MOC TK Helmet - Classic Stormtrooper Helmet with some modifications

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

awesome !  Well done  

[T-Jay[TK]]

Thank you very much Glen @gmrhodes13 and Mario @TKSpartan

 

Before continuing with today‘s update I just have to mention three minor corrections to this build.

Daniel @CableGuy has collected some very good information about ANH helmet building and painting in some of his YouTube videos.

Watched these just recently and then found flaws on the eyes and the paint job on vocoder and the HOVIs.

See the following photos for the corrective actions:

 

 

Okay, now to the update.

Looking at the helmets from TIE-pilots and Magma Troopers, I found tubes or hoses to somehow look pretty cool. But adding them means they have to end somewhere.

On a full costume you can run them to a chest box or a back pack. In this case it is just a helmet – with a classic RS Prop Masters helmet stand.

So I started figuring, if just one tube could be fitted somehow…

 

 

In this place it looks like supplying the flashlights or some other hidden electronics.

By the way, that painfully reminds me of an aiming device I had planned for the right eye, just below the blast shield.

Would be nice but unfortunately I did not manage to find anything suitable for this.

 

Okay back to topic. It was time to run the other ends of tube and cable somewhere.

The cable was easy, I just tape-glued it to the inside of the helmet. But that tube, oh boy …

 

 

The diameters of tube and that chromish metal piece exactly matched. Would have been nicer to see one fitting into the other.

However, I am pretty glad it still looks good this way.

 

The next topic is ‚helmet personalization‘.

Seems like there is a long tradition of individual drawings on various military vehicles and equipment.

Even customized helmets seem common and can be spotted in the Star Wars Universe, too.

 

 

Found different colors and sloppy lines to look more real than having everything perfectly lined up with just one color.

 

While doing this, I thought about something like a slogan or motto from that trooper, hand-paint onto the helmet.

But not with the letters of our alphabet, with letters in Aurebesh…

 

 

Thought an officially looking military marking (white on NATO green) would be a good addition to this.

Instead of sloppy lines, I now needed something that looked like being made with a stencil or template – in Aurebesh of course…

 

 

The last photo shows the TK-ID is a bit crooked and the black slogan has an offset.

First I was a little frustrated, then found it to look more real because such inaccuracies can happen with hand-made things.

Anyway, it‘s the rear side which soon can‘t be seen in the display case.

 

List of modifications so far:

1 - Blast Shield

2 - Black Interior

3 - Two-tone paint job

4 - Antenna and radio

5 - Utility belt

6 - Universal supply box

7 - Bacta canister

8 - Helmet flashlights

9 - Breathing tube

10 - Kill marks

11 - Aurebesh letterings

 

Two updates to come - next one in a week.

[CableGuy[TK]]

This is a superb project, Tino. An, as always, brilliantly documented. :-) 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

The aurebesh came out great! If you are looking for a more worn look I guess you could do a little chipping to the letters, but I like it as it is. The hose idea is another cool mod for this helmet. 
I think this helmet needs a full set or armor and backpack to go with it. 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

59 minutes ago, Bulldog44 said:

The aurebesh came out great! If you are looking for a more worn look I guess you could do a little chipping to the letters, but I like it as it is. The hose idea is another cool mod for this helmet. 
I think this helmet needs a full set or armor and backpack to go with it. 

And a very Badass weapon!!! 

[tat2trooper[TK]]

Great job. Looks amazing. 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

On 3/5/2021 at 10:16 PM, TKSpartan said:

And a very Badass weapon!!! 

Agreed! That is for sure. 

 

Okay Tino, the project is there for you to challenge! Armor and blaster! Get this completed and submit to LFL and maybe we can see it in a TV show or movie! 

[Sly11[Admin]]

Well Tino, the term "Blown away" is not strong enough for the remarkable job you have done on this project.

I am sure there will be plenty of members inspired by your build and ingenuity with this thread.

