My Early Disasters pt 2 - A Biker Scout Helmet - How hard can it be?

[Dtrasler]

It's not any actual progress - today I've revising costumes for Fan Expo Vancouver this weekend, so I'm fixing up Shakespearean Vader - but while I was shopping around for bits and pieces for Quicksilver, Frisk and Vader, I found this complete Rex Helmet for $6. I took a side-by-side-by-side to check scale of my new build and compare with my mod.


Deathtrooper (WIP), My Rex mod, The New Helmet.

 

[Dtrasler]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the internet is too depressing to spend much time on today. I've been macheing the outside of the DeathTrooper helm, hoping to make a strong enough skin to allow me to hollow it out. There's a lot of construction needed around the eye section that will only be possible from inside, and right now I can't reach that bit. There's also the idea I can't shake about shortening the snout, and I'll need more structural integrity before I start messing about there.

Unfortunately, I'm out of white or black tissue paper, so I have this bizarrely cheerful Death Trooper helm on my table today.



And here's the (probably sideways) photo of the main parts of my Shakespearean Vader costume. If you're at Vancouver Fan Expo this Saturday (12th) I might see you there. Or not, because I can't see for ***** through those lenses....

 

[Lisaisanut]

I have just spent a good hour or so of the evening, during which I was supposed to be preparing for college tomorrow, reading through this thread, and I must say you are without a doubt one of the most entertaining people I have ever found on this site. Honestly, your "unrestrained enthusiasm and hamfisted incompetence" is probably one of the most inspiring things I have stumbled across, I suffer from chronic perfectionism (it's a curse, especially given I'm impatient and ruin the supposed-perfection by speeding ahead or modifying what really ought to be left alone) and seeing you so happily continue on when a project smacks you in the face with a problem is really something I need to be able to do.

Really great thread, consider me subscribed and a new active follower of your unbridled optimism.

 

[Dtrasler]

Thanks for the kind words, Lisaisanut, good to have you on board! I can't promise tons more work, because I've reached a point with this build where I have to make a serious change - there's some cutting to be done, and it's make or break.

Obviously, I should be carefully looking at reference photos and measuring etc etc. More likely, I'll be passing my workshop on the way to do laundry and I'll pick up my scalpel and say "Hmmm, about here, I think...." and we'll be off to the races again. There will be pics. There might be tears.

 

[Dtrasler]

Huh.

Cut out the inner supports and it didn't collapse.


Didn't fit on my head either....


Sprayed it black again, because I love it when the whole house smells of paint.

 

[Roughneckone]

Oh oh, now where did I put that head shrink raygun, :lol!

Roughneckone:cool

 

[Dtrasler]

I did that thing where I squint at the reference pics, then at the helmet, then back at the pics. Then I got my scalpel and carved the bottom of the snout a bit. I cut away the plate at the bottom, then took out about another quarter inch, then installed a new plate and glued the original plate back onto that. Look:


These are the before shots.

There! I bravely cut into the snout. It's usually at this point I start to wonder what the hell I'm doing. And where the blood is coming from.


And then I glued it back together. I've tilted the camera a little to have the helmet oriented as if it were being worn. By someone with a smaller head than me. I decided that we needed one more photo of the new work - perhaps one that was badly out of focus?

Nailed it! (Actually, no, it's hot glue again.)

 

[Dtrasler]

It's been more than a week since I last posted because there's been no time for progress. The last thing I tried to do was pull in the sides of the nose... Gee, it would help if I had a labelled diagram of this thing. Maybe I'll do that next.
Anyway, the version I have made has the nose too broad, so the angle between the nose and the cheek sections is almost non-existent. If I could pull in the sides of the nose, it would accentuate that angle and correct at least one error in the helmet.
So I tried, but it was another "Don't have enough hands" moment. I tried putting a clamp on either side of the nose to hold it at the right angle while I glued in supports on the inside, but the clamp just slides off - there's nothing for it to grip, and the angle is still steep enough to push it off. I tried using duct tape on the inside, pulling it in from inside, but the pressure to return to the original shape just pulls the tape off.

Of course, I'm not giving up - I just started the second volume of "My Cosplay Disasters", and it's going to end with the chronicle of this build. But I have to get some time and a plan together. I often have one but not the other, so I need them both to turn up at once.
In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves, visit the bar, or use the comments space to suggest methods for retracting a flat nose.

 

[Dtrasler]

Ok, trying to update for the second time today....
I was working on the book this morning, and that inspired me to get moving on the current project again. Since Mrs Dim is taking a leave of absence to visit relatives, I decided to bite the bullet and coat the helmet in Bondo.


Now, it's true I've not had a lot of success with Bondo in the past, but there were a couple of reasons I thought it might be worth doing this time:
1. I'm bored of paper mache.
2. I have half a tin left over from the 1st Order Stormie.

Ok, these are not good reasons. But also I want the outside layer much stronger than it currently is. The foam inside, topped with mache, is not rigid. I'm looking at removing a lot of the internal structure, and right now, that doesn't really leave anything. A layer of bondo would be better than nothing. As you can see, I put on more than I normally have, and while I was there, I also pulled in the nose by gluing in some internal braces. This worked, but left a nasty gap on one side:



Hmm. Ugly, and not easy to fix. This being Wednesday, I took Tiniest Weasel to the dentist while I thought things over. When we got back, steps were taken. I smoothed out the Bondo (with a power sander - much faster than my old method of half-hearted rubbing by hand) and added the inevitable paint layer.


The surface is already looking better, but that nose... Man, what a mess. The thing to do now is think. Plan. Draw out ideas. Take time.

I must definitely not do anything rash.



