First Steps

After deciding that I wanted to attept to fabrcate my own Daft Punk Guy-Manuel deHomem-Christo helmet, I purchased expanding foam, Magic Smooth, "Rebound" rubber for casting, and "SmoothCast" plastic from "The Compleat Sculptor" on Vandam Street in Manhattan for about $220. Unfortunately, I most likely never needed the expanding foam, and definitely did not need the Magic Smooth, as it was complete garbage and did not sand whatsoever and was a total pain in the ***

Anyway, before I used any of that stuff (I still haven't touched the Rebound or Smmoothcast...), I had to make sure I was going to create a scale model to cast in the end, so the size and proportions of everything are essential, especially in the early stages. At the art school I go to, one of the teachers helmped me plan everything out and take measurements of my head. We then figured out how much room was needed inside the helmet shell for padding, how thick the padding and helmet shell itslef would be, and finally the outside dimensions of the helmet. These were all recorded on what developed into very architectural-looking plans that I doubt anyone besides myself could interpret...

These drawings and measurements were then used to plan out (in full size) the cross sections of the helmet on cardboard. The thickness of the cardboard is the thickness of the future shell and padding (with a little excess for stability). This was to make sure the dimensions weren't too big or small. Some tweeking ws done here to make sure the helmet wouldn't be too small in the end.

I did this for both cross sections and attached a bottom "ring" to create a wearable "prototype":








Next, I traced these cross sections onto cardboard without taking out the inside so I could put them together to build up off of (on the left):

Next post will have expanding foam and Magic Smooth documentary.