The creation of the helmet


Page 05
The ear cap was spray painted gun metal grey once again through the small stencils, and the screen holder of the range finder was spray painted red.
The mask was prepared for the final color coat of red.
Then it was most likely spray painted red, or the color known as fire red to be exact.

This color has a cool orange glow to it when hit by light.
Having removed the masking tape from the ear cap, it was revealed that the masking tape had made lots of marks in the chrome paint.

I already knew something like this would happen since the spray paint can said the paint can't be touched.
Since my original plan was to use plain silver spray paint for this helmet, but bought chrome spray instead because I needed it for something else too, having to sand the chrome uniform didn't really matter much to me.
Having used rough grained sand-paper to make small vertical lines in the paint, it looked more like real metal.

The paint job of the ear cap looks much worse in this photo than what it does in reality.
Yet another stencil was made to make five small lines on the bottom of the ear cap, and the last letter stencil was also used on the ear cap because of a personal choice.

You've probably figured out that all the letters and the number was something personal to me, but that's some of the fun in costume making.
The chrome paint on the stalk had the same marks on it as well, but worse than that, a big flake of the black paint came off with the masking tape when it was removed.
The top of the range finder got somewhat better, and the liquid molding rubber that I had used for masking it came off easily, leaving behind very realistic marks and scratches.
The range finder was wet sanded with a fine grained sand-paper to take away some of the orange peel texture.
The next problem I had to deal with was getting rid of the glue from the masking tape, so I rubbed all the glue with a regular eraser, and it helped very much.
The same Dremel bit was used on the dent also, and it too looked much more realistic.
A plastic brush bit was used on a Dremel tool to make the chrome paint more uniform, and it actually looked more like real hammered metal.
The rest of the liquid molding rubber was removed easily by rubbing the surface with my finger nail.
A view of the left side and the chrome paint job on the left ear piece that actually didn't turn out too bad, only I forgot to remove all the masking tape before taking this photo.

Even more paint had chipped off from this side of the mandible.
A view of the right side and the messed up chrome paint job on the lower right ear piece.

Some of the gun metal grey paint had also chipped off from the side of the mandible.
The chrome paint on the keyhole part and its frame was also a mess, along with even more chipped off paint.

The liquid molding rubber had worked well on the inner and outer surfaces of the helmet's back though.
Of course the chrome paint would become a mess on the helmet too, but the masking tape that was used around the helmet dome had even left behind its glue, and had also chipped off some of the paint between the helmet arrows.

Some of the liquid molding rubber had also been taken off and had worked nicely.
The area where the black paint had been pulled off earlier was fixed up again with some enamel paint and a touch of rust, just in case.
The stalk of the range finder was wet sanded also, and actually looked more like brushed aluminum afterwards.
The range finder was hung up to dry from my dirty old moped after a few coats of clear coat had been applied.
A few coats of clear coat were sprayed onto the ear cap, and it looked nice and shiny.
One of the stencil letters was used on the side of the lower right ear piece.

Since the paint was so thick, the letter looked already weathered, so I didn't have to do anything with it.
The eraser had turned the glue into small white rolls of rubber like you normally see after erasing things on paper, and they could easily be removed with some soap and a sponge.
The space between the helmet arrows and the sides of the mandibles were all repainted, then a single coat of clear coat was applied all over the helmet before it was left to dry for a while before clear coating it again.
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©2007 - The Eternal Darkness
Now that my custom Mandalorian helmet is finally finished, I am very pleased with it and how the paint job ended up looking after having had so many unexpected problems with it. Feel free to use any ideas from this tutorial, and good luck building your own Mandalorian helmet.


Project details

Helmet version - Custom.

Project duration - 25 days.

Costs spent - $39 USD.

Accidents - Probably nothing too bad since I can't remember any.


Thanks to

Wizard Of Flight for having made such great helmet templates.

Pablo for the cool idea with the CD effects.

Whoever made the plastic dome.

Whoever made the circuit board for the LED's.

Whoever made the Plexiglass for the visor.

The Dented Helmet and Mandalorian Mercs Costuming Club for the help.
After the first coat of clear coat, you could even see a strange person with a camera pointing at the helmet.
After the second coat of clear coat was applied, the helmet had a really nice shine to it.

Kind of makes you drool, doesn't it?
After everything else was done, I removed the masking tape from the inside of the visor.

The helmet will eventually get an interior with lots of cool parts, but that is another story.
The helmet was left to dry in the bathtub once again.
The last things that had to be done to finish the helmet were to mount the range finder and the ear cap, and that was done in this video.