PROJECT: Star Wars Helmets

Just over a year ago I fell into the bottomless PIT that is Movie Prop collecting.

For the 3+ years prior I was up to my eyeballs in Funko Pops... SHELVES AND SHELVES worth of Pops, I'm talking more than 300 of them.

I'll be the first to admit it... I had a bit of a problem.

I am a struggling completist... have been as far back as I can remember when I obsessed over collecting all the Happy Meal toys in every set. Pops were the same kind of thing... except there were HUNDREDS of them, and they were (at least) $10 a pop (HA, pun!)

Then along came Force Friday 2016, when all the new Star Wars and Rogue One toys were released...

Star Wars' "Black Series" line of action figures had branched out into full-scale replicas and as soon as I saw their new (and surprisingly affordable) classic Stormtrooper helmet I was hooked. In the next 2 weeks the Pops were hitting eBay and disappearing into boxes in the closet with helmets, blasters, and costume pieces were taking their place.

Once I started realizing how deep the replica community is, and how fun it could be to custom-built something from a movie to Tv series, I stumbled on Tested, the YouTube channel of my favorite Mythbuster, Adam Savage. Adam's "One Day Builds" videos are very inspiring and always make me want to build something. It could be something elaborate like a cosplay, prop, or even a puppet... Heck, even just watching him weather and paint a custom case for a microscope gets me excited to MAKE something unique of my own.

I say all of that to say this:

Last Halloween's batch of Star Wars costumes were the perfect opportunity to play around with some paint and inexpensive helmets and combine both of my newly discovered loves. These costume helmets weren't QUITE replicas, but I wanted to step outside of the Star Wars canon anyway. I was able to snag a handful of these guys on the day after Halloween for $10 each...

Steam Punk Trooper: 
This was my first attempt at a custom paint job, it only took me an afternoon, which in retrospect is pretty impressive...
I have TONS of screenshots saved of amazing Steam Punk Star Wars cosplays, and have thought about putting one together for myself one day. 16 different colors of spray and acrylic paint and a box of pushpins went into this one. I built a custom stand and weathered a wooden crate to display it like something from a museum... what a nerd...    

I have another one of these half done, I should probably pull it out of the box and get it up on the shelf soon...

Battle Worn Trooper:

I found this Clone Trooper helmet at a Goodwill years ago, it was covered in Red and Yellow crayon scribbles and very obviously went through a few playground Lightsaber battles in its day. Rather than take time to scrub and clean it, I decided to rough it up with the skills I learned from hours of watching Cosplayers and Prop Makers on YouTube.

One fateful night in January, I woke up at 3 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep... the perfect time to get creative! I painted the whole thing with black and brown paint, then removed paint in layers with a dishrag, I rubbed handfuls of dirt into the corners and creases, took off more paint with sandpaper, and even hit it will a small hammer... my neighbors have to wonder about me... 

After about 5 hours I left it on the back porch to dry while I finally got some sleep...

And then it rained.

A lot.

I (foolishly) hadn't clear-coated so the results were not good, so I put in a closet for 3 months and could bring myself to look at it, until this week when I couldn't sleep again...

TAKE 2- Rogue Trooper:

I lost count of how many coats of white spray paint it took, but this time I invested a lot of time and sandpaper into getting the paint even and consistent only to rough it up with more sandpaper and paint. I free-handed the Rebel emblem and clear coated it IMMEDIATELY.

Lesson learned. 

I'll be building a display stand for this one, too. Not bad for a $2 Goodwill find! 

Yes, I still have a collecting problem... it's just a little cooler now!

More soon,

Avery