ASSEMBLING THE HELMET
The Stormtrooper helmet sometimes known as "the bucket" is the most time consuming and difficult piece of the armor to assemble. Both time and difficulties can be overcome with each helmet that is assembled. If this is your first time, I would hope that the following guide will help you in your endeavour to assemble it. This guide is the way I assembled the helmet and may not reflect the way others and/or the instruction manual shows you. Please use the instruction manual that is supplied as a reference and guide in addition to my instructions. Also, please read through these instructions before starting. If you do not, you may wish you had read ahead before following line by line of instruction. PARTS TOOLS AND SUPPLIES To begin, there are nineteen pieces plus the hardware and the decals to assemble. The hardware includes four screws and elastic stop nuts. The Decals include: I used the following extra materials and tools to assemble the helmet: First, assemble the Aerators as shown in the instruction manual. Take the mouth piece and the two communication covers and use at least 400 grit sandpaper (a higher number would be ok) to remove all of the shiny outside surface. Take your time as their are many angles that need to be sanded. Do not over sand as you only want to take off the shiny finish and not actually work down the material. Next, take the faceplate, backplate and dome and use masking tape to hold all the pieces together in the shape of the helmet. Align the center of the faceplate with the front center of the dome. Then align the backplate with the rear center of the dome. Tweak the positioning of the faceplate and backplate at the bottom half to get the curved ridge line to line up properly. If the faceplate and/or backplate needs to overlap in order to bring it around the dome flush, then mark the overlap and file away the overlap so that the faceplate and backplate are even from front to back. File away a little at a time, wipe away ABS shavings and recheck the fit. Continue to file the overlap until it is gone. Make sure that the entire three pieces are in the correct position before filing. If the dome indentation does not fit evenly or flush into the assembled faceplate/backplate, this will be taken care of later. Untape the communication pieces. Drill out the four marked holes (two on each side) on the helmet. Use a drill bit that is slightly smaller in diameter to the screw that will be used here. INSTALLING FASTENERS HEADBAND AND DOME DECALS This next step is the placement of the headband fasteners inside of the helmet. Two things you need to consider when placing the fasteners is one: the height from the center of your eyes (eyesight) to the top of your head. Two: how much you want to be able to see (field of vision including peripheral)out of the lenses. For the first part of this step, you will need to temporarily fasten the headband into the dome. This can be done with velcro. Simply cut four pieces of hook and loop velcro the size of the fastener. Place the loop velcro pieces into the dome in the locations shown in the instruction manual. Place hook velcro on the outside of the four fasteners and hook them onto loop velcro in the dome. Now insert the headband into the fasteners. Put the helmet onto your head. If you can see out of the center of the eyeholes you have the correct height. If not, move the fasteners up or down, as required, so that you can see out the center of the eyeholes. Once you decide on the correct location of the headband, mark the fastener locations using masking tape. At this point it is your choice to either use the velcro or remove all the velcro and ABS cement in the fasteners. Using the velcro, make sure the placement of the loop velcro is lined up with the hook velcro on the fasteners. You may have to move the placement of the loop velcro in order to fully mate the hook velcro. Industrial velcro will be very strong but the placement is important as you want a very secure fit of the fasteners inside of the dome. For ABS cementing in the fasteners, disassemble the dome and faceplate and backplate by removing the masking tape. Using toothpicks and ABS cement, glue in the fasteners to the marked location in the dome. Since the dome is curved and the fasteners are straight, you will have to hold the fasteners in place by hand to make sure of a good secure fit. Do one fastener at a time. You will have to hold the fastener in place for at least fifteen minutes, maybe a lot longer. You may be able to use a clamp, but beware that the clamp may not be able to hold the fastener correctly into place and the clamp may warp or damage the dome. Place the four decals on the dome as shown in the instruction manual. Be careful when using ABS cement! When dipping the tips of the toothpicks into the can and pulling it back out, the ABS cement likes to leave trails of cement. Make sure to roll the toothpick to roll up the trails of cement onto the toothpick. If a trail of ABS cement touches the ABS plastic it will adhere instantly and will ruin the polished surface. I know. Also, be careful as to how much ABS cement you use. Too much and when you push the pieces together, the excess will squeeze out and may go places you do not want it to go. Too little and the piece will not be properly secured. Just make sure that you coat the piece being placed. You will have a few seconds to position it before the ABS starts to intitailly set. Now, the faceplate needs to be assembled. There are five things that need to be done to the faceplate at this time:
