Don Post helmet

[Toyhunter80's]

I have my Don Post helmet and it fits great. I have some questions about this bucket

It is a bit deformed in the back, what is the best way to fix this?
Once that is fixed, is there anyway to mod it so that it keeps its shape?
I have read that some people go with a red lens and some go with a black lens. Which is recommend?
How do you mount the lens inside so that it allows airflow?
Is there a paint brand/color that we all use so that we are the same?
What costumes is the DP acceptable for?

Below is a post from another thread. I plan to use it as my guide for fixing my helmet. Any other tips anyone has?

Well, I just went through modifying my own DP helmet only a couple months ago so I can give you a run down of what I did.

First I removed the thin plastic visor of the original DP helmet using a hobby knife. I then used some files to slowly sand/cut out the visor area as I didn't have a dremel at my disposal. The next thing I did was sand down the entire outside of the helmet starting with about a 320 grit sandpaper and working through several grades all the way up to about a 20,000 grit sand paper (usually found at hobby shops for models) to remove the original finish of the helmet from the factory. I then filled in the Don Post stamp on the "tail" of the helmet with modellers putty (much easier to use than bondo, and a lot less of a worry of screwing up), let it dry and cure, and then sanded it down until it was flush with the rest of the helmet. Once I had all this done I got rustoleum grey primer, stuffed the inside of the helmet with paper, and sprayed the whole helmet. I let the primer cure a full 72 hours. After the primer had cured I painted the helmet with rustoleum fire red, in thin coats. By the time it was all said and done I think I had 9 or 10 coats of the fire red paint on the helmet (basically 2 full cans worth of spray paint). The final thing I did before installing my new red visor was to spray the helmet with the rustoleum clear coat. I ended up with 4 layers of clearcoat just to help solidify the paint job so that hopefully any scatches will end up being minimal to fix in the long run. Finally I glued the visor in inside the helmet. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It's a time consuming process, but well worth it once it's done. I hope this helps you out and if you need any clarification on any of my steps send me a message and I'll try to help out.

Stripes

[Darth Skellington]

I'll try and help out the best I can here.

I think if you heat your helmet with a hairdryer, you might be able to reshape it.

To help it maintain it's shape, you will probably need to reinforce it with a layer of fibre-glass on the inside. I honestly know nothing about this, so I coukd be wrong. You would need to talk to someone who has actually done this, or someone who has cut their helmet n half and expanded it using fibreglass or bondo or whatever.

Red lenses were used in all the movies, and are considered correct. Your lens should be dark enough to hide your facial features from the casual observer (ie..it shouldn't be a clear visor with a hint of red to it). Black tinted visors are also acceptable, even though they are not movie-accurate. The reason is the average fan thinks Guards have black visors, in part because many of the old toys, collectibles, and artwork had black visors. So, most people remember them having black visors, and black visors seem "correct", even though they are not. I personally like the black visor better and have it in my own helmet. Red or black are both acceptable for 501st approval.

You can mount a lens any number of ways, using superglue, epoxy, hot glue, duct tape, maybe velcro. Whatever works best for you. In order to allow airflow, you just don't make it flush with the helmet. Leave a little gap between the helmet and the bottom of the visor...or both the bottom and the top. This lets hot humid air from your breath exit through the visor as it rises. Your gap should probably be at least 1/4 inch. Larger gaps aren't that noticeable either. Play around with it and see what lets you breath better.

There are a couple colors that people have found work well. I'll let someone wlse comment on those.

The DP helmet should be acceptable (after paint and visor mods) for all costumes, except Carnor Jax. Jax requires special visor mods and a ridge along the top of the helmet. I think the ridge is optional on Kir Kanos helmets.

[stripes]

Skel has pretty much hit on everything that I didn't mention in the post you quoted. Hopefully between the two you have enough resources to fix up your helmet.

Stripes

[Toyhunter80's]

Great stuff. Now I am just looking for clarification on making the helmet keep it's shape and brand/color for helmet paint.

[LuciousTalvloinne]

Don Post helmets are known for warping. Using a Hair dryer will help reshape it. In my experience I have use Fusion Krylon Crimson Red which matches the Triple velvet fabric very well.

[stripes]

As I had in my previously posted quote, I used Rustoleum Fire Red and have a pretty much spot on match to the velvet that I used for my outer cloak. Don't know that I could have gotten it much closer short of taking a fabric sample to the hardware store and having a custom colour mixed (even then I don't know it would have been much closer than what I have now)... Now if only I could get the velvet for my under robes (international shipping really sucks)...