Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
- Thread starter DerKraken
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bboyfresco
Active Member
godly 
Been a while, huh?
I've been furiously working on several things, but I assure you that the helmet has not been forgotten!
Firstly, based on some new reference shots I've gotten, I reworked the ear channels. I ended up filling my circuit board carvings in based on this new info. Mine sat about 3/8" deep, and it looks like these are 1/16" max.
Also, the ear pieces seemed to be really tall on mine, so I shaved those down while I was at it. I'm thinking this is a lot more accurate now (obviously needs some sanding, but you get the point):
Ive been working on shaping the chin and upper hoop. Still some work to do with that (no pictures right now) but I think one more skim coat and we're set.
My silicone came in today. These shots were taken last week, but I don't have much more sanding and finishing work to do before going to paint and then molding. I really, really hope I can start getting it in rubber by Wednesday, but we'll see...
I finally finished my PCBs. Thats right, electronics planning is DONE (with the small exception of the controller board, which I haven't started on yet... I have about 3 days to do that but I wanted to knock these out first)
Ok, here's how this works. The Arduino sends out signal to all of these boards, and the LEDs draw through a series of 2n2222 transistors from a series of 9v batteries. Four 9Vs will power the helmet as well as the logic board.
The Arduino goes directly to the "Shift Register" board, which houses the IC chips that take the 3 digital output channels and convert them to 32 channels of control. Size: 1.2" x 2.2"
A DB25 cable carries the signal, while a 2-wire connector from the 9V supply carries power up from this control box to the helmet itself. The logic board, 9V batteries, and the board above will be placed elsewhere on the wearer (likely a jacket pocket) to make changing batteries easier, as well as free up much needed space in the helmet. The DB25 and power terminate at the "signal switching" board. Size: 1.2" x 2.55"
There are 3 plugs on here which take the DB25 signal and send it out to various other boards. The 14-pin connector goes to the "Chin Transistor" board, the 8-pin feeds the "color bars" boards, and the 6-pin supplies the "ear transistor" board with power. Both the ear and chin boards have their transistors housed on more distribution block boards, while the color bar boards all house their transistors on the boards themselves.
Chin Transistor board - 1.70" x 1.5"
Ear Transistor board - 1.4" x 0.7"
Color bar LED boards - 2.6" x 0.4"
Chin LED boards - 3.45" x 2.5"
Ear LED boards - 1.9" x 0.4"
Order went in today at www.batchpcb.com so hopefully I can have these in-hand in 3 weeks and start on my crazy soldering.
These boards are only showing the top copper layer and silkscreen for preview purposes. If anyone's curious, I'm designing these boards in CADSoft's EAGLE PCB layout program. Maybe not the most intuitive program in the world, but definitely a very powerful tool.
I've been furiously working on several things, but I assure you that the helmet has not been forgotten!
Firstly, based on some new reference shots I've gotten, I reworked the ear channels. I ended up filling my circuit board carvings in based on this new info. Mine sat about 3/8" deep, and it looks like these are 1/16" max.
Also, the ear pieces seemed to be really tall on mine, so I shaved those down while I was at it. I'm thinking this is a lot more accurate now (obviously needs some sanding, but you get the point):
Ive been working on shaping the chin and upper hoop. Still some work to do with that (no pictures right now) but I think one more skim coat and we're set.
My silicone came in today. These shots were taken last week, but I don't have much more sanding and finishing work to do before going to paint and then molding. I really, really hope I can start getting it in rubber by Wednesday, but we'll see...
I finally finished my PCBs. Thats right, electronics planning is DONE (with the small exception of the controller board, which I haven't started on yet... I have about 3 days to do that but I wanted to knock these out first)
Ok, here's how this works. The Arduino sends out signal to all of these boards, and the LEDs draw through a series of 2n2222 transistors from a series of 9v batteries. Four 9Vs will power the helmet as well as the logic board.
