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Helmet Build Detailed
Helmet Build Detailed
Helmet Build Detailed
I haven't finished the paint job on my first scratch build yet, but I already started on my second build of which I might be tempted to
make a casting :rolleyes.... if I figure out how to do that!
Anyway, since I got so many inquiries about how to actually deal with Alan's templates, here's is my approach. With plenty pics
o'course.
First of all, I start out by taping the biggest parts of the W F templates (pages 15+19 and 16+20) together as shown in these pics:
Then I transfer them onto the cardboard (2 mm thickness here in metric Europe) and cut out one big piece which forms the "Outer
Layer".
I do the same for the 4 parts ( pages 13+17 and 14+18 ) forming the "Inner Surface" and bend this large piece into shape very
slowly and carefully.
I do this by moistening the cardboard first with a misting bottle (for spraying plants) or wet spunge. Don't soak it though!
I bend it around the shape that is formed by pages 9 and 10 called the "Dome Base Right/Left side":
I join the two ends of the cylinder shape by glueing them together with an extra piece of cardboard, as such:
Phew! Let's leave that to dry for like 12 hours at least.
Let's cut right to the chase and continue where I left off:
Next, I cut out most of the "Dome Base" from the bucket, leaving an inner supportive ring of about 10 mm wide.
This ring will keep the bucket in shape and will support the "Dome Form" rings ( pages 5+6 ) which I transfer to cardboard and cut
out next:
Also for these I cut out most, leaving a structure of about 10 mm wide and connect them to the bucket rim like this:
I cut out a piece of the center top half to interlock into the other piece (with a drop of white glue)
The first big shape which I cut out, I have bent into shape. All the excess material has also been cut resulting in this "Mask":
What we have thus far, the Bucket and the Mask:
Now for the ears to properly attach to the sides of the bucket, I need to flatten the surface on those sides. So what I did was I
moistened the sides of both the Bucket and the Mask and squeezed them together between two flat pieces of wood, like this:
I did NOT glue them together just yet, since the cardboard is too wet for that.
This I left to set in for at least 12 hours for each side. The picture only shows one side but I did both sides simultaneously, ofcourse.
In the mean time I prepared the dome pieces by transfering the templates onto cardboard and cutting them out with a fresh hobby
knife.
Once cut out (including the lower support section which is to be cut off later on) I bend these into shape the same way as mentioned
before.
All three parts bent into shape:
After shaping they need to dry for a few hours. Which gives me the opportunity to catch some z's.
I've read all your replies thus far and THANKS guys for the positive encouragements! It's a big part of what gives me my "drive",
IYKWIM.
Work is in progress, but before I continue with that, I thought it would be interesting to provide a list of materials and tools I use in
the process. So here it is:
1. Quick drying white glue (glue for wood type of materials)
2. A couple of clothes pins
3. Sanding paper, rough to fine grade (180 to about 400 grade)
4. Hot glue gun, as an alternative for 1
5. Hot glue sticks
6. Gesso primer for sealing/primering the finished bucket; US: Minwax Polycrylic Sealer
7. A fine tip ink pen, for drawing templates onto the cardboard
8. A hobby knife with plenty of re-fills
9. Sculpting knifes, for applying filler
10. Filler! This particular type is for filling holes in walls; US: Bondo Car Body Filler
11. Two pieces of flat-surface wooden planks, for flattening the ear areas (see described in post #9 above)
12. An old-fashioned glue clamp, preferably a couple of these
13. A misting bottle, for spraying the cardboard moist
14. Blue painter's masking tape; the tape is blue, not the painter
15. A ruler of some sort
16. A good camera as your best witness, share the progress!
17. An acrylics paintroller
18. A big piece of linoleum to protect your wife's (or mother's) kitchen table from cutting pieces of cardboard
19. A big sheet (70 x 100 cm) of 2 mm thick grey cardboard, paperboard or whatever it's called; I bought this in a store where they
use this to seal off the back side of a framed painting or photograph; don't use corrugated cardboard though!; US: Single Layered
Mat Board
20. Wizardofflight templates! Available for US Legal and Euro A4 paper
21. An example lid, to set yourself a goal of how you want it to look like
These are the most important materials and tools I use and came up with 'till now.
So go ahead and fabricate that lid! Show your progress with as many pics as you can! But most important of all: HAVE FUN doing it!
Bending the cheekbone into shape is almost like modelling a piece of clay. Use the tips of you fingers and do it slowly to keep the
cardboard from cracking or tearing.
Once the optimal shape had been acquired, I left the cheekbone to dry and did the same procedure for the other one.
After thourough drying, I cut a 45 degree (metric) angle to the inside of the cheekbones. Like this:
This leaves a better and bigger surface to adhere to when glueing it to the bucket. Maybe this crude drawing helps explain it a bit:
Obviously, the surfaces in the left part of above pic make better contact than the surfaces in the right part of the pic.
