Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

[DerKraken]

If thats the case then would you recommend everyone else do this for their helmets and armor?

I guess so? Really, I've been following a lot of other examples already present on the 405th (Rube's ODST helmet in particular) The nice part about Guy's helmet is that there aren't a lot of undercuts, so its easier to pull the whole mold off in one piece. I can imagine this might be more difficult with a more intricate helmet.

I am interested to know how many man hours went into making that original?

Man, I don't even want to think about it... My client recently asked me the same thing, and the best guess I has was around 200. After a while, you just start to block it out...

if you make when your done hake some mothermolds and sell them or trade thaem.

I'm considering offering them both for sale and for trade, but I want to make sure I can commit to that 100% before saying that option is available. I've seen too many people shoot their reputations to hell by offering things for sale, then taking on more orders than they can handle. My schedule is pretty slammed until the end of September, so its possible I'll be offering them then. I'll make sure to let all you guys here know when I do.

How do you keep the 3 parts together when you're rotocasting?

I guess I forgot to take a picture of that. There are six bolts that hold the sections together when casting. I probably need to add a couple more on the back because I'm getting a bit of warping on the back "hoop" area. If you look at the mothermold, there are flanges where the sections come up - I drilled these out and inserted machine-thread screws and nuts on the other side. I think they're about 3/8" and 3" long, but anything will work, really.

I think ive just answered my question in regards to sanding the curved surface. Before I was using a normal sanding block, Ive just switched to a sponge wrapped in sandpaper and its having a much better effect.

Yeah, you can also buy sanding sponges in varying grit which will work as well. I just used sandpaper and my hand though.

 

[Kasinator]

I know you already have the leds planned out and everything, but I just thought you would like to take a look at this lighting technique someone used on their iron man helmet. I'm not sure how it works,but if you play your cards right, perhaps you could give the entire visor lighting. http://www.xrobots.co.uk/ironmanhelmet/ it looks like he just puts LEDs along the ends of the helmet. So maybe you could pull off the full visor light after all.

 

[Jimbo]

I know you already have the leds planned out and everything, but I just thought you would like to take a look at this lighting technique someone used on their iron man helmet. I'm not sure how it works,but if you play your cards right, perhaps you could give the entire visor lighting. http://www.xrobots.co.uk/ironmanhelmet/ it looks like he just puts LEDs along the ends of the helmet. So maybe you could pull off the full visor light after all.

I dont think this would be suitable. The original discovery era helmet uses a massive RGY matrix to display images and animations:

Besides, you wouldnt be able to see anything with it on.

 

[Kasinator]

I dont think this would be suitable. The original discovery era helmet uses a massive RGY matrix to display images and animations:

Besides, you wouldnt be able to see anything with it on.

Well why can't you put a full set of LED's in there? just space them out enough and you can still see right? according to a explaination article which told how they built one of these, they also had pin holes to see out of.

 

[Toby]

again, nice progress. I can't really think of much more to say ^^.



the LEDs on the visor just aren't worth the effort. they'll use an insane amount of power, they'll ensure you can't see anything (because of the LEDs themselves, the wires and the shiny reflective plexiglass), they would need loads of preconfigured patterns, even more circuit boards and won't make this helmet even more awesome.



Daft Punk only have helmets like that on for promo shots afaik (but I don't know very much), I'll bet they can't walk around with them on, let alone dj.

 

[DerKraken]

again, nice progress. I can't really think of much more to say ^^.



the LEDs on the visor just aren't worth the effort. they'll use an insane amount of power, they'll ensure you can't see anything (because of the LEDs themselves, the wires and the shiny reflective plexiglass), they would need loads of preconfigured patterns, even more circuit boards and won't make this helmet even more awesome.



Daft Punk only have helmets like that on for promo shots afaik (but I don't know very much), I'll bet they can't walk around with them on, let alone dj.

Thanks for the compliments dude.



As for the full visor lighting, there had to be a compromise somewhere if I wanted portability without a massive battery pack. DP's old fully-illuminated helmets used a huge backpack-mounted battery and a LOT of cable; I read somewhere that the full-face visor employed over 6.5 KILOMETERS of cable in order to achieve the illumination they had. Price notwithstanding, this is a monumental task and one I'm not really up for trying out. As it stands now, my helmet is likely to have over 300 feet of wire stuffed in it. I think thats my limit.



