27 Apr 2006 :: Building an EP3 Clone Helmet, part 1

Doing my part for the war effort.

Part I

Ah, the Prequels - complete symmetry. Not only in a narrative sense, but also the props and costume design... Most notably the Clone and Vader helmets. And that's what is so much fun about recreating them; but without a rapid-prototype mill or the "screen-used" 3d files this is easier said than done! It seems I'll try anyway.

But if all all else fails I do have the MR lids to fall back on (but who am I kidding? I'll get 'em anyway!). This Clone helmet came to me as a raw resin cast, untrimmed and pretty rough around the edges (quite literally), but it's a really beautiful sculpt by a very talented artisan (and one of the more accurate around). Since it was cast in a slush-resin mold it had a whole lot of slag in and around the details, this came to haunt me later in the process. Not to mention a fairly large bump on the top-left front of the dome due to a small defect in the mold. This is kind of fitting as this is where Boba, and later (or earlier!) Jango, had dents in their buckets. Not to mention the infamous Stormtrooper on the Death Star who cracks his bucket on the blast door. But it had to go. So with the help of my "Laser Sword"... Ah, I mean my Dremel and a cutting disc, I went over and cut off all the excess resin. This was easy due to the sharp lines of lid (another positive point of an extremely low run of helmets by the sculptor). The next step was to smooth all the edges; a pretty easy step. I then put a light guide-coat of primer on, which helped me gauge how the helmet was looking. It looked really cool, but I started to see some flaws that I NEEDED to correct. An untrained eye would not see them, but being a film geek I notice everything. This is where I really went to work...

The finished 501st Clone lid you see on the shelf next to the Boba Fett belongs to my buddy Dean. It is the same sculpt as mine, but hasn't been reworked - "an unaltered Clone" so to speak.

Next page: Part Two.

Related link: Outpost-42, New Zealand costuming and prop collecting forums.

Callum F