EZ Rex Mod

Here's where it all started. My son's favorite character in the "new" SW universe is Capt. Rex. And, I have to admit, he's a pretty freekin' cool guy...too bad he eventually turns evil and slaughters innocent children...but for now he's a good guy and I pretend he stays that way.

Anyway, as a gift to my son, I splurged the $30 for a Hasbro clone helmet and with a little looking, stumbled upon StormtrooperGuy and all the incredible work he did.

Now, after spending 6 months and nearly $2000 on a custom, scratch build Jango for EP. II premiere, my lifeforce for doing such precision, detail work is completely drained.

However, I do still love to tinker and paint. Which is how I came up with the EZMod™ system. Which is simple - one evening's worth of paint and quicker than Emeril can say, "Bam!" I'm all done. And I get to permanently be a hero to my boy...which is more than I can say for ol' Rexy.

Anyway, like I said, with great inspiration from STG, I quickly realized this mod would require a little more than just paint.

So, I grabbed the lid to a vitamin bottle (some women's iron pills to be exact), a wooden dowel rod from Hobby Lobby, some sheet styrene and last but not least, the top to a bottle of Dial Foam Pump hand soap and a couple of greeblies from a model airplane kit and quickly assembled the Rex's antenna.

It was really so easy, anyone - and I mean anyone - could do it. No tools required. Not even a drill...I just used a pocket knife and slowly hand-drilled a hole through the vitamin lid to shove the dowel rod through. Then I dumped a load of 5-min. epoxy to secure everything and cut out a circle from .20 gauge styrene to cover the hole. I screwed it to the existing circle on the ear-hole then spray painted it black. About 1-2 hours, total.

Then, looking at a Rex action figure, I freehand penciled the Jaig eyes and painted everything with a small detail brush. A little black drybrushing for weathering and boom! EZ Rex!

I probably won't do the EZ Visor Mod™ because this is for a 5-year old and I don't want him falling down the stairs because I cut off all the peripheral vision.

All in all, not bad for $40.

Tiger Clone EZMod™

After successfully pulling off a HasRex (Hasbro helmet Capt. Rex mod), I decided to do a second EZMod™ after seeing the SW Clone Wars epidsode "Rising Malevolence".

In that episode, we are introduced to the "Tiger Clones", which are a part of Jedi Master Plo Koon's squad.

Anyway, I thought the paint scheme was totally cool. I freehanded a pencil outline, then painted over with simple black acrylic and maroon. The pics also show my experimental EZ Visor Mod™ unpainted and temporarily stuck in place, for positioning.

I may get around to doing some black mesh behind the mouth grill and side vents. But again, I'm not going to be filling in any seams or bondoing anything.

This is my second Hasbro helmet EZMod. Next up will be a custom CamoTrooper for my nephew. I'll post pics as I get the project complete.

-Bardo Fett

EZ Visor Mod™

So, like I mentioned before, I wanted to take the Hasbro bucket and make it just a tad bit less kiddy-looking.

Therefore after much trial and error (read: about an hour of measuring and cutting while watching Scrubs reruns on WGN), I was able to create the EZ Visor Mod™.

I'll soon post a .PDF template so anyone can download and use for their own enjoyment.

Basically, at this point, I've cut out the mod using a garage sale sign I got for $1.00 at Home Depot (thanks to StormtrooperGuy for the sign idea). Then, using some of my wife's scrapbooking adhesive (Zots), I stuck them in place and viola!

Instant almost-screen accuracy in about an hour!

As you can see, I made them to simply cover the upper cheek area, from the frown up to the upper corners by the ear. It's a way easy way to reduce the overall size of the visor and make it slightly more screen accurate.

The particular sign I used has a slightly yellow tint, but regular hobby styrene is much closer to the Hasbro white. However, if you're going to give the whole thing a paint job, it doesn't really matter.

Also, I didn't bother to fill in any seams or bondo anything, as I didn't want to spend that much time or go to that much effort. I'm not trooping with this and I don't belong to the 501. I tend to only complete projects that I know I can realistically finish in less than a day.

In fact, I'm maybe I'll just form my own fan club - the Legion of Target Troopers. Haha.

-Bardo Fett

Bardo Fett's Hasbro Helmet Mods

With all the cool troopers modding their Hasbro buckets, I thought it was time I jumped into the fray.

However, I have neither the time or inclination to do a full-bore overhaul (I'm not nearly at talented as StormtrooperGuy).

Therefore, my mods will consist solely of paint and my recently created EZ Visor Mod™.

I will be documenting my progress and posting. Please comment with any questions or comments.

Thanks.

-Bardo Fett