Borderlands 2 Zer0 helmet

drjag

Well-Known Member
Edit: Here is what the final piece turned out to be after a revisit to the 2nd helmet I made on this thread around January 2016, 3 years after starting.

Joshua Guess, on Flickr

Hello, fellow borderlands fans! For my first build, I am making Zer0's default helmet from borderlands 2. I have decided to go with an EVA foam helmet shell and a PETG vac-formed visor, because it'll be lightweight, flexible and I can actually fit my head in without sacrificing its size. I used JTM1997's Zer0 Pepakura file and modified it for foam use, I also resized it to fit me better. On to the build!

Unfortunately, I don't have progress shots up to this point, this only took around 2 hours of my time.

foamhelm5_zpscd3acc27.jpg


I made it by tracing the templates on the foam, cutting them out, hotgluing the peices together and used a hot air gun to shape it.

foamhelm6_zps0300ffc0.jpg


I made the visor out of cardstock from the same file, the plan with the visor is to harden it and bondo it to make a "buck" for vac-forming.

visorcardstock4_zps1f5e824f.jpg


visorcardstock5_zpsd169d601.jpg


That's all I have for the time being, updates will come shortly.
 
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Update: I resined the visor. I taped it from the inside to help keep its shape, its quite patchy though, I did it in the dark,:facepalm not a smart move when foam is around, thankfully, no resin touched the foam.

visorresin1_zps1d0381b6.jpg
 
ANOTHER update:
I have hardened my visor starting with a layer of rondo (50/50 mix of bondo and fiberglass resin) and then used quad stitched fiberglass matt and fiberglass resin. The reason I used quad stitched fiberglass was that the resin soaks in much better and later on, I will be using expanding foam on the back which will grip to the open weave much better than normal fiberglass matt.

visorfiberglass1_zpsbd7ad97a.jpg


P.S. The expanding foam is to spread the pressure for when I vacuum form it and stop it from cracking under the pressure.

EDIT: UPDATE
Started some bondo work on the visor. Still alot to do, but its a start.

visorfiberglass4_zps73574630.jpg
 
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UPDATE:
Test fit of the helmet with the visor attached. This was mainly just to see if my head fits, (which it clearly does.)

testfit13_zps51fcdca5.jpg


Theres a few pros and cons with the visor. 1 con is while hardening the visor, the shape of the visor has become thin, making the visor "raise" at the top portion, so I had to remove a couple peices of foam and draw up a new peice, however the pro is the visor looks much more like the in game visor. This image shows the gap, and yes thats peter griffin from family guy.

testfit4_zps3b7c5448.jpg
 
This looks awesome! I'll be doing this here soon, hopefully. What size EVA foam board are you using and where did you get it?
 
Thanks, I got mine from amazon uk, they are 10mm EVA floor mats. I bought mine for £10 for 4 sheets. I have made 4 helmets out of these so fails are not a problem.
 
UPDATE:
my expanding foam arrived today, as previously stated, I'm using this to spread the pressure for when I vacuum form, otherwise the buck will crack under the pressure. First I boarded up the sides with cardboard and tape.

visorprep_zps49a3b127.jpg


After that, I covered the base with the expanding foam, then carved the excess mess using a hacksaw.

visorexpfoam_zpsfbd3d880.jpg


Just another angle.

visorexpfoam2_zpscdcd1b9b.jpg


Not sure when the next update will come, Theres not much left to do, mainly just finishing the buck so its smooth and building a vac-table.
 
Soooo... I've run into some kind of problem. The plan is to build a vac former and vac form a visor with the buck, however, the size of the petg sheet needed is at least 12" by 18" and it sticks out of my oven, this means the sheet won't evenly heat up. So done anyone have advice on a heat solution?

P.S. Is a 1300w vacuum strong enough for vacuum forming?
 
Soooo... I've run into some kind of problem. The plan is to build a vac former and vac form a visor with the buck, however, the size of the petg sheet needed is at least 12" by 18" and it sticks out of my oven, this means the sheet won't evenly heat up. So done anyone have advice on a heat solution?

P.S. Is a 1300w vacuum strong enough for vacuum forming?

Just a suggestion, but do you know any chef's or people who work in hotel etc or more importantly have access to a commercial oven?
 
Looks really good though man, im hoping to build one too so will be following this closely

Thanks for your input:). Now that I think of it, I might be able to get access to such ovens. If I can't get access, I found an alternative idea where someone used there oven hobs to evenly heat their plastic.
 
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Looks awesome man. Me and some of my friends are doing borderlands characters for comicon and this is my next project for the group. Do you have the file that you modified for foam? Thats what im going to make mine out of as well. Or should I just take the tabs all off and go from there?
 
Looks awesome man. Me and some of my friends are doing borderlands characters for comicon and this is my next project for the group. Do you have the file that you modified for foam? Thats what im going to make mine out of as well. Or should I just take the tabs all off and go from there?

Just email me, and I'l give you the pep file. I'l give more info when I send the file to you.

Nice start, can't wait to see it finished :thumbsup


Just thought I'd throw this your way as I'm going to be making a vac former soon, the heating solution for the plastic might be of perticular interest (not sure using someones commercial oven for plastic is such a good idea):

http://www.therpf.com/f9/my-vacuum-forming-table-my-easy-heating-125499/?highlight=Vacuum

Yeah I saw this last week, but totally forgot about it, If my hob heating method doesn't work, I'l use a patio heater like he did. Thanks for reminding me. :)
 
UPDATE:
my primer filler arrived today, so I could continue on fixing inperfections, I have also been buffing it, to see how it looks.

visorbuff1_zps9b7c883f.jpg


To my surprise, the primer has filled in all the minor bumps and scratches, all I need to do is one more bondo fill, sanding, priming, clear coating and buff.

visorbuff2_zps8b6fd7c2.jpg


Once I have finished this visor, its on to the vacuum table!
 
Thanks alot man. Im gonna be using the eva foam because Ive used it on my iron man helmet and that stuff works awesome. Thanks and Ill start a thread when I start on it and give you both credit
 
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