The Arduino goes directly to the "Shift Register" board, which houses the IC chips that take the 3 digital output channels and convert them to 32 channels of control. Size: 1.2" x 2.2"
A DB25 cable carries the signal, while a 2-wire connector from the 9V supply carries power up from this control box to the helmet itself. The logic board, 9V batteries, and the board above will be placed elsewhere on the wearer (likely a jacket pocket) to make changing batteries easier, as well as free up much needed space in the helmet. The DB25 and power terminate at the "signal switching" board. Size: 1.2" x 2.55"
There are 3 plugs on here which take the DB25 signal and send it out to various other boards. The 14-pin connector goes to the "Chin Transistor" board, the 8-pin feeds the "color bars" boards, and the 6-pin supplies the "ear transistor" board with power. Both the ear and chin boards have their transistors housed on more distribution block boards, while the color bar boards all house their transistors on the boards themselves.
Chin Transistor board - 1.70" x 1.5"
Ear Transistor board - 1.4" x 0.7"
Color bar LED boards - 2.6" x 0.4"
Chin LED boards - 3.45" x 2.5"
Ear LED boards - 1.9" x 0.4"
Order went in today at www.batchpcb.com so hopefully I can have these in-hand in 3 weeks and start on my crazy soldering.
These boards are only showing the top copper layer and silkscreen for preview purposes. If anyone's curious, I'm designing these boards in CADSoft's EAGLE PCB layout program. Maybe not the most intuitive program in the world, but definitely a very powerful tool.
Well, my worst fear happened last night.
The sculpt fell off my bench.
I'm currently working on a Big Daddy costume from Bioshock. The main body is currently in my garage - a hollow fiberglass shell that stands about 4' tall from the ground, but about 6.5' tall on the stand where I've been building it (I'd post some pics, but I'm trying to keep it under wraps until DragonCon) After about 3 hours of wetsanding last night, I set the Daft Punk helmet on a stand in the garage to hit a couple of low spots with some putty. I left it out there to dry, then went inside to work on other things.
The Big Daddy suit is heavy, probably close to 20 pounds right now. I still have no idea how it happened, but the suit fell over, hit my table, and knocked the helmet onto the concrete. This cracked the areas around both helmet "D" ring shapes, and also carved some pretty significant gouges into the visor and rear hoop.
I was up until about 3am fixing this crap, but my schedule of being in silicone by today may be down the crapper. I doubt my 3am repairs will stand up once I get the piece in primer, but we'll see. Hopefully I can get to the mold by tomorrow if it doesn't need too much more work.
bah.
The sculpt fell off my bench.
I'm currently working on a Big Daddy costume from Bioshock. The main body is currently in my garage - a hollow fiberglass shell that stands about 4' tall from the ground, but about 6.5' tall on the stand where I've been building it (I'd post some pics, but I'm trying to keep it under wraps until DragonCon) After about 3 hours of wetsanding last night, I set the Daft Punk helmet on a stand in the garage to hit a couple of low spots with some putty. I left it out there to dry, then went inside to work on other things.
The Big Daddy suit is heavy, probably close to 20 pounds right now. I still have no idea how it happened, but the suit fell over, hit my table, and knocked the helmet onto the concrete. This cracked the areas around both helmet "D" ring shapes, and also carved some pretty significant gouges into the visor and rear hoop.
I was up until about 3am fixing this crap, but my schedule of being in silicone by today may be down the crapper. I doubt my 3am repairs will stand up once I get the piece in primer, but we'll see. Hopefully I can get to the mold by tomorrow if it doesn't need too much more work.
bah.
mightymints
Member
Gah, this is amazing. Im sorry to hear that .
.
thatdecade
Well-Known Member
Circuits are cool, very clever, thanks for posting.
Sorry to hear about those cracks
Sorry to hear about those cracks
AssassinGT
New Member
Amazing work my friend. Definitely know whats up. I love daft punkkk~!
