Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

[Jimbo]

Like Tool, im also a bit confused about the molding process. Why cant I see any seams in the final pull if you're using 3 parts for the mother.

 

[DerKraken]

Are you just going to paint the gold parts on?

After some light cleanup, the molds are actually being sent out to a shop on the west coast to be gold-chrome vacuum metalized. Should look sexy when they're done!

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.

I'm not sure what you mean by using thin sheets of aluminum to protect the master.... can you elaborate? The master was completely undamaged in the molding process, and the "keys" are used to align the silicone mold with the mold jacket. The jacket itself was made from Plasti-Paste.

Like Tool, im also a bit confused about the molding process. Why cant I see any seams in the final pull if you're using 3 parts for the mother.

The silicone jacket is one piece, so there won't be any seams in the final pulls. Only the mother mold has separate parts, but this won't show in the finished castings.

 

[LastSpartan]

And compared to fiberglass/plasti-paste/shellshock,



Rebound 25 is silicon. It is strechy.



You have a beautiful master sir!



This thread is brillant and even if it's not Halo, it deserves Elite-ness.



Now, what are you going to do next in the Halo-verse?

 

[DerKraken]

Now, what are you going to do next in the Halo-verse?

I think we need a really good EVA helmet. Depending on how well the visor comes out for Guy, I'll be looking into tackling the EVA and making a vac-formed PETG visor. This is a long term thing, but I've always liked that helm (for obvious reasons!)

 

[yccars]

I'm excited to see your EVA! Are you vacuforming the visor yourself? I'm in the process of making the buck for my ODST visor but I don't have a table/know of one that I can use. Other than my homemade pegboard-on-a-2x6-frame-with-a-shopvac-attached-to-the-side lol.



Anyway, how soon do you think you'll get your helmet back with the gold?

 

[DerKraken]

Anyway, how soon do you think you'll get your helmet back with the gold?

I ran out of resin yesterday when pulling cast #3. Cast #1 was really lumpy - I used far too much resin and when it kicked, it pooled badly. Cast #2 was better but still too think - I'll probably use that one as a test bed for building the electronics.



I need to send off 2 finished casts to the plater, so once my resin comes in I'll hopefully be sending #'s 3 and 4 off to be metalized. The process takes about 5-6 days, so I should have them back by the end of August.



I have a friend with a 24" x 24" vac former who is going to try pulling the PETG for me. I've sent him the plastic and the mold itself should be on its way soon. I want to build my own table one day, but there's just too much else that needs to get done these days!

 

[Jimbo]

The silicone jacket is one piece, so there won't be any seams in the final pulls. Only the mother mold has separate parts, but this won't show in the finished castings.

I see, you have to forgive me, i'm completely new to molding and ive only watched a few of the videos on youtube which explain two part molding of small items. So it goes like this:



Model (in this case the GM helmet) > Covered in cilicone RTV > Covered in 3 part mother mold (I guess this is solid and helps the silicone hold its shape)



I understand now



What's the mother mold made from? Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere in the forum, I did a search but couldn't find anything relevant.





For the electronics have you looked into the Rainbowduino? Its a custom arduino board made specifically for driving LEDs. Heres what ive got so far

(for the coloured side bars). I reckon a single rainbowduino board could power all the lights on the helmet if you make good use of multiplexing.



Thanks Volpin, really looking forward to seeing the next stage of the build.

 

[Raidenx55]

Wow, this is crazy good. Professional work. I can't wait to see the finished product, and whether or not you'll sell these, good luck on the wiring, im sure thats the hardest part.

 

[DerKraken]

Model (in this case the GM helmet) > Covered in cilicone RTV > Covered in 3 part mother mold (I guess this is solid and helps the silicone hold its shape)



I understand now



What's the mother mold made from? Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere in the forum, I did a search but couldn't find anything relevant.



For the electronics have you looked into the Rainbowduino? Its a custom arduino board made specifically for driving LEDs. Heres what ive got so far

(for the coloured side bars). I reckon a single rainbowduino board could power all the lights on the helmet if you make good use of multiplexing.

Your first part is correct.



The mother mold is made out of Plati-Paste. You can find that here: http://www.smooth-on.com/index.php?cPath=1163 - and you're right, this is what holds the silicone in place while the resin cures.



