Lock that face

While I got the face to retract all good now. It doesn't have a stopper on either the down or up position. A lot of ideas were thrown around for this. I even wanted it to be motorized using servos and stuff. But, that may be too complicated. And more importantly, too heavy. That's a lot of weight.

So a simple magnet system was made. One to catch it when the face is down, and another to catch it when it's up.

I used rare earth magnet. 3 total. This one is on the face. No 2 magnets actually touch each other. Because they're just too strong! I had to separate them with a  piece of plastic. 

The second magnet is on the brow lip. This one would catch the face when it's in the down position.

 And the third magnet would be up on top. To catch the face when it's in the top position.

The magnet on top is held down by epoxy putty. Love this stuff. Dries hard. Like cement hard. 

(that's what she said)

Retractable face

Now that the 2 major pieces are assembled. I can tackle one of the biggest features on my costume. The retractable face. It looks like there is clearance. It'll be close. So, it's a green light for now. 

Time to move forward!

Obstacle: Well... I had a feeling about this one when I hung it to dry. The face dried too wide. Meaning the pivot points that I had made in Pepakura stage are too far apart and will not line up with the pivot points inside the helmet. Since I had reinforced it already, this thing will NOT bend. If I force it too hard, it will break. 

Sooooo.. out comes the Dremel tool. Equiped with a mini cutting disc. The pivots gets chopped. 

Now, I have make something in its place. Starting out with a block of hardwood.

Using Chicago screws to bolt the hinge joint together. The bracket is simple "All Round galvanized bracing" The holes are perfect size for the Chicago screws.

The wood is screwed into the helmet from the bottom.

Done. Works like a charm.

Here's a video of the face retracting.

And a close up video of the mechanism. Simple.

Halfway there?

Got excited and duct taped all the pieces together to see what it would look like finished.

It looks like I'm almost done. But, I'm not even close to the finish line. There are a million things on my checklist to do still. So much more fabrication. A lot of obstacles to hurdle over.