Hi all,
I got this 3d printed ANH Stormtrooper helmet from shapeways last year. I purchased the Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) material for maximum detail on the print.
I think this is the same print that Will was using as the base for his custom helmets (hope all is well with him and he'll be able to complete that project for guys who are waiting). If I remember correctly, a scan was made from the "set for stun" original helmet that is now in the private collection of a lucky prop collector.
The FUD plastic is quite "waxy" when it is shipped out so the surface needs to be cleaned. I was told a great product to use for this and it works well. It's manufactured by "Tableau" and is called Spot Remover Dry Cleaner. It's essentially a spray applied liquid which dries into a white powder which can then simply be brushed / washed off the print and leaves it free from any greasy residue and ready to accept a primer coat.
Not being particularly skilled at the paintjob of these things, I shipped the cleaned up print to my good friend "StevetheSwede" in Sweden and he very meticulously cut out the eye lenses and thinned down the inside edges surrounding the eyes so they matched the appearance of the original helmet prop.
He then applied several coats of primer and gloss white to it. The project came to a bit of a halt due to the extreme difficulty in hand painting the tears, temple and rear helmet details. The slightly rough texture of the print made it very tricky to get a good neat line at such a small scale.
Very kindly (and just before he went awol again), Will shipped out a spare set of helmet decals that he'd printed as a test for his helmet project. These were waterslide decals and although tricky to apply (requiring multiple coats of Micro-Sol and Micro-Set decal fixing fluid, the end result was much more accurate than the hand painted attempts.
Steve then added some green acetate for the eye lenses and painstakingly painted the black brow trim. To finish off, he applied a very thin strip of black rubber around the helmet opening on the underside.
Here's the results of all this hard work. Just got to add the Hot Toys mic tips onto the helmet once Steve has shipped it out to me.
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