Newbie ATA helmet build[*ATA]

[Bell[TK]]

Hi

My ATA helmet arrived this morning and i'm still drooling over it.

Over the next few weeks i shall be slowly building it up and hopefully it should be a great helmet once I've finished it. I've been reading up on ATA builds and will be using them as a base. Wish me luck.

[Feark]

Wow, that look really tough, and I thought my helmet (FX one) was really complicated to put together.

 

Anyway, I'm sure you will assembly it good, just be patient.

 

Good luck !

[darren1970[501st]]

Good luck Ashley.

 

Get it built, armour up and join the UK Garrison mate.

[naatsirhc[TK]]

Make sure you check out Mike's ( tk-4510 ) bucket build thread. A lot of help there.

I know how you feel I am working on my bucket and armor.

Good luck on your build!

[Bell[TK]]

That's my intention. I should be ordering my armour soonish, just waiting for them to finish making it. Then the real fun begins as i strive to become a TK.

 

Yep that's my refereance thread at the moment

 

Question. I've drawn a line on my ears, as shown in the below pictures, could you tell me if i'm going in the right direction.

 

 

 

Also this is a bit of a silly question but which of the two trims is for the brow?

[naatsirhc[TK]]

On my ears I am planning to draw a line where you have and then add a 1/4 inch. Trim that and test fit, mark again and trim some more until I get a close fit. I have done this technique with my armor trimming. It may be more work, but the best way to avoid a disaster. My 2 credits!

[oiftanker]

be careful on ears. its very easy to trim too much... sometimes even using the line as a guide is over trimmed.

 

i would leave a little extra you can always sand off later

[ThayNerd[TK]]

Your going to love your ATA helmet! I love my ATA Hero lid!

[GosHawk[501st]]

I wouldn't use the trim lines that you see on the ears they won't fit. I trimed mine there and...yeah....I had to order another set.

 

Take it slow and learn from my mistake

[Bell[TK]]

Thanks for the tip. I'll leave the ears till i've put my bucket together.

 

Spent the best part of a hour this morning with a craft knife very carefully cutting out the faceplate. Picture below:

[Bell[TK]]

Main bucket assembled. Will try and have the courage to do the ears tonight:

[Bell[TK]]

My helmet is now assembled and primed.

Thanks for the advise about the ears as it is a bit off the line on bits and so mines come out looking quite good.

I'll give her a coat of gloss tomorrow but for the time being I'm letting it dry and am trying not to rush it.

 

I would paint on the decals but thats slightly beyond my painting skills so I've ordered some off TK-4510 and despite the kit coming with lens material i have opted to use some of Smitty's fine lens instead. So now it's more or less me waiting on the postman to give it the final touches once i've given it a nice coat of gloss.

 

Pictures to come soon

[Bell[TK]]

Disaster. After priming it and spraying it with gloss i had runs so i sanded it down what is where things only got worse and resulted in me using a different primer that reacted with the original paint and now i'll have to sand the whole thing down. Through all of this i have found spray paint to be more of a hindrance than a help so i'll be buying myself some normal paint in the morning.

[Bell[TK]]

As stated in the title this is a noobie build. AKA it's my first proper stormtrooper helmet build. In my last post i stated i had made a quite large mistake while trying to paint my bucket. To help explain how i got so wrong and what i've done to fix the problems i created for myself here's some pictures.

 

First off i started in the right direction. Following the instructions in some of the many great build threads. Paint below is what i used and the primer went on like a breeze. Unfortunately i completely forgot to wash the helmet what i regret since that was due in part to me wanting to get it done quickly. The gloss went on quite well but i had a few runs what is where everything started to go wrong:

 

 

 

 

Now i have to say that before i started constructing my helmet i was quite good in getting my equipment together. I have a Homebase down the road so it was easy to get ready. But and this is a big but i forgot the sand paper so i used some other sand paper that i found and attached to my mouse sander. Big mistake. The sand paper was grey in colour (See below picture) and quite predictively it left grey marks on my helmet where i had sanded. Now what i should of done was take a step back and have a cup of tea to mull over the problem. But then i had a not so bright idea. Try to cover up the marks with a different primer, a grey primer. I quite incorrectly thought that i could simply stray over the primer later and everything would be fine. Well it might of worked out like that but since it was a different brand of primer it reacted with the original paint what pushed me over the edge. Hence last post.

 

See the high level of noob because after that little stunt i sure felt like one.

 

 

 

Now it is quite amazing what a cup of tea can do when problem solving. I'm english so go figure i like tea, hell i'm even drinking one now as i type. Now since i had to wait till the next day before i could touch my helmet again i had time to have few cups of tea (and a cider) and think about the problem and how to proceed. So instead of simply getting some proper sand paper and spraying it again i decided to go down a slightly different route. I went for the paint tin route. See picture below:

 

 

Yes that is MDF primer and yes i have used it on my helmet. All week i've been priming my helmet and taking my time and not rushing it. What is why i failed so badly in my first attempt at painting it. I have also got some proper sand paper which is also visable in the picture. Below is picture of the primed helmet:

 

 

 

After two coats of gloss this is where i am up to:

 

 

Next i should be adding the excellent transfers to my bucket before gluing the trim in place.

 

Now the moral of the story is simple. Have patience and take things one at a time and also to have the right sand paper.

[Merugear]

excellent work!

[ThayNerd[TK]]

That's looking real nice.

[Bell[TK]]

Well it's almost done. Transfers went on with only a slight bit of tweeking to get them sitting right. I can highly recommend TK-4510's transfers as they sure do look great and really complete the bucket. I'm just waiting on Smitty's lenses and it's just my luck that the posties will soon be going on strike what is annoying as i am waiting on a few other items as well at the moment.

Still if theres one thing i have learned in this build and that is to have patience so i will keep look forward to the postmans visit and hope that they arrive soon.

 

On another note i must add that the recent sticky post concerning the correct humbrol paints came in very useful so thanks for the help.

 

Below is a picture of how my bucket looks now. I still have to paint the inside black and add the mesh behind the teeth:

 

[Bell[TK]]

Almost done. Well 97% done, still have the black paint on the inside and the mesh on the teeth to sort out.

 

 

Lens were a bit hit and miss. the miss being that i completely ruined Smitty's lenses more or less within ten minutes of them arriving. Thanks largely in part to me thinking super glue stuck straight away. I was wrong and so a pair of fine lenses were ruined. Thankfully after a bit of jiggery pokery i was able to make some lens out of the original material that came with the kit using smitty's as a pattern.

 

A bit of at the top of the helmet has set it to the right height for my eye line and i can thankfully report that despite my worries the ATA helmet has more than enough room for my head and glasses. So no need for contact lenses. A bit more foam and a chin strap will complete my bucket but that can wait a while or at least till i have the rest of my armour.

[GosHawk[501st]]

Looks great bro! Nice job!