I'm Captain Intrigue, in this episode i'll be building a superhero helmet with night
vision, super hearing and voice changing capabilities.
I am Captain Intrigue!
For those of you who have been paying attention, in previous episodes i built night vision
goggles, super hearing, and a voice changer.
In this episode i'll be combining all 3 into a superhero helmet.
I'll be building the helmet out of EVA foam with techniques used by cosplayers for making
costumes, and you can buy the EVA foam in home improvement stores, it's sold as anti-fatigue
mats.
Once the helmet structure is finished then i'll be attaching the night vision, super
hearing, and voice changer to the helmet and i'll also be increasing the range of the night
vision by adding more LED's.
So now let's get started.
To start off with we need to make a template of my head.
To do that i took a mannequin head and wrapped it in aluminum foil and i duck taped over
it making sure that the foil was completely covered.
The purpose of the foil is to prevent the duck tape from sticking to the mannequin head,
although you could also use plastic wrap.
It's also better if you were to wrap the foil and duck tape directly onto your own head
for this step so that you end up getting a better fit with the final product.
I didn't do that just because it would have been too difficult to film while i work.
Next using a sharpie i drew an outline over the duck tape of approximately where i wanted
the edges of the helmet to be.
Here i'm drawing a dotted line directly down the center of the helmet template.
It's really important to try to get this center line as accurate as possible.
This is just to help me with the next step.
Then i drew cut lines so that i could later separate the helmet template into 5 separate
pieces.
The more pieces that you separate the template into, the easier it'll be later to get the
foam to conform to your desired shape, but that also means you'll have more seams to
glue together later.
I did try previously making a helmet with only 3 template pieces but it ended up having
a really weird shape so i recommend using a 5 piece helmet design.
Now i'm drawing registration marks along the cut lines, later these registration marks
will be transferred onto the foam and allow me to perfectly line up the foam pieces when
i'm glueing them together.
Then i cut along one of the cut lines and remove the template from the mannequin head.
Once it's removed from the mannequin head then the template can be cut into 5 separate
pieces along the cut lines.
It's also a good idea to label the pieces with an F for front, so that you don't mix
them up later.
Since i used a mannequin head as a form, the next step is to tape the templates pieces
back together and put it on your head to make sure it fits properly.
I did this by lining up the registration marks and then using small pieces of duck tape to
hold the template pieces together.
If you use your own head as a form for the template, then this step isn't really necessary
since you already know that the template fits you perfectly.
Here it is all taped back together and i tested it and it fits my head fine.
Then the helmet is cut out again along the cut lines and then i flatten the pieces out
and trace out onto poster board to use as final templates.
The poster board templates are then pinned onto the foam so they don't move around, then
using a pen i just traced them out.
It's very important to remember to transfer the registration marks onto the foam pieces
otherwise the pieces won't line up during final assembly.
Here are all the foam pieces with the registration marks added and ready to be cut out.
You can use a box cutter to cut the pieces out but i found that i was able to get a much
smoother and cleaner cut using a band saw.
All the foam pieces are now cut out and ready to be glued together.
The best way to glue foam together is with Barge cement which is an industrial contact
cement i ordered on amazon.
It bonds so strongly that the foam will actually tear instead of the glue coming loose, so
when you glue foam with contact cement, you know that it's going to stay together.
Before glueing the pieces together we need to use a heat gun and form the foam pieces
into the approximate shape of the helmet.
This makes it much easier to line up the registration marks when glueing the foam together later.
I just heat the foam for a few seconds with the heat gun and then form them into shape
by hand.
The barge cement is then applied along the edge of 2 pieces in a thin coat and then allowed
to set for about 5 minutes until it's tacky.
The foam will actually absorb the first coat, so a second coat is then applied and again
allowed to set for about 5 minutes until the cement gets tacky.
At this point the glue will be very tacky and the moment the 2 foam pieces touch together,
they'll be almost impossible to separate again without ripping the foam.
So be very careful and precise when attaching the pieces together because you only have
one shot at it.
Start by pressing the pieces together and be sure to line up the registration marks
as you go.
Sometimes you have to push and pull on the foam to get the marks to line up but this
is what will actually help to form the foam into the shape of the helmet.
Now go back along the seams and push on it firmly as you go to help the pieces seal together
better.
This is how the first glued pieces look, and you can already clearly see the helmet taking
shape.
Now we just repeat the process until all of the foam pieces are completely glued together.
