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The Mars attacks miniatures have these old retro sci-fi helmets. Does anyone have any ideas about making helmets like this for 40k miniatures? I've had quick looks at various plastic packaging, small light bulbs etc but haven't found anything of the right size or shape yet. Maybe someone else have found something that works?

i would look for a plastic form that would be about the shape you need and use a vac you form machine....I had one from my father that's got to be about 25 years old or more and its perfect for making canopies!

Sounds like a fun machine! Not sure I want to buy one just for this though...

I've found a lego-figure that has something that might work, just not sure about the scale. Havn't held a lego-man in quite some time but they seem way to big don't they?

Ohman wrote:
The Mars attacks miniatures have these old retro sci-fi helmets. Does anyone have any ideas about making helmets like this for 40k miniatures? I've had quick looks at various plastic packaging, small light bulbs etc but haven't found anything of the right size or shape yet. Maybe someone else have found something that works?

I made those helmets (the prototypes I was working with didn't have the clear styrene ones ready) as follows.

Get a round ended cylinder of the right size to act as a dolly. I used an old GW tank brush I think. Some skanky old paintbrush anyway.
Mount that in a desk vice so it's vertical.
Cut a small piece of acetate sheet to about a 1.5" square.
Use a candle or hot air blower to soften the acetate and quickly and smoothly and WITHOUT ROTATING (this is harder than it sounds) press the sheet down over the dolly, to form a 'wrap' over the dolly. I wouldn't recommend using a lighter as you need to move from the heat to the dolly quickly.
Remove the dolly from the vice and use a rolling cut to trim the helmet from the formed acetate.

Be prepared to have to do this several times especially at first.

I think the first step if you're trying to add a helmet like this to a model is to build the collar of it - this will give you the diameter of the dolly you'll need to use for the actetate portion.

Another idea might be to cast the helmets out of clear resin. First paint the heads, then make a mould by pressing the end of a paintbrush into some 2 part silicon, then pour some clear resin into the mould (making sure to evacuate any bubbles), then suspend the head upside down in the clear resin (perhaps with a collar) and wait for it to set. When it is set you should have the painted head encased in a clear resin shell.

 Smacks wrote:
Another idea might be to cast the helmets out of clear resin. First paint the heads, then make a mould by pressing the end of a paintbrush into some 2 part silicon, then pour some clear resin into the mould (making sure to evacuate any bubbles), then suspend the head upside down in the clear resin (perhaps with a collar) and wait for it to set. When it is set you should have the painted head encased in a clear resin shell.

Almost guaranteed to bubble and look like crap, not to mention not refracting properly. Does not work.

winterdyne wrote:
Almost guaranteed to bubble and look like crap, not to mention not refracting properly. Does not work.

Respectfully, things are successfully cast in clear resin all the time. It does, in fact, work. As for refraction, the difference between a thin hollow shell filled with air/water, and a solid, are almost impossible to discern. No one is going to look twice at it.

Do any 3D print services work with clear material?

Many, however the printing process tends to leave lines that fog the surface. You can polish it, but it's a lot of work.

Going back to the resin idea, I should qualify it as 'in my experience'. The heat-forming method is much more reliable, cheaper and easier for small amounts of product.

You can of course make parts in clear resin, but you really, really need to pressure cast it (and degas the resin) to ensure it stays bubble free, and if it goes wrong, you've got no way to undo the attempt. Then you have the rigmarole of finding a suitable resin that dries extremely hard.

winterdyne wrote:
I made those helmets (the prototypes I was working with didn't have the clear styrene ones ready) as follows.

Get a round ended cylinder of the right size to act as a dolly. I used an old GW tank brush I think. Some skanky old paintbrush anyway.
Mount that in a desk vice so it's vertical.
Cut a small piece of acetate sheet to about a 1.5" square.
Use a candle or hot air blower to soften the acetate and quickly and smoothly and WITHOUT ROTATING (this is harder than it sounds) press the sheet down over the dolly, to form a 'wrap' over the dolly. I wouldn't recommend using a lighter as you need to move from the heat to the dolly quickly.
Remove the dolly from the vice and use a rolling cut to trim the helmet from the formed acetate.

Be prepared to have to do this several times especially at first.

I think the first step if you're trying to add a helmet like this to a model is to build the collar of it - this will give you the diameter of the dolly you'll need to use for the actetate portion.

Small world, not often you stumble on the person who made the very thing you asked about!

Thanks for the advice. I think I might give this a try.

It would be nice to find some perfect little plastic bowl somewhere but I guess it would take a good while to find something of the exakt right size.

I actually was looking for something similar a while back, turs out Bombshell miniatures sells packs of just the dome helmets for their Counterblast game.

http://store.bombshellminis.com/36026-plastic-dome-sprue-t8/

These would probably be the closest to the shape you are looking for, though I'm not sure how they'd stack up size wise since I don't know if Counterblast errs more towards a "true 28mm" scale.

Great link JackFlask! They had a whole bunch of useful things there.

Hey Jack Flask, thanks for that link. Been browsing around their website, I found I am actually a big fan of their Counterblast models. Might be picking some up now to try out their game.

Ohman wrote:Great link JackFlask! They had a whole bunch of useful things there.

NH Gunsmith wrote:Hey Jack Flask, thanks for that link. Been browsing around their website, I found I am actually a big fan of their Counterblast models. Might be picking some up now to try out their game.

No problem. I spent a long time looking for dome shaped helmet when I was thinking of kitbashing some Starcraft style marines.

Never actally got around to it though, so if either of you do pick up some domes I'd love to see some pictures of them on your minis.

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking????


"to infinity....and beyond!!!!!!!"......

Just needs the helmet!

That buzz lightyear is fantastic! Is that what your trying to make the domes for? Or is that someone else's pic?

Not mine. Found it on Pinterest with Dakka listed as source. Real cool though, could work as a theme for a whole chapter!