Albuquerque Stormtrooper Helmet V2

[Elumusic[TK]]

I recently made a few modifications to my original helmet molds.  For one, I increased the tube widths and opened the mouth up a little more.  I wanted a little more accuracy when compared with the screen helmets.

 

Here is my original thread from pepakura to final mold.  http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/27185-albuquerque-storm-trooper-helmet-mold/

 

 

 

Some smoothing with the sander and dremel tool.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2015 by Elumusic

[Elumusic[TK]]

The helmet bell was also adjusted.

 

 

[Elumusic[TK]]

Here are the pulls.  The before pull on the bottom and the after pull on the top.  The proportions between the two are very apparent.  The photo angle makes some distortion, but they really are very different.

 

 

Here are a few pulls.  Ready to trim the ear buds.  I have started pulling two helmet tops for every helmet I make.  I use one as a doner insert so the helmets have double thickness in the top portion.  This is the part that always gets a little thin even with .093 HIPS.

 

[Elumusic[TK]]

I shot it with a glossy lacquer clear coat prior to adding the color.  And I did some polishing.  They look spectacular.

 

 

[Elumusic[TK]]

Tube stripes are next and then the final trap stripes.  More to come.

[trooper96[501st]]

Looks really good!

[Elumusic[TK]]

Added tube stripes last night to 6 helmets.  Trap stripes, lenses and mic tips next up.

 

[cm325i]

are you mass producing these for sale?

[Elumusic[TK]]

I wouldn't say mass produce because I only do a handful at a time.  But I do make them available if anyone is interested.  I am getting ready to post one of the finished helmets for sale in the For Sale or Trade section.  Here are a few finished helmets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cm325i]

I meant mass produced as in a handful at a time. They look really good. Have they been approved yet? What's happening w your DdLM themed project?

 

 

Sent from my ComLink

[Elumusic[TK]]

Ill be submitting my own application soon so we will see how the approval goes. Working on my 2nd DOTD hamlet now. DOTD armor to follow.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Elumusic[TK]]

Last year I purchased a set of AM armor for my personal build.  Also I intended to use the armor for massing comparison to create my own armor to which I wasn't too keen on finding out that AM is for larger people.  Thank you Vern.   I am 5'-9" and weigh 168 pounds.  So based on this knowledge and watching a few skinny guy modifications to the AM armor such as Panda's build I have completed my first mold.  AM's original back plate shape is not the greatest.  the arm cut out shape is off and the square on the back is way out of proportion. The area under the arm-pit on the AM armor is too small meaning the arm holes on the AM armor are way big.  So here is my attempt in plaster.  

 

 

Unfortunately due to the nature of plaster and the huge mess I made I refused to touch my phone until I took my first break.  So these pictures start at about the 10th iteration in the sculpt process.  It took me 4 hours to this point and another 2 hours to get it close to usable.   I purchased a 50 lb bag of pottery plaster and mixed it thick.  I put a large blob on a trash bag and let it dry and then added another blob and then another until I had the basic shape I wanted.  IThere were lots of air pockets with this process and every time I scraped it down I had to fill the gaps and voids that were created by working this thick pile of goo.  

 

I measured the AM armor back and made mine about an inch smaller in width and about 2" shorter from shoulders to bottom edge.   Even though the AM armor is large, it was still helpful to have it for reference.  I also used a few screen images to get a better idea about how this was supposed to look.  I used a rasp to take down the plaster and get the basic shape.  I used a wood chisel  to get the detail on the arms and neck.  The wood chisel was a slow process.  Small shavings at a time. Plaster is super soft and I gouged it numerous times and had to refill it over and over again until I got it right.  I added another blob for the square and took a rasp to the sides and top and then the wood chisel to the interior until I had a decent looking square.  It is important to note that a close up picture would show just how lumpy this is.  The square is a little wavy and it's not smooth yet.  But plaster is pretty unforgiving and I can only take it so far in this form.  The next step is to put it on the vacuum table and make a HIPS pull of this shape. I will then use Ultracal 30 to recast my shape so I can add bondo and sand a durable surface.  Ultracal 30 is what they make dental molds from.  It is a concrete based plaster.  It's super tough and can be sanded and sculpted with a dremel tool and bondo sticks to it.  Stay tuned.

 

[Ryth_[501st]]

You did an amazing job with the lid, so can't wait to see how the armor turns out.

 

Good luck!

[Elumusic[TK]]

I pulled a mold of the back plate this weekend.  Here is the reference photo.  Next up is filling this mold with Ultracal 30 and smoothing it out and getting the detail in with bondo and a dremel tool.  If you haven't worked with it, it's kinda like soft concrete.  You can sand it and dremel it and you can make bondo stick to it and you can't scratch it with your finger nail.  It's super durable but also extremely heavy.  This piece will weigh in at about 40 pounds.