Further, there's the issue of power consumption. Guy's full-face LEX matrix is 40x14, meaning 560 LEDs. Even if each one is only drawing 30mA (since they'd have to be RGB LEDs) thats still nearly 17amps of current draw. yikes.



Rainbowduino would be a step in the right direction, as its matrix draws far less power. However, it wouldn't look quite right and will also completely obscure the vision of the wearer.



Progress note: got my shipment from Digi-key in yesterday. Tons of resistors, plugs, capacitors, transistors and LEDs! Now I just need the boards to come in and I can start mocking up the illumination on my test helmet

 

[zabicvamere]

which type of expanding foam works better yellow or white?

 

[GamerGear]

yea im back again i missed some photos but like i said before man i love the detail the smoothness the accuracy, you sir yes you sir are "THEE" man not the man but "THEE" man. Your an inspiration ELITE material definitly Great job man!



CHEEERRRRSSSSS!!!!!!

 

[Kasinator]

Do you ever use pep?

 

[LastSpartan]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

[DerKraken]

which type of expanding foam works better yellow or white?

Uh, I didn't know there were different kinds! Honestly though, this method was kind of crap. I think in the future I'd rather start by carving into pink foam than trying to sculpt the expanding stuff. In the end, it was probably more trouble than it was worth.

Do you ever use pep?

I haven't tried it, no. A brief stint with my portal gun was about all I ever did (I cut one pathetic piece before going RIGHT back to sculpting!) I imagine that if I ever do HALO armor I will be using pep. The resources available there are just too good.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Thanks! Here's a shot of me unwrapping a present to myself:

 

[LastSpartan]

Hehe, you know, my birthday is in March right?

 

[chipscolaman]

Hey My Birthday's also in March



If I'd get this present for christmas I'd be the happiest human being

 

[Kasinator]

OH now i get how to do the silicone layer thing. I guess i am a visual learner. What about for something larger? Like a chestpiece?

 

[gwiguig]

that is crazy! It might be a little late now but I was wonderring what paper grit uou used to make tour bondo model so smooth. did you black wash it ?

 

[DerKraken]

OH now i get how to do the silicone layer thing. I guess i am a visual learner. What about for something larger? Like a chestpiece?

Dunno, this is the biggest thing I've molded. I imagine for larger things, a 2-part or more would be more practical if you can hide the seams.

that is crazy! It might be a little late now but I was wonderring what paper grit uou used to make tour bondo model so smooth. did you black wash it ?

I don't know what "black washing" is, I just used sandpaper. Started with 80 grit, then 150, 220, 400, 1000, then 2000, then wax. Most of my work took place with the 150 and 220 stuff. Higher grit was just for final polishing and the 80 is for really, really rough shaping. I usually did this with an orbital disc sander, not by hand.



Updates!



Test helmet (old, crummy resin that went on way too thick) used for spacing the LEDs. The first try was measured on-center, but looked pretty off visually. I altered this to a more "visual" center on the other side.

Guide coat of primer on the resin pull, sanded with 320 grit. You can see where there are some light fisheyes in the resin that the primer filled in

Ears hollowed out, and a test with some translucent PVC to see where the disc will sit.

Wetsanded, and we're off to the platers! Next time you see these, they'll be bright gold chrome!

 

[Overlord Ian]

That looks really cool! Can't wait to see it finished

 

[DerKraken]

That looks really cool! Can't wait to see it finished

You and me both dude!



Jacket came in today - It might be a bit small, can't really tell on my own.



Its not exact to DP - their jackets were custom made for them. This is the closest I could find, and besides, I think most people will be looking at the helmet.

This gives you a decent sense of scale versus my frame. Again, I'm 5'8" tall, about 135lbs. Small dude. This is perfectly scaled to people around 5'10-6'4 or so. Any shorter and it looks a tad large, as you can see here on me.



I don't mind the size though, it will be much easier to get all the electronics into it this way. Also, the "Discovery" helmets were slightly larger than the ones from the "Human After All" era. Since my sculpt is an amalgamation of those two designs, I think I'm in the clear!

 

[Putenschnitzel]

wow thats alot of epicness o.o are you planing on making a thomas helmet to after this is done? anyway... im keeping my eye on this one^^

 

[Kasinator]

It must feel a lot lighter now huh?