Scout Trooper eye pieces (to mould perspex)

I find this the easiest method of creating the eyes for all the helmets I've done. These had a lot of extra plastic that didn't need to be printed for the purpose of moulding the eye perspex so I used mesh mixer to crudely chop them.

You will need:

PLA/ABS/PETG/whatever your filament flavour is.

Perspex

A rotary tool

An oven

Some aluminium foil

Baking tray

A large spoon

Some hand protection (a tea towel)

A lifting device (screwdriver)

Print the eye pieces in the lowest quality that will come out your nozzle and highest speed your printer can handle. Quality isn't an issue here as you only need the rough shape of the eye opening. You don't even need to fully print these pieces, only enough to get the shape.

Glue the pieces together, I used superglue use whatever works for you.

Cut some perspex with a rotary tool to the rough size of the mould you just made.

Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and place the perspex on the tray.

Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 150c. Lift the corner of the perspex after 5 minutes (with your lifting device not your fingers) to check if the perspex is malleable.

Now with some appropriate hand protection pick up the perspex and place it in the mould as best you can.

Take your spoon and press the perspex into the mould until it firms up. I found using water to cool it made it warp so I don't advise that. Just put it to one side and let it cool down naturally. If you make a mistake just put the perspex back in the oven until malleable and try again.

I chopped the middle section out of mine so my nose has somewhere to go. I used some tape to protect my nose from the sharp perspex.

Hot glue the perspex into your helmet.

If you want a slightly better mouth piece see here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2572915

Update, Chopped them back even further and cleaned up the edges.

Category: Costume