Boba Fett Helmet 1:1 scale

Revell-Fan · Dec 12, 2015

Hi fans,

a few months ago I found a great-looking paper model of one of the coolest movie props ever - the helmet of the most notorious bounty hunter of the galaxy, Boba Fett:

http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/gallery/gallerydetails.php?id=1460

I downloaded it and put it in my archive, not knowing if I would be able to tackle it in the near future. With Star Wars fever haunting the planet a colleague approchaed me at work. She knew that I was a paper modeler and asked me if I knew something cool as a present for her possible future son-in-law. I immediately recalled that fantastic helmet and she was all in. Since she had absolutely no idea how a paper model was made she asked me if I would be interested in building it for her. Well, you know me, I couldn't say no.

Unfortunately life interfered (time was scarce and a nasty cold stopped my activities), so the project was delayed. Till now! Since I do not have the time to continue the other projects I have begun yet I chose this as a quick after work build.

Before printing I slightly changed the layout and the flap positions of the parts. I also deleted the unneeded texture images which reduced the file size to one third of the original one. I was a bit afraid of the thin strips but these fears were unjustified. Here are the first pics of the build:

The visor parts were printed on glossy photo paper. Unfortunately the surface proved to be very fragile and when I glued the piece to the frame I noticed that my finger nails had left it with a lot of bad scratches. For that reason I'll prepare a revised part which also will remove the edge in the middle.

To be continued..!

zathros · Dec 12, 2015

I think your fingernails add a lot of character, really! Excellent job!

Revell-Fan · Dec 13, 2015

Yeah, it does not look too shabby in person, but the edge in the middle is bothering me most. I have combined the two pieces which looks much better. Hopefully the edge does not show up when I am gluing the complete piece over.

Revell-Fan · Dec 13, 2015

Today's progress:

The left ear piece was assembled.

However, the test-fit showed a minor intersection with the main body of the helmet.

Since I had added several flaps to the ear piece it was easy to glue it in place without having to cut into the main body.

The bottom piece was adjusted accordingly; the triangular shape was simply glued behind the ear piece.

The back piece was assembled...

... and attached.

Revell-Fan · Dec 13, 2015

More parts were attached:

Next: The right ear piece with movable range finder. CU!

dnalor · Dec 13, 2015

Very nice......i did one too...
But i still have to paint mine...
I want to try and use putty to get a real helmet...but it is still on hold

the falcon first.

i found mine at the the dented helmet..

Revell-Fan · Dec 14, 2015

This is looking great! The dented helmet was my first address to check for the correct dimensions. The file I chose is pretty much accurate; the original is only 2 % larger (I can live with that

).

Revell-Fan · Dec 16, 2015

Well then, work continues with the right ear piece and the additional joint.

This is the part as it was designed.

I noticed that it would be better to cut off the inner flaps.

A piece of scrap paper was glued to the inside. This prevents the range finder from bending backwards.

Rhaven Blaack · Dec 16, 2015

This is looking really good!!!

Revell-Fan · Dec 16, 2015

Unfortunately the range finder was designed as a static display piece. My plan was to add a joint to make it movable. To achieve that I laminated the parts of the range finder mount to corrugated cardboard to increase stability. The rim strips were glued around the card.

The top of the mount was prolonged by 24 mm.

I made a dummy mount from a scrap piece of card to determine the center of the joint. The inner cover of the ear piece was prolonged, too and received two holes at a suitable position.

Flaps were added.

The mount was pushed through the hole in the ear piece and a tube was pushed through the hole in the mount.

The inner cover was added.

The completed ear piece.

It would have been easier if I had started assembly with the mount first but I noticed that too late.

Revell-Fan · Dec 16, 2015

The ear piece was attached to the main frame. Then I began building up the rest of the helmet. I did not use the flaps of the parts. Instead I glued some pieces of scrap paper to the back of each row, made several cuts into them, bent them inwards and glued the next row to them. This produced a very clean result:

The two triangles above the visor were cut out and recessed using a piece of card.

Time to add the infamous dent:

Phew! Done!

Strangely all rows except the final one were a tad too long and had to be shortened. The final row was a tad too short so that a bit of the glue strip showed after closing the helmet. I covered that area up with some water colours.

spaceagent-9 · Dec 16, 2015

looks good enough for a movie prop!

Revell-Fan · Dec 16, 2015

Then I proceeded with the range finder itself.

This part in particular showed that the model was ripped from a game. The thin strips could have been omitted if it had been designed for papercrafting. Despite of their delicate nature everything went well.

This series of images may serve as a guide for anyone who is tackling this model:

Rhaven Blaack · Dec 16, 2015

This is coming together beautifully!!!

DanBKing · Dec 16, 2015

Super work R-F!
That's movie prop quality right there!

Tonino · Dec 17, 2015

Sometimes I loose a great thread, like this one!
Great! Very impressive! thumbsup
I suppose it isn't wearable, isn't it?

Revell-Fan · Dec 17, 2015

DanBKing said:
Super work R-F!
That's movie prop quality right there!

Thank you!

Tonino said:
Sometimes I loose a great thread, like this one!

Well, I don't blame you for that; the title is rather unspectacular!

Tonino said:
I suppose it isn't wearable, isn't it?

Unfortunately no. It was built with the intent to produce a pure display piece for the living room (or SW vault

). I would have had to reinforce the structure to make it wearable but that would have required more time which I didn't have.

The range finder would have been very shaky if it was attached as suggested by the kit (directly to the thin end of the arm). For that reason I prolonged the arm as described above. Then I cut out a rectangle at the bottom...

... applied some glue to the arm and pushed the range finder over it.

The bottom half of the helmet was pretty unstable without supports. The kit suggested adding several strips and a bottom cover to maintain the shape of the prop, some tedious work. I came up with a much simpler idea which also required less parts. added a 24.5 x 5 cm piece of corrugated card between the ear pieces.

The finished helmet:

Tonino · Dec 17, 2015

Spectacular! One more point to the paper!

We cardmodelers can make almost EVERYTHING!!! ... ... ... No, remove that "almost"....!!!!

You was a lightning RF!

:Bravo: Claphands thumbsup

Revell-Fan · Dec 17, 2015

Thank you!

The next step was painting the edges. I used water colours. Then I printed an edited version of the visor and attached it to the front. So the ugly cut in the middle of the face was hidden.

But HEY - what the frak?!

When I was comparing the finished model to the original prop I realized that the range finder and the range finder arm had the wrong colour! Well, since the arm was tightly connected to the main body I was unable to removeand exchange it without ripping the whole helmet apart. So I recoloured it with water colours and Revell Aqua silver colour.

While doing so the range finder got a red dot as status indicator which was also missing on the model.