East-Meg One is a fictional city in the world of Judge Dredd, intended to represent the remnants of the Soviet Union. East-Meg Judges (also called Sov Judges) are the law enforcement and government for the Sov Block.
The first appearance of the East-Meg Judges took place in the Luna-1 stories (Progs 50-51) as drawn by Brian Bolland, my favorite Dredd artist.
Using every image I could find from the issue, I drew up working plans using my helmet template.
I imported the paths into Strata3D and constructed a model of the helmet.
I imported the model in Pepakura and printed out the paper model. Since the crest needed to be perfectly flat, I cut a piece of 1/4” MDF to use instead of the paper part.
The MDF crest was glued into the paper model.
I slushed Smooth-On SmoothCast 300 into the model, building a 1/8” shell.
After sanding off the folds, I applied Bondo to smooth out the geometry.
I cut a hole for the emblem out of the border.
I cut a puck from 1/4” MDF for the emblem master. I wrapped it in plastic wrap to clean up the hole around the emblem.
The back of the puck was coated with Bondo to form the base of the hole.
The surface of the puck was sanded smooth to sit flush with the faceplate and match its curve.
Here is the emblem removed from the faceplate hole.
I drew and cut out a styrene plastic hammer and sickle and glued it to the emblem (reversed in the comic book universe.)
The helmet and emblem was painted with a final coat of primer.
The primer was wet sanded and polished to a mirror shine in preparation for molding.
I brushed on a mold using MoldMax Stroke and the resulting roto casting came out of the mold glossy!
I cut a piece of Hobart welding shield to fit the faceplate opening.
The visor was secured with pop rivets. The holes were filled with Bondo and sanded smooth.
The helmet was painted with flat black paint with a glossy red faceplate.
I made a mold and cold cast the emblem in brass.
The helmet fits snugly so the interior padding is very thin. I used black headliner fabric and just folded over the edges. The pads were secured with hot glue.
The final helmet.
Front view.
Side view.
And worn by my droog Paul (aka Judge Rotzlov)