NegativeEleven

3rd and 4th molds here (for both halves) and extra adjustment knobs. I ended up molding the one that's still intact. Then with the first pull from that mold, I whittled down all the parts I didn't need (the brackets and adjustment knobs) with Dremel then sanding by hand. I used that piece to make these 2 molds, and made molds for the adjustment knob, knowing that I'll have to flip it over and then add the 2 knobs (one to the top and one on a side covering that extra circle). I think it'll work out. I'll try casting again after Xmas. You can see that one is a much darker color than the other. I had someone helping me at first, and that's how I learned that if you mix much more of "part B" in your silicone, you don't need a thickening agent and it will cure much faster. I had gloves on and was making a huge mess, so I didn't check my friend's math. I know now that we mixed 20:100 instead of 5:100 because I said "what's one twentieth of this?" and my friend heard "what's 20% of this?" Glad to know it's not a total waste, but that explains the roughness and bubbles in the darker one. Learning as I go! I'm not making these to sell or to say that anyone here doesn't do a good job. I want to make that clear. I just had a couple of Rebel Blasters here and I've always wanted to learn to make silicone molds. So when I got my first shipment of silicone, this was what I decided would be my learning project.

The clone trooper rifle pops apart with just removing screws, but with Rebel Blaster and Boba Fett rifle, there's glued parts on the ends. The barrel tip, back ring (with pull to launch nerf darts), and both ends of the scope are single pieces glued in to the left/right body of the rest of the gun. I ended up heating it a little with a heat gun and just trying to make precise cuts with an exacto knife. It's kind of a mess right now, but I think once I cut out the front "clamp" and replace that part of the scope (1/2" PVC maybe?) I'll have a moldable part. I have a 2nd one that I haven't taken apart. I guess I could just mold one side of that, and then carve away at the resin piece that comes out... silicone's kinda pricey though, so I don't wanna have to make intermediate molds.

Has anyone taken apart a Hasbro Rebel blaster? I've got two here, and was thinking about making a mold of the scope, since it's the same as the Scout Blaster. The whole gun's split down the middle and held together with screws, except for the tip of the barrel, the spring for firing nerf darts on the back, and both ends of the scope. Are these just glued in? Will they pop out with some prying or is there a better way?

So cool that you got that little curve in the brow, over the eyes. That detail seems to be missing from a lot of the ones I've seen.

From what I can tell in other screen caps (which are all much darker than that one), it's maybe supposed to be that collar, but flipped up with a flap that goes across under the chin to close it? How did anyone ever see that? Are we basing it on the suit that travels for displays?

What do you have to do to the collar? It looks like a regular collar (same as the Redcap coveralls I use for my Cobra Viper costume) in this screencap.

I just learned today (if you look at my helmet thread), that the 1" elevator bolts look right on my helmet because it's so much bigger than everyone else's. Looking at the "screen used helmet" section of the Gallery (again, why don't we have better pictures?), and measuring my helmet in approximately the same way, I see that mine's almost an inch longer and wider. It's the right height, though!

Well, I see now why you gave me a list of places to get a helmet. After reading about how SC, KS, and MC have size differences and slight variations (obviously the ears and eye shape in these pics), as well as being mostly vac-formed ABS kits that have to be assembled, I thought there was more leeway in picking a helmet. I thought that there couldn't be that much wrong with this one, that looked pretty similar in the eBay auction pictures. Hopefully this will be a warning to new members here. I welcome the challenge... saving $30-$40 and getting new experience, but it's a challenge I could have avoided. The guy with the KS said that they're larger now and he plans to upgrade someday. It's weird because he was the bigger of the 2 scouts. I'd never be able to wear that one with my glasses on. The big difference that I hadn't noticed before seeing them side by side is the bottom of the faceplate. On mine, it doesn't come out under the visor to overlap the little ridge on the back/sides. That pretty much I'm sure I can eventually get it to a point where it'll either be approved by 501st, or at least a point where I think it looks good enough to resell to someone with the understanding that it's not 100% accurate (I don't know how these guys can sleep at night when they recast and sell with deceptive descriptions of their products). It was still cheaper than any other one (especially fiberglass) I've seen out there, and I'd rather it be too big than too small. I remember how dumb my Fett looked with a Rubies vinyl helmet (those are at least an inch shorter than the actual one and look awkward on a 6" man).

Ouch... well today I got to troop with 2 scouts, and I compared my fiberglass helmet to theirs. Now, they both said that theirs were older versions than what is sold now (a fiberglass MC and an ABS from KS), so this might not be a problem anymore, but mine is MUCH, MUCH bigger. I'm finally starting to see why you guys said you were sorry I wasted my money on this. I obviously can't make it smaller, and an ABS face from one of these makers isn't going to fit at all. Any thoughts, guys? My dome and sides are on par with the TK helmet that was left on the table. I didn't think the Scouts helmets were that much smaller than TK's.

