Re: Daft Punk Thomas Bangalter helmet build
Glad my work can inspire! As for my process making any sort of "logic" - I really just try to break things down into easily manageable geometric shapes, then blend those pieces into one another. I guess thats why pep never makes any sense to me, but big blocks of foam and styrene do. Thing is, I have no idea if the things I'm doing will work in the long run, so I consider everything a new learning experience.
Replied, and thanks for the offer but I'll probably stick with my guys over at Creations n' Chrome. Now that they've got the process down, it should be much easier going forward.
The beginning stages always seem faster... just wait until the inevitable primer, sanding, primer, wetsanding, etc etc etc stage...
Those are .060" sheets
---
Okay, so here's how I got to that step above. Nothing groundbreaking, but I like to be thorough in showing the process.
Step one was to rough up the resin on the helmet with some 60 grit paper to prep it for the bondo. Without this, the stuff would have just flaked off the surface of the urethane.
After that, its bondo, sanding, and checking the low spots. This was all hand sanded, no machine assistance. My preferred method is to use a chunk of 6061 aluminum stock as a flat sanding block, wrapped in 60, then 80, 120 and 220 paper.
A contour gauge helps immensely in making sure the compound curves on the helmet are as identical as possible.
I cut out some styrene templates to show where the edges of the visor would sit on the helmet. I marked the sides and front, then used tape as a line to mark where to carve a channel for the styrene visor.
The top and bottom visor parts are cut from .060" styrene...
...and the distance between them is measured then cut from more styrene. These uprights are just supports keeping everything aligned right now, and will eventually be skinned over.
You can see the slot the upper visor sits into here. The rest of the dome isn't final yet so this won't be glued in place until I've got all the little flat spots corrected. Since the whole upper part of this bucket is going to be mirror chrome, its gotta be perfect.
A recent shot of the HAA helmet has pretty much proved to me something that Agent RayBans has been saying for a while: the ears on Thomas are a separate cast piece. With this in mind, my helmet will be made with ear cavities in that place, and the ears will be cast & chromed separately. Should I decide to add the illumination in the ears as well, this will make modifying these pieces much easier. I've got a MDF block ready to go on the lathe for those as well, so the ears will be in production soon.
Glad my work can inspire! As for my process making any sort of "logic" - I really just try to break things down into easily manageable geometric shapes, then blend those pieces into one another. I guess thats why pep never makes any sense to me, but big blocks of foam and styrene do. Thing is, I have no idea if the things I'm doing will work in the long run, so I consider everything a new learning experience.
Amazing progress! Not sure if you check your PMs here but I sent you one the other day about getting some free chroming with Alsa
Replied, and thanks for the offer but I'll probably stick with my guys over at Creations n' Chrome. Now that they've got the process down, it should be much easier going forward.
The beginning stages always seem faster... just wait until the inevitable primer, sanding, primer, wetsanding, etc etc etc stage...
Those are .060" sheets
---
Okay, so here's how I got to that step above. Nothing groundbreaking, but I like to be thorough in showing the process.
Step one was to rough up the resin on the helmet with some 60 grit paper to prep it for the bondo. Without this, the stuff would have just flaked off the surface of the urethane.
After that, its bondo, sanding, and checking the low spots. This was all hand sanded, no machine assistance. My preferred method is to use a chunk of 6061 aluminum stock as a flat sanding block, wrapped in 60, then 80, 120 and 220 paper.
A contour gauge helps immensely in making sure the compound curves on the helmet are as identical as possible.
I cut out some styrene templates to show where the edges of the visor would sit on the helmet. I marked the sides and front, then used tape as a line to mark where to carve a channel for the styrene visor.
The top and bottom visor parts are cut from .060" styrene...
...and the distance between them is measured then cut from more styrene. These uprights are just supports keeping everything aligned right now, and will eventually be skinned over.
You can see the slot the upper visor sits into here. The rest of the dome isn't final yet so this won't be glued in place until I've got all the little flat spots corrected. Since the whole upper part of this bucket is going to be mirror chrome, its gotta be perfect.
A recent shot of the HAA helmet has pretty much proved to me something that Agent RayBans has been saying for a while: the ears on Thomas are a separate cast piece. With this in mind, my helmet will be made with ear cavities in that place, and the ears will be cast & chromed separately. Should I decide to add the illumination in the ears as well, this will make modifying these pieces much easier. I've got a MDF block ready to go on the lathe for those as well, so the ears will be in production soon.
