Zaku: Monoeye lens

Time is running out. I needed to make a decision on the mono-eye fabrication. Many options had gone through but none would look good or had too many safety compromises.

This one is the least that looked the best. Still kind of dangerous though. O well, I'll have to keep an eye on her then. (uh.. sorry)

Lexan plastic. Heating it up in my toaster oven. When it starts to droop in the window, I pull it out right away.

The best form I had around the house was this paint can. Whatever works!

Perfect diameter

To shape it further, I just took it to my belt sander. 

For the tint, I used some leftover auto tint.

Made a small accent ring out of craft foam. Hotglued it on. And voila!

Now, all i have left to do is:
- screens in the side windows
- hot glue the lens in
- custom cut some foam to fit my daughter's head
- maybe another final coat of top coat to seal things off a bit more for durability

Eye Lens Redux

Eye Lens:

Here we go again! My second (and hopefully FINAL) attempt at making the eye lens for the build. 

To recap my requirements on this sub-project:

- Must not limit my vision, much

- Should have detail

- Tinted yellow

- Must be lit up.

- Lights must not be seen from the outside

- Lights must not be glaring back at MY eyes.

Had put a lot of thought back into this one. Going to start off with a piece of clear lexan plastic. I think this is good approach.

Since I already have the shape of the eye lens from the previous build attempt. I'm going to use it as a template for the curvature. Here I'm laying it down on a piece of 2x4 wood. I needed a shape to put the melting plastic onto. And the wood can handle the heat.

Cutting the shape out with a jigsaw.

I stole this toaster oven from my wife years ago. Started out when I was secretly baking my sculptures in it before. Got caught by the wife.. and said something, something.. and she just gave me the oven! Woohoo!! Score! Anyways, inside the oven is a couple strips of lexan plastic. Warming it up for 5-10 minutes. The moment I can see them droop, I pull them out and put it on my wooden form....

Almost lost this piece. You can see some bubbling at the corners! Luckily, the bubbles are outside and would be cut off.

Cutting them out with my dremel.

Quick test fit. PERFECT!

Now, for the details. I'm thinking of frosting them in. To achieve that, I just mask out a simple design. With my dremel again, I used a steel brush attachment, and just went over the exposed areas.

I could use some fancy window etching solution to frost the details. But, that would mean money. And I rather not spend money if I didn't have to. The return wasn't worth it. Simple economics. hehe

TEST: Can I see out of the new lens? 

Yes! Yes, I can. Even in the frosted areas, I can see vague shapes. So, this is successful.

TEST: Does the detail light up? 

Yes, perfectly!! Success, again!

TEST: Are the lights visible from the outside? 

Nope. Since the lights would be mounted just out of sight. It's perfect again. Another Score!

TEST: Would the lights be glaring back into my eyes/face?

Nope, eventually, I will be mounting the LEDs with hot glue. Then I'll be painting the globs with dark matte paint. The light would only be directed at the lens itself.

PERFECT SCORE!!

Hot Glue Sucks

Hot glue:

Never said it before, so I'll say it here. I really dislike hot glue. Not a whole lot of positives, but I can name quite a few negatives....

- takes time for the glue gun to warm up

- glue gun is awkward to use in tight spaces

- glue sticks always run out. all the time.

- MESSY!

- those spiderweb-like strands with each use. And it's endless!! You just keep pulling and pulling

- not really a strong bond.

- dries cloudy

Obstacle: Here, I robbed some hot glue in the area where I was to place the fan. But, it rolled over into the fan blades!!!! UGH!!! Glued them down. I had to go back in, cutting and re-melting the hot glue to rip the  fan unit out. Some more cutting and sanding got the blades free. Hot glue sucks.

Finally got the fan to work again! Wired up all the LEDs for the eyes too. Here, I'm testing out the switch for it too.

Random Progress

Hotgluing in the "sideburns"

I accidentally cut too much of the head. It was meant to be an area where I can put Velcro tape. The plan was to hinge the entire "Mohawk" piece open. The intent is for easy access if I ever needed to. Gluing down the mohawk would limit the light into the helmet if I ever needed to fix anything or add anything. Thinking ahead! (Ironically.. I didn't)

So, I had to insert a piece of plastic to serve as a base.

 

The head brace is attached to the helmet by a combination of epoxy putty and hot glue. Strong bond. 4 anchor points.. for now. I'll add in 2 more later.

Now for the comfort part. I cut up small strips of anti-fatique matte (I had some leftover from another halloween costume)

Hot glued them in.

I'll save you the obligatory silly dance in the helmet. At least for now...

Horns: part 3 (Assembly)

Horn Assembly:

"Horns" all cut and glued. Time to finish it off all the edges with a little modelling putty.

(Pic above: underside with detail)

All edges sanded smooth. I left the 'end caps' open. Reason being I needed to figure out how to anchor each horn onto its base. If I were to simply just glue the cap on... it would be fine, if it was a model that I let sit on the shelf. But, this helmet needs to endure a lot of motion. The thin bead of glue would never hold its weight of the horns, it would tear it off the base pretty fast.

Looked around and found some scrap wood. This will give it a good anchor to the base. So, I plan on using resin to bind it all together. Drilling random holes into the wood to give the resin something to grab onto. A few screws would help this too. You can tell, I'm totally improvising now.

Totally forgot to mention where I got my inspiration from. A model of a Strike Freedom Gundam by an artist Min Bong-Gi. His work is simply awe inspiring.

My costume will be 80% from his design. And I'll throw in things here and there.

More Assemblage

Front half of the helmet and face assembled. It looks like there's enough room for my head. I still think it's going to be a close fit. Considering the face will need to retract up into the helmet area.

Decided to cut out the vent holes on each side. I can put some cool detail in there. Haven't decided on what though. The vents can actually serve as real ventilation too. I know from experience, these masks get stuffy fast. Any fresh air would be welcomed. I'm planning on having battery operated fans inside this time! That should improve airflow more.

Finished the helmet. Mock placement. I'm liking how things fit so far. Moving forward to the details!

An old prototype inside

Assembling

Glue:
Glue I used is your typical cyanoacrylate. (Aka Super Glue or Krazy Glue) Found some tubes for a $1 each!!! Yea for Dollarama again! (Name brands doesn't really mean anything here.. only difference is price!) I loaded up on a few. I think a project this size will take around 4 or 5 tubes.

Be prepared to work fast. That's why the pre-scoring helps tons here. A quick test fit would be smart too. To make sure you know which side the tab should go.

And expect to get glue all over your fingers and workspace.  No matter how careful you are with it, it will get messy. Nature of those silly little metal tubes. I always over-squeeze.. and it'll shoot a glob all over. Never fails.

This one particular shape have and will give me problems. Notice how all the polygons converge all into one tiny point? That's bad modelling in Maya. Blame it on inexperience. Blame it on bad design. Blame it on laziness. Whatever.. I just suck at modelling. Folding those thin triangles will be a pain later. No worries.. I'll get er done.



"Goatee" Assembly:

 "Goatee" (red part sticking out of the chin) is assembled. Here I'm leaving a hole unglued. It's so I can pour resin into it. A process that would harden up the paper. (I'll explain this process more later)

Face Assembly:

Inside of face

Unreinforced face assembled. My daughter testing it out.