For the Frown it is up to you how you want the frown to turn out. These are at least three options. When dremeling out the frown holes, start with a small hole in the center of the indentation. Slowly make the hole bigger taking care not to let the dremel tool get away from you. You can also use the needle files. Follow the size of the indentations for the size of each hole. You can round off the corners for a smoother look or square off the corners. Make sure that you eye the size of the holes so that the opposing side of the frown hole matches. Use the needle file(s) to finish the edges of the holes. Clean up all of the ABS plastic bits and shavings. Now follow step 2 or 3 from above. If step 2, proceed to putting in the black screen before applying the decal. After the screen is in, be careful applying the decal, then extra careful when cutting out the decal over the holes. You do not want to cut into the faceplate. When applying the spray paint hold the can as per directions and only do a single pass, let dry, then repeat until piece is painted as desired. Take the black plastic screen and cut out a piece large enough to cover all of the dremeled out holes. Take the 150 grit sand paper and roughen up the ABS plastic along the borders of the screen size. Roughen it where you will use hot glue to glue it into place. Set up the hot glue gun and have the package of glue sticks open and ready to be used. Also, set a wet washcloth on the outside of the faceplate under the areas that are to be hot glued on the inside. This will absorb the heat from the hot glue and help prevent warping the faceplate. Take your time glueing. Start on one side of the screen and work your way across to the other. Use toothpicks to hold down the screen to the inside of the uneven faceplate. You don't want to use your fingers. You'll get burned by the hot glue as it comes through the screen. Once the frown is completed, move on to the eye lens. I did not use the supplied bubble lens as I find that your vision is distorted. I got a pair of flat lenses that were being sold on EBAY. Send me an EMAIL to find out direct source. Take the 150 grit sand paper and roughen up the plastic around the eyeholes on the inside of the faceplate. Roughen outward up to 2cm or 3/4 inch and/or anywhere the glue will flow. The hot glue will stick better to the roughened surface. Set up the hot glue gun and have the package of glue sticks open and ready to be used. You will have to do one lens at a time since you will need to hold the lens in place until the hot glue sets. Also, set a wet washcloth on the outside of the faceplate under the areas that are to be hot glued on the inside. This will absorb the heat from the hot glue and help prevent warping the faceplate. Remove a little of the protective film on the lens up to where the edges of the lens overlap the eyehole and use hot glue on this to secure the lens better. Do not uncover the protective film where you will be able to see out. You do not want to get hot glue on the part of the lens you will be seeing out. Continue the process all around the lens. At the top of the lens, be sure to leave room for the dome to push into the faceplate. If the glue runs past this point, it is no problem as you can carve away the dried set glue easily enough to remove it. Now, apply the mouth piece decal as shown in the instruction manual. Take the gloss black painted mouth piece and turn upside down and fill with hot glue. Since the mouth piece is raised at one end, you will have to let the hot glue semi dry before filling the raised part. Make sure the hot glue does not go above the edges. Let the glue almost dry then apply a coat (not too thick and not too thin) of hot glue to it and stick it onto the mouth area over the mouth decal. Hold firmly in place and let the glue dry. Use a drill and the a drill bit that is slightly smaller in diameter than the screws on the aerators. Drill out the dimples in the aerator locations on the faceplate. Remove any excess plastic shavings. ASSEMBLING FACEPLATE BACKPLATE AND DOME Next, assemble the faceplate to back plate by attaching the communication pieces with the screws and elastic stop nuts. Masking tape the communication pieces into position to prevent movement. Place the dome down into the top of the faceplate/backplate. If the dome does not want to go down in the front, check to see if the glue around the top of the lenses is stopping it. Remove excess glue as necessary. Align the dome so that the front decals are even from the communication pieces on both sides. Now secure the dome with masking tape. Check to make sure the dome is evenly secured into the faceplate/backplate. If there are higher spots on the top of the faceplate and/or backplate, mark it (the high spots) with masking tape(use the masking tape by masking a straight line across the area to not be filed. Then file away the non-masked off area) and then remove dome and file down the marked area. Do a little bit of filing at a time (do not try to file it all away at once), wipe away ABS shavings and check by reinserting the dome. Continue to file until you are satisfied with the results. The end result should be that the dome indentation fits down evenly and flush into faceplate and backplate. Once the dome is finally secured in place with masking tape, flip the helmet over and begin ABS cementing the dome to the faceplate/backplate around the entire circumference. Also, ABS cement down the sides between the faceplate and backplate. If the sides want to overlap, cut out a 3/4 inch strip of ABS from the extra shim armor and ABS cement it flat across the two halves. Make sure the two halves are flat (even) to each other before setting in the shim. The shim will prevent the halves from moving and overlapping. INSTALLING THE COMMUNICATION COVERS Next, get the finished painted communication covers. Turn over and fill with hot glue. When the glue is still tacky but not runny add a coat (not too thick and not too thin) of hot glue to it and stick it over the screws on the communication pieces. Be sure to line it up so it is even from front to back and top to bottom. You might want to pre-mark the exact location using masking tape. Just be sure not to have the masking tape under the glue or communication piece when applying it. I do not recommend using anything else to mark the armor as it will leave a scratch mark. Again, I know. Now, there are three sets of decals left to be applied to the helmet. The tear drops (that go under and behind the lenses), the long ventilation strips and the communication cover strips. Follow the directions in the instruction manual. Just make sure that you measure for distance on the longer ventilation strip so that it is even on both sides of the helmet from top to bottom and front to back. Follow the instructions for the lower helmet lip liner and for the brow piece. And as the supplied instructions say "measure twice, cut once" is a good rule to follow! With all of that done, you now have a completed Stormtrooper helmet.
