Guy Manuel Discovery Era Helmet Sculpt (PICS HEAVY)

[NathansPROPS]

Hello all, I have started on tackling a daft punk helmet, Guy Manuel De Homen-Christo’s helmet. To be even more specific, which era of helmet? Discovery, Transition, Human after All, Tron, RAM??? The one that comes after RAM which is to be seen when they finish their next album. But it’s the discovery era helmet. I personally love the discovery helmets, and wish daft punk would go back to wearing them. Not re-wearing the old Helmets. God no, But to have them modernized same LED displays and working gauntlets and maybe a smaller back pack. Electronics have changed so drastically over the last 20 years! Bluetooth displays I’ve seen in some peoples Thomas LED display could be a cool addition to the helmets. And the newer Discovery helmets would have fans in them unlike the originals, and they’d be able to see out of them. Anyway before I dive into my build of this helmet so far, I’d like to thank and give credit to where credit is due, below are builders and fans of Daft Punk that I have followed through the years and have really stood out to me, please do Be sure to check them out! I will be referencing parts in my build that I learned from some of the people below since they have taught me what works and what doesn’t.

Volpin Props Guy Manuel Helmet Build
Daft Punk Guy Helmet: Final p.16, TRON p.20

2Story Props Guy Manuel Discovery Era Helmet WIP
Discovery-era Guy-Manuel helmet

L.E. PROPS/ Crank729 Guy Manuel HAA helmet
Daft Punk Guy Manuel Helmet ( HAA Version )

Insultcomicdog/ Sunil John amazing Discovery era Thomas with working gauntlets.
Sunil John | DIY Discovery Era – Functional Daft Punk Thomas Helmet and Gauntlet Replicas

Dung0beetle For his amazing Pepakura Designs and files
For his: Tron Era Guy Mnauel Helmet Pepakura.

TK9336 Kevin Skiera
A Daft Trooper-(TK takes on DP!)
And his more indepth build Here
My first Bucket - Thomas w/Guy in progress! | The Daft Club - Daft Punk Fansite!

Brunoosti - For his amazing Daft punk helmet models! And probably the Most accurate HAA Guy manuel helmet ever. (just my opinion)
New Daft Punk Thomas and Guy papercraft paperkura models! | The Daft Club - Daft Punk Fansite!

Slinkytrips for his amazing 100% Accurate Daft punk Discovery Era LED displays
Slinky's Electronics | The Daft Club - Daft Punk Fansite

AgentRayBarns For all his godly knowledge on daft punk and their helmets

ThreeFN For his work on his own modern day Guy manuel Discovery helmet electronics
Daft Punk Guy-Manuel Helmet Build - Excessive LEDs and 3D Printing

Rapidirish from the Daft club, Amazing guy and strives for most accurate cosplay of daft punk just like Kevin (TK9336)

So where to start on sculpting this helmet? Well from reference photos of course, some examples below of what I’m aiming for, I will eventually want to tackle the LEDs for both helmets but that’s a future project way down the road.

But What I started with was Dung0beetles TRON ERA Guy Manuel Helmet pepakura helmet and scaled it up to 105% since I’ve heard and read that resin does shrink so just to be safe went 5% over the regular. Why did I start with a Tron Era Guy Manuel helmet? If you look at 2StoryProps discovery Guy man helmet what they did was sculpt on top of their Tron Guy Manuel helmet mother mold. So I thought that be a good starting point.

Right now I have been sanding the dome visor era trying to get the right original shape, thanks to Brunnosti for making his Guy Manuel HAA Helmet the visor on it is spot on. Thats all for the intro I will be posting more progress later on, but didn't want to over do the first post. Thanks so much for viewing! Later on if you have suggestions on the helmet please post so in the thread and drawing on the photos helps immensely for me to understand what your referring to. Thanks and build on my friends!

 

[Verick]

You got this bros!!!

