NE helmet build

[Darth Voorhees[501st]]

Not a problem PGHToolman and MightyTank!

 

No i dont mind at all C!

 

The ears are always a pain in the butt, and i figured this could help a lot of folks, regardless of the helmet make

 

Hey staff...can we pin this?

Edited June 7, 2014 by Darth Voorhees

[Capi'tanc'runch]

I'm so glad to have found this, my kit just arrives today and I've just been looking at it with a blank stare. This will help a lot!

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Definitely utilizing this thread for my build as well! Thanks for making this seem not as daunting lol

[mercury26]

Thanks for the instructions, wish you could assemble mine but I will brave it alone.  One quick question, do you glue the front mask part to the helmet top?  Or do the side screws just keep it in place?

[Freak Nasty Fester]

Mercury, I'm building a NE helmet right now (also fighting with the one ear) and have the front screwed to the back/cap sub-assembly.  However, I found that it still moves a little at the eyebrows and will probably put a small amount of glue at that joint.

[Freak Nasty Fester]

I could use some help on my helmet.  One side looks great.  The ear lined up....everything great.  I get to the other side and everything went to the dogs (not meaning to offend any dogs presently building armor.)    I tried redrilling holes and that didn't help.  The existing holes were pre-marked dimples from the AM 2.0 kit.  Any input would be awesome!
 

[Freak Nasty Fester]

Closer up shot

 

 

 

 

The other side:

[Darth Voorhees[501st]]

I need to check this thread more often! lol

 

Thanks for the props guys, im really happy this has helped so many of you, that was the reason i did it

 

Freaknasty... if you havent got this resolved LMK, i'll try and help ya it looks like that ear may still be salvageable!

[Evilboy[501st]]

I LOVE the size of the NE helmet, and the face sculpt is a vast improvement over the AM, but the three part helmet still irks me, and the ears killed me. I ruined a pair and had to order another. They were far trickier than the standard ATA or AT3 ears...

[Darth Voorhees[501st]]

They are more tricky because there is SO much material. But the technique is the same. I just went about it the same way i do the ATA/MTK/AP builds. The 3 pc thing erks me too, but i understand they did it for the sdtrength integrity that FX helmets were known for. So i get why they did it, i just didnt think they really needed to, but hey, its a nice looking helmet that is bigger than the AP/ATA/MTK types. I usually recommend it to people who dont want to upgrade their FX because of size.

[Tank Killer]

I just wanted to say thanks for the post. I got my NE helmet a while ago and kept putting it off, I didn't want to mess it up. However, this build is a great help for me with my first "NE" TK build. I do have a question, I have a big head, LOL, would I be able to trim some plastic from the base of the helmet in order to make it fit and still be able to become a member?

 

Thanks,

 

Phil

Edited November 17, 2014 by Tank Killer

[PGHtoolman]

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• 501st Member[501st]
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• Name:C
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Posted 15 August 2014 - 12:57 PM

To help with the new AM 2.0 Helmet build:

 

The problem people are having is the aligning of the bottom holes but it's not difficult to do if you use this little trick.

Because the back of the helmet is a wider tube, exactly the same as the screen helmets and the front tubes are smaller, there is large gap between the joining region which is covered by the ear piece.

The ear piece should be mounted exactly as designed via the two screws and then rivets or bolts used to secured the front and back pieces, but these are not visible, they're under the ear pieces.

Once the left piece is mounted, and all of the holes are drilled, the lower tubes on the left side will not line up, nor will the hole on the bottom of the ear piece.

To keep tolerances very clean and tight and bring the lower side tube regions together, they will need to be pushed and it's a very tight fit. Sometimes having two people helps.

The way I prefer, by myself, is to carefully take a thin phillips head screw driver and run it through the outer side of the ear cover and then through the hole in the lower edge of the back piece and then through the hole in the left side of the lower edge of the front plate. Something like a shish-kabob.

