I have a friend. He is a fan of stormtrooper ammunition from Star Wars. To understand how much of a fan he is, about seven years ago he glued together a full-sized helmet out of paper; of course, it didn’t last long, but it brought a huge amount of admiration. Personally, I would never have the patience for such a thing.

When I got a printer, the first question he asked me was whether it was possible to print a similar helmet on it. Naturally, I said yes and promised that sooner or later I would give him such a present. The word is not a sparrow. And his birthday is coming soon. In general, after thinking about it after the New Year holidays, I took on this project.

I found the helmet model on the Tingverse (I won’t give the link; it’s so easy to look for it here and there). And he started printing. Initially, I started printing from ABS from Greg on a prune-shaped printer. The print didn't work. Constant delaminations in tall models. In general, I had to convert to PLA.

I ordered Snow White from FDplast and it began.

It took about a week of printing on a single printer with a 0.4 nozzle to print all the elements.

Snow white plastic, contrary to expectations and reviews, turned out to be quite problem-free for such a project and did not cause any trouble.

We begin preliminary assembly using masking tape:

Glue with a mixture of supports and dichloroethane. At first I tried applying the mixture with a brush. Well, I’ll tell you what to do.. Then, having looked here, I began to use a medical syringe for a couple of cubes for this. things went much more cheerfully. The main thing is to empty the syringe after work and leave it open. Then it can be reused. Do not try to store glue in a syringe. Throw away both the glue and the syringe.

When gluing, there were small discrepancies in the form of voids between the last seams. The largest gap was about three millimeters. It appeared as a result of incorrect calibration of the printer table; the first layers were practically eaten away. When assembling the gaps, I filled them with a mixture of dichloroethane with supports dissolved in it, and put pieces of filament into the large gap and filled them in the same way. In general, for such purposes you need a 3D pen, which I expect in the near future.

After gluing, I covered the model with primer from a spray can in order to see all the jambs of the model:

I chose white primer. Then the dreary days of puttying and sanding began. I did not achieve the results that my imagination imagined in my head for a number of reasons:

1) I don’t know how to use hands;

2) winter, my wife didn’t allow me to do this at home because of the smells;

3) terrible time.

In general, after painting, this is what we ended up with:

I painted it with enamel from a spray can outside (at minus 15), after applying a layer, I brought the model into the room and let it warm up and again. I managed to put on five layers until all the flaws were hidden. Black was applied first from a spray can, having previously pasted over the model, and then corrected with simple acrylic paint for models. The manufacturer seems to be a star. I also used white paint to correct my clumsiness from black paint.

I did not use what was used in the model to decorate the eye sockets. Instead, I used a clear document cover and glued it to the inside with a glue gun. I tinted the film of the eye sockets from the inside with a piece of car tint.

The helmet fits very uncomfortably on the head. So I found an old helmet and removed the head rig from it. In order to secure it, I modeled four fasteners

Which I glued to a mixture of dichloroethane and plastic inside the helmet. Here's what happened:

Now the helmet sits on the head very tightly, does not cause discomfort, and allows you to turn your head freely. The only thing is that you can’t walk in it for a long time. The helmet is quite deep and additional ventilation holes are needed. The idea was to make through holes in the recesses of the mask and cover them from the inside with black cloth. But these are just thoughts for now.

Of course, the helmet is far from ideal. Perhaps in the summer, together with a friend, we will sand it again and paint it under normal conditions.

For now, that's it.

The well-known film “Star Wars” is loved by both adults and children. Just recently, another premiere of another film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, took place and fans are probably rejoicing.

The news portal “site” decided to dedicate this article to all those who are true fans of this film, “Star Wars”. We are almost sure that each of you has your own small collection of interior items, T-shirts and caps, key rings and glasses, mini figurines and other things depicting your favorite characters, which you bought in specialized stores and shops.

We offer to replenish your collections with homemade unique items. From this article you will learn how to make realistic masks of your favorite characters, a keychain, a piñata and a fashionable headband with the hairstyle of Princess Leia herself.

