Buffalo Rumblings
If you’re reading this version of my Buffalo Bills Mandalorian helmet reveal it’s because of one thing and one thing only. The team copied my homework.
The original intent was that I got people hooked on the project with the helmet being the tantalizing final reveal. I was going to show off each piece, bit by bit, until I was able to showcase the full set of Mando gear with the helmet as the cherry on top.
But then the Bills released an alternate uniform combination to the world. And their helmet looks like a ripoff of mine. So here you go! An early release of my work to show that the Bills not only are reading my work, but actively copying it.
Way back on April 14, I revealed the concept for my Mandalorian helmet, found here. It included the following graphic intended to show a side-by-side of the helmet’s original Sabine Wren design with my intended one. As you can clearly see, the charge stripe on a blue background was my idea. Sure it’s a **** illustration, but the idea is quite clear.
I even discussed the base color to replicate my beskar steel was going to be a coat of pewter-colored paint. Yes, the Bills are rolling with “nickel” to go with the city’s nickname, but us Buffalo Rumblings faithful know the score. They were copying my homework all along.
The real question isn’t the headline. It’s obvious they owe me a design credit. The real question is; can I spray paint better than I draw?
I won’t go into too many details on the process here, you’ve seen some of how I made stencils using the Frog Tape, and you’ll see some more when we get to my shoulder armor. I will say that I agonized on how to get the lines straight. I really needed to nail that. I lost actual sleep.
Then it hit me. You know what has some really straight lines already? The tape, you dummy. Me. I was the dummy. The second that realization hit, I couldn’t wait to finish the final paint. You’re not here for stories though. So here’s some more of the final paint to check out, starting with my reveal video as I gleefully take off the tape to see how I did.
Hopefully that was enjoyable and not for Rex Ryan reasons if you catch my drift. Wanna see some still shots of it? Of course you do!
Here you go. In all its Mando glory. I tried to get the rangefinder to match the look when down and that turned out to be a pretty simple affair. Even better, this lights up when down and I managed to get the electronics back together so it still works the way it should. I rolled the dice on the pewter paint holding the texture to look like pitted and aged steel and that worked...