I'm new here, so excuse the dumb question, but why are you ordering bolts? Aren't 1" elevator bolts correct? I got some for 80 cents each at the small time hardware a mile from my house. Add some 13 cent nuts to the back and I already had some washers to fit. I had to paint them, but Rustoleum Smoke Grey or Painter's Touch Winter Grey is right, isn't it? Those are available everywhere.

Chef, thanks for the info. I'm gonna play with it for a few weeks. I might end up scrapping the visor and face in favor of an ABS one. The weight of the face is probably going to make it uncomfortable anyway. That's something I didn't think about because none of my other helmets have such a large face component. I started to work on it a bit today. I won't have more time till next week because I gotta make some repairs to my Fett before a troop on Saturday and that's gonna eat up most of my free time. I got elevator bolts and trimmed out the holes to fit em in the visor and helmet. I filled the face vents with casting plastic. It dries quick and hard, and it sticks to everything. I think Chef is right about the visor being hollow with very thin walls. I could feel the heat as the plastic was curing and it had spread thru the visor pretty far. I picked up a lens for a fighter pilot helmet from the Army surplus store for $2. After a bunch of screen shots from ROTJ (why are the ones in the gallery here so low res?), I traced out lines where I think I need to trim this thing down. If anyone has opinions, I'd love to hear em. It's looking like I need to seperate the visor from the face. Looks like I need not only a taller brow, but also a bit more showing below the visor on the bottom. The face needs to be lower by about 1/4-1/2 in. I think I'll scrap the top of the visor and replace it with a 14" thick piece of Lexan I have left over from another project. Should be able to heat and curve that. The sides of the visor seem usable, and with the top gone, I can bring them in. There's definitely screen shots where you can see a little of each side of the visor, meaning they aren't parallel. The face is close to the right shape. Chopping the nose down should leave me with a wider flat spot in the front.

I did think it looked a lot like the one Omen7 sells. The prices are the same (one is $30 less, but the shipping is $30 more). I decided to go with the one from Texas that only took 5 days to get here instead of the one from China that said it would take 6-8 weeks.

Well, If it takes as much modding as you guys seem to think, maybe re-casting rules won't apply and I'll throw it on my vac-table and sell a few to make up the difference. I'm still working out the kinks in my heating method and could use more experience there anyway!

It looks like a great place to start for me. I am happy with it. Griffin, I think I told you in a message that I enjoy working on a project, not just buying pieces and putting them all together. If there were templates out there, I'd be trying to build most of the armor myself. I do have 501st as my goal with this, but building experience and saving money are priorities too.

Yep, been on TDH for 3 years now. There's so much info at TDH, it's hard to get used to this forum after spending so much time there! Think you could give a short list of what needs to be fixed (nose angle, brow slots, size of eyes, nose greeble)? My thinking with fiberglass isn't so much that I'll drop it, but that it'll get squeezed in the box with my armor and end up cracked. I don't know if the vac-formed Fett parts I've bought over at TDH are styrene or ABS, but they'd definitely have been destroyed by now if I hadn't spent time reinforcing all the edges with Sintra/bondo/casting plastic/etc. I've been playing with vac-forming styrene, and once there's a little crack, it tears open so fast. ------------------------- edit: Also, I don't think you're being a jerk. I've been called a jerk on other forums for pointing out when something needs work. To me that's more useful information than "good job." So I appreciate it being said to me, and I appreciate reading it in other threads. Thanks for the honesty.

I wonder if it'd be possible to coordinate with this guy and one of the other builders. It'd be great to have this dome/back and put the visor/faceplate from a more accurate build on it. I'll take some detailed measurements tomorrow when I start working on it.

Here's the screw covers, flipped over so you can tell that they're just hand cut into bad circles and wrapped with grey tape. That's a big blob of glue falling off too. I already picked up some elevator bolts and there's paint drying on them in the garage right now.

