The creation of the helmet


Page 04
Two of the letter stencils were added to the ear cap, while masking tape was applied around the screen holder of the range finder.
A few small stencils were made with various letters and a number for use on some of the parts of the helmet.
After masking off the areas of the ear cap that should be gun metal grey, red paint was then applied.
Having masked off the areas of the helmet that should be black, I spray painted it gun metal grey, trying to avoid spraying over the places that should be red.

The two gun metal grey stripes that will appear across the helmet dome are a tribute to Jango Fett, and some of the main colors of the helmet are a tribute to Boba Fett, having the same color pattern only in different colors.
The inner part of the range finder was also spray painted gun metal grey.
The ear cap was spray painted with a dark gun metal grey.
The last of the black spray paint was used for the body of the range finder, and there was just enough paint left for it.
Having only one old can of black spray paint that didn't fit with any of the nozzles that I had, the paintjob got somewhat messy, but since it's meant to look old and worn anyway, it didn't matter that much.
The last things that were masked were the lower parts of the helmet's face, along with some more scratches, marks, and paint chippings.
The same liquid molding rubber was used on the helmet to make the small marks and scratches.
A few more areas of the ear pieces were also covered with masking tape, along with the dent.

A few marks and scratches were also masked off.
The areas on the range finder and the ear cap that should remain chrome colored were covered with masking tape.
The paint job was left to dry for 24 hours in an old bathtub.
Here you can see the chrome painted dent that was left out and made more realistic earlier.
When the bondo had hardened, the surfaces of the left ear piece were sanded smooth.
The left ear piece was attached to the helmet with bondo, and bondo was also applied to the face of the helmet.
Bondo was then applied to the other side of the helmet also.
The helmet dome that I used for the helmet had many dents in it, so I filled all of them with bondo, except one dent.

According to Mandalorian law, a Mandalorian helmet should always have at least one dent.
Some grooves were made inside the dent to make it look more realistic.
To better see the other dents on the helmet dome, a coat of primer was applied.
The areas that needed even more bondo were marked using rough grained sand-paper.
A second coat of bondo was applied on top of the dents to fill them in and make the dome dentless except that one dent.
Some sanding was done to smooth out the surface of the helmet's face.
Here is a view of the other side after having been sanded also.
Bondo was also applied around the edge of the keyhole part and its frame.
To make the ear cap flow better with the rest of the helmet, some bondo was applied around it and the helmet, then a sharp blade was used to cut the ear cap free from the helmet while the bondo was half hardened.
After having sanded the area where I wanted the part to be mounted, it was glued on with super-glue.
Ever since I saw this part for the first time, it always reminded me of the part on Boba Fett's helmet, so I thought that it might look cool on my own helmet.
Blue masking tape was used on top of the visor the second time, just because it looks cool.
After the surfaces of the face were sanded smooth, the masking tape was removed from the front of the visor to break off all the excess bondo from the edge against the visor.

Removing the masking tape after painting the helmet might break off small chunks of bondo with paint on them, leaving bondo white exposed areas in the paint job.
Only one more coat of bondo was needed for the face of the helmet to finish it.
The gap between the visor and the helmet was also filled in with bondo.
After the fiber-glass mats were applied with bondo to the inside of the helmet, the keyhole part was also added to the inside and secured into place with bondo.
To better secure the helmet dome in place, I cut out some small pieces of a fiber-glass mat that I would then reinforce with bondo.
After some extra sanding to make the parts flow more together, this is what the range finder looked like.
The inner part of the range finder was attached to the rest of it with bondo.
The ear cap was also sprayed with a few coats of primer.
Here is a view of the left ear piece and the circuit board inside of it after having been sprayed with primer.
Here is a view of the back of the helmet after having been sprayed with primer.
When the helmet was pretty much flawless, a few coats of primer was sprayed all over it.
Having found some minor flaws, they were then filled with bondo and sanded smooth.
A light coat of primer was sprayed over the helmet to better see any flaws in the surface.
Three screws with washers were found in my big collection of junk to use on the ear cap.
After having sanded all the edges smooth, the parts looked really good.
After having spray painted the lower parts of the face with chrome spray, I sprayed the helmet with it where there would be chipped off paint and damages later on.
A few coats of chrome spray on the ear cap, and my thumb had never been prettier.
The first thing that I spray painted chrome was the range finder after having masked off its wires.
Since the can of the chrome spray paint said that it couldn't be sprayed over or even be touched, I test sprayed over it on a paint tray before I spray painted my helmet with it, and it appeared to work well enough after having tested it.
Several coats of primer was sprayed onto the range finder.
Instead of using masking tape to cover the LED's inside the range finder, I used a liquid molding rubber that could easily be removed after painting the range finder.
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