So the helmet arrived yesterday, and unfortunately it looks like one of the tusks broke off in transit. As soon as I got it I also went to an armor party at my local garrison where I met a bunch of people and learned a lot.
When I was there, I decided to try 3D printing my armor instead of getting it from 850. I initially shied away from that because I was intimidated by the amount of work involved, and because I wasn’t sure about the quality of the material. After seeing some printed armor in person yesterday, I no longer have any fear about the quality, I was quite impressed. I’ve never been able to handle any of this armor in person so that was huge for me.
As for the work involved, I exchanged numbers with one of the other troopers there who will be teaching me everything I need to know and helping me every step of the way. Side note, I just want to say I’m so amazed at how welcoming everyone in the 501st has been, from this forum to my local garrison. It was definitely daunting walking into an armor party where I knew nobody, but I really had no reason to be nervous.
Anyway, the last hurdle of the 3D printing is the actual printing. I don’t have a printer, but I actually recently decided to get one and this is another reason to do so. Plus, the trooper that will be helping me has one and said he’ll help me with the printing.
Back to the helmet, I got some adhesive and reattached the tusk and another little piece that came off with it. I have decided to repaint the helmet, so this piece will be repainted at some point.
My next step is padding the interior. I have the opposite problem as some others on here, and the helmet is very large on my head. Even with the helmet padding I got on Amazon, my ears don't even touch the sides. So I was looking through the forums here and thought about hard hat suspension. I ordered the suspension by itself and I'll see if that works. I would still like padding on the sides and back though. I thought about using some foam I have laying around, but I'm not sure how to adhere it to the interior. I didn't think glue would work very well on the foam. So I'm open to suggestions. I'm just not sure what to use that will be big enough, soft enough, and stick enough.