Sometimes it pays to be the strong silent type
Major Features
Simple Two Piece Design
The helmet itself is comprise of a front and back piece. The back piece doesn't require supports while the front only supports internally meaning that you should have a nice smooth print on the outside. This of course always depends on your print settings, more than likely both pieces will still benefit from supports.
The model also contains two alignment pins that allow for easy alignment and glueing of the pieces together.
Visor Insert Features
The inside of the helmet features Guides to hold the visor in place. While the visor can sit on these alone I would recommend a low strength glue or tape to help fasten hit while still allowing you to remove the visor.
Sizing Ring
Model includes a sizing ring to help you scale the helmet to fit over your head. Sizing ring is a equal to the size of the throat of the helmet so make it so you can fit your whole head through without slicing your ears off.
Full Visor Resin Kit
This model includes a full kit to help you make a rubber mold capable of casting a resin visor. A resin visor in and of itself will have some reflective properties while more importantly allow you to make the visor see-through and a color of your choice. It also allows for more complex geometries than vacuum forming and makes for a sturdier visor. The visor, baseplate, and mold shell all fit together to ensure that the the model only requires a minimal amount of rubber. The less rubber required, the less it costs and the more reusable the mold and easier the demolding process. Model also features a mold stand so that you can ensure the mold can be filled to the top without deformation when you pour in the resin.
Visor Resin Volume: 91.7 mL
Visor Rubber Mold Volume: 391.3 mL
You can find a more detailed explanation of the resin casting process in my "Builds" section.
Builds
This is a build that I had been putting off for months after the initial printing but I recently got around to actually finishing it. It took a lot of trial and error with a couple of mishaps pushing back the completion date a couple weeks but I am so happy with the final results.
As you can see I went with a purple visor and purple helmet accent stripe. Additionally I am using slightly modified version of the model that I sell that includes inserts for some old speakers I had lying around. That being said this helmet also includes Bluetooth!
To start off, I did my usual routine of primer, sand, bondo, sand, primer, sand in order to get the helmet ready to paint. On the right, you can see that I used some Rust-Oleum Metallic paint to fill in any gaps that I missed and give the helmet a smooth finish.
Afterwards, I used some painters tape and plastic bags in order to paint the strip down the middle. I went with a nice aubergine.
As with all my resin kits, you can see that it features the visor plug, a baseplate and the outer shell. All off this was glued together using PVC cement and attached to a flat piece of cardboard from an old pizza box. All the way on the right you can see I have poured all the liquid rubber in and finalizing the mold.
Here we can see my set up for resin casting. I've got my resin, resin dye, mold setup, and some old molds for incase I had a lot of resin left over. You can see the mold stand and mold shell in use on the right to ensure the mold doesn't deform and that the resin doesn't spill out. You can see just how little resin is required even when accounting for mistakes which I added a large margin for error for reason you'll see later on, payed off. Also it's worth noting look how large the blue mold is. This is the mold for a tiny bulbasaur. Notice just how much waste rubber is used. This was before I started to design my own resin castings with custom mold shells to reduce waste rubber/cost.
This was the first project I ever used my vacuum chamber/vacuum pump for. As a result, I messed up by pouring the resin in first, then trying to degas it. This resulted in all the bubbles pushing out almost half the resin and overflowing into the chamber. Luckily I had prepared for some sort of mishap and had some excess in the cup which properly degassed and I was able to pour back into the mold.
Moral of the story, degas your resin before you pour it into the mold.
After I took out the visor, I sanded it all the way to 3000 grit sandpaper, then vigorously hand polished the whole thing using some Flitz polish. I'm thinking about dedicating a whole post to the process of polish resin to really shine like a gem, but for now this is a good brief overview. Below is a before and after of just a single quick pass of the Flitz polish.
Next I ordered a small Bluetooth Receiver. I soldered my speaker to an old audio jack and connected it to the receiver and tested to make sure I got the Left Speaker and the Right Speaker Oriented Correctly before inserting them into the helmet. I also printed a small case for the Receiver and glued it to the inside of the helmet. This way I can remove the receiver to charge it as needed. Lastly, I bought an old catcher's helmet from the Goodwill and took out the padding, washed it, and glued it to the inside of the helmet.
Here is a video showing off the audio of the helmet. Note that the Visor clarity is better when actually wearing the helmet than it appears in the video below.
Overall, I am very happy with how it turned out! If you have any further questions or comments feel free to reach out to me.
What Next?
If you are looking to create you own models like this one feel free to checkout all of my tutorials on 3D modeling and prop making techniques.
If you are looking to purchase the model so that you can print your own you can find it in the store.
Lastly, make sure to check back in every once in a while to see what I've been working on
Thank you for your time
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