The creation of the helmet
To make the Mandalorian helmet, I used the templates by Wizard Of Flight to make the various parts of the helmet out of sheet metal that I then glued together and covered in bondo. I also had a circuit board with an LED blinking pattern that I chose to use for the range finder along with a rotation switch at the bottom of the range finder to power it up.
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Pages - 01 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05
After downloading the templates, they were printed out by the machine to the left.
After printing out all the templates, they were neatly sorted after the type of parts.
The base template for the mask was glued onto a piece of cardboard so that I could assemble the rest of the templates on top of it to see what the helmet would look like.
This way I could also modify them so that I could glue them onto sheet metal later to create the metal parts.
Also my cat is a glue sniffer.
This way I could also modify them so that I could glue them onto sheet metal later to create the metal parts.
Also my cat is a glue sniffer.
Here you can see the templates for the face after having been cut out.
The various template parts were then glued together onto the base template.
So far the helmet looked pretty much wonky, but should look OK in the next photo below.
After taping on the top base, the helmet looked much better, and I could then figure out where to cut the templates in order to use them for the sheet metal.
Having cut away the back of the helmet template to be able to make the inner surface separate from the rest of the helmet, I modified the template for the inner surface to be able to make it out of sheet metal.
The rest of the templates were modified in order to make the parts out of sheet metal.
The template on the top was the one that I cut in order to make the separate inner surface on the back of the helmet.
The template on the top was the one that I cut in order to make the separate inner surface on the back of the helmet.
The templates were glued onto a sheet of 1.5 millimeter thick aluminum, trying to get them as close to each other as possible while still being able to cut the shapes out.
The parts were roughly cut out at first in order to make the whole process much easier.
This is what the outer surface of the helmet's back looked like after having been roughly trimmed.
Not that amazing, I know.
Not that amazing, I know.
But the rest of the parts looked somewhat cooler after having been roughly cut out.
Cutting out the space for the visor was a bit harder to do, but still not too bad.
After having trimmed all the parts completely, I started bending the front and back pieces of the helmet to the right shape.
I also have a Boba Fett action figure observing my work.
I also have a Boba Fett action figure observing my work.
After getting the right shape for the front and back pieces, they were held together by clamps.
To bend the upper cheek parts, I stuck them in a vise and bent them with a pair of pliers.
After some bending, the upper and lower cheek parts fit nicely together.
The parts were temporarily held together by duct tape.
The cheek parts were then temporarily held onto the helmet by once again, duct tape.
Or perhaps it was duck tape, the tape used to stick ducks onto walls and such.
Or perhaps it was duck tape, the tape used to stick ducks onto walls and such.
A few thin strips of aluminum were bent to fit on top of the internal sides of the cheek parts, then they were glued down onto them to keep the cheek parts in place.
Since the cheek parts were sticking out below the mandibles, they had to be trimmed down a bit.
After having trimmed the cheek parts, it all looked like this.
The templates were probably not made for use with thick metal sheets, so I guessed there would be some
misalignment at first.
The templates were probably not made for use with thick metal sheets, so I guessed there would be some
misalignment at first.
The template for the inner surface of the helmet's back was traced around onto a sheet of 1 millimeter thick galvanized steel, at least that's what I've heard it was.
The inner surface was also bent to the right shape at some point in time.
Super epoxy was used to glue the outer surface onto the inner surface of the helmet's back.
Here is the proof that the super epoxy actually worked.
The same thing was done to the other side as well.
And the super epoxy worked on that side too.
Since the back of the helmet was somewhat finished, I prepared the templates for the rear keyhole frame and the other part with the supposed keyholes in it.
The rear keyhole frame template was traced around onto the inner surface of the helmet.
The metal was cut away from the inside of the trace.
The same metal part that I cut out will be used for the keyhole part and its edge parts.
The same metal part that I cut out will be used for the keyhole part and its edge parts.
The templates were glued onto the small sheet of metal.
You would probably have figured this out by yourself if I hadn't written it, but then this text box would be empty.
You would probably have figured this out by yourself if I hadn't written it, but then this text box would be empty.
After some cutting and filing, the parts ended up like this.
The edges were glued onto the part.
At least this text box is not empty.
At least this text box is not empty.
A small edge was made around the template of the rear keyhole frame to keep it in place inside the helmet, that's why I didn't use the part I cut out earlier for this.
This whole keyhole stuff will all be glued into the helmet later once I get to shape the helmet some more and attach both halves to each other.
This whole keyhole stuff will all be glued into the helmet later once I get to shape the helmet some more and attach both halves to each other.
To give the mandibles some more strength and correct the structure of them, I started making the visor for the helmet.
This was made out of a paper sheet holder of Plexiglass.
This was made out of a paper sheet holder of Plexiglass.
Once I cut the two sides of it apart, I had two nice sheets of Plexiglass to work with, then one of the sheets broke in half.
Oh, fudge.
Oh, fudge.
A hot air gun was used to heat up the Plexiglass in order to bend it to the right shape.
A template was made for the visor with a small excess length at the bottom to make sure the visor could be trimmed to flow with the mandibles.
The template was cut out and glued onto the bent piece of Plexiglass.
Using a cutting wheel on a Dremel tool, the visor was easily cut out of the Plexiglass.
Six mounting holes were drilled through the visor in order to hold it in place inside the helmet.
The template was then removed, and all the edges were sanded smooth.
Six mounting holes were also drilled through the helmet in the same positions as on the visor.
An slope grinder of sorts was used to make it possible to use angle headed screws to hold the visor in place.
This way I won't have screw heads sticking out of the front of the helmet, and I can simply cover these screw heads with bondo.
This way I won't have screw heads sticking out of the front of the helmet, and I can simply cover these screw heads with bondo.
Pop-rivets were used to attach each half of the helmet together.
The rivets were popped from the inside so that I wouldn't get any pointy edges scraping against my head.
The rivets were popped from the inside so that I wouldn't get any pointy edges scraping against my head.
After the outer surface was pop-riveted onto the inner surface of the helmet's back, the pop-rivets were hammered flat.
After the two halves of the helmet's one side were pop-riveted together, the pop-rivets were hammered flat there as well.
The same things were done to the other side also.
Press next page or 02 to continue, or press Alt+F4 if you're really sick of this.
Press next page or 02 to continue, or press Alt+F4 if you're really sick of this.