Personally I am above and beyond impressed by your workmanship and attention to details.

[T-Jay[TK]]

Many thanks for your kind words, Dan. Coming from a real helmet expert , this means a lot to me.

 

Thanks Brian, we will soon get to the weathering...

 

Yes, if I was doing a full armor, it would surely come with a backpack - and of course a very badass weapon, Mario.

 

However, my collection is just for helmets. I have no space, time and money to make a full armor here. Sorry guys.

 

5 hours ago, Bulldog44 said:

(...)   Okay Tino, the project is there for you to challenge! Armor and blaster! Get this completed and submit to LFL and maybe we can see it in a TV show or movie! 

Maybe (and this is a big maybe) I can draw a picture of how the full armor would look like. Unfortunately I have no skills with digital drawing tools and only limited skills on paper...

 

On 3/7/2021 at 2:21 AM, tat2trooper said:

Great job. Looks amazing. 

Thank you very much, David.

 

4 hours ago, Sly11 said:

Well Tino, the term "Blown away" is not strong enough for the remarkable job you have done on this project.

I am sure there will be plenty of members inspired by your build and ingenuity with this thread.

Personally I am above and beyond impressed by your workmanship and attention to details.

Wow, many thanks Andrew. I am out of words.

The good thing is, there will be two more updates before this project is done. Next one coming on Friday.

[Sly11[Admin]]

Goes without saying, I am very much looking froward to your next update posts.

[T-Jay[TK]]

Today‘s update is more of a rework.

As you may remember, I worried how wobbly the bacta canister was attached to the belt with just a blank wire.

Not only this, the wire was also visible on both end caps and on the canister‘s rear side it even got magnified by the liquid.

Searched for a more stable and less noticeable way – and played with the idea to illuminate the bacta like seen in ESB…

 

 

The only way to hide the light source was to place it inside the upper cap, with the LED facing down towards the liquid.

Also wanted to hide the switch, for what the bottom side of the lower cap seemed ideal.

But how to run the wires between both end caps without seeing them?  If I can‘t hide them, maybe I can use them…

 

 

Not only that, the surprisingly stable wires (hidden on the rear side) are perfect for attaching this bacta canister to the helmet.

I simply ran the 'utility belt' between the acrylic tube and the wires and ended up with a very tight fit. No more wobbling.

 

Next update will show the final project and covers more helmet personalization plus comprehensive weathering...

 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Ooh La La!!!! lights!!!!! 
This turned out awesome! Tino , you are the MacGyver of prop making!   

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

my goodness !! amazing !! 

[Motogpnut]

That looks really cool!!

[T-Jay[TK]]

@Bulldog44 @TKSpartan @Motogpnut Thank you very much guys.

 

Already working on the next update...

 

 

 

[T-Jay[TK]]

Final helmet update:

The imperial cog is my favorite emblem and I thought it would look nice on the side of the blast shield.

A sticker might have been the easiest way, but it needed to be heavily worn off. That required more work…

 

 

On 1/18/2021 at 11:09 AM, T-Jay said:

(...)   This helmet is meant to later look like some kind of spec ops trooper and I definitely want to add some serious battle damages plus weathering.   (...)

Okay, here we go...

 

 

A plaque was required, as this helmet will be in my RS collection and there it would look odd without it.

The layout is close to the original RS plaques and I weathered it to match the style of this bucket. 

 

This project was planned for winter 2020/2021 and now comes to an end. Building something outside the CRL restrictions was indeed real fun.

Would I do it again? Yes! It was more difficult than a normal helmet (oh wonder) but worth the effort.

Maybe I would use a little brighter kind of green (like TS-5, TS-28 or even TS-78). And I would add an aiming device on the right eye. It still hurts to not have it.

 

Anyway, it was a fun journey and I really enjoyed to run a build thread again. Many thanks to everyone here for reading and commenting.