 

Now, once the screwdriver is pushed through, the builder needs to carefully push the pieces together while very slowly and carefully pull the upper handle of the screw driver towards the bottom and it's important that it's NOT JUST THE SCREWDRIVER pressure but also someone pushing all three pieces together.

Once the holes line up, carefully remove the screwdriver while keeping pressure on the pieces so they do not move, and the second the screw driver is removed, place the bolt into the hole, run the nut down and slowly tighten.

Once everything is assembled, the builder can add a little ABS cement along the edges to add some strength.

You'll immediately see that when everything is tightened, the helmet will become incredibly tight and very, very rigid. The measurements of the ear pieces will be almost dead-on to the original screen helmets but the strength will be much greater.

Also, the inner edge of the tube is much, much deeper on our helmet and the other one piece (back and dome) which others are forming are extremely shallow and they look odd when being worn. Just too much gapping and you can see too much of the wearers head.

 

On our helmet, the builder can leave the inner tube edge wide or they may carefully trim the edge making it shallower.

I'm sorry for the problems with the assembly, perhaps building to such a tight tolerance was not a good idea but I just hated to create something which wasn't extremely strong as conventions can be hard on helmet as do packing and shipping.

I do believe the tighter build tolerances really helps to make a higher quality and stronger helmet.

[BobbyFromBUF]

Hey troopers, i know its been a while since ive been VERY active here, but i wanted to share this with you all because i know some people are hesitant to build the NE helmet because of its unsual construction. This is what i came up with, which seems to work well.

 

OK, so the first thing i did was fit the cap to the back, and trim the helmet back, similar to our more common helmets with linage, like ATA, AP, CAP etc.

 

First line up the cap with the back, and center it best you can. It has notches to guide you, but they arent a perfect fit, and it gives you a little left to right play. So center it best you can and tape it on the inside and the out side like this:

 

Then i marked it off with chinamarker/grese pencil right behind the side traps on both sides and marked the familiar curve, and cut it like so, on both sides of course:

 

 

 

I then glued the cap to the back...which was a little tricky. I did the center back first, between the traps. I remoeved the tape from the center section and left the tape on the sides on. i put the glue on the cap on the inside and let it run just a little to where it needed to be to make contact with the back..i then quickly sprayed zip kicker in there and quickly pressed the parts together. Once that cured up, i diod the sides which were easier as the back was now holding everything from shifting. you can pretty much pull the back down towards the inside of the helmet, put glue on there, spray in a little zip kicker and pres the parts togther. Obviously do this on both sides.

 

I then drilled 2 holes on each  side, so we now have this:

 

Then we fit the faceplate in a position to you liking. You can tape it on the inside to hold it in place while you then mark the faceplate through the top hole on each side (not the ones near the tubes)

 

...then take the faceplate out and drill the holes you just marked.

 

You can then assemble the face to the now one piece cap/back. [ in hindsight, now is a good time to install the brow trim] Again, angle to your liking and THEN tape it into place again and drill through that lower hole into the faceplate, and put a screw in it. Repeat for the other side, and you should be at this point:

 

Then i installed the brow trim...but as mentioned above, it will be easier to put the brow trim on before you screw the face to thew cap/back.

 

We now have this..

 

Then is the tricky part with any TK helmet. the ears....

 

 

 

Can I ask if there is any trick to figuring out the "familiar s curve" and the screw hole placement?  Sorry to go back to such an old topic, but I'm really stuck on this particular step.

[PGHtoolman]

The new AM helmet has dimples to show you where they go

[BBQTrooper]

The familiar S curve is the outline of the ear placed on the helmet???

[ArTwoDeeTwo]

Looking at the 'ears'-build photos, it seems like that is the most challenging part of the helmet to build!
Takes patient & guts in my opinion... the patience I might have, but the guts to cut up the parts I might not! LOL

Edited July 24, 2016 by ArTwoDeeTwo

[fishgoh0nk[TK]]

Nice exposure to a helmet alternative!