Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Build Part 5: Helmets

Back in ancient history, I built some 40K helmets:

In order to have the kind of variety I wanted for my full-sized Space Marine build, I needed to make one more, the Mark VII version seen in the latest incarnation of the games.

Here's the finished product:


For details of how it was made (and more pictures) read on...



Here's a shot showing the Pepakura model based on the 3D data from the Relic Studios Space Marine game next to my old MkVI "beaky" helmet:

Here it is over the neck hole in the torso armor for a size test:

It also turned out to be a good fit on top of the neckseal arrangement:

Satisfied that the scale was correct, I finished out the prototype in much the same way as the terminator helmet I did some months ago.  I began with a coat of polyester resin:

Once the resin set up, I went ahead and reinforced it on the inside, layered some Bondo on the outside, and sanded and shaped it until I was happy with the finished result.  Here it is in primer:

Here's the angle that most viewers would have when it's worn with the full suit of armor:

The last step before molding was to give it a nice gloss coat of my primary prototype pink:

The mold was a two-part jacket mold with a corresponding two-part mother mold.  Here I am pouring on the print coat:

Here's the first half of the jacket mold laid up:

Once both halves of the jacket mold were made, I made a lightweight fiberglass mothermold:

The casting was done with just a couple of layers of urethane resin, the first layer was blended with microballoons and the second layer was reinforced with milled glassfibers.  Once I'd pulled it out of the mold, I did some quick cleanup and gave it a coat of primer from a rattlecan.  That done, I vacformed and installed some lenses:

The end result was a tad on the small side for a normal person:

But still the right scale for the character:

With the first cast out of the mold, the next step was to cast a few more and paint them up:

The hose details on the cheeks of the two with hoses are actually some automotive wiring conduit and some 1/2" PVC pipe fittings cut down to make them a bit less recognizable.

Behind the heavy grill on the face is a piece of decorative metal sheet from the hardware store just like I used on the vents for the beaky helmet:



More to come.  Stay tuned...

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