How "Accurate" is Wizardofflight's helmet template?

Yeah, half the need is equipment; I definitely hear you on that one. I've been trying to get my board fabrication shop together for the last several months, and it will only cost me a couple hundred in basic parts to do basic circuit boards, and a couple hundred more in future investment to expand my manufacturing capacity and diversify my options (upgrade from hand-soldering to toaster oven for reflow, upgrade from hand-agitating the etchant tank to motorizing it, upgrade from laser printing on glossy paper to printing directly on the PCB, etc.). In a way, all of the most-worthy endeavours in life are approached in stages of commitment, and the initial want is invariably bigger than the initial ability. Anything worth wanting takes work.

Getting the curvature of the general helmet doesn't seem too hard, but the dome looks like a big problem. I saw joe's metal helmet earlier today (cba to find the link right now, sorry), and it was awesome, but had a bit more bondo as surface than I would like mine to have, were I to make a metal mando helmet.

So a quick Google search gives me the impression that planishing is what I have seen referred to as "dishing," wherein one begins with a flat piece of metal, then heats it and hammers it over a form to take it from being a flat sheet to a complex contoured shape. Is this correct? I can definitely see the advantage to this method of creating the dome, but I also see the possible disadvantage of it being more difficult to guarantee accurate curvature and size, especially for a first-timer/novice such as myself. However, it would probably be better to have a slightly inaccurate dome and fix it later than to try and construct a dome out of triangular strips of metal and joining it all together smoothly, with all those possible points of failure.

Ah, to dream. One day I will have a fully-functional battle-ready mando helmet, but that day is a little way off. I think it would be neat to make it out of kevlar, but finding and working with that is likely to be an even bigger p-i-t-a. I'm sure I'll probably get distracted by working on my halo-inspired power armour, though, and forget to follow-up on the mando helmet with a companion suit of functional armour.

And in answer to the frustrations about endless planning...there is rarely such a thing as too much planning. "Measure twice cut once," as the old adage goes, except in this case, it's more along the lines of "measure a hundred times, cut once, assemble fifty prototypes out of cheaper materials, finally get the components needed to make the finished product, get excited, forget to measure, cut twice, measure after the fact...finish it anyway, wince at the results, and start over on version 2.0." That was the original adage, but after centuries of being passed down by imperfect verbal communication methods, it accidentally got simplified. Like a gigantic history-spanning game of telephone. :p
 
One of these days I'll tell you how brussels sprouts got their name... ;)

Dishing is okay for more forgiving metals or shallower domes, but for something like this helmet dome, you want to "raise" the metal. Like so. I have a batting helmet the exact right size that I can use to make a hydrostone negative form to check the fit. Planishing is just small-scale shaping to refine and smooth the surface.

[ETA: Found it. Try this. This guy does great tutorials.]

I may have to talk to you about circuit-board-y stuff. >_> My further plans involve much pushing of electrons...

Also, shoot me a PM or e-mail when you want to get started refining your templates.

--Jonah
 
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Oh jeez, that's a lot of work and more tools to invest in. I might just go straight to kevlar after all. At least that I can cut and form with basic tools. :p

Feel free to PM me if you get anyplace with your electron-pushing plans.

I'm still looking for the bet material to buy and waiting until I'm not broke so I can buy it, at which point I'll email/PM you with my request for template refinements. I think I'm going to make two helmets; one with accurate details for sake of authenticity, and one that's symmetrical and clean. It occurred to me the other night that building an accurate helmet might be worth the endeavour and time, but the average joe will look at my costume and go "this guy sucks at building quality props, look at that curvy edge and the lack of symmetry." So for serious trooping, I'd wear the official helmet with all flaws included, and for general costuming fun, I'll wear my more-symmetrical and less irreplacable helmet. I think having a backup or two would be a good idea, yeah?

Man, I am getting in over my head really quickly, aren't I? :p
 
Well, for right now, save or bookmark this. The only measurement really missing is the circumference of the base of the dome, just above the raised brow-band, which is ~724mm. That was the main referent I used for scaling my WOF templates, and then I adjusted everything from there. I went to two decimal places with the scale factor, but I'm OCD that way.

Once you have the right scale, the second main referent I used to base everything else from was the front vertical edge of the earcaps.

I'll probably shoot you a PM about the electronics-related stuff tomorrow. :)

--Jonah
 
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