Rebirth of an old suit (WIP)

[kathgruben]

Woot!! New snout and helmet decals received from MonCal! I can finally finish the helmet

 

Anyone have experience working with MonCal's decals? Any tips?

[kathgruben]

If anyone has tips they want to share about working with MC's decals, feel free to post it up here

 

I'm finally getting back to this project (too many projects! LOL) and tackling the hardest part, the Don Post helmet. Here's what I'm working with:

 

 

 

 

I believe I am the 4th or 5th owner of this helmet, and it has been worked on by its previous owners to some degree to improve it: the lens area was cut out, the shape has been adjusted (with heat?) to be more narrow, and a snap was added to the bottom of the left cheek for some reason (maybe it was sticking out too much?). It has been enough to allow me to try out my suit at a few troops, but obviously not enough for 501st approval. Time to take this baby from sow's ear to silk purse

 

Using HeathrowTrooper’s guide (get it here) as the main starting place for this rebuild, I started by grinding down the logo on the back. Oh how satisfying that was LOL! Next, I removed the bolts at the temples and the various bits of velcro that were holding things in place. Then, cut out the existing lens, carefully drilled out the rivets joining the faceplate to the visor and drilled out the snap on the cheek.

 

 

To remove the existing decals, I started with rubbing alcohol which worked fine on the fishhook but did nothing to ones on the back or the faceplate. Acetone took care of those easily.

 

Next, I cut out the ear holes.

 

 

I worked on reshaping the roundness of the main helmet into more of an oval shape by squashing it into the desired shape and then wrapping tape around it. I cut a piece of coathanger wire, shaped it and then epoxied it into place along the brow, as per the guide.

 

I cut out the existing snout and prepared the area for the new MC snout. The snout I have has a wire mesh for the aerator, so I also cut the resin out of that area for airflow.

 

 

To help the faceplate keep its narrower shape, I shaped another piece of wire using a template in the guide and epoxied it into place. This was a bit trickier and had to be done in stages, first tacking the wire into place with hot glue in the centre, then the right side and then the left side while pulling the faceplate into the correct shape with more tape.

 

 

One nice thing I've noticed about working with the vinyl is how easy it is to cut and carve and shape as compared to ABS. But it's softness is why all of these reinforcements are needed.

[miqt]

Woot! Great work!

[kathgruben]

My get-up-and-go had got up and went for a while with this, but with the new year comes renewed inspiration and motivation! A bit of progress today on the helmet.

 

Finished gluing down the wire in the visor. First the top part and then the sides.

 

 

Filled up the hole drilled in the cheek, and also glued the aerator into place for the replacement nose piece.

 

Unfortunately, the replacement hardware sold by KWDesigns doesn't fit this bucket since the vinyl is too thick, so I'm improvising for the bolts by modifying the original ones.

 

And previously, when I had glued the wire into the brow of the bucket to make it more oval, this resulted in the sides coming together too much so the bucket needed reshaping. I used a heatgun to warm up the sides and then placed the bucket around a paint can with some shims to allow the vinyl to cool to the desired shape.

 

So yeah, it's still coming along, little by little.

[Griffin-X]

Looking really good! Hang in there and keep after it!

[kathgruben]

That moment when you realize you've trimmed just a bit to much vinyl off the sides of the faceplate... yeah, that one *sigh* and *facepalm*

[kathgruben]

Cheeks fixed and ready for paint.

 

[kathgruben]

Ohhh, the sins that are revealed with that first coat of paint

[spookymufu]

if i can make a suggestion, maybe try to curve the visor up a little instead of flat across

[kathgruben]

Yes, thank you for the suggestion! I was looking at it and knew there was something a bit off...

[kathgruben]

So, remember this?

 

 

 

Well, I managed to change it into this.

 

 

[Rezori]

Looks AWESOME! Can't wait to see in person!

[kathgruben]

Here's a few more pics of the helmet now that paint and decals are done:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modifying this Don Post helmet has been quite the learning experience, that's for sure!

[kathgruben]

So finally, here is everything all together, ready for approval I hope .... except I've got my pouches on reversed LOL! I'll definitely have to fix that for my approval pics

 

 

 

 

 

[miqt]

Gnarly! Awesome good work! Cant recognize the bucket its come so far!

[bikerscout73]

Make sure your forearm armor is not tucked in your glove, and might want to pull your cumberbun down a little in the back so there's no black space between the belt and bun. Looks good

[kathgruben]

The initial feedback upon first submission for approval was that my pouches were on reversed (whoops!), the forearm armour needs to be on top of the gloves, and there shouldn't be a gap between the cummerbund and the belt in the back.

 

Finally, here is everything all together, ready for approval I hope .... except I've got my pouches on reversed LOL! I'll definitely have to fix that for my approval pics

 

 

 

 

 

Fixed, resubmitted and approved!

 

 

 

I love wearing this suit!! I have wanted a TB for ages and have so much fun wearing this, it`ll probably be my go-to for troops for a while

[Guest Forrest Patrol]

 

 

 

Oops! Somebody forgot to put her knee armour on... You're gonna need them for when those furballs put up their washing lines and you end up getting close-lined!

 

Or did you just not have them at the time?

[kathgruben]

LOL this was just a test fitting before purchase

 

See the previous post above to see submission pics, knee armour included

[Guest Forrest Patrol]

Yes, that's much better!