First of, I should have started this thread ages ago, but alas, I have not. Sorry for that...
Anyways,
I always wanted a rocketeer helmet so sometime last year I decided to make me one. Started of as it usually does with a lot of gathering of as much reference material as I could find on google and subsequently on to the CAD-work.
At this stage(As I said, should have started the thread earlier), I have more of less finished the CAD-part and printed all the parts and next up is sanding/finishing/painting the helmet itself but some notes on the designwork might be of interest for fellow makers out there I gather.
First, I imported the photos of the different main views into my CAD-software and used these as my primary set of reference when building the geometries.
I don't own a vacuum former myself but I do own a heat gun so early on in the project I decided that I wanted to make some kind of simple plaster buck for forming the lenses. I ended up designing the molds for the plaster buck in two parts mainly to make the sanding process as easy as possible. After printing and sanding I casted the plaster directly in these. Worked better than I thought i would to be honest, the cast released perfectly from the mold, no violence needed
(almost)
After the plaster had settled i made some lenses by locking a plastic sheet in a frame, heating it up as evenly as I could with my heat gun and pulled over the buck.
Another hurdle to overcome was the weld marks as seen on the original prop(that is, the Propstore reference photos I used)
In my CAD-software I managed to create these as a feature and more or less stamp them along a certain curve with some internal parameters that I could modify in order to give them a somewhat more organic look. Came out pretty nice I think.
Next up was the big Air vane that is kind of the most noticeble feature of the helmet and therefore quite important to get correct. Since it is too big for my printer to print as a whole I split it up in three chunks. All chunks are all quite big and they do impose quite the challenge when printing considering that big flat surfaces have a tendency to warp. They did warp some tiny amount but not so much as to create a problem though.
At this point the CAD-work is more or less finished, I'm a couple of testprints in and have adressed most CAD issues and the time has come for the physical bit with hiding seams, priming etc. This though I've yet to start but will document in this thread as I go. Some more pictures of the finished model and prints below to start of.
I have one ask though to you, the all knowing people of the RPF. It is with regards to the size of the reference prop. Does anyone of you guys here have the approximate measurement of the actual prop or a cast or such? I'm a bit worried I've made it too big and would like to confirm my scale. The actual length of the fin would go a long way if I had it or some such.
Anyways,
I always wanted a rocketeer helmet so sometime last year I decided to make me one. Started of as it usually does with a lot of gathering of as much reference material as I could find on google and subsequently on to the CAD-work.
At this stage(As I said, should have started the thread earlier), I have more of less finished the CAD-part and printed all the parts and next up is sanding/finishing/painting the helmet itself but some notes on the designwork might be of interest for fellow makers out there I gather.
First, I imported the photos of the different main views into my CAD-software and used these as my primary set of reference when building the geometries.
I don't own a vacuum former myself but I do own a heat gun so early on in the project I decided that I wanted to make some kind of simple plaster buck for forming the lenses. I ended up designing the molds for the plaster buck in two parts mainly to make the sanding process as easy as possible. After printing and sanding I casted the plaster directly in these. Worked better than I thought i would to be honest, the cast released perfectly from the mold, no violence needed
(almost)After the plaster had settled i made some lenses by locking a plastic sheet in a frame, heating it up as evenly as I could with my heat gun and pulled over the buck.
Another hurdle to overcome was the weld marks as seen on the original prop(that is, the Propstore reference photos I used)
In my CAD-software I managed to create these as a feature and more or less stamp them along a certain curve with some internal parameters that I could modify in order to give them a somewhat more organic look. Came out pretty nice I think.
Next up was the big Air vane that is kind of the most noticeble feature of the helmet and therefore quite important to get correct. Since it is too big for my printer to print as a whole I split it up in three chunks. All chunks are all quite big and they do impose quite the challenge when printing considering that big flat surfaces have a tendency to warp. They did warp some tiny amount but not so much as to create a problem though.
At this point the CAD-work is more or less finished, I'm a couple of testprints in and have adressed most CAD issues and the time has come for the physical bit with hiding seams, priming etc. This though I've yet to start but will document in this thread as I go. Some more pictures of the finished model and prints below to start of.
I have one ask though to you, the all knowing people of the RPF. It is with regards to the size of the reference prop. Does anyone of you guys here have the approximate measurement of the actual prop or a cast or such? I'm a bit worried I've made it too big and would like to confirm my scale. The actual length of the fin would go a long way if I had it or some such.
