Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 3

I put off carbon fibering my helmet for so long. Part of it was because I was still busy marveling at the fact that I had rotocast my own helmet hnnngggg.

And part of me was scared. I didn't have a vacuum former or any way to shape the carbon fiber other than draping. The helmet had a lot of curves, and I didn't have a very fine carbon fiber weave (something something budget something something close enough). And I really, really didn't want to ruin everything forever. 

But I had to do it. It was four days until techfair. I had these four days to carbon fiber, attach electronics, thermoform and tint the visor, and do any cleaning up. Not a lot of time, so I gritted my teeth and buckled down to work. 

I started by dremeling out the visor. Yayyy more pretty pictures of the hollow thing I made omg--



 Because I knew that draping the carbon fiber weave around the curves would inevitably end up with a few bits of helmet peeking through, I spray painted the entire helmet black before I started the layup.
 To figure out the bizarre shape of the weave I would need to cut to drape and fold well around the helmet, I cut up an old t-shirt after folding it around the helmet and tucking it in, cutting away excess to remove unsightly pleats and lumps.
 Unfolded, it came out looking like this. The extension on the right is the part that wraps around the bottom front lip of the helmet.
 Because carbon fiber weave comes unwoven so easily, I laid the template down with some room to spare, and taped around it as well as under any inside cuts. This way, when I cut out the carbon fiber, it not only didn't come unraveled, but would also hold its original shape without warping too much.
 Once cut, I gingerly removed the painters tape and draped the weave gently around my helmet. Then, I carefully lifted up one section of the carbon fiber at a time, sprayed craft glue on its underside, and then pressed it back to the surface of the helmet, securing it down in place before moving on to the next section.

With all the carbon fiber secured, it was time to apply coat after coat of two-part epoxy resin, making sure to fully soak the first layer down to the plastic before I let it sit and cure. I must have done four or five coats in total, sanding before the last coat. And to get the carbon fiber to conform to the sharper edges around the lip where it would be very important for the visor to seat properly, I improvised for my lack of a vacuum former or outer mold by using copious amounts of binder clips around the rim. 
I also added another panel in the back because I was dissatisfied with the way the weave directionality and disintegration occurred. If you scroll up, you'll see that this was because of the intense amount of draping and handling that had to be done to gather the material across the curve of the back. So I just patched it with a band-aid piece of carbon fiber. 
 Because it cured faster in warm environments, and I tended to keep my window open because both fumes and liking it cold, I propped the helmet up by hooking it over an adjustable lamp I had, and setting it right next to my radiator, which never really turns off properly. I let it cure two hours between each coat, and then let the final coat sit next to the radiator overnight.

In the morning, I detached it off of my lamp, grimacing at the now-ruined lamp. It still turns on and works; it just isn't as flexible as it usually is, plus it's covered in epoxy drippings. Ah well. C'est la vie. Protect your surfaces, kids.
 I used my mini hacksaw to chip away at the stray bits of carbon fiber that had hardened in the inside of the helmet. Here's a shot of the back, with a bit of my lamp underneath.

 And a shot from below. Note the places where I've hacked off bits of the carbon fiber; that's because there were bubbles, due to my binder clip method not being perfect. I later went back and rewrapped the entire bottom rim to cover those up, and was more thorough with my binder clip application.

 The binder clips did leave tiny indents, but those were primarily due to the epoxy buildup around and underneath them. A bit of sanding and elbow grease took those off pretty well, and one last thin coat of epoxy brought back the shine.

 And because I just couldn't resist, I went ahead and loaded up my shiny new carbon fibered helmet with the intended pattern of EL wire (blue, of course), held in place with more painter's tape.

 And I had to light it up! The high-pitched whine of the EL wire made me grin uncontrollably, as I mentally stripped away the paint and imperfections, already envisioning what the end product would become.

But the project was far from over. And the hardest part, the visor, threw me for a tragic loop that had me near tears less than twenty four hours later.

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