Headband (winter ears) with Princess Leia hairstyle

You can use the finished headband as a winter accessory that will warm your ears even in severe frost. Or you can use it as a bright addition to Princess Leia’s carnival costume.

To make a headband you will need: yarn, an old hairband.

Detailed master class on making a headband with Princess Leia's hairstyle in the video:

DIY Death Star pinata

This amazing themed craft will be a great addition to any Star Wars themed party. The “Death Star” filled with sweets and small gifts will give a great mood and unforgettable impressions to any company.

Detailed master class on making the Death Star piñata in the video:

DIY Darth Vader mask

Do you want to be the brightest and most unforgettable character at any themed party or carnival? Then be sure to make a papier mache mask of the legendary Darth Vader.

Detailed master class on making a Darth Vader mask in the video:

DIY Kylo Ren mask

We present to your attention another bright character - the Star Wars villain Kylo Ren. You can wear the finished mask to a costume party or give it to your friend-fan.

Detailed master class on making a Kylo Ren mask in the video:

DIY R2D2 keychain

A great gift for a Star Wars fan is the famous robot R2D2. And if R2D2 is also a keychain, then it’s doubly nice, because you can always take it with you like a faithful friend.

Detailed master class on making an R2D2 keychain in the video:

DIY Master Yoda ears

Another wonderful accessory, Master Yoda ears, which will make you irresistible/irresistible at any party. Do you like to have fun and surprise, and are you also a Star Wars fan? Get to work!

Detailed master class on making Master Yoda's ears in the video:

Today we present to your attention 4 designs of imperial stormtrooper helmets.

Imperial stormtroopers came to us from the Star Wars universe. They are the elite fighters of the Galactic Empire, who were called upon to convey the will of the Emperor to the “infidels” and keep thousands of star systems at bay.

The first helmet model is high-poly, not so easy to assemble, takes 12 pages in pepakura, textures are present.

Paper stormtrooper helmet -

The second model of the helmet is designed for foam, located on 8 sheets, textures, of course, are absent, repeating details are moved outside the sheets.

Foam Stormtrooper -

And the third helmet is the helmet of the new stormtroopers from " Star wars. Episode VII: The Force Awakens". The film itself will be released only in December 2015, but a teaser has already been released, which showed a landing of stormtroopers:

The craftsmen have already drawn and developed such a helmet, in pepakura it is located on 25 pages, without textures, it is very difficult to assemble, but I think it’s worth it.

Make a new stormtrooper helmet -

In the comments they expressed dissatisfaction with the helmet from episode 7, and finally another scan of this helmet has appeared, with great joy we post it for your consideration. The model itself has fewer polygons and made the shape of the helmet close to the original. The development takes 24 pages in pepakura, it is assembled in an average manner, but it may be difficult to assemble small parts, but they can be made from available materials. There are primitive textures.

I live in a city with a long pedestrian street, where most of the retail outlets, cafes, etc. are located. This is the most pedestrian street in our city. I came up with an idea, why not make a First Order Stormtrooper costume from Star Wars to hand out flyers. And not only for distribution, you can do animation, etc. People will often approach a person in such a suit to take a photo, for example.

The first step is to install the Pepakura Designer program and download the patterns you need. The suit is for a height of 176 cm, but the stormtrooper suit is universal, because it is composite, it will suit people from 170 to 188, although you can always change the sizes in the program itself.

The scans need to be printed on paper with a density of 200-220, this is the density of whatman paper. I glued it with PVA glue. This is what almost the entire printed and glued suit looks like. Many parts do not yet have spacers.

I started with the helmet, unfortunately I didn’t immediately start taking photos, first I glued the helmet together, then reinforced it from the inside with polyester resin and glass mat. Under no circumstances should you work with this stinking rubbish at home, even on the balcony, the smell will take a long time to dissipate. I worked in a garage, I definitely needed a respirator and gloves. After I secured the helmet, I noticed that the front was very bad, so I had to cut it out, print it again and paste it in.
Below are a few photos after puttying and sanding; I putty with wood putty, it is non-toxic.



