HOWTO: Make your MRCE ears thinner

[Double Dee]

Oh,that´s enough?I must cut nothing from this parts(orange markings)?

 

 

 

 

And what decals are you using for the blue stripes on the tubes?Or are they painted?I´ve stripes from trooperdecals.com,but under direct daylight,they are looking more violet as blue.

 

I'm assuming that when the large section in front is cut, it will lean in slightly? Because the back portion is a higher elevation then the front section (thus the front is a larger section). So I stop cutting once the radius stops?

 

I didn't think this bucket would be so tight. Adding in my fans and mic system might prove to be a challenge!

 

DD.

[riveting]

Hi DD,

 

You need to cut more from the front off the ear than the back, as in pic's 6-7 of the first post. If you also add the correct screw's to the earcaps this pull's the entire ear section in, the helmet backpiece will also give a little. There should be no more a perceivable slant than you would find on a T*E or Gino lid if done well IMHO.

 

hope this help's

[Double Dee]

Hi DD,

 

You need to cut more from the front off the ear than the back, as in pic's 6-7 of the first post. If you also add the correct screw's to the earcaps this pull's the entire ear section in, the helmet backpiece will also give a little. There should be no more a perceivable slant than you would find on a T*E or Gino lid if done well IMHO.

 

hope this help's

 

So you have the ear screws punch through to the inside of the lid? I was thinking this as well. I have the outlet cover screws, which are small, but I'm sure I can find #6 or whatever that could come straight through to the inside of the lid. I think I'll start with the decals and work my way up. I just got my amp board from a local hobby electrical shop, so I'm doing a few things at once.

 

On to something entirely else. The aerator mic tips. What is holding them on? Glue? I'm tring to find train speakers, but no luck locally so I'll have to get them from Scott M (?? - can't remember if he sells them). Anyway. Can I just pull them off with some pressure or are they attached via some type of connection like the ear pieces?

 

DD.

[Stomper]

So you have the ear screws punch through to the inside of the lid? I was thinking this as well. I have the outlet cover screws, which are small, but I'm sure I can find #6 or whatever that could come straight through to the inside of the lid. I think I'll start with the decals and work my way up. I just got my amp board from a local hobby electrical shop, so I'm doing a few things at once.

 

On to something entirely else. The aerator mic tips. What is holding them on? Glue? I'm tring to find train speakers, but no luck locally so I'll have to get them from Scott M (?? - can't remember if he sells them). Anyway. Can I just pull them off with some pressure or are they attached via some type of connection like the ear pieces?

 

DD.

 

 

Hey Darcy,

 

Near as I can tell, the bottom of the chin "dimples" are flat and the aerators are glued in.

[Double Dee]

Hey Darcy,

 

Near as I can tell, the bottom of the chin "dimples" are flat and the aerators are glued in.

 

Hey Tony. Thanks. Starting the tear down this weekend. Got some Milliput for the seams (went to the local hobby shop and the guys said this is better than the squadron putty). So, I'll be dremeling the HOVI's off (waiting for yours ), attempting the ears. A little confused at how much to take off the back if any.

 

I'll have some progress pics when I'm doing this. Should prove interesting!

 

Cheers.

 

DD.

[Double Dee]

Okay. Ripped everything off, aerators, brow/neck rubber, lens, and finally the ear pieces (that was HELL!). I'll post some pics soon. Next step is filling in the seams.

[Timjim]

Wow, don't think I dear do that to mine.. would end up going terribly wrong

[Onigiri[TK]]

Just wanna thank you folks for this thread. I was on the fence on this CE thing because of the ears but this thread sold me. Just ordered one and this thread is going to be my tutorial for fixing it. Prob gonna pick up a second CE and do a dark trooper. My Rubies Vader Supreme is just about done being modded out (still hating the center ridge on the dome) and as much trash as folks talk about that Rubies it mods up nice. corrected the number oc slots on the nose, added new lenses, pulled the nose insert and nasty tusks and took down the textured pseudo paint job. I may just replace the dome with an FG one. Simple threads like this are why I love this hobby.

Thanks again

[psych0ticmisfit]

I am new here, been mostly a gawker. I just purchased a MRCE waiting for it to get here!!! I just have a a question about cutting the ears. how much should i be cutting from the ears to make them look accurate? i do not want to take too much off. can anyone give me advice on this????

 

thank you in advance

 

 

 

 

I mentioned this on another thread but had no pic's at the time to show & so today was a slow day so I descided to mod my nxt MRCE.

first remove the foam from inside the helmet where the ears would be. then hold the helmet up to a bright light & you will see inside the helmet the general place where the ear cap's are outside. Make a small pilot hole dead centre of the earcap shadow.

hand drill with a 6mm bit, from inside the helmet carefully & if on target, the lug holding the earcap cover (the thing with the bumps) will fall away gently.

then remove the now exposed earcap screw's. all three

using electrical tape as a guide to a new uniform straight edge on the earcap & using a kraft knife, cut away the excess white stuff.

now re-attached the earcap assembly using 4mm countersunk screw's & tipex white.

last pic is of the subtle difference that the ears before (right facing) & after (left facing) now show.

if anybody has an easier way to do this please do share any & all comments welcome

[riveting]

I just went with personal preference, out of all the other lid's I have, the ear cap's all appear to differ in dimensions/width's to some degree.