Ain't that the truth. In hindsight, it probably made me look a little closer at some of the areas I was saying "good enough" to. Since I had to fix the cracks, I went ahead and fixed those too.
Wrapped up the sculpt last night. NO MORE SANDING! Well, not on this piece anyways...
Shiny.
Should be able to start pulling resin by Sunday.
Robbymrodriguez
Member
Dude, sweet detail! It's that the final color or some sort of primer?
mchammertime
Well-Known Member
OMGKITTENS!!! thats so good man.
INSERT MC HAMMER TIME SEAL OF APPROVAL HERE ->
INSERT MC HAMMER TIME SEAL OF APPROVAL HERE ->
Robby said:
Just Krylon "Ruddy Prown" primer. Remember that this is just a mold, the finals will be resin cast. A word of warning about Krylon paints though: you CAN'T wet sand the Gray Krylon primer. I don't know why, but it absorbs moisture and will screw up molds/topcoat. I had never tried buffing primer with wax before, but this turned out rather well. I think I'll be doing this to all my molds from now on. Its ridiculously smooth.
leafjerky said:
Back when I started this thread, I was a noob on the forum, so I couldn't stick it in the "molded armor" part of the board. Thanks for the compliments!
Last edited by a moderator:
Self-bump for progress (I seem to do that a lot...)
Layer one of the goo. I've never made a helmet before, so this was a new experience for me, in both sculpting and making the mold. SO MUCH SILICONE. I had just enough to complete it with a little bit of leftovers for some smaller things like the glove part molds I'll be making soon.
second coat with some registration keys:
More keys, more silicone:
Done!
The mother mold is 3-part. There are some deep undercuts in the back and I didn't think that 2 sections would come off cleanly. As it is right now, the front is a tad tricky to remove with a cast in it.
Mother mold finished
Master removed and ready for casting!
First pull:
Detail of the ear area:
Second pull was much cleaner. I wasted a lot of resin on the first one. The trick seems to pour small amounts at a time so you're not caught with a huge clump of it when it kicks. The resin on the first pull would make big wrinkly pools which would get very hot and distort the thin layers of resin underneath. Lesson learned.
Freaking mold has to weigh 20 pounds... my arms are killing me after roto-casting these.
MySpace angle shot (tricky to do without being able to see anything!)
Layer one of the goo. I've never made a helmet before, so this was a new experience for me, in both sculpting and making the mold. SO MUCH SILICONE. I had just enough to complete it with a little bit of leftovers for some smaller things like the glove part molds I'll be making soon.
second coat with some registration keys:
More keys, more silicone:
Done!
The mother mold is 3-part. There are some deep undercuts in the back and I didn't think that 2 sections would come off cleanly. As it is right now, the front is a tad tricky to remove with a cast in it.
Mother mold finished
Master removed and ready for casting!
First pull:
Detail of the ear area:
Second pull was much cleaner. I wasted a lot of resin on the first one. The trick seems to pour small amounts at a time so you're not caught with a huge clump of it when it kicks. The resin on the first pull would make big wrinkly pools which would get very hot and distort the thin layers of resin underneath. Lesson learned.
Freaking mold has to weigh 20 pounds... my arms are killing me after roto-casting these.
MySpace angle shot (tricky to do without being able to see anything!)
Spartan 051
Well-Known Member
I was digging around thew the rpf someone posted a way to gold chroming with out using vacuum metallization its called Hasegawa gold mirror sheet
(actual example from Tokyo modeling show)
rpf thread
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=64492
(actual example from Tokyo modeling show)
rpf thread
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=64492
Robbymrodriguez
Member
Heh, or you could just use gold leaf...
I'm a little confused on your molding technique. When you put on your silicone cover you just layered on "keys" as you call them why didn't use thin sheets of aluminum to separate them and coat them instead of potentially damaging the original? My second question is was that plaster you put aon the silicone afterwords? Otherwise, the awesomeness bar has been raised another level.
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