Then it's time to glue it together. I start with the straight part of the cheekbone and glue it to the bucket:
At this point I don't glue the curved part to the bucket just yet, but leave this connection to dry. The same goes for the opposite
cheekbone:
The view on the inside of the bucket is is now this:
When the straight connection has fully dried I start to glue the curved section to the bucket inch by inch (actually centimeter by
centimeter, but that's just a figure of speech).
Inside view:
The next step is to glue in the cheekplates. Before I do so, I am making a slight correction/adjustment to the already cut out piece by
placing it behind the glued-in cheekbone. Because of the bent shape, the curve of the cheekbone is slightly different from the plate.
Therefore I draw the cheekbone curve onto the cheekplate:
At this point you might have noticed from above pic that I have cut off the excess material from the bottom of the cheekbone to
equal to the length of the bucket. Also take the angles into account when doing this.
This is what needs to be cut away in order to have a perfect fit, without having to squeeze in the plate which will create tension in
the structure.
After cutting the excess:
The plate now fits nice and snug!:
Here is where the cheekbone BACKplate comes in:
I cut out the template, transfer it and cut a cardboard piece which is to be glued to the cheekplate:
This is the result (left and right). Not only does it create a stronger and sturdier cheekplate as a whole, but is also gives the plate an
area to adhere to the cheekbone:
I put glue on that little ridge and snap it to the cheekbone from the inside. I use some Scotch tape to secure the plate while drying.
This will be removed afterwards:
And this is what it looks like front view.
Starting to look like something already! Phew! Now go and take a break, cuz eye no eye need 1!
As for covering cardboard with fiberglass resin, I have no experience in doing that. I guess it could work. But I would do it on the
inside of the bucket to gain more structural rigidness. Just my 2 cents.
All glued parts should have now dried sufficiently. Let's do a little inspection of what we have already. Remember that I cut an angle
to the cheekbones before glueing them in? This pic shows why:
It definitely paid off. You can also see the mask layer on top of the bucket. This makes quite a rigid composition.
And as you also might remember (if not, just scroll up) I used the "Inner Surface" template for the bucket which is a bit smaller in
height compared to the mask template. And that is apparent from this picture:
When glued on correctly, it creates sort of a rim or ledge (red circle). Now this is makes it easy for the base of the dome triangles to
adhere to, as will be apparent later on.
For practical reasons I took off the dome frame arches previously. Now it's time to glue them back on:
So now it is time to get busy on the dome triangles! They had plenty of time to dry up so let's use those babies.
I start off with the cardboard piece I made from this template:
This one forms the back of the dome, and I split it up half (three sections each) and glued them on the inner ledge of the mask:
Inside view:
As can be seen from above photograph, I left just a little more length on the bottom part of the triangles. This exactly compensates
for the aforementioned rim/ledge. So the actual length (arched area in the WOF template) which I leave on the triangle bottom, is
the same distance from the dome base ring to the top of the mask edge.
To illustrate, this is where I cut the bottom (red line):
This excess material is covered by and glued to the inner mask edge. That same extra length I also incorporated for the dome form
rings:
I hope I made that clear :confused. Most of the time, trying to explain what I did is the hardest part of posting. But if anything is not
obvious, please LMK as usual.
Okay, let's proceed to glue the triangles to one another; start by glueing both triangles marked number 10 (see WOF template) to
the dome frame ring. Then the adjacent triangle number 9 gets glued to number 10, and number 8 to number 9. But take the time to
let each part dry thouroughly before you glue it to the next. Use your fingers to mold and shape the triangle in the required curve
when glueing. Again, patience is the key here.
Next up are these two parts which connect to the glued-in back section and form the side and front of the dome:
Here's a close-up of them pointy bits stuck together:
I just continue in the same fashion for the rest of the triangles; start to glue from the dome frame rings and then connect to adjacent
triangle parts.
The pre-shaping with the misting bottle paid off nicely . It makes it easier to glue the parts together:
By this time I always seem to remember the template part which I forgot to incorporate earlier!
Here it is:
Taped together as depicted, WOF template pages 11 and 12 form the "Helmet Base". This particular template helps in determining
the bottom shape of the bucket, as does the "Dome Base" (pages 9 and 10) for the top shape. During the shaping of the wet
cardboard Inner Surface, the main form of the bucket is somehow automagically created. So now let's test to see if it makes the
correct fit:
It duz, it duz!!
If it wouldn't have, just use the misting bottle and spray the bucket a tiny bit moist and shape it accordingly.
Found a wormhole and travelled through it to create a moment in time to report on my progress. I figured it has been tooo long since
I posted any progress, eventhough I decided to post only when I would be finished with a particular part. But since I am almost done
with this part of the bucket I couldn't hold back the pictures from all of you faithful viewers!
Well, as promised here's what I did on the "ears". I chose for the ears to be a solid construction instead of a hollow one. This means
I will have to
build up the ears out of different layers of cardboard glued to one another and then cut, chissled and sanded into shape. It sounds
more difficult
than it is, but it does require some skill. But if I can do it, you can too! Now let's get started.
