Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron / R.A.M. Build

[Sorenzo]

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So I’m finally getting round to showing you my build. This project started in earlier in the year, but with a tight deadline I didn’t manage to get a thread started, but here it is now, better late than never.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I undertook to build 3 Daft Punk helmets. (the other threads will follow soon, promise!) I am building this Guy-Manuel helmet which he currently wears, used in the movie Tron Legacy. I am also building a Guy-Manuel helmet similar to that of the HAA/Electroma/Discovery era. There are significant differences in the geometries of these helmets, and I couldn’t very well build one and not have the other.

I am also building a Thomas Bangalter helmet. Thankfully the only differences in this helmet over the years are the ear pucks. The threads for these build will follow shortly.

I am just about ready to cast all the helmets, so I will get you up to speed with the builds thus far. A lot of the processes used you have probably seen before, thanks to some fantastic prop builders like Volpin, so I’m not going to bore you with too much detail. I will however highlight tricks and techniques that I used to speed up or simplify the builds. I will also point out some ‘hindsight moments’ I had along the way which may help you if you decide to take on your own build.

These projects would not be possible if I hadn’t studied and research previous builds that have been catalogued here over the last year or more. I would like to thank everybody how has shown their work, if you’ve have posted it here, I have more than likely taken a few notes from it, so thank you.:thumbsup

All feedback, comments queries and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hope you enjoy my build.

Update - Here are the threads for the other builds

Thomas Bangalter Helmet Build

Guy-Manuel Build

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

I played around with cardboard for a bit to get the scaling right, i've got a big head ( my body is proportion by the way), i wanted the helmet to fit me, but not look like a bobble head on a smaller person.

From Volpins plans (cheers dude) which I scaled and slightly edited I made a MDF former. The crispness of the design of this version of the helmet meant for a very simple former. You will see later in my other Guy build that complexities around the bottom (open end) meant that the former had to be a little trickier.

Foam built up and fixed using contact adhesive.

Sanded down to a fine finish, here you can see my Thomas build as the same stage.

I then coated the piece with resin and super fine glass fibre. Hardend the whole piece up and made it great to build upon.

On goes the filler (Bondo)

Marked off the ear piece position and after a couple of hours filling and sanding...

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

Here is all three helmets at the very early filler stage.

So once i got the dome down to a reasonable smooth finish, i got some primer on it to highlight the bumps and hollow. I discovered an amazing way to get an even finish on the dome. Using a long (probably about a meter) strip of 80 or 120 grit sand paper folded in half, i ran it over and back across the dome, this gave a super even finish, highlighted any hollow instantly and i can honestly say I probably would have spent 4 times as long if i'd just used a block.

 

[Tack]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

I crave more!

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

I crave more!

Be patient, i'm working on it! Here is the start of my Thomas Build, Guy build be follow soon after.

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

As mentioned in other Guy Build I lost about a weeks worth of images, so there is a bit of a jump in progress here.

With the MDF ear piece template inserted, i used strips of styrene fixed to the dome to form channels which were then filled with filler.
In the tron version, the ear pieces blend into the body of the helmet, so for this reason the earpiece templates were left in place when the filler was being applied to the channels.

The ear piece were then cut and shaped, detail inserted, vat formed, cone pieces attached and fixed to the helmet.

 

[trooper1m]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

Thats a very nice looking Guy-Man lid, scottish ingenuity at it's finest.cant wait to see this one finished

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

Thats a very nice looking Guy-Man lid, scottish ingenuity at it's finest.cant wait to see this one finished

Thank you very much. I'm actually Irish, but no offence taken, haha. Will get the rest up as soon as possible.

 

[Volpin]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

Whats the thickness of the styrene here? Nice pull

 

[Stormy320]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

That is so cool

 

[The Loganite]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

This is awesome!

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

That is so cool

This is awesome!

Thank you both.

 

[KaanE]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

How tall have you made the Tron helmet?

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

Whats the thickness of the styrene here? Nice pull

0.5mm, pulls very thin and clean, saved so much time.

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

How tall have you made the Tron helmet?

I don't remember off hand and don't have anything here at home, so i'll let you know in 24hrs once i've been back to the workshop.

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

I don't remember off hand and don't have anything here at home, so i'll let you know in 24hrs once i've been back to the workshop.

Oops, completely for got about this. will get back to you asap.

 

[papasmurf]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

love your work cant wait to see it all done!!

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

love your work cant wait to see it all done!!

Thank you, some more coming your way :lol

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

Ear pieces on, its filling time. Got the line between the ear and the main body fairly smooth, but still needs work, as do all the tiny little inperfections!

Got my hand on some of this styrene filler, fantastic stuff, drys super quick and goes on so smooth and comes up nice after a light sand with a 600 grit.

Simialar to my Guy Build the styrene strips used to build up the outer shape are removed.

This Tron versions has alot sharper details and thankfully this process worked out a better than the Guy lid, which meant less filling and sanding.

But once again, stupidly using masking tape to 'protect' the dome backfired!

 

[Sorenzo]

Re: Daft Punk - Guy Manuel Tron Build

Some noticable difference on th eback of the Tron version which were highlighted here (think i found this on Volpins Guy thread)

This was one of my hindsight moments. as you can see at this stage i am lacking some serious detail! opps!

Time to get the dividers out again. I lightly etched the seem lines all the way round.

And again strips laid down to act as a guide and protect the surface.

Carefully using a diamond file ( with a piece for tape acting as a marker so i didn't go too deep)

Not the best method at all, but it worked.