The Mandalorian Helmet Part 5: Final

Bob | February 3, 2020 | Project | No Comments

This is it, the fifth and final part of my Mandalorian Helmet build. In this post I will cover the weathering process and the addition of the black face shield/visor.

I chose to weather the helmet before installing the face shield. Weathering is a messy process and I wanted the keep the gloss black as pristine as possible. To do the weathering I used Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic Raw Umber and Mars Black, which is a bit of a warmer black. I watered down the paint heavily. Then, I took a stiff brush, loaded it up with paint (mostly raw umber), and stippled it all over the helmet. Since it is such a big surface, I kind of worked in quarters. Then I took a damp paper towel and just blotted the helmet clean allowing paint to stay in all the crevices. I repeated this process till I got the desired look which took about five applications.

Here is the completed weathering. You can see the different grades of dirty paper towel in the background. I tried to go real light with the weathering to match my episode 1 and episode 2 reference images.

Next I installed the visor. I used a Hobart Shaded Lens 770580. It is a little darker than dark sunglasses. According to the sheet it is “Shade #3”. I used a pair of tin snips to cut it out. As you can see in the picture, the visor is very rigid and wants to lay flat. My solution to this was to clamp it to a small pot to use as a form, and let it soak in boiling water for about 10 minutes. I didn’t expect it to work, but it did. Once it was shaped, I hot glued it in place.