I tried to incorporate my personal dealings with the assembly of the helmet and made corrections here, so that you do not have to make the same mistakes that I made all the way through the helmet assembly process.
ASSEMBLING THE AERATOR
PAINTING
FITTING THE HELMET PIECES
INSTALLING FASTENERS HEADBAND AND DOME DECALS
ABS TUTORIAL
DETAILING THE FACEPLATE
ASSEMBLING FACEPLATE BACKPLATE AND DOME
INSTALLING THE COMMUNICATION COVERS
APPLYING THE REMAINING DECALS
FINAL DETAILS
Once the pieces are sanded, use the black gloss spray paint on the mouth piece and the gray spray paint on the communication covers. When applying the spray paint hold the can as per directions and only do a single pass, let dry, then repeat until piece is painted as desired.
Do not attempt to paint with more than one pass. The paint will run and you will not be happy with the end result.
At this time, you may want to get the two pieces of the Thermal Detonator to sand and paint to save you the trouble of doing them later. See Thermal Detonator before starting.
Use the drill and drill out the dimpled holes on the communication pieces. Use a drill bit that is the same size or slightly smaller than the screw to be used here later. Now line up the communication pieces on the sides of the helmet so that they are even on both sides from front to back and up and down (you may opt to position the bottom of the communication covers slightly to the rear as shown in the movies). Tape them to the helmet. Use a pencil to mark through the drilled out holes to the sides of the helmet.
Next, if you want peripheral vision you will need to place the forward fasteners closer to the front of the dome. If you wear glasses you will need to move them further back or simply add a foam cushion to the front of the dome after assembling the rest of the helmet. Also make note that the further forward the headband goes the closer your nose will be to the inside front. If it is too close, use a small piece of foam and/or felt to cushion the bridge of your nose away from the inside front of the helmet, so that your face is comfortable. The foam should be secured with velcro so that it can be easily replaced.
It takes up to 24 hours for the ABS cement to properly cure.
1. FROWN
2. LENS
3. MOUTH DECAL
4. MOUTH PIECE
5. AERATORS
1. Do not dremel the indentations and just apply the decal.
2. Dremel out the indentations and apply the decal across the holes and cut away the decal over the holes.
3. Use masking tape to mask off the frown area and paint it gloss black. This is the style of the ESB and ROTJ Stormtroopers. Or paint it gray.
If step 3, use masking tape to mask off around the frown you intend to paint and then mask off the rest of the faceplate entirely to prevent overspray. Also mask off the holes from the back side to prevent the paint from overspraying the inside of the faceplate.
Do not attempt to paint with more than one pass. The paint will run and you will not be happy with the end result.
For my helmet I folded the black screen over twice to make three layers of screen. I can still expell and breath in air but no one can see in and I can barely see out. If you want to be able to see out, only use one layer of black screen.
Leave the protective film on the lens on the inside only. Place the right lens over the right eyehole and hold firmly with one hand so that the lens covers the hole. With the other hand operate the glue gun and start putting hot glue between the overhang of the lens and the roughened insides of the faceplate. Start on one side and let the glue set before moving on around the lens. Be prepared to hold tightly for a short while as it will take up to 15 minutes for the glue to set. Do not give up holding on as the flat lens will tend to straighten and pull away if the glue is not set.
Repeat the process for the left lens.
Place the aerators screw/post through the holes and secure with the elastic stop nuts.
Remember to follow the instructions above about ABS cementing and allow time for the ABS cement to cure.
