Saturday, July 12, 2008

Death of the Foam...

Hey everyone.
Just an update on the construction of the foam based Daft Punk helmet. As the title suggests, the foam construction idea was an idealistic design that failed. (as many of you predicted it would...)

Here's a brief summery of why. First off, the sanding of the foam was more of a hassle than a time saver. I originally thought that it would be easy to construct the helmet this way because I could just use the sander to cut out the exact shape I wanted. Doing it however proved to be a very frustrating and time consuming process. I would spend a few hours sanding the foam to the correct shape, only to realize that it was still too large, then the whole scaling process would start over again.

Eventually, the foam got so thin that it would either start to crack or punch through. (not good) So I think that the idea of making a Daft Punk helmet out of foam was never meant to happen. (Except for the Daft Punk costume girls... no comment)

THIS DOES NOT MEAN I AM GIVING UP!
I have started making a helmet in a new way, building it up from a baseball helmet base. I am about 79% done with the construction of that and I hope to have it done soon. IF it is a success I will make another one and do a full step by step tutorial on how to make your own. So far I am finding the new process a lot easier. You also get a lot more out of the time you put into it. I hope to have the helmet done within a few weeks and I'll report how the final product turned out. Just so you know, the current helmet that I am making will be fitted with glowing el wire to replicate Daft Punk's encore outfits of their ALIVE 2007 world tour. The next one that I make will be a normal performance version with the silver finish. (I may or may not put it up for sale when I complete the tutorials)

Check back for more updates that are to be coming soon!

PEACE & Beats
-mnellykid