Magneto Project

Here's one I haven't seen anyone do yet which surprised me, Magneto's helmet from the first Xmen movie:

I managed to find an old pepakura file floating around that I think was modelled by Dungbeetle, the file was not created by me. I think the file was an early draft, the faceplate if you will and the helmet section are separate pieces and when overlayed with an image of the screen used helmet the shapes were a little off:

I sketched over the actual model with the basic forms of the screen helmet as a reference whilst I was building the pepakura model, with the paper helmet I redid most of the major shapes such as the eye shape, ear slots and the crown shape that curves above the ear down to the front of the helmet. Some of the other mods I will leave till I get to the bondo stage. 

The crown piece needed a lot of reshaping, so I added more card to the area to create more accurate curves, the same went for the ear slots. Luckily with only a few little patches the old lip pieces fit around the new shapes and it didn't take too long to get the whole thing built.

The helmet looks pretty dam messy at this stage but that's because I glue all the tabs onto the outside to give a smooth interior since I will be using the same process here as I used on the Guy Manuel Helmet, with the new crown shape I needed to recut the inside of the helmet to reveal the new shape so that the bondo mix would reach right into the small corners.

The right side has been roughly trimmed out here and you can see how the left side was covering the now lower profile of the front detail. Small triangles were cut out of the crown pieces edges so that it could curve into the same shape as the rest of the helmet as the original shape was too blocky.

I then made some inner supports that matched up to the new shape to keep it symmetrical and prevent warping during the next stage.

Now all ready to go !

No Budget Prop Building !

I decided to set a challenge and try to make something using only the random junk in the garage and this is the build that followed :

I decided to carry on the Star Wars theme I've been on for the past few weeks and made a Gaffi stick, the weapon used by the Tusken raiders.

I decided to base mine on the one in the middle since most people seem to go for the one on the left, thought I'd mix it up a little haha.

I made a paper mock up of the size I guesstimated the war club should be and cut an old curtain rail to size, I then stripped off the paint and gave it a dark stain.

I used a spade bit (I think thats what they're called?) to bore a hole into one end of the shaft for the metal club piece to attach.

For the metal piece I used a metal rod from an old flatpack greenhouse after removing the paint the bare metal had a worn look to it which made it fit perfect for the used feel I wanted. I cut slots into the metal with my dremel for the mace tip to slot into.

Next a paper template was made for the mace piece which was traced onto an old empty plastic tub, I made two identical pieces that were slotted together into a cross shape which then fit into the metal rod.

The next step was detailing, I cannibalised an old bike pump for some little pieces, ended up taking a washer and two connectors, filled the writing on the connector piece and glued the main pieces. each piece was painted a dark metallic colour to try blend with the real metal.

Using hot glue I went along where each piece met with another to create a messy welded look, the hot glue was painted to match the plastic pieces. The photos don't pick up how metallic the paint actually looks.

Jango Fett Helmet Quick Project

Ok so since I already molded the Boba Fett helmet I made I cast myself a copy and decided to convert it into a Jango Fett Helmet, using a blob of body filler I smoothed over the 'dent' on the front of the helmet, sanded off the greeblie on the cheek and modified the range finder assembly using my dremel and a little body filler again to neaten everything up.

Once that was done I gave the whole thing about 7 coats of filler primer and then buffed it with some 1500 grit sandpaper.

Next step was to coat the whole thing in chrome spray paint, the best finish I could find that was affordable and I think came out looking pretty decent :

Once the paint had been left to harden for a few days I masked off the cheeks and got to work painting the two shades of blue, the darker blue I used has a slight turquoise tinge to it which seemed close enough to the references I was working from.

Jango Pre Op 

Next I cut out a section of mesh and painted it the same colour as the cheeks

Once the paint was dry the mesh and visor were installed and secured with hot glue along with some padding to prevent any bobble head action when being worn.

Once that was done I added pinstripe tape to the helmet (I think this is how the movie stripes were added) which was an absolute pain to try and keep in a straight line. 

All finished !

Prop Blog Logo

Decided I'd make a logo to represent my user name that I can use to watermark photos and make things a little more professional looking I guess :D I use the name Vector Prime in other places such as Deviantart so I used vector shapes in Illustrator to design this with some tweaks in Photoshop to get a nice 80's G1 look:

Comicon

This is an extremely late post but Comicon went down well, got a good reception on the costume and got to take a few pictures as well as pose for quite a few too, this year was bigger and better than last years Comicon so here's hoping next year will be even bigger and better. Shamefully I had problems with the Visor for the Guy Manuel helmet and couldn't get a usable pull from my buck due to how large shape it is. Meaning I ended up as one of a two man ensemble, but it still went well and actually found another guy cosplaying Thomas who was great. I'll be reworking the helmet buck and will hopefully get it sorted, but this has now taken a back seat whilst I work on a Jango Helmet; anyway here's a few pics:

Daft Punk Thomas Helmet Final

EDIT - These helmets are now for sale, please email me at judd93@hotmail.co.uk for info

Finished with 6 days to go !