I was looking around and doing some research on Rainbowduino a few days ago, but unfortunately I hadn't heard of it until I sort of took care of the issue on my own. The rainbowduino would only simplify my designs slightly - it would replace my shift register board. While their set-up is really cool, I needed something that could sink a bit more than 120mA per channel. The 8 colored bars on either side of the helmet house 4 LEDs per color at 30mA a piece. I'd need to run all of my transistors even with a Rainbowduino, unless I found some very low draw LEDs. Since I'm so far invested at this point, I'm going to stick with my LED driver ICs and see what happens.



I'll probably be using an array like that on an eventual later build... my client has been asking about Thomas' helmet as well, and if I plan the schematics out a bit better, a rainbowduino would probably be exactly what I need.

 

[GamerGear]

i love it i love it i absolutely love it. It is turning out great ill be keeping an eye out on your progress!

 

[chipscolaman]

I read a lot in this thread, but still I haven't quite got how you plan to do the visor. I have something in my mind but it would be noobish to just ask you if its right.

Out of what?



also, how are you gonna see out of it?



i dont get it.



How does guy look through a helmet with all these LEDs in front of his face?



some kind of weird evil satanic mirror construct I guess.... :S



no need to comment your work, sir.

words cannot discribe it...

 

[Kasinator]

After some light cleanup, the molds are actually being sent out to a shop on the west coast to be gold-chrome vacuum metalized. Should look sexy when they're done!









I'm not sure what you mean by using thin sheets of aluminum to protect the master.... can you elaborate? The master was completely undamaged in the molding process, and the "keys" are used to align the silicone mold with the mold jacket. The jacket itself was made from Plasti-Paste.







The silicone jacket is one piece, so there won't be any seams in the final pulls. Only the mother mold has separate parts, but this won't show in the finished castings.

I am confused how you removed the latex jacket was it like this? http://www.xrobots.co.uk/ironmanhelmet/

 

[DerKraken]

I read a lot in this thread, but still I haven't quite got how you plan to do the visor. I have something in my mind but it would be noobish to just ask you if its right.

Out of what?



also, how are you gonna see out of it?



i dont get it.



How does guy look through a helmet with all these LEDs in front of his face?

Pictures are worth a thousand words, videos are even more:

I'm cutting the visor out of the helmet, then vac-molding it out of PETG plastic.



The LED bars won't be in front of the wearer's face. I am only doing the illumination on the sides of the helmet. Essentially, you'll lose your peripheral vision.

I am confused how you removed the latex jacket was it like this? http://www.xrobots.co.uk/ironmanhelmet/

Its actually silicone, not latex, but when I remove it from the helmet its more or less a process of rolling the chin part up on top of the visor then pulling the helmet out from inside it. Its a tight pull, but worth it so I don't have to deal with mold lines.

 

[Kasinator]

Its actually silicone, not latex, but when I remove it from the helmet its more or less a process of rolling the chin part up on top of the visor then pulling the helmet out from inside it. Its a tight pull, but worth it so I don't have to deal with mold lines.

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

 

[ponchato]

Wow, that looks really nice. The lighting is going to be sweet!

 

[sporgo]

Your attention to detail and hard work have produced superb results Derkraken. Once the electronics are installed and the gold is applied it will be stunning. I am interested to know how many man hours went into making that original?

 

[animemannn]

holy crap.....this turned out to be a epic topic....dude your helm looks extremaly good. if you make when your done hake some mothermolds and sell them or trade thaem. people would love that. but keep up the good work and dont stop on this one!!! rock on!

 

[chipscolaman]

Ah, ok that's what I thought.



Just wasnt sure about the material.



Thank you

 

[Jimbo]

The mother mold is made out of Plati-Paste. You can find that here: http://www.smooth-on.com/index.php?cPath=1163 - and you're right, this is what holds the silicone in place while the resin cures

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



Final question...



Have you got any tips for sanding the curved surface? Im sanding my visor at the moment but I keep getting flat areas. I just cant seem to get a nice curve all the way around. There seems to be a real lack of information on the internet when it comes to sanding convex surfaces.



Thanks for answering these questions, I hope i'm not bombarding you too much.

 

[Jimbo]

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.