Straight lines down, same length away from the original chin vent edges all the way down and then a round corner at the bottom, just as you did at the top.

Something like this.


I know it looks extreme and huge when looking directly at it, but when holding the face straight and looking at it straight on it looks right.

EDIT: looking at my quick drawing I can see that the lines aren't drawn exactly the same length away from the original chin vent all the way down, making it look even huger. Sorry about that, but you get the picture... I hope.

Thanks Carsten! I had originally sketched out pretty much what you describe but, like you say, it looked HUGE so I thought it was too much--lol.

Cheers,

Dave

I did it to my JediJeffrey cast. Looked INSANE, I can tell you and it took days before I calmed down thinking I'd cut away way too much. But it looks just right, when viewing the helmet right.

Closer still...





Thanks for the advice Carsten Just another touch up sanding, shot of primer and I think we're there.

Dave

Very nice. man, that's gonna look sharp, considering the features on the DP DLX was pure RotJ with some additional clean-up, I can't for the life of me understand why they cut the chin vent so small or why it's seen as an ESB.

Looking forward to seeing more.

Next stop Automotive Black Lacquer:



Cheers,

Dave

Wow, that looks great. Why didn't the originl DP delux look as good?

Dan

OK, well maybe not the black lacquer then. I was about to paint and taking one last look when I decided that another weak area of the casting was the base of the nose where it meets the mouth slots. The base of the slots at the "lip" were about 1/4" thick and about 1/8" at the top where they touch the nose. So I decided to slop some Bondo-glass onto the inside of the mask to thicken it up:



Then I trimmed and filled and filed etc to even the slots out. I also did some more trimming around the chin vent hole where some extra Bondo had been laid to thicken the neck and repair some damage previous to my ownership:



I also added some Bondo-glass around the mounting ring to help re-enforce it. Once that was done I finally started shaking the rattle can of Duplicolor Universal Black. I could post a pic or two but at this point it's like trying to photograph a black hole!

More pics soon though!

Dave

Indirect light. Find as many lamps as you can, position them around the object, not shining directly at it... and then use white sheet or paper to reflect light onto the mask and then take a picture without flash - which with some digital cameras require a steady hand/surface/tripod.

Got my new toy--a light cube for photography (hopefully this will be an answer to the insane problem of taking even halfway decent pictures indoors). I've got some learning to do on how to best use it but here are some results--I think it needs more light from a front source. I've done three painting sessions of three coats each so far:





Black on Black (from six feet back!):


I've got one or two very tiny spots to touch up which will ultimately be underneath the Gunmetal highlighting. I'm going to let the paint cure for a good week or more before I do the gunmetal bits as my last session was yesterday (aiming for next weekend if the weather co-operates).

Then I have to solve the dome positioning problem!

Cheers,

Dave

Good work! I like how it retains much of the flavor of the original Don Post Deluxe.

In terms of dome positioning, the 1" cutoff on the mounting system will work just fine for most purposes. This will allow you to position the "ashtray" (receiver) as you please, as the original DP Deluxe receiver looked like an ashtray.

Very smooth paint job so far!

Even more "almost there" now. Got the gunmetal coat applied and have to do some touch up around the eyes now (Chipped some black paint while cutting the masking). Tempted to do a slight clear coat to tie it all together and punch up the gunmetal which looks rather flat--even though a clear coat isn't considered "cannon".

Who is that masked man??


Gunmetal done:



Experimental dome placement:


After some work with the dome ring hopefully it'll be done sometime this week to take to work

Cheers,

Dave

I really like how this is turning out. You did this with cans?

Thanks Carsten, thanks Mac All painted with rattle-can Dupli-Color Acrylic Lacquer: #100 Universal Black and #177 Gunmetal Gray. The Gunmetal went on a bit thicker than I would have liked but there we are.

I'm going to play around with the "ash tray" a little--that's a great name for it Mac. I'd like for the dome to lock into place fairly securely so it won't get knocked around accidentally.

Dave