Next I tackle the most intricate and complex part (to me at least) which consists out of 7 layers. The design looks quite simple but
has so many
angles and sharp edges to it, it needs full attention when constructing it:
The basic idea is the same as with the left ear piece; cut away material which you are going to cut away anyway as if you were
sculpting the shape from a solid piece of stone or something.
About using foam board: Sure thing! It probably has a lot more advantages over posterboard and is easier to process.
But I'm just a sucker for cardboard LOL . I totally freak out on the thought that when looking at the final product - the finished Boba
Fett Helmet- you will hardly be able to tell that it is actually made out of cardboard. That is the challenge for me.
To each his own I guess!:cheers
< It seems that Gypsyboy invented a new technical term with his "Mayan Temple Effect", MTE for short >
Yeah, I sort of left out the MTE for the ear cap, since it is easier to handle when sanding this piece. The angle is cut at the last stage
of the process.
Well, look for yourself in this short update:
After sanding the surface to a smooth (enough) finish, I cut three layers of board to size and glued them to each other like this:
These layers form the angled bottom part of the cap, so I glue them to the cap like this:
Then I draw out the angle where the material needs to be cut and start cutting with a sharp knife.
It doesn't take too long before sanding can commence and results in this:
I put on a first thin layer of sealing agent and make a test fit on the lower ear piece. Perfect match!
I never expected to get such sharp edges with cardboard:
The lower ear piece after sealing:
And the left ear piece:
That's it for now.
Concerning the sealing, I diluted the Gesso with about 20% tap water in order to get a smooth finish. Undiluted Gesso causes a
grainy finish, which you probably don't want.
Putting on about 4 to 5 thin layers with fine sanding (Grade 400) in between each layer will suffice.
Where needed I also used light weight filler to smoothen/straighten the surface; before sealing that is.
Well, here it is. A very small update for the building of this cardboard helmet. It's not much but at least gives you something to fiddle
with as it involves quite some intricate detail and skill (mostly patience and a sharp knife actually).
First I started applying filler to the cheeks and helmet dome. Keeping the filler sculpting knife moist helps smoothing the filler surface
a lot:
I tried to get the filler as smooth onto the dome and cheeks as possible, so the sanding part will be a lot easier.
But before sanding, this should be left to dry completely for at least 24 hours. So that gave me some time to focus on preparing the
keyhole area.
I drew out the pattern from the keyhole frame template onto some cardboard and left some extra trim around the edges (for support
when glueing inside the bucket).
Also, I glued the keyhole template itself to a piece of cardboard:
Then it was simply cutting the cardboard layer by layer. I did this very carefully because the resulting keyhole piece is very delicate:
Some finer detail:
One keyhole fully cut:
And presto, the entire vent:
It doesn't fit into the frame yet as you can see. That's because it needs to be bent into a curved shape.
So after a light spray with tap water, the bending resulted in this shape:
It is worth stressing that you should not moisten the cardboard too much as this will result in the cardboard losing its composure.
Especially the very thin edges will break easily if you use too much spray water.
I kept the paper side (still glued to the cardboard) on the inside of the keyhole:
Then I just applied some white glue to the inside at these places:
In this picture you can see that the top of the keyhole frame also has a slight curve outward:
The last two bits are also cut from the glued-on template:
Also glued in place this is the result (notice that for this one I forgot the extra trim):
But some spare cardboard glued to the long edges also does the trick:
The edges of the keyhole connecting to the frame still need to be filled up to get a seamless piece.
ARC3582 said: ↑
... how to size down the WOF templates? thx
Just print them out at a smaller percentage of the original size. Please ask around or try asking Jango72. He made some awesome
kids-size Jango Fett buckets.
RBF said: ↑
...You definitly take your time to create a master piece of art.
Sure do! Thanks man!:cheers
Nomit said: ↑
Hey Ant,
i am soo curious what the progress of the last 2 weeks is? Keep us updated PLS!
Has it been two weeks already?! Time flies!
I start off with transferring the template on page 10 of the WOF templates:
But you know me: if it ain't hard to make, it hardly is worth making.
Just to emphasize:
When the stalk will be in place (right ear) the two sticks will serve as power on/off switch.
Inside the bucket I will construct points of contact which will be conducting the current when the stalk is lowered:
Perhaps this all will be a lot more clear once final construction has been done.:confused
As promised a while ago, here is a progress update of the sanding process. This, for me, is the most time consuming part of all
steps an also the most boring part. I also want to stress the fact of applying the paste (Bondo-like stuff) should be done as smoothly
and precise as possible. Thus, the sanding will go a lot easier and less corrections of bumps and lumps are needed.
Now let's get to the pictures:
Looking a lot smoother than when I started :
A close-up reveals that some areas need some additional filling:
The cheek area detailed view:
The right-ear area also need some fine-tuning:
Oops! Forgot a spot :
But overall, it looks cool:
Now starts the iterative process of filling the uneven areas and sanding smooth again.