Introductions (skip past the first pictures for review): I have been a member here for a little over a week, but I've been reading up on the Scout Trooper for a couple of months. I have a Boba Fett costume, that I've resolved to never upgrade to 501st standards, but after trooping with them several times over the last 8 or 9 months I've decided to build a costume that I can get approved. I've been building props for over 4 years, mostly sintra/bondo projects, but I've done a little bit of molding/casting and just a couple of months ago started to learn Vac-forming (mostly from the tutorials on Studio Creations website). My Fett helmet is resin, very sturdy. I also have a cold-cast (resin/alluminum mix) Vader and an old Rubies vinyl Fett. After holding TK and Imperial Pilot vac-formed helmets, I felt that resin or fiberglass is the way to go. I'm too afraid of breaking something that's vac-formed ABS. So I went searching. After a week of looking, I decided to buy a fiberglass Scout Trooper helmet from Skywalker214 on eBay. The pictures were great, a little warping here and there, but for the most part, it looked accurate. The visor looked crooked, but I don't think that will be noticeable when it's on. I was afraid it might be small, as there was nothing in the pictures to compare it to. Review: Now, before I get any further, I had to resolve an issue with Skywalker214. I was about to leave him negative feedback, when I reconsidered and sent him a message to see if he'd make it right. The helmet does not look as good as the one pictured on the auction (but that's to be expected). It has a lot of deep scratches that will need to be sanded and re-painted. The hot glue used to hold in lens and liner is a huge mess. The visor screws were covered by 1/8" pieces fiberglass, poorly hand cut into circles and wrapped with grey tape. Skywalker214 replied within a few hours and said that he could refund my money or replace it. he asked for pictures to "show to his supplier." That was late last night, I sent a few pictures and said that I would be willing to keep it (saving both of us time, and saving him the cost of shipping it twice) if he'd refund 20% of my money. That way I could justify it to myself as an unfinished helmet kit that I would need to work on, rather than a fully completed helmet. He called this afternoon and was very pleasant on the phone, refunded my 20% and I'm happy. I have less work to do than if I had bought a vac-formed ABS kit and it's a strong fiberglass helmet. These vinyl decals on the back look right to me. I'm going to have to take off that fish-hook decal and replace with a grey one, right? In that last one, you can see the scratches on the nose. They're not too bad, but obviously done with a dremel or sander or something, not damaged by shipping. The nose sloops out a good bit at the bottom. I hope this doesn't keep me out of the 501st, but it's easy to fix if I have to. The nose greeble is wrong. I'll need to find someone who makes that (I bought a faucet aerator this afternoon). This is the worst of the scratches. I don't even know how that could've happened. They're pretty deep, too. Here, you can see by the way I'm holding it, that the visor doesn't go up. The top ridge is too thick, and it just rubs against the dome, so although the screws should allow it to rotate, it's not going to without a lot of trimming. This is the most troubling. I feel like the forehead part under the visor, over the eyes is too small. If anyone knows if this is going to be a problem for 501st acceptance, please tell me soon. If I have to change that, there's no reason to do any work on the face before it's dealt with. The eyes are also small, looks to be about the same size as the Rubies one, but about 30 minutes with a Dremel and sandpaper should have that looking right. The vents seem to have been trimmed sloppily with a drill bit, but I've already cleaned em up a lot with just an Xacto knife. Obviously, the grey paint was poorly done, but from what I understand, it's supposed to be painted black anyway. Looking at the "screen used helmet" part of the gallery, it looks like the faceplate nose is black with a piece of grey Sintra or ABS on top of it. This spot circled is a little part that is caving in and needs to be filled. I guess the visor has a hollow core, and this spot was just thin and broke thru. Here's where I was kinda happily suprised. I wasn't expecting the ear mesh to line the whole helmet. There's also a perfect padding at the top. The hot glue mess needs to be cleaned, though. In the middle there is a chin-cup, with straps attached at visor screws. I wasn't expecting that either. It fits well (the chin cup), but the strange balance makes the helmet fall forward. I'm gonna have to get a hardhat liner to make it sit right on my head. And lastly, the size looks right to me! After shipping costs, and my refund, my total cost was $175. That's not bad. It's not great, considering my previous experience; there's a lot of suppliers of Fett helmets and I got mine (resin cast with lineage to one of the originals) for $55. I'd love to get your opinions on this thing. I felt like a jerk when forum members here offered suggestions for where to get "approved" helmets and I said that I didn't want any of those because I don't think vac-formed ABS was strong enough. I felt better when SC replied to my emails saying that he'd recommend a fiberglass helmet over his own vac-formed one, but didn't know of any suppliers. This guy said he has around 15 of them on hand to sell, and I'd like to hear some folks with more experience share their opinions on whether or not they recommend buying one. Edit: forgot to mention, in case it isn't clear in the pictures, this is 2 pieces. That's a little different than most I've seen elsewhere. The face/visor is one solid piece. Edit 2: I guess I should put a link to the seller. http://myworld.ebay....E:X:RTQ:US:1181 He has TK armor/helmet and a Fett helmet for sale right now, too. The one person I talked to who had heard of him, said that he'd heard that the TK helmet isn't very accurate. His Fett definitely isn't accurate (poor paintjob and lots of mistakes in the shape). I didn't think too much of that because I know the Scout Trooper isn't as heavily scrutinized as some others because of how rare the original helmets are and how bad the few licensed ones are.

I'm also interested in this. I bought a fiberglass helmet and am happy with most of it, but it'll need new nose greeble. I have a friend scratch-building his helmet from a pepakura file, so he'll need one too. I was thinking of buying the model kit (around $100 on ebay) and making myself a mold to supply these.

I repainted an old motorcycle helmet to match Boba Fett's. You know when people find out you have a Fett helmet and a motorcycle, they always ask "do you wear that when you ride?"I didn't bother modifying the shape though. It gets the idea across and when people recognize it they're always impressed.

I'm new here, and haven't looked around much, so I don't know if this has been covered elsewhere. It looks a lot like Boba Fett's flak vest. It just stops a lot higher on the torso. There's lots of tutorials on www.thedentedhelmet.com for making every part of Fett's suit. I know you can get patterns for his flak vest there, as well as the belt pouches (which are exactly the same). And unlike most costuming forums, I don't think you need to register a username there to browse. EDIT: link to the exact post about flak vest: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/flak-vest-tutorial-draft-your-own-pattern-9926/