 

[NathansPROPS]

Thank you Verick. From making the pep helmet, I took into account what Crank729 has done with his pepakura helmets using Fiberglass resin on the outside two light coats then slush casted the interior of the helmet. I did this but with Smooth-ons XTC-3D instead of fiberglass resin, I have used that technique on my Thomas helmet (WIP). Any way I dyed the Smooth cast 300 with red dye one drop and or two sometimes more than that. So I could see where I’ve put the resin. Please do check out Volpins Drunk Slush Casting video, very insightful lol. Then I started To bondo the visor area, Now its been some years since I used bondo, so I had to find my recipe which took a couple of tries.

 

[NathansPROPS]

At this point I have slush casted the interior of the helmet with even more tinted Smooth cast 300. Covered the inner ear since I plan on tackling those details towards the end. Also I have filled in the frame of the helmet with a TON of Apoxie sculpt to strengthen and fill in those areas so when I’m sanding I don’t over sand and make a hole in the frame. The helmet has increased in weight from all this filling and plastic resin becoming more solid like the rock version of Guy-Manuel’s helmet from Pharrells “Gust of Wind” video. You may also notice the apoxie sculpt on the back half of the helmet like 2Story Props did on their GM Disco sculpt. Focusing mainly on getting the correct visor shape with more bondo and primer and spot putty and my mother modeling the helmet. On the original Discovery helmets both back halves of the helmets were removable. I don’t know yet how I will make the rear half detachable but any input is welcome on what others would do and or have ideas on how to accomplish this. I have attached a Photo from Daft Punks Pop Up Shop of the original Guy man Discovery helmet. my thoughts is that Alterian Inc used black set screws to hold the rear half of the helmet to the front half of the helmet for both.

More to come heres a sneak peek at where its at as of the recent photo below

 

[NathansPROPS]

I’ve noticed that the chin area on the GM Disco is way more “wider” than Dung0Beetles original Tron Era Guy Manuel Helmet pep. I cut some excess 1mm thick PETG plastic sheets that I got from Ponoko, and made them close enough in the height of the chin and started to heat shape them to the form of the chin. Held down with some clamps and glued with 5 min epoxy that you mix in the tube. I did this three times and cut out a 3mm black acrylic plastic thin rectangle and then heat formed it to the top of the frame and glued it with more of that 5min epoxy and used my last good ratchet strap to hold it down.

From there I went back to apoxie sculpt to thicken the frame all around the visor, and blending the sides of the frame with the top black acrylic sheet. I’m also not tackling the rear half of the frame just yet until I get pretty far and set on the look of the visor and front half of the helmet.

Took a side View shot from "far away" and zoomed in, liking the profile of the helmet so far!

MORE TO COME!

 

[Agent RayBans]

Looking good! Can’t wait to see this come together

 

[NathansPROPS]

Thanks Agent RayBans, means a lot coming from you! More bondo work on the visor as well as the frame. Here’s a shot of the underside of the helmet, you can clearly see the thickening on the front chin area along the frame of apoxie sculpt. I do highly recommend this stuff. Before I was using Magic Sculpt. Very similar to apoxie sculpt but now I’m hooked on my A.S. (Apoxie Sculpt). The visor was still not to the shape I wanted it to be, so I took some regular air dry clay, two 2.2lbs bags of it and added it onto the visor to beef it up.

Rough sculpted and starting to get that Discovery Era Visor look. And with that I wanted to just play with that rear frame slit, just a test for now and not the final. Lots to do still.

Thanks for viewing! Trying to catch up to where the helmet is now.

 

[NathansPROPS]

Sorry for the stop in updates, the helmet is more further along with regards to progress on the sculpt. Its just I have a lot to catch this thread up on until were caught up with it as is now. So 3d modeled up the ear from my started Discovery era Guy manuel 3D model in sketchup. Just to test the size of the ear to figure out scale and how well circuit board design would come out on my Creator Pro. Too small, oh well, Ill figure out the interior circuit design fitment later on. Primed the helmet in rudder brown, then coated the visor in Smooth-On’s XTC-3D, I believe either one coat or two coats. Dremeled the outer edges of the stock pepakura ears down as you can see the pink, and white smooth cast 300. Side view to see how were coming along with the shaping.

