Sorenzo
Well-Known Member
I was commissioned earlier in the year to build a helmet in the style of The New 52 version of The Red Hood. The project has been on the go for quite a while now, but only recently got interesting, so I thought I'd share with you fine folk.
The client wanted this to me more of a helmet than a mask, and of course it needed to fit him precisely. I enlisted the services of the very talented Jacon Morin (@jtm) to design the helmet in 3D to the clients exact specifications. Scaled pictures of the clients head were taken and used a a base for the design. We used Pepakura mock-ups, which were sent to the client to test the size and opening of the helmet.
This is the design we settled on.
And just for good measure....
I had intended to Pepakura the piece, but whilst this was being designed a large scale CNC was being rebuilt in my workshop. We weren't sure about CNC'ing something like this, the guys had never dome something so large, and so detailed. I had Jacob work up a smaller CAD model for us to test how it would all work. Due to it only being a 3 axis machine, the piece would have to be turned and cut on all sides. The sample model help us get our heads around this challenge.
We decided that 3 cut paths would be enough. The first would cut out most of the face. The second would take out one side, leaving large tabs for the piece to rest upon whilst the other side was being cut. The tabs and the back of the head would be finished by hand. Ensuring the code was correct and that the piece was lined up correctly for each pass was crucial, it was a nerve-wrecking couple of days.
But we nailed it !!
Everything line up perfectly, it couldn't have come out any better. We had allowed a 5mm 'safety' gap, so if it was slightly off I could blend the face to the sides. It was spot on though.
The tabs at the side and back were cut away and blended in by hand.
Then it was time for multiple layers of filler primer. About time I did some actual work
The client wanted this to me more of a helmet than a mask, and of course it needed to fit him precisely. I enlisted the services of the very talented Jacon Morin (@jtm) to design the helmet in 3D to the clients exact specifications. Scaled pictures of the clients head were taken and used a a base for the design. We used Pepakura mock-ups, which were sent to the client to test the size and opening of the helmet.
This is the design we settled on.
And just for good measure....
I had intended to Pepakura the piece, but whilst this was being designed a large scale CNC was being rebuilt in my workshop. We weren't sure about CNC'ing something like this, the guys had never dome something so large, and so detailed. I had Jacob work up a smaller CAD model for us to test how it would all work. Due to it only being a 3 axis machine, the piece would have to be turned and cut on all sides. The sample model help us get our heads around this challenge.
We decided that 3 cut paths would be enough. The first would cut out most of the face. The second would take out one side, leaving large tabs for the piece to rest upon whilst the other side was being cut. The tabs and the back of the head would be finished by hand. Ensuring the code was correct and that the piece was lined up correctly for each pass was crucial, it was a nerve-wrecking couple of days.
But we nailed it !!
Everything line up perfectly, it couldn't have come out any better. We had allowed a 5mm 'safety' gap, so if it was slightly off I could blend the face to the sides. It was spot on though.
The tabs at the side and back were cut away and blended in by hand.
Then it was time for multiple layers of filler primer. About time I did some actual work
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