Horns: part 5 (Final detailing)

Horns: final details put on:

 Cover up hole.

 A little piece of detail. Paper template first, then plastic again.

Glued and sanded! Ready primer!

I can't breathe!

On the subject of ventilation, I was thinking where I should put my mini fans.

Since I cut out these side vents, I can place the fan units behind a screen inside the vents. Heck, I can even rig it so I showcase those running fans. 

Even though these fans run super silent, having them an inch away from my ear can still be annoying. If it's not the fans' noise, then it's the air being pushed through that I will hear.

...Or I can place them behind the vent holes/nostrils. This would give me direct flow of fresh air. I think this route is best. 

And to vent the hot air outward, I chose the most logical place. On the tail end of the "mohawk" piece. 

Horns: part 4 (Assembly)

"Crown" or Base:

The Base is where the horns will be attached to. And the base itself attaches to the forehead of the helmet

Inside (and out of focus), you can see 2 black strips. These are metal plates. (Random junk I found around the house) These are glued down with superglue. Their purpose for which I may or may not use, is the contact points in which the magnets would attach themselves to the rest of the helmet. (the forehead)

 Ripped up a square of paper towel.

These are for "fillers" inside the "crown" and the "horns". It would fill the empty space inside, grabbing the wooden posts and sticking them onto the inside walls of the horns.

Backside of the entire assembly.

- Metal plates (shown in light brown)

- Paper towels (shown in green squiggly lines) - They fill the volume of space inside

- Wood with screws (shown in grey) - The paper towels are soaked with resin and would 'grab' onto the wooden dowels and nails. Just randomly wrapping around them. Making sure the towels also touch all sides of the walls.  Both unifying everything and giving it strength.

You can see the entry holes where I pour my resin into. Filling whatever space there is. This would give the proper solid feel to the entire assembly.

80% done. Ready for details and paint!

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.

Horns: part 2

Horns:

From the paper template I printed out off of Pepakura, I cut more pieces from the plastic sheet. Gluing them together with plastic cement

The second pair of "horns" are basically glorified tetrahedrons. Throwing in a few details here and there. It'll be strong and lightweight.

Horns

Horns:

I think for the next little bit, I'm going to focus on the "horns" or antennas or whatever-you-call-ems. They are the 4 long protrusions that come off the forehead. I had a concern where these long horns where I would bump into walls and doorways constantly and eventually break off. Totally see this happening because I have zero peripheral vision. Only looking out of 2 tiny holes directly in front of me.

So the solution would be to make them strong and maybe 'break-away-able'. So, if I do hit something, it simply comes off.. and I can put it back together again without any damage.

My solution for the strength part would be to use a different material. Metal would be too hard to fabricate with and it would be too heavy. The paper/resin would be too weak since it's hollow. Difficult to reinforce the insides. So, I'm going with plastic. I picked up a huge sheet of plastic at Industrial Paint and Plastics. (They sell all kinds of cool industrial building stuff. Same place where I picked up the measuring cups and resin kits)

(Small) Obstacle: I had to go back into Pepakura to print these shapes out on regular paper. Since I'm not going to use them in the same fashion as the rest of the build. I'm just using them as cutting templates. So, I left out the tabs and numbers too. Had to go back into Maya to adjust the model of the long horns. This way I can break them into 2 shapes that run arcross 2 pages. Couldn't fit the horn onto one single 8.5"x11" paper.

.080 gauge plastic

TIP: Make sure that blade is still sharp! You have to make a few SLOW accurate runs on each cut. Being extra careful not to swipe that blade across any of my fingers! Don't really need to cut all the way through, once it's past halfway.. you can just bend-break it off. Still has a clean edge. Sand if not.

Plastic Cement is what I used to sandwich them all together

Love modelling putty. Goes on easy. Cures fast. Sands smooth. 

(Picked up a couple tubes at the local hobby store)

Sanding the putty down smooth. Then sanded the entire piece. Same reason why I sand down all my Gundam models, to rid the plastic of its manufacturing oils. This will give the primer a good surface to paint on.

All edges sanded down smooth. It's got a great solid feel to them now. Not worried about banging them around.

Again.. with the mock fits. Liking it!

The solution for the 'break-away' horns.. so they don't actually BREAK. I think I'm going with rare-earth magnets. They're super strong and can easily hold the weight of each horn. (In the above picture) I've tested the magnets' strength. So far so good. If that isn't enough, I can always go with hook and loop (Velcro). Or maybe a combination of both. This is also a good idea for when it comes to storage.

Test fit!

Resin all dried. Excited to finally test fit the helmet. Looking at this makes me smile. And totally fuels my motivation to continue!

My wife tries it out

This is where a lot of questions would be answered...

- Would it fit? Yes

- Is the overall helmet the correct scale? Yes

- Does it look good? (Subjectively) Yes

- Would my eyes align up with the helmet's eye holes? Yes

- Is there sufficient room for the face to retract up? Hmmm.. still a close call. Not 100%. (fingers still crossed)

I think there enough space between my face and the mask for breathing. But, I still think I would put a fan there to circulate the air. I'm sure it'll help.

The vision through the eyes. Hmm... it's there. I can totally see straight. But, I'm afraid it won't be enough. I can see myself running into everything. I might consider virtual glasses and a mini video camera... that is .. if the budget allows. Those are expensive units. $300+!

If I do end up going the route of virtual glasses. Then the eyeholes maybe fitted with a solid piece of lens that I can then light up! Which would be cool at night. And it'll also match the anime! That would be awesome. 

Being rich is awesome. Wish I was rich. Wish I was awesome.