Tron Legacy: Rinzler/Tron Helmet (pic heavy)

[metalgreyfox]

So I've been roaming the forums to come up with ideas and I've finally made the plunge into attempting to make my own helmet from scratch. I would have started on this about a year ago but I didn't want to ruin any surprises leading up to the movie so what people already knew opening day, I was just learning.

As for the materials used, I have opted to go with filler foam and then a thin layer of NSP clay over it (not the Bondo route) so I can always make future changes to it.

I am constantly modding the blueprint to each consecutive step judging by the ultimate goal. As of no, the final product will either be a glued 2 piece final product with one part being resin the other part being vacuum formed plastic (the visor) and the hole for the head to go into will be slightly enlarged compared to the movie used prop.....OR it will be a replica closer to the movie size with the hole being slightly smaller thus making the helmet a 3 piece modular prop to where the parts will mechanically fit together and be held by some sort of temporary "glue" or other retentive feature. I am constantly in the R&D stage of the project so I will continue to post pics and ideas.

Anyway, onto the pictures... (I will limit it to a couple per stage to make it easier to load)

I started with cardboard and paper with dimensions taken from the few photos I had back in late December. I compared the actors height to my own and extrapolated the measurements of the helmet from the picture...

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Then added the filler foam, which was fun since it stuck to my hands and hurt like hell when it got intertwined with my arm hair...

Then of course came the meat of the preliminary stage...The carving.
Coming to form...

Marked where I needed to foam....and then added in order to recontour the basic shape...

THIS STUFF EXPANDS!!!

A couple of days ago with ALMOST the final shaping process of the foam. I tried to pose similar to various screen caps I have to see what I have to reshape and whatnot...
I trimmed some more tonight and tried to scale to the toy version of the helmet. I'm going to be sponging on some smoothcast tomorrow so that I can add some clay soon and get the final sculpt done ASAP. I am in Dental School and a father of a 2 year old so time is scarce but hopefully Spring Break will help with that.
Will post more pics as it comes along...
(Deadline is end of April)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post feedback and what I should improve on. Dimensions or anything! Thanks in advance!

 

[Detronyx]

Just as a bit of an advisory, I used to frequent different costuming sites, and found out that expanding foam, when exposed to heat, tends to release toxic chemicals. If you're just gonna wear this indoors, you should be fine, but be careful going outside in the helmet for prolonged periods of time. The ventilation in that thing can't be good

On another note, it's looking great so far! The shape looks very accurate! What are your plans for vision? I would suggest using a very dark motorcycle visor material to get the right look and allow good vision. I can't wait to see the finished helmet!

 

[terryr]

The back view needs more work. The left side has to go higher on the bottom part, straighter in the middle and top.

To my eyes.

 

[metalgreyfox]

Yeah I tend to hold my breath in that thing and only wear it to take the pictures. The carving and sanding of that foam let's off these tiny particles that I'm sure are horrible for the lung lining, haha. I've looking into vacuumforming acrylic. Met with someone today about it. Looking into other options as well but I'm leaning towards the whole top piece to be one solid material, giving me butt-loads of peripheral vision. I'll be building up the clay this week and making the mold soon thereafter.

Thanks for the compliments! I'm trying to make my first project the best I can.

Cheers!

 

[metalgreyfox]

The back view needs more work. The left side has to go higher on the bottom part, straighter in the middle and top.

To my eyes.

Good catch. I noticed that today. Hopefully most of these details can be ironed out in the clay stage.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[DS66]

Are you going to make room for a speaker system?

 

[metalgreyfox]

Are you going to make room for a speaker system?

Yeah! It's funny you mention that I've been thinking of some options but the most efficient would probably be 1 speaker on each side of the helmet near the bottom where those circular vents are. 2 inch speakers should work hooked up to a male jack which will plug into an iPod mini or other small mp3 player. I already have the mp3 file edited and ready to go that has Rinzler's "growl" as a loop.

Did they use a speaker in the movie helmet? I'm just wondering what made you think of that.

 

[DS66]

Yeah! It's funny you mention that I've been thinking of some options but the most efficient would probably be 1 speaker on each side of the helmet near the bottom where those circular vents are. 2 inch speakers should work hooked up to a male jack which will plug into an iPod mini or other small mp3 player. I already have the mp3 file edited and ready to go that has Rinzler's "growl" as a loop.

Did they use a speaker in the movie helmet? I'm just wondering what made you think of that.

I thought it would be a nice touch! I really want to make this costume and if I had the skill I'd add it in. His signature as it were...

 

[metalgreyfox]

Right on.
Have a big test a week from today bu as far as updates on the helmet go, I need to shave close to 0.5 inches on each side of the lower flange then recheck measurements before I add clay. If it comes out to where I'm pleased with the outcome and wearer friendly I might offer a limited run since my time only allows a couple to be made at a time. Cost of course would be a make or break point as well. I hopefully will have more pics soon. I need to get this done though so I can start playing around ith the L200 foam I have rolled up in my closet waiting to be formed, painted, and wired into armor!

 

[DS66]

Nice! Keep the updates coming. Would be interested if the price is right.

 

[Boba Binks]

Very very cool. Tron Legacy is an amazing movie and I am hoping some people would be making helmets from it. I will be keeping an eye on this thread. If you sell I would be interested.

Keep up the amazing work.

 

[Dexter]

nice work so far.

 

[Ilikeyellow]

looks nice, cant wait to see it finished

 

[CitizenSnips]

This is gonna be sweet

 

[EZBSVS]

Love the start of it. I know everyone's busy, but have you had any chance to work on it? And I'm interested in the NSP clay you were talking about. Any reason you prefer it over Bondo? Hope to see more of it soon!

 

[mandoman]

That is looking superb! If you plan to make some extras, I'm sure you'd get a LOT of interest. :cool

Really liking the size on that too, since Rinzler was slightly "bobbleheaded" in the movie. :thumbsup

 

[dt23]

looks sweet!
any new news?

 

[ZeroLw]

Would you be able to use that mold to make a motorcycle helmet?
been looking everywhere for a custom motorcycle helmet, and I saw this and thought it was great!

 

[APV]

I think it's rather perfect in terms of shape at this stage... There are some details that could be formed with the clay... Like, the backside's odd design.

This thread of another's work here on the Rinzler helmet does have a lot of detailed images if you look through.