Primed again, and then green spot putty in the dents and gaps, from there resculpting the ears with more Apoxie Sculpt. Rough sculpted the shape, I’m sure if I spent the entire 4 hour working time that I could get it just right and smoothed out better thus less work for me ahead in the sanding department. Still need to practice not getting impatient with how long the sculpting process takes with any malleable sculpt able materials. After cured, I sanded the ear down smooth and also tested the look of the gap/indention where the frame meets the ear.

SO much more to post! AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Thanks for viewing! Please any suggestions are welcome!

 

[NathansPROPS]

Focusing mainly on the visor and frame in this part of the build, mostly the gold frame body, and sculpting more with the Apoxie Sculpt. Trying to match it to the shape of the discovery era helmet lid, from photos I’ve collected over the years and more recently from the DAFT PUNK POP UP SHOP. 3D printed the Ear cone that holds Guy Manuels Heartbeat reader/sensor showing that his human heart in that robotic body is still working well and strong.

Sanded down the helmet and sculpted the frame with sand paper, making the edges cleaner and sharper. Looks good, and then started to sculpt the other ear slowly coming together with each new detail I add.

MORE TO COME!

 

[NathansPROPS]

Hope everyone is staying safe! I really dropped the ball on trying to keep this updated. And I’m way behind on where the helmet is now. So I’m going to try and catch this thread up to the last update before the newer stuff and then the “Where it is as of now”. Where were we???
Decided to just doodle carelessly of the“finished led Display would be” on the visor just because it needed a reminder of what I’m aiming for and who doesn’t love a smiling robot? More work on the visor and shaping it. (That’s going to continued to be mentioned if you haven’t caught on to it by now) I downloaded the Accurate HAA Guy Man visor from Brunoosti’s shapeways shop and started printing it to have a reference as to what to aim for when continuing to shape the visor. In this state I started to focus more on developing the back of the helmet. Building up the Semi dome where the Wires would sit on the HAA helmet and where they come out of the Discovery Helmet. Also with this helmet I’m trying to make it and keep it as symmetrical as possible when sculpting it.

 

[funboy1013xx]

I LOVE ROBOT'S AND I LOVE BONDO!! keep the pic's coming bud!

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

Would love to see where/how this build is going, I'm a huge fan of Guys Discovey helmet and It's rare to see people trying to replicate it! I was lucky enough to see it in person at the Daft Punk pop up back in 2017, snapped quite a bit of refence photos of it while I was there also!

 

[NathansPROPS]

Would love to see where/how this build is going, I'm a huge fan of Guys Discovey helmet and It's rare to see people trying to replicate it! I was lucky enough to see it in person at the Daft Punk pop up back in 2017, snapped quite a bit of refence photos of it while I was there also!

Hahaha nice and thank you very much, I know its been awhile and I still have to post updates to get to where it is now. Bottom line is its over scaled by a lot, I also started another PEP guy manuel that is a good size and the proportions on it are excellent in comparison. So maybe I switch it out for that one. Also Would love to see the ref pics you took at the Daft Punk pop shop! Im trying to collect as many as I can, maybe I can PM you? But for now, here it is as of today. It's a ******** helmet boulder, weighing in at over 15lbs.
I haven't given up on it, more like been distracted and started a new one lol.

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

Hahaha nice and thank you very much, I know its been awhile and I still have to post updates to get to where it is now. Bottom line is its over scaled by a lot, I also started another PEP guy manuel that is a good size and the proportions on it are excellent in comparison. So maybe I switch it out for that one. Also Would love to see the ref pics you took at the Daft Punk pop shop! Im trying to collect as many as I can, maybe I can PM you? But for now, here it is as of today. It's a ******** helmet boulder, weighing in at over 15lbs.
I haven't given up on it, more like been distracted and started a new one lol.
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Oh WOW, the new one has a beautiful silhouette! Glad to see you haven't given up on the project.