And this is how it looks when it's all glued together.
The night vision goggles will go here but the corners and the top are off just a little
bit preventing them from lining up properly.
So i'll use a dremel tool and grind the foam down a little bit until the goggles fit perfectly
into place.
The next step is to make another set of templates for decorative foam pieces that will go on
top of the existing foam helmet.
To do this i put duck tape over areas of the helmet and use a pen to draw my design onto
the tape.
Then i can just peel up the tape, stick it to a piece of paper, cut it out, and i've
got a template for the decorative foam.
Then i just pin the template to a piece of 1/4" thick foam, i then trace it, cut it out,
shape it with the heat gun, and glue it to the helmet with barge cement.
Then i just repeat the same process for all the decorative foam pieces.
If i were to do this over again i would've used masking tape instead of duck tape for
making the decorative foam template since the duck tape actually left a small amount
of adhesive residue.
I originally planned to make a silicone mold of the finished foam helmet and then use epoxy
and kevlar fabric to laminate the helmet inside the mold and make a bulletproof kevlar helmet.
The purpose of the decorative foam pieces was to actually add depth to allow the kevlar
to be thicker in certain strategic areas of the head.
But since the helmet is just a prototype like the rest of my suit, i decided to just wait
until the next Mark 2 suit of armor before adding any kevlar.
Alright so this is an example of the fact that sometimes you just make mistakes no matter
how well you planned this out.
I was tired, working on this thing long hours, and i just completely must have mis-measured,
miscalculated.
But the whole point of this gap right here was so that the strap from the night vision
goggles would lay in between it.
And as you can see, it doesn't, it's off.
So basically what i'm going to have to do is cut this foam here and then i'm going to
have to add a splice into here because basically i need this strap to lay in between these
so that it holds it's position.
And also there's a tab here, this little plastic tab and it's hitting the foam, so the foam
has to go, there's just no option, and it's the same on both sides.
So i'll try to cut that very carefully and splice in a new piece and see if i can salvage
it.
I kind of managed to repair this here a little bit, i think i can get it smoothed out and
finished so you won't even notice it.
Now i'm filling in all the seams with a few coats of kwik seal.
You can buy this stuff at most hardware stores.
This will help hide the seams a bit after it's painted.
Depending on how deep your seams are, it's sometimes necessary to do anywhere from 2
to 4 coats, since this stuff tends to shrink when it dries.
These are the holes for the ear speakers, and these need to be cut out.
Now i'll sand the holes smooth using a dremel.
Okay there's the holes dremeled out, it's all smoothed out now, there's the other one.
Okay much better.
So now you can see the straps have a passage to clear all of that, later i'm going to put
some plastic underneath this, not only to cover up that bad spot but to also strengthen
that area where the straps are going to be rubbing a lot.
And then this side also.
That'll work.
Okay so the helmet is pretty much finished till this stage, so now i need to seal the
foam.
The foam is actually slightly porous and so i'm sealing with this stuff called Mod Podge
and just a sponge brush.
This needs to be put on in a thin coat and cover the entire helmet.
Once the Mod Podge is completely dry it should become transparent and that's how you can
tell when it's ready.
The helmet is then painted with 4 coats of Plasti-dip, which is a flexible rubber coating
that seals and protects the foam.
The fumes from this stuff is really nasty so it's best to spray it outdoors.
Two coats of automotive primer were then applied.
Followed by a coat of silver.
The final step for now is to 3d print plastic pieces for the area where the straps will
go.
This will help cover up my mistake and also provide a more durable surface for the straps
to rub against.
Those pieces are then glued to the helmet using Barge cement.
And here's how it looks.
So that's all i have time for in this episode so this is going to have to be a multi-part
episode.
So in the next episode i'll be adding the 3d printed parts including the night vision,
super hearing and voice changer.
Please subscribe and like the video and if you have any questions leave them in the comments
section below.
I do read all the comments so if you have a question there i'll do my best to answer.
I've decided i really need a superhero logo design for my suit of armor.
So i've decided to have a contest to see who could come up with the best logo design.
The only criteria is i don't want any letters, it should only be symbolic, and the best 3
logo designs will get some kind of special prize.
I'm thinking maybe i'll give away some old parts of the armor that i haven't used or
that are obsolete.
So if you're interested just click on the about tab on my youtube channel and submit
your design to the email address there.
I've allowed myself to get distracted...but now it's time to get back to work.