Modifying the Nico Helmet

[TKModder421[TK]]

Ok, so I built Nico's helmet shortly after he released his files around 4 years ago, and I have a build thread that I started back then, and that I only recently updated to show how it ended up turning out. Here's a couple pics of that build.

  

 

I love that helmet and the sculpt that Nico created. But over the years and with so much new reference material from Solo to Andor and everything in between, I've been wanting to modify a few things to make the helmet a bit closer to what I've been seeing on the screen as well as make it easier to assemble along the way. 

I started about 6 months ago with wanting to try my hand at modifying the files and make the cheek tubes penetrate into the chin area. That was the beginning of a long journey, ha!

I didn't really have any experience with 3D software, other than tinkering with minor modifications on files before. I've been working on a mod in my spare time, with some insight and plenty of reference from Ryder Kinion I've finally got it to where I'm ready to start a build. I ended up lightly to moderately modifying every part, as well as utilizing and slightly modifying David Os's ear and temple trap pieces. The list is pretty extensive, I won't go into every little detail I modified but here's an overview of some of the main changes I made:

 

1. I slightly narrowed the overall sculpt side to side as well as slightly reduced the height of the dome.

 

2. Added alignment pegs and holes between almost every piece that attaches together.

  

 

  

 

3. Like I mentioned, I made the cheek tubes penetrate into the chin and added attachment plates between the end of the tubes and inside the chin piece.

  

 

4. Modified the teeth to add the last tooth and added attachment plates to secure them better to the inside of the helmet.

 

5. Added a slight recess to the regions where the tears, temple traps and back traps sit. As well as cut out a hole behind the tears and back traps for ventilation. I plan on adding a black, breathable fabric backing similar to what has been reported by those familiar with the screen used helmets.

  

 

6. Modified the brow trim to look similar to the rubber trim used on screen-used helmets. I may end up trying to use actual rubber trim. We'll see what works best.

At this angle you can really see not only the brow trim difference, but also the reduction in height of the dome, the angle of the vocoder and the modification of the point where the cheek tubes penetrate into the chin.

 

7. Modified vocoder angle and length of some tubes and added additional alignment and attachment points.

  

 

 

8. And for all the fans of the Mimban trooper, I modified the Mimban shield and pins to be more narrow and sit closer to the width of the helmet and increased the height of the brow trim feature on the shield

 

 

I made a couple miniature test prints along the way which helped me see if my mods were working the way they were supposed to. They also helped me see other modifications that needed to be made. These are the first two I made. They were printed at 35% scale, the one on the left was the my first test print to see if the alignment pegs and keyholes worked properly as well as seeing how the tubes to chin connection looked and worked in real life. Then after comparing to reference and talking to Ryder we both agreed it needed to be narrower side-to-side which made the dome too tall and square. So I slimmed the whole thing down by 3% and reduced the height of the dome. But then after seeing it in real life we felt it was a bit too narrow.

 

  

 

  

 

So I decided to try it closer to 2% narrower from the original and it finally looked right. So after a few more tweaks to a few details (and after getting a larger resin printer, that I picked up at a great deal), I decided to give it another go at a test print. This time at 50% scale. I finally feel that this is the one!

 

  

 

 

 

 

And now I think I'm ready to start my build. I think I'm going to avoid all the heavy post processing work this time around and get the big pieces resin printed with a strong resin, probably from Corellia Creations and resin print all the smaller pieces myself. As I've found from doing miniatures, resin is so much easier to get to paint ready than an FDM print.

 

This may be slow go on my part, as I try to work on it in my spare time when I've got the motivation and energy, ha! But I'm hoping my excitement to see the finished piece will provide me with enough.

 

Wish me luck, I'll post updates as it's coming along!

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Loving the updates, looking forward to seeing the progress, good luck

[Sly11[Admin]]

Exploded views are very cool, helmets looks fantastic.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Love seeing the effort going into this!

 

Can't wait for the build.