Boba Fett helmet build - part 2 - range finder and ear piece painting
9 Feb 2020
This build started some time around August 2019, and is wrapping up now in February 2020.
Range Finder
After looking at some other peoples' builds on the Dented Helmet website, and getting range finder envy, I decided to put some more effort into the range finder - flashing lights, a resin lense, and a damaged paint finish.
First, the body of the range finder. I built this using 3mm MDF. It also needed a metal piece in the base, so I cut up an old iPad for scraps.
For the lense, I thought about using perspex, but it was going to be pretty costly to get a piece thick enough, and then I'd need to route it. I thought it might be easier to just pour some clear resin instead. Using the wooden body for size, I made up a cardboard mold, then poured - it came out reasonably well. Some sanding was needed to level things off, and then a few cuts with the router and some green paint on the bottom to finish it off. Using the router on the bottom ended up chipping a bit off, but it hopefully won't be too visible.
The paint job has been done with silver spray, followed by toothpaste where I wanted it to look damaged, then black spray over the top. Once the black paint dried, the toothpaste was peeled off to show the silver underneath. This was finished off in late December 2019.
I decided I'd better add some lighting as well, so I designed a small circuit board with a 555 timer, a 4013 flip-flop, and a tilt switch to turn it on when the range finder is lowered. The board was ready late January 2020.
Unfortunately I messed up the hole size for the tilt switch, which made the soldering a bit messy - I had to cut the legs off the switch and tack on some thinner wires. Otherwise, everything kinda went to plan, and the board fits in the tiny space available. There's also a white light that is meant to be not flashing, but the current drain seems to be a bit much for the battery, and the white light flashes in time to the blinking red lights. Meh. Should have crammed another capacitor in there somewhere I guess.
There's also a smaller piece that goes over the main lense, which I've made with 3mm foam, and part of a bicycle light lens that I've cut up.
The range finder stalk is some 3mm thick aluminium, which I've cut out using an angle grinder and filed into shape. Things went a bit wobbly on the end, but this will be covered by the ear piece so that's OK.
I've scratched it up somewhat, dabbed on some grease and paint, glued it onto the range finder body, and Boba's your uncle.
Ear piece painting
After constructing the ear pieces from MDF, they've had a coat of primer and then I've sprayed them with silver and gold paint. The right ear piece has some black and white details - the black I've masked off and sprayed, and the white I painted on by hand. Then a bit of scratching and some green/grey paint to make it look worn, and it's done. The ear pieces were painted in December 2019, and details finished off in January 2020.
Details are hand painted - some 'concrete' and red colouring for damaged parts, as well as the white, and the small design has been drawn with a marker.
