First, I'd say that there are about 1,000 ways to do this and you could spend any amount of money (I think the real ones cost like $14,000 or something ridiculous).
This is how I would do it on a modest budget. It will take a lot of time, but none of it should be terribly difficult. I don't know how much experience you have making things, but if you go into the art and design common shop (nobody will ask, but if they do, just tell them you're a graphic designer or something) anyone working there cold help you and would probably get a kick out of it.
I made some quick sketches so it will be more understandable (hopefully). Click on them to make them bigger.
1. I would carve the form out of foam. My friend clayton says that there is some really cheap medium density modeling foam in the shop that would be big enough. You
can borrow some of halsey and my tools if you want. The stuff should be really easy to carve down and sand.
2. Once you get it to the right shape, you can use the plastic forming machine in the common shop. I can help you with this it you want. Basically, how the machine works it this:
A large sheet of plastic is heated up and draped over your form. Then suction from underneath provides a vacuum to pull all the plastic towards the form. The reason we use foam is because it is porous, so the plastic should sit up quite nicely. You'll want to make sure that you set the foam model on a podium of some sort so that the plastic sheet will be pulled up around the bottom. After that, you'll simply cut the excess plastic of with a saw.
3. From there, you'll need to carve out the foam. It is important to get all of it out, otherwise the black visor wont look as nice (more on that later).
3.5 I would make the little side deals separately though. Use some 3/4 in MDF or plywood (there should be enough scrap either in the shop or my garage, you won't neet do buy it) to cut out the shapes. Then glue them or screw them to the sides of the helmet.
4. Painting would work two different ways.
Black: For the black part, you're going to want to shoot spray paint on the inside of the plastic. When you do this, it will give the illusion from the outside that it is tinted glass.
Make sure you tape off the inside where you're eyes will see out of. You can cover this with car tinting sheets. I might have some around from the iSolate project that I did freshman year. If not, they have it at walmart. For the Silver helmet, you could do the entire piece like this, but the gold helmet has to complex of a curve, you'll need to use paint for it.
Gold: There is an auto parts store on 6th street (and alabama? misissippi? Florida? somewhere around there? that sells spray cans of auto paint. This is the best paint you can find, and it will look realistic if you use it. Mask off the part that you want to stay black, and spray it on. Make sure you rough sand it and prime it first (other wise it will look like crap).
With painting, the more you sand it and coat it the better it will turn out.
5. From there, I would suggest getting some kind of bike helmet or something that conforms to your head and attaching it to the inside somehow. This way, the helmet will sit on your head and not your shoulders and will turn when you turn your neck.
I hope this was helpful. I usually use this blog to show people things, but Facebook wouldn't support images this large. Let me know if you need help or have questions. I don't really have much time for stuff this semester, but I do like projects, especially other people's
good luck,
-kyle
No comments:
Post a Comment