 

This image shows a little bit of webbing.  Bottom left side of the square.  The plastic got a little too hot and I wasn't watching.  No big deal as I will be able to sand off any imperfections.  I will use my rotary sander to smooth out the flat part of my square shaped bed.  I will be using bondo to fill the large holes that happened when I made the suction holes for the square shape.  The reason the holes are so big is because of the way I made this mold from plaster.  Simply adding globs and globs of plaster into a pile to make the shape created air pockets.  So underneath my mold were a few air pockets that caved in when I started drilling through.  And this is why plaster molds are not the best.  Ultracal 30 on the other hand is not soft enough to make a mold from scratch.  It's about as hard as sand stone.  So small easy fixes will be no problem but actually trying to sculpt with this medium would be like chiseling stone.

 

 

 

[walt[501st]]

Just a thought here. Are you going to try to make a full set of molds? If so its time to make a bigger machine. The cod will not fit that size

[Elumusic[TK]]

Hey Walt.  My machine is 24"x24" clear.  So the Cod Piece fit perfectly diagonally with a little room to spare.  I've completed the few original molds I needed which includes a chest plate, cod plate, butt plate, back plate, button plates, ammo belt, belt, etc.  And for the record.  The UIltracal molds are so freaking heavy it becomes a labor to hike them onto the table. and the sharp corners of the molds need to be knocked down a little because they tend to chip.  And the plastic for the smaller pieces at .093 is a little thick to get the fine detail.  So I heated the plastic a little more and got ribbing over and over again.  So lots of waste while trying to get a nice pull.

 

[Dday[501st]]

I pulled a mold of the back plate this weekend.  Here is the reference photo.  Next up is filling this mold with Ultracal 30 and smoothing it out and getting the detail in with bondo and a dremel tool.  If you haven't worked with it, it's kinda like soft concrete.  You can sand it and dremel it and you can make bondo stick to it and you can't scratch it with your finger nail.  It's super durable but also extremely heavy.  This piece will weigh in at about 40 pounds.

 

This image shows a little bit of webbing.  Bottom left side of the square.  The plastic got a little too hot and I wasn't watching.  No big deal as I will be able to sand off any imperfections.  I will use my rotary sander to smooth out the flat part of my square shaped bed.  I will be using bondo to fill the large holes that happened when I made the suction holes for the square shape.  The reason the holes are so big is because of the way I made this mold from plaster.  Simply adding globs and globs of plaster into a pile to make the shape created air pockets.  So underneath my mold were a few air pockets that caved in when I started drilling through.  And this is why plaster molds are not the best.  Ultracal 30 on the other hand is not soft enough to make a mold from scratch.  It's about as hard as sand stone.  So small easy fixes will be no problem but actually trying to sculpt with this medium would be like chiseling stone.

 

 

 

 

I'd be interested to see what your next iteration looks like. I think using the AM as your muse is the wrong way and you should base your shape purely off of screen grabs and photos of a screen suit.. Not because of the whole "recasting" debate and what classifies as recasting and all that (not my point here) but if you use an armos such as AM to base your molds from, you're going to end up way off. You were right in your notes that AM shape is wrong and I can see that come of the boxyness that are present in AM is also present in your mold.

 

Use the photo gallery from the RS Suit since it's one of the best photographed screen used suit available.

 

Check these shots of the backplate, you can see the difference in shape.

 

 

There are a ton of more shots in the album I linked above that will give you the right path for your own sculpts so that when you are finished you have a set of armor thats really nice, vs just a boxy poor attempt.

[Elumusic[TK]]

OMG.  That was totally helpfull.  Looks like I will end up trimming the heck out of my back plate.  And as far as the recast thing, I'm not worried.  I did this fair and square. And I will not be selling armor.  This is for my own endeavor and art work.  But reference wise I think you are correct.  I can see the boxyness you mentioned.  So I have started a suite of armor with my molds and thanks to you Derrek, lol,  I fully expect to have to cut them down a little more even though I tried to make the dimensions smaller.  A have already reserved myself to a heat gun to flare the edges near the arm pits.  UGH!!!

 

At this point I'm not unhappy with the progress but because you posted those images my OCD may kick in.  Here is my first trim to make a TK - Commander.  I will cut the sides down and the bottom below the square to shorten it up to match the screen used armor.  Shape wise for my TKC I get to cut off all the edges and use edging material.  So reshaping is not a problem for this particular set of armor.  

 

 

Edited August 3, 2015 by Elumusic

[Dday[501st]]

OMG.  That was totally helpfull.  Looks like I will end up trimming the heck out of my back plate.  And as far as the recast thing, I'm not worried.  I did this fair and square. And I will not be selling armor.  This is for my own endeavor and art work.  But reference wise I think you are correct.  I can see the boxyness you mentioned.  So I have started a suite of armor with my molds and thanks to you Derrek, lol,  I fully expect to have to cut them down a little more even though I tried to make the dimensions smaller.  A have already reserved myself to a heat gun to flare the edges near the arm pits.  UGH!!!

 

At this point I'm not unhappy with the progress but because you posted those images my OCD may kick in.  Here is my first trim to make a TK - Commander.  I will cut the sides down and the bottom below the square to shorten it up to match the screen used armor.  Shape wise for my TKC I get to cut off all the edges and use edging material.  So reshaping is not a problem for this particular set of armor.  

 

 

Once you see the real pieces in detail, you never look at other parts the same

[Elumusic[TK]]

Here's the trimmed back piece.

 

 

New chest armor.

 

[Elumusic[TK]]

Fitted and ready for paint.