All right, costumers...

[00Dawg]

I've finally landed an APH-6B helmet in good shape at a decent price.
The goal is a detailed X-Wing outfit for Halloween plus perhaps my family's first movie theater experience in December.  I've got the clothes and accessories covered (I think), but the headgear is daunting.

I've read a number of on-line tutorials on the helmet alterations, but many are lacking on details, or assume a good deal of costuming experience, of which I have little.
I need advice on techniques and materials most of all, but will take any advice I can get.
Please, share your wisdom.

[guardiandashi]

I haven't done any mods of that nature.. but since true function doesn't sound like its a major consideration...

I would say you have a number of choices on how to go.

the easiest would be to just put a "rebellion" style paint job on it with that in mind you can go simple or complex but I would do layered masking for the paint job for instance say you want some red rebellion symbols on it either paint it red, then make a insignia template and put your insignia "masks" in place and paint white over the top (or vice versa" have a punched out rebellion insignia template, and use it to mask what you DON'T want to paint.

if you want to put the "ridge" on the helmet, you could make it out of a number of materials, depending on what you have to work with.  wood would be readily available but a bit problematic, styrene plastic or rigid foam might work fiberglass and resin might look the best but would be a problem to work with if you have never done it.

with a combination of say wood blocks and paper mache type material you could make something that looks ok but the surface likely would be seriously wrong, so after you get the proper shape, I would paint it with a couple coats of polyurethane varnish, then pain over the top of that to hide the poly.  then possibly spray a thin coat of poly as a "sealing" coat as an option much like the "clearcoat" on peoples cars to give the paint "depth"

[00Dawg]

At the moment, the plan for painting is to order stickers for a simplistic scheme only over white (the helmet is currently red, so I might change that up to keep the red).  I've seen some good looking ones with solid reviews.

The ridge/Mohawk and other physical alterations are the most daunting subject.  I haven't considered rigid foam, so I'll definitely investigate that.  Resin and fiberglass seem to be the assumed materials for most tutorials, but I have no experience with either.  I'm also looking at something like Bondo for the areas that need smoothing.

[guardiandashi]

the 1 time I worked with fiberglass was a while back... I am going to say in the neighborhood of almost 20 years so I am sure I forgot details, and I have heard there have been significant changes.  at the time it was fiberglass and Kevlar "matts" (think fabric but of alternate materials) and then you mixed up the resin which was a 2 part material resin and hardener.  I have heard that you can also get preimpregnated sheets and similar.

for basic working with fiberglass it was a matter of prep and safety considerations.
for the base material we used basic box knife razor blades, to cut it note the fiberglass and Kevlar materials will dull your blade quickly so cheap and disposable is good.
other safety equipment you would really want, a mask (which can be fairly basic filter to keep dust and particles out, respirator for fumes would be better, but for a simple project just ensure ventilation and you should be ok.

disposable gloves to keep the resin and stuff off your hands is strongly recommended (surgeons or mechanic gloves are pretty cheap and easily available)

once you have the basic assembly built up, plan to do a fair amount of sanding, a filter mask for that would be strongly recommended as that stuff will get everywhere and is rather nasty if inhaled.

above all if you do work on it take your time and you should be ok.  I know this may sound silly, but plan to start on it sooner rather than later so you have more time to deal with it if issues arise  which they are very likely to do.

[elf25s]

try looking on kerbros saga aka jihn roh  aka panzer cops sites most of them point to mod sites that specialize in hard plastics and metal alterations

good luck

[elf25s]

there are more active boards and places you may want to check

look for judge dredd stuff some helmet mods i had seen are very comprehensive

[glitterboy2098]

honestly as long as you have two big rebel crests on there, i don't think you need to modify the shape at all. no reason that the rebellion would have standardized gear after all. one would expect their flight helmets would be of a bunch of different makes and models, and most likely many pilots use their own personal gear rather than anything the rebellion can supply them.

in "return of the jedi" we see rebel pilots with a few other types of different types of helmet..



and the teaser for the new star wars has an X-wing pilot using a ridgeless helmet


and i think keeping the red color would be neat..

[00Dawg]

Those are Y-Wing and A-wing pilots from RotJ, and they have different suits to go with the helmets.    #P
The new X-wing helmet does have some possibilities, but at the moment there appear to be some significant visual differences that I'm not sure how to fabricate.

I found a custom foam website that will cut EVA foam, and ordered some to form the mohawk.  We'll see how it goes.