3DStormtrooper Helmet (Eagle-eyes Requested!)

McC · August 2013

For 14 years, I've schemed, planned, yearned, learned, studied, and plotted to make myself a "real" set of Stormtrooper armor, from scratch. Finally, I'm at a point in life, skill level, patience, and focus that I feel ready to tackle this project.

The very first, and most complex part of the whole endeavor is the Stormtrooper's distinctive helmet. I've seen a number of fantastic approaches to this part of the suit, ranging from wildly complex to astonishingly simple. I decided to take an approach I hadn't yet seen and start digitally.

The idea behind this is to get familiar with the shapes and flow before I ever start assembling a physical object. Once I bring the 3D version to as high a level of fidelity and accuracy (with certain intentional caveats) as necessary, I'll create vertical slices from front-to-back and a single horizontal slice. These slices will get printed out and then xacto-carved into cardboard and assembled into a real-world 3D "skeleton." I'll fill the gaps in the skeleton with window caulk, sand that down to get the rough volume, and then coat the whole thing in Bondo for further shape revision. Eventually, this will create a positive mold that I can coat with silicone, create a negative mold, and finally create an actual urethane "pull" that I'll end up wearing.

Here's the product of two evenings of modeling (and 14 years of study). If you notice any inaccuracies, please point them out! It is critical that I nail this part before moving forward with physical construction. This is the point of the thread

This is, notably, incomplete: there are no surface additions: the black grille in front, the inserts in the jaws, the "teeth" across the nose, the lenses, any of the upper dome insets, the ears, or the rubber impact strip across the brow. Those are (currently) deliberate omissions.

Reference Images for Comparison (Please Look!)

colbmista · August 2013

Why dont you jusdo it on papkura then coat it in bondo sand paint and finshed just lot easyer then your way its qhat any other cosplayer does it

look here for the papkura program for print out the patterns http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/
and then jsut google pepakura storm trooper helemet file and yeah there you go or you can actually use the file you are working on and load it in to the program and it will make a pattern for you to print out and all that fun stuff

evil_genius_180 · August 2013

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper? (sorry, it had to be said, even though I have no idea how tall you are

)

That's a really nice looking 3D model. From what I can remember from watching those movies all of my life, it looks accurate. Good luck with the real world build. I hope you'll keep us apprised of your progress as you go, that sounds like a really neat project.

McC · August 2013

colbmista wrote: »

Why dont you jusdo it on papkura then coat it in bondo sand paint and finshed just lot easyer then your way its qhat any other cosplayer does it

Pepakaura is my fallback plan if this method doesn't work. I specifically wanted to try something different, though.

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper? (sorry, it had to be said, even though I have no idea how tall you are )

5'10-5'11, so...I don't think so?

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

That's a really nice looking 3D model. From what I can remember from watching those movies all of my life, it looks accurate.

Thanks! Did you take a look at the reference links to compare? I'm trying to get other modelers' eyes on the model and the original photos to ferret out inaccuracies.

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Good luck with the real world build. I hope you'll keep us apprised of your progress as you go, that sounds like a really neat project.

Thanks, and I definitely will!

TALON_UK · August 2013

Cool project, I look forward to following your progress on this.

McC · August 2013

Here are some front/side ortho renders for additional comparison. Front rendered with two lighting setups.

Here's the sort of feedback I'd really appreciate:

Thoughts on these? Can you spot other inaccuracies? I can't proceed to the next step until this part is locked down!

McC · August 2013

Here are some new orthos, incorporating a few refinements. Feeling a lot better about these, but still not sure if they're "ready."

Of note:

Refined the shape of the cheek insets
Softened the track of the goggles.
Smoothed and curved the flow from the front of the cheek inset to the top of the frown.
Altered the geometry near the tusks to push them back along the top of the curve

evil_genius_180 · August 2013

McC wrote: »

Thanks! Did you take a look at the reference links to compare? I'm trying to get other modelers' eyes on the model and the original photos to ferret out inaccuracies.

No, but I just did and it still looks great. I even found some other images on Google to look at and yours looks really accurate so far.

I also found this that I've seen before and absolutely love:

stonky · August 2013

Looking good! I made one years ago, I know what a challenge it is.

Note: be careful, the "Those WERE the droids I was looking for..." suit in the image above is a derivative of an old fan made GF suit from the mid-late nineties, not screen accurate to say the least.

So, which one are you doing? ANH hero? ANH stunt? TESB (bascially ANH stunt with a new paint job)? ROTJ? Special Edition (basically ROTJ)? So many choices.

Are you going with symmetry or trying to match the asymmetry of the originals?

McC · August 2013

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

No, but I just did and it still looks great. I even found some other images on Google to look at and yours looks really accurate so far.

Awesome, thanks!

I also found this that I've seen before and absolutely love:

Poor guy, just trying to do his job. How was he supposed to know that would involve facing down someone that would telepathically violate him?

stonky wrote: »

Looking good! I made one years ago, I know what a challenge it is.

Thanks, stonky!

