Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 6

While I was dealing with the frustrations of thermoforming and trying to tint things, I was also working on the rest of the cosplay: the costume itself. I went on a consumerist mall safari to acquire a leather jacket. At first, I stopped by the Garment District, which is a consignment and thrift store in Cambridge that tends to have nice vintage retro things. But their leather jackets, while awesome and great quality, were running more than $50 on average, and I didn't want to spend so much on a jacket I'd end up modifying and sticking things on. So I headed to the mall, and ended up buying a men's pleather jacket from H&M.

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 5

Exhibition at Techfair was a great time. I had a lot of fun explaining my inspirations and process, but it was a bit of a bummer having to say that it was still a work in progress. I went onto Mcmaster and ordered some PETG to thermoform the visor, before it became too late. The helpful guys at the Pappalardo laboratory (Super shout out to Professor Braunstein for dealing with my constant pestering) were kind enough to let me use their thermoforming machine in the middle of the 2.007 class. I caught them during the tail end of spring break.

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 4

Wow, this is a long build sequence. But I was determined to make this pipe dream of mine work out.

I was under the impression that thermoforming would be easy. I had the visor set up on blocks, and I made a nice wooden frame using some plywood and nails that I had lying around. 

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--