instead of spraying with a can or using a paint brush...paint rollers have a way of leaving the paint texturized in some distinct way that might be somewhat accurate to how the helmets are painted...

Edited by gmrhodes13
link not working, removed gmrhodes13 2020
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