Note: be careful, the "Those WERE the droids I was looking for..." suit in the image above is a derivative of an old fan made GF suit from the mid-late nineties, not screen accurate to say the least.

So, which one are you doing? ANH hero? ANH stunt? TESB (bascially ANH stunt with a new paint job)? ROTJ? Special Edition (basically ROTJ)? So many choices. Are you going with symmetry or trying to match the asymmetry of the originals?

A little mash-up, actually. The helmet is predominantly ANH Hero, since that's historically the most "real" one. The ANH Stunts were made first, but the ANH Hero is the only one of the lot to be both fresh off the master and vacuum-pulled from white ABS rather than off-white polyethylene and spray-painted. However, because of the way the ESB and ROTJ helmets were made (either refurbishing the ANH Stunts or using the ANH Stunts as a "master" to create new pulls), certain details from the ANH Stunts became more common: namely, the 8 "teeth" compared to the 6 in the ANH Hero. I'll be going with 8 for this.

The other piece, which I haven't yet decided about, is the eye lens. The ANH Hero had a nice, bulbous green lens that I'd much prefer to use based on look. However, these are also notoriously difficult to see through, leading many to prefer the ANH Stunt's flat, smoked lenses instead. I'm going to try the rounded lenses first and, if those prove really difficult to see through, will fall back on flats.

The rest of the helmet details will be ANH Hero, though.

As for symmetry, while I'm usually a stickler for "on screen = authentic; author's intent = irrelevant" I'm deviating from that standard here and going for as much symmetry as I can manage. I think the asymmetry crept in unintentionally and isn't representative of what the Empire would actually manufacture for its troops. The in-universe Stormtrooper helmet was almost certainly designed in some 3D software of some kind, where those specs were then sent straight to an automatic manufacturing facility that stamped out millions upon millions of perfect, symmetrical, identical copies.

For the rest of the suit, my current plan is to, again, mostly go with ANH (Hero and Stunt armors were identical), but pull any more-interesting design features from the later suits as I go. Ultimately, I'll end up with an ANH Hero variant suit, but I'm okay with that!

evil_genius_180 · August 2013

stonky wrote: »

Note: be careful, the "Those WERE the droids I was looking for..." suit in the image above is a derivative of an old fan made GF suit from the mid-late nineties, not screen accurate to say the least.

Yeah, I don't think he's using anything but screenshots, because there are a LOT of unofficial images on the web, and many feature inaccurate suits. Fortunately, there are thousands of good screenshots available online. I only posted that picture because it's funny.

Nathan Rubric · August 2013

Maybe using pictures from the original producer of the stormtrooper armor/helmet?

www.originalstormtrooper.com

stonky · August 2013

Hehe, I would avoid that site - I have one of Andrew's helmets and its part of my collection because of its provenience and Andrew's connection to the original film, but his helmets are far from accurate and have fallen under a lot of criticism in the past for the adjustments that he's made to the "original molds" and for his inflated recollection of his contributions to the film (see lawsuit

).

End rant.

evil_genius_180 · August 2013

Plus, his Stormtrooper armor is "one size fits all," as long as you're betwen 5'6" and 6'2". For one thing, that's a HUGE height difference, so I find that to be a dubious claim. Plus, that sucks for those of us who are taller than 6'2". It's not really relavent to Crix Dorius's reason for linking to it, but I think it does speak to Andrew's credibility.

McC · August 2013

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Plus, his Stormtrooper armor is "one size fits all," as long as you're betwen 5'6" and 6'2". For one thing, that's a HUGE height difference, so I find that to be a dubious claim. Plus, that sucks for those of us who are taller than 6'2". It's not really relavent to Crix Dorius's reason for linking to it, but I think it does speak to Andrew's credibility.

This is actually somewhat defensible, in that a lot of the height variation is going to come from how you fit the leg pieces and the torso pieces. The torso pieces have upper and lower halves, meaning they actually support a pretty wide range of vertical shapes (though horizontal could be problematic for heavier folks). The leg pieces are, rather obviously, also divided into upper and lower. The reason there's a limit is that beyond a certain point, the torso pieces won't nicely overlap and the leg pieces will start to look too small (or big, if you're shorter than 5'6").

But selling "one-size fits all" kits is a pretty common thing for Stormtrooper armor and where I think most folks actually get their armor. The number of actual manufacturers is pretty small. I'm working on increasing that number by one.

evil_genius_180 · August 2013

I'm just miffed that it stops at 6'2". Though, I'm only about an inch over that, so I could probably modify it. Not that I'm buying, I can't afford it and they don't ship to the United States. However, I would someday like to have my own set of trooper armor, but I'm not making my own.

McC · August 2013

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

I'm just miffed that it stops at 6'2". Though, I'm only about an inch over that, so I could probably modify it. Not that I'm buying, I can't afford it and they don't ship to the United States. However, I would someday like to have my own set of trooper armor, but I'm not making my own.

Well, I'm not taking requests.

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Yet.

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3DStormtrooper Helmet (Eagle-eyes Requested!)

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