Hope people don't mind me bumping my own thread so much...
Ok, so the foam from the router came in, and I just wasn't happy with it. It got the general shape right, but I could tell there was going to be a lot of time spent fixing up all the details in it before I was happy with the result. I decided to try something else.
I called up a local trophy shop and asked if they did laser etching for plaques, and if they could etch custom artwork. The guy seemed a little curious as to why I needed the shapes I asked for, but its not the first time I've confused someone with my hobbies. A couple of days later, I got this in the mail:
You can compare my design to a shot of the real helmet here:
I ran the lines up further because I need to make the "ear cone" piece to go over top of the whole thing. The edges of the "D" shaped outer ear piece will also contour into the circuit board pattern, like the shot above. Yes, I took some small liberties with the design. Normally I'd be very anal-retentive about this, but there were some lines which just didn't make sense to me design-wise as I was plotting them out, and I decided to change them.
The woodgrain looks a little hokey, but its just for the mold, and will eventually be shot with primer so nobody will know the difference anyways. I had to take .25" off the backside of them to get it to sit at the correct depth in the ear recesses, but after a pass on the table router and another couple on the bandsaw, they plunked right in.
There's a "seam" line around the ears as well, which I carved out. There's another that separates the front and back halves, but I need to fine-tune the upper hoop before I carve those out.
A little more detail sanding for some of the high spots, and this is where I ended today. I don't have any pics of it, but I epoxied the MDF "ears" into place and cleaned up the chin area of the helmet earlier, giving it a more squared-off shape. I also refined the hoops that go around the helmet, but this is just detail work. Hopefully we'll be moldworthy soon.
stay tuned...
Ok, so the foam from the router came in, and I just wasn't happy with it. It got the general shape right, but I could tell there was going to be a lot of time spent fixing up all the details in it before I was happy with the result. I decided to try something else.
I called up a local trophy shop and asked if they did laser etching for plaques, and if they could etch custom artwork. The guy seemed a little curious as to why I needed the shapes I asked for, but its not the first time I've confused someone with my hobbies. A couple of days later, I got this in the mail:
You can compare my design to a shot of the real helmet here:
I ran the lines up further because I need to make the "ear cone" piece to go over top of the whole thing. The edges of the "D" shaped outer ear piece will also contour into the circuit board pattern, like the shot above. Yes, I took some small liberties with the design. Normally I'd be very anal-retentive about this, but there were some lines which just didn't make sense to me design-wise as I was plotting them out, and I decided to change them.
The woodgrain looks a little hokey, but its just for the mold, and will eventually be shot with primer so nobody will know the difference anyways. I had to take .25" off the backside of them to get it to sit at the correct depth in the ear recesses, but after a pass on the table router and another couple on the bandsaw, they plunked right in.
There's a "seam" line around the ears as well, which I carved out. There's another that separates the front and back halves, but I need to fine-tune the upper hoop before I carve those out.
A little more detail sanding for some of the high spots, and this is where I ended today. I don't have any pics of it, but I epoxied the MDF "ears" into place and cleaned up the chin area of the helmet earlier, giving it a more squared-off shape. I also refined the hoops that go around the helmet, but this is just detail work. Hopefully we'll be moldworthy soon.
stay tuned...