Re: My V3 HDPE TROOPER HELMET
Hey guys.
I finally have some stuff to show.
First I want to say that there are a lot of finer details in the original helmets that simply cannot be reproduced without using HDPE.
The reason is because HDPE does really weird and unique things when heated up/formed, and these weird phenomenon that occur are a direct result.
It takes a long time to thoroughly/evenly heat up an HDPE sheet (about 6 times the time of ABS or styrene), and it takes a really long time for it to cool.
HDPE retains heat for really long time, and unlike ABS or styrene, it's window of plasticity (the state at which it can be stretched/formed) it much longer as well.
For some reason unknown to me, HDPE wrinkles up upon cooling. The inside of the formed pieces wrinkle up as well as the unused part of the formed sheet.
When HDPE is formed over the mold, it has a tendency to initially pull into all the details and all the creases of a mold, but then sort of turn itself inside out in the negative creases. I'm positive it has nothing to do with the vacuum, drill holes, or adequate suction. Apparently, it's just an HDPE thing.
For example, on the main crease above the tube stripes on a trooper helmet, the material pulls into the crease tightly, but then within 15 seconds or so, what was once a negative crease, becomes a positive outward bump. Sometimes it's a bump, sometimes it's a groove.
You can see this crease-bump (in varying severities) on every screen used HDPE helmet.
The severity of this phenomenon is affected by many factors including the stretch as well as heat level.
Something that I've incorporated into this V3 HDPE is the enhanced vocoder area.
Every vocoder I've ever seen (with the exception of the Brian R helmet that is the origin of my faceplate) is extremely sharp. The ribs are individual with deep grooves in-between. Of course, the sharpness of this area varies from faceplate to faceplate on the screen used helmets.
I could see on my mold were all these individual ribs/grooves were, so I very, very cautiously enhanced their depth to be more in-line with the other screen used helmets.
Here's a comp of screen used HDPE helmets that show the sharpness of the vocoder as well as the tube crease-bump.
Ok enough rambling, here are some pics.
The helmet is not assembled, it's just being held together by tape which is why the back/cap is sitting crooked on the face. I just wanted to give an idea of what it would look like.
Let me know what you think.
.