I decided to go for the leather jumpsuit version rather than a suit, so for Comicon I'll be using a leather jacket I already had, maybe upgrade to a good quality replica in the future.

The visor was made from a sheet on 1mm thick PETG plastic, tinted with car tail light tinting spray and attached with two part epoxy. The earpods were just attached with hot glue.

I ditched the airbrush paint I was originally using for the project, it was too finicky, and the finish wasn't consistent, the new spraypaint I used came out extremely well, the paint has a nice shine and reflects a lot. Spraypaint will never be as good as professional chrome but I think this is a nice compromise.

Guy Manuel Helmet

This helmet I had to try get done in a lot shorter time frame than the Thomas Helm, however I had a much more accurate Pepakura file for this helmet which made my work a lot easier.... slightly easier.. maybe XD 

The helmet was built up in 2 days from cardstock I bought at Staples, the inside was then coated in Sonite wax from smooth on.

I thinned down some body filler with resin and slushed it around inside the paper helmet, the wax layer kept the filler from bonding to the paper and as soon as the first layer was cured I added another few thickened layers to add strength to the piece.

I peeled the paper off of the cured piece, gave it a quick coat of primer and got to sanding !

Next I cut out the back dome piece so I could sand and shape it separately since it is meant to be a separate piece anyway. I noticed in my reference pictures that the panelling behind the ear should be thicker than the frame in front of the ear so I got to work on correcting that.

I drew out a template for the new sized back panel, this new thickness will be added the same way as the helmet was cast, using thinned filler.

Then more filling and smoothing and starting on the visor shaping.

The thickness of the edging was evened out, 

and the nice straight corners I had were rounded with a glob of filler and the lid from a resin can.

The visor was then sanded and smoothed:

I designed the ear pods in Solidworks and had them made on a lathe by a friend so they came out perfect.

Once the ear pods arrived I cut out the rough panel inside the ear recess and replaced it with sheet plastic that was left over from the glove plates. The actual helmet has a detailed circuit pattern in this recess but due to time restrictions that piece will have to be retrofitted after the event. Using the grinding wheel on my dremel I cut out the grooves on the sides of the helmet and test fitted the ear pieces, the visor was then cut out so I was left with the frame piece. I left 5mm of the original visor on the frame to act as a lip for the Vacu-form visor to sit on. I can then add the 5mm back onto the original visor piece with more filler and turn it into a buck.

The frame was painted using spray paint, I spent a lot of time looking for alternatives to professional chroming because it just wasn't in my budget and I had a looming deadline. The results I got were in my opinion extremely good for a spraycan, the gold isn't a mirror finish like real chrome but is very reflective and went on like a dream, pictures don't really show the finish well but you can see the colour of the tiles under the helmet reflected in the paint.

Daft Punk Thomas Helmet Phase 2

The mould for the Thomas helmet was made using Smooth-ons Rebound 25, before starting I mixed a small batch of the silicone and poured it into an egg holder.

I'll use these as mould keys to help the silicone mould lock into the fibreglass mother mould that will support the silicone mould. I was that busy making the mould that I forgot to take in progress pics but here's two of the finished mould inside and out :

To go into more detail of the process I basically brushed on a normal coat of mixed silicone as a detail coat to get into all the nooks and crannies, after that I waited for the silicone to become tacky and ready for the next layer. I added another layer that had been thickened with a thixotropic again from Smooth-on, I did this repeatedly until I had a good thickness to the mould which took around 5 coats. Two layers of fibreglass (the mother mould) were added to each side and bolted together to keep the rubber in place, this is where the mould keys I showed earlier come into play.

To mould the ear pod I built a mould box using lego bricks since I had them handy and they're easy to build different shapes rather than having to cut different shapes out of MDF or something; plus legos more fun !

Nice thick solid walls so there's no need for a support shell.

I cast a helmet in fibreglass, fibreglass holds the detail well and is also extremely light but strong, which is the right combo for something that's going to be worn for a length of time at a convention :D

I circled a few low spots where the cast needed a thin layer of filler to get the surface as perfect as I could. 

I then trimmed out the visor material and left a lip to attach the new transparent visor to. I then primed and wet-sanded the helmet with 1500 grit sandpaper and padded the helmet for a snug fit so there's no wobbly bobble head action when being worn.