Damn.

 

[Roughneckone]

NOT doing something rash is not in your psyche I'm afraid :lol.

Roughneckone:cool

 

[Dtrasler]

I'm sat here with the excellent pictures created by Darren Pattenden, trying to figure out a way to measure the distances, and then transform those measurements into a flat plan I can cut out.


So far I have the cryptic notation "0.975 cm = 1 inch", and a headache. Oh, and I have less than half an hour of my available time left.

The previous assembly that I built was wrong, in many ways. The angles didn't work, and there were sections missing altogether. But I can't work out the best way to begin with this. Logic wants me to build from the central section outwards, but I'm pretty sure that'll land me in the same mess I was before. I should put in the edges, the eyepieces first. Then build the central section down from the eyes to link up with the piece between the mandibles. Then I'll have the nightmare of wrestling with the cheek sections.

I can't believe I'm using a DTP program to try and work all this out. It won't let me measure diagonal lines, so I'm seriously considering using pythagorean theory to work out the length of a line I just drew on the computer. Hell, It'd be easier to print the picture out, wouldn't it? Maybe I'll do that.

 

[Snow Builder]

You are my inner child

 

[Dtrasler]

Take a pair of cheap sunglasses. Break off the arms. Saw through the bridge. This is what you get.

Swap the two pieces around and glue them to the top of the gap you have in your savaged helmet. They're almost the right shape, and hey, you can fix the shape in the next stage. Maybe.

There's no getting around the complex math and construction that's coming up. You know, unless you decide to concentrate on a meaningless detail like the ends of those tubes, putting in some green translucent plastic and covering the edges with some foam...



I have two flickering LED sets ready to go into the tubes behind that plastic, but I'm not sure they'll be right. The reference pics I have indicate that it's a bright light from those ports...

 

[Dtrasler]

You'd think the arrival of a snowpocalypse at the same time as my day off would provide plenty of time to sort out the faceplate, but as usual there were dozens of other things to take care of first. Eventually, I grabbed the best part of an hour. Here's where I started:

The pink cardboard is cut from a juice can (Weird Canadian thing - cardboard cans of frozen juice concentrate). One of the things missing in the first attempt was the vented sides. Hang on, let's make a close up...

Since I mucked up last time, I decided to start with those bits this time. Put the side pieces in, then build on from there. And of course, at the same time I'm thinking I'll build down from the new eyepieces.

First, of course, I must measure carefully.

Oh, and I had a bright idea about the mandibles too. I needed to smooth out the surfaces, and also extend them a little too. Rather than try a tricky sculpting thing with bondo or filler, I decided to try a simple overlay of sliced coke bottle. The right hand side turned out ok:

Something I learned when fitting the left hand side is that the melting point of hot glue is higher than the melting point of coke bottles...

and now the thing that I did to sort out the surfacing issue has created some new surfacing issues. Terrific.

At least my precise measuring has given me a neat shape to go under the eye pieces.

Oh yeah, it's looking good. Wait, this sarcasm font isn't working. Best I just press on.
Next part is the flat pieces that jut out above the vented sides. In some pictures they look like tubes, but the pictures I'm working from have them as thickened flat pieces.
(I realise these kinds of descriptions aren't a lot of help, but I never said I was giving a step-by-step guide here - I'm showing how I get from here to "Help, I've screwed it up")

Ok, the picture is terrible, but I got the pieces positioned almost right. Almost. But, precisely right or not, at least they're there, which they weren't before. That's all I could fit into my hour, and I have a lot of house cleaning and stuff to do before Mrs Dim gets back from her trip abroad.

Of course, there's no guarantee that the fact I won't have spare time means I won't sneak some anyway. But there's still no easy handy-dandy guide to building the remaining infrastructure. I keep imagining myself sitting down at my desk and drawing out careful plans. I guess if I was that kind of person, I wouldn't build in the haphazard way I do.

 

[Lisaisanut]

I greatly admire your perseverance and lighthearted approach to your project, by this point I'd likely have been staring out of a rain-soaked window in black and white. Keep at it, man.

 

[Dtrasler]

Thanks Lisaisanut. This week the nozzle of my last can of black paint clogged, and I nearly gave up completely. Only the fact that I would have to do sensible housework-type things if I wasn't doing this prevents me throwing the towel in altogether. Plus, you know, I REALLY, REALLY want a Deathtrooper helmet and I have no spare cash.

Buying tickets for Rogue One this week. Seemed so far off when I began, it was hard to find reference pics. Now I have a magazine on my coffee table with close ups and character profiles. Sigh.

 

[Roughneckone]

Hey Damien,

You might find this vid useful:-

Roughneckone:cool

 

[Dtrasler]

Thanks Roughneckone, that's a tremendous video! After I stopped crying and banging my fists on the floor, I realised it would be very helpful. Of course, those measurements would have been PRICELESS six weeks ago, but c'est la Guerre des etoiles, n'est pa?

I have my tickets for the movie this Sunday. I have no spare time to work on the helmet in between, but I've been moving the book along instead. Since the book won't be complete until this helmet is, it's a good incentive.

If I don't see you before, rpfers, Merry Christmas or your local galactic equivalent. I hope Santa brings you plenty of Bondo.

 

[Roughneckone]

You are welcome my friend.

I'm sure you have worked out by now (as we all do eventually) that you always get all the information you need to create an astoundingly accurate replica five minutes after you have finished your fairly inaccurate best guess version.:facepalm

Merry Christmas to you and your family and I hope Santa brings you all you have on your Replica Prop Christmas wish list this year, :lol

Roughneckone:cool

 

[Dtrasler]