Actually I wanted this post to end with a 360 degrees video of the helmet with all lights on.

Sounds easy, but after 13 takes I still ended up with issues on lighting, auto-focus and a wobbly rotation.

So instead, I now close it with the final list of modifications and a few pictures:

 

1 - Blast Shield

2 - Black Interior

3 - Two-tone paint job

4 - Antenna and radio

5 - Utility belt

6 - Universal supply box

7 - Bacta canister (illuminated)

8 - Helmet flashlights

9 - Breathing tube

10 - Kill marks

11 - Aurebesh letterings

12 - Imperial cog on blast shield

13 - Skull face

14 - Weathering and paint chips

15 - ‘flesh wound with guts‘

16 - Greeblies

17 - Blaster marks

18 - Helmet stand with customized display plaque

 

 

 

Have a nice weekend Troopers and Cadets.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Let me say, Wow just wow. really amazing helmet and great building thread.  Congratulations!!  

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looks great, one thing I would add is some extra weathering, a bit like Sandtroopers just to some of the recess areas. Well done

[LEGOeatPokemon[TK]]

Wow!  If the empire allowed customization of armors and helmets i could easily see this as a helmet from a TK commander on the battle of Mimban or similar.

Great work!

[Aradun[TK]]

I’m late to the game here, but the final product is amazing! I’m really digging this!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[T-Jay[TK]]

Many thanks @TKSpartan @LEGOeatPokemon and @AradunFF This build was real fun.

 

On 3/19/2021 at 10:12 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

Looks great, one thing I would add is some extra weathering, a bit like Sandtroopers just to some of the recess areas. Well done

THAT is a great idea. Will definitely do this - even if not documented here.

[CableGuy[TK]]

Exceptional work, Tino. The overall look is excellent, but the way it looks aged really gets my attention. Sehr, sehr gut!! :-)

[T-Jay[TK]]

On 3/5/2021 at 1:16 PM, Bulldog44 said:

(...)   I think this helmet needs a full set or armor and backpack to go with it. 

 

On 3/5/2021 at 2:16 PM, TKSpartan said:

And a very Badass weapon!!! 

 

On 3/8/2021 at 10:39 AM, T-Jay said:

(...)   Maybe (and this is a big maybe) I can draw a picture of how the full armor would look like.   (...)

 

Hello there 

 

Back in 2021 I was indeed working on that picture but the result made me trash it. 
Why telling that now? My helmets are kept in a display case at home and I've always liked the idea to place matching action figures next to each one.

But of course there is none for this specific character. So why not using the opportunity to build it?! You can get incredibly detailed 3D resin-printed items on the internet.
Okay, let’s try this. Among other figures, I also needed a TIE Pilot, a Sandtrooper and a Stormtrooper, so I grabbed the ‚Entertainment Earth Star Wars Black Series Imperial Forces 4 Pack’.



These figures are 6 inch tall (15 cm). Big enough for the details, small enough to fit beside the helmets.
To get started, I first corrected the paint and weathering on the TIE Pilot helmet to match the prop from RS.
The Sandtrooper then received a more accurate weathering, orange paint on the pauldron and a 3D replacement helmet. I painted this to mimic the ‚move along‘ prop. 

 

Years ago, I didn’t have a clear vision of the helmet’s color concept. It rather evolved into the final design, step by step. 
It’s the same now with the armor. I only have a rough idea, but it seemed logical to use the same color on both, helmet and armor.
 

Yes, the joints can still be spotted. But no worries, there will follow some distractions later. 
The first challenge is to replicate all the details on the helmet in such a tiny scale. This will be tackled in the next update...

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Yes!! Awesome brother. 

[TheSwede[TK]]

18 hours ago, T-Jay said:

Why telling that now? My helmets are kept in a display case at home and I've always liked the idea to place matching action figures next to each one.

It’s makes for a really nice display to have the smaller figures, I do the same for my helmets and great job so far on the conversion