Using cold welding, I expanded parts that were not in the paper pattern. As a result, I redid these parts about 10 times. I also corrected the place above the bridge of the nose; in the development it is not protruding enough.
Halfway to the end of the work, I learned about such a wonderful tool as a template pattern, although it has many other names, I ordered it on Ali. And then the long and hard work began, because I set myself the task of making the helmet as symmetrical as possible.

I found the middle points on the helmet, drew circles with a compass, drew them, and started from them to level the helmet on both sides.

I noticed that many people who made such helmets simply drilled out the holes for them. And I wanted to make honeycombs, just like in the original helmet. I asked a friend who does laser cutting of metal, but nothing came of it, the distance between the holes was 0.7 mm, the metal was twisting and moving. An unexpected idea came to mind: why not cut self-adhesive tape on a plotter and stick it in several layers? I went to an advertising agency and found out that cutting several A4 sheets would cost me almost 500 euros, they charge me for the length of the cut, and it was at least 200 m. I remembered that at my last job I had a plotter and went there and asked my former boss for evening. The whole thing took 8 hours to cut.




10 glued layers gave the desired thickness of 1 mm.

Below are the final photos, the black paint is a primer. Before priming, the helmet was sanded with 440 grit sandpaper.



Next came plastic casting; for this we needed to make a copy of the helmet. All this time I was making a master model. This is done using silicone. Let me get ahead of myself and say that I made several unsuccessful silicone castings, the final result is after the 3rd casting and it was not successful enough, I had to putty a little, the 4th casting will be the most ideal. Silicone over the helmet.

Glass mat and polyester shell

My mistake in 3 not very successful castings was in this glass mat shell, the fact is that if there is not a sufficient fit with the silicone by at least 1 mm, then the silicone will eventually bend and when filled with plastic there will be dents on the copy. Only after the 3rd casting did I find out that there is a paste, it is thick and is used just to create a shell, it perfectly covers the entire area and hardens. Looks like plastic.

The photo shows the result of the last casting. I had to putty a little. How is it filled with plastic? The mold is removed from the helmet, inserted into the shell, then two-component liquid plastic is poured into different cups in equal proportions, poured into one, mixed. Next, we pour this glass into the helmet and begin to rotate, the plastic hardens in 15 minutes. This helmet took 860 grams of plastic. Together with painting and interior foam finishing, the helmet weighs approximately 1-1.1 kg.

Next I had the task of making a visor (lens) for the helmet, many cosplayers take a thick transparent cover and glue car tint on top and glue it into the helmet, it looks good, but I wanted better. I wanted to make the glass convex, just like a real helmet. For this, the unsuccessful first casting came in handy; I cut out the part where the eyes are located and, using automotive putty, bolts, and nuts, strengthened the bottom so that the shape became solid. Then, using cold welding, I began to shape the top.

The 1.5 mm thick plexiglass is easily bent using a hair dryer. I made a lens from transparent plexiglass; black translucent one was impossible to find. I glued the tint, but there were folds in the bends, even a hair dryer didn’t help. Unexpectedly, I found black translucent plexiglass at the car market; a car deflector is perfect for the lens.

Next is painting with an airbrush. My total expenses for creating a suit and helmet today are about 500 dollars, this cost includes tools, materials, by the way, I often used cold welding, according to my calculations it took 1 kg. Silicone and plastic are not cheap. Almost the entire suit is reinforced with polyester and glass mat, but not puttied yet. A few final photos. More than 500 hours of work were spent on the helmet.

Next, my plans are to finish the entire costume, convert a helmet from one casting into Captain Phasma’s helmet and finish Kylo Ren’s helmet, I already found the original fabric like in the film for sewing the costume on a foreign website.

Why was so much time wasted? 500 hours is exactly that, maybe more, many times I reworked the same areas to achieve symmetry, down to 1 mm.