 

So I just trimmed away until I was happy with the overall look, roughly 5mm to the front of the cap's 3mm to the back. this is a rough estimate

 

Hope this helps

 

PS starwarshelmets is always a good reference site for Accuracy issues & you get to look at loads of cool pic's

[Double Dee]

Steve is right. Just eyeball it. I asked him tons of questions before I took the step. I'd like to cut more off, but I don't think it would be wise. Overall, I'm happy with how the ears turned out. I was thinking of cutting down the ear caps as they seem too rounded, but I'll leave them. The only thing I will be doing is getting ride of the seam around the ear cap and ear section. Make it one smooth piece like the original (See my thread for my progress aka..butcher job). Pretty easy mod, just take your time and measure a few times.

 

DD.

[Browncoat]

okay i filled a little bit too much off at the back of the ears. with what could i fill the gap? with white silicone?

[cr4nky]

That or bondo or putty maybe

[TK 2293[501st]]

Haha I'm to scared to do this to my bucket *hugs it* if there was a video I would probably go for it, but unless I know what I'm doing fully I don't think I'm going to try. But it does look better after its done

[Browncoat]

and btw gaps look more screen accurate

 

the most difficult part was to drill the holes open, i tried it with a hand driller but the ear cap didnt want to come off, i was pretty scared that i would drill through the ear cap though, but after half an hour of trying i decided to use the dremel. and that worked.

the second ear cap took only a few minutes.

[Naglium[501st]]

hmmm..i may have to try this.. im getting adventerous with my dremel!!!

[Browncoat]

okay here are the results:

 

the ears look bigger on the picture than they actually are, must be due to the shadows.

 

 

and how you can fix them:

 

 

 

the gaps are minimal due to the tightening of the bolt.

 

the next step is to fill the gaps with this:

 

[LeBlanc42]

Hey Guys, I just hacked into mine and I gotta tell ya I was surprised at how much you have to take off to make it look right. I've included a few picks to show my results. One side is finished while the other is not screwed down, you can see how much I had to cut off.

 

 

 

 

Great tutorial, I would have never tried this with out it.

[Skiffy]

I'm gonna try thinning the ears on my MR CE too. I don't want to start doing anything which will require a re-paint, since I don't reckon on my chances of maching this nice white finish... I'll need to sand down some of the visible seams, and t-cut the shine back up too. There's a guy on another forum (I'll post if I can find it) who slimmed down the ear inner discs too, to lessen the 'two part' look. I've scoped out bolts and ear screws too. Pics when I get going.

[LeBlanc42]

One last tip. When you trim off this much material, the ear pice tends to have additional stress on the bend as you re-attach the upper. I used a heat gun for a few seconds at the bend, just enough to relax the stress(5 to 8 seconds at most). BE CAREFUL, this stuff is thin and will melt quickly!

[rade larkin]

I'm rather new to this forum so hallo to you all.

I'm planing on modding my MRCE (lenses, frown, brow, tube stripes, inside, and of course the ears.

I read that you have to cut away about 5mm of the front part and 3mm of the back part but what is with the "arched"part that goes from the ears down over the tube? Do I have to cut it too in order to fit the now smaller ears to the helmet? Or just the round part of the ears?

 

 

I've seen that Browncoat has used Sista Acryl Wand to fill the gaps, has anyone experience with that product?

 

Thanks!

[tk-1842]

I didn't cut the part that goes down over the tube. I don't think many have. Be careful if you drill the ears out so as not to go through the outside of the ear itself. I used a very small bit and "routed" out the peg that holds the ear on so as not to screw up. And if you do go though, a smaller hole is easier to fill and less noticeable. Good luck!!

[rade larkin]

I used all my courage and did it - I started to thin the ears on my bucket. I love this forum I would never try this without the guidance of you all!

The ear cups didn't come of that clean like in the pictures but it did work, without damaging anything.

But know I still don't quite know how to cut the ears down. Could someone trace me a rough guidance line on a picture of the ear piece along which I have to cut? That would be great!

Thank you all!

[rade larkin]

Nevermind. I got impatient with my dremel and started cutting down the ears and it worked quite well! I used the pics LeBlanc42 posted as a rough guidance and the result looks really good in my opinion.

The only remaining problem is the stress at the parts over the tube when screwing down the ear piece. This problem was posted already as was the solution. But I have no heat gun so do you guys think that it is possible to achive it with a hairdryer? Or is it necessary at all?