How to Make a Daft Punk Guy Manuel Helmet and Costume!

So, since my last build of Isaac Clarke, there has been a passion growing in me for making props, therefore I decided to tackle a project of higher magnitude and so I chose to do Guy Manuel's helmet from Daft Punk, so I will stop blabbing on now and begin with the procedure.. So let's do this! Haha.

Step 1: Materials

Here's the list of materials I used and which you will need too:

Bondo Body Filler can x2 (Or any other body filler)
Bondo Fiberglass Resin
Bondo Fiberglass cloth
Bondo Spot and Glazing Putty
Sand Paper sheets - The grit's I used were
40 Grit, 80 Grit, 180 Grit, 220 Grit, 2000 Grit.
Expandable Foam (Spray foam)
Card-stock paper (or cardboard)
White and brown Rustoleum Primer spray paints
Ply wood boards (4ft x 8ft)
Disposable painting brushes
Liquid nails (Great Wood Glue)
Acrylic Clear Sheet
Epoxy glue (Plastic)
Hot glue sticks
VHT Nightshades
Automotive Black Spray paint

Those were the basic materials you need, now I also made a step in which I made "copies" of the master I made, so I will explain the process, but here are the materials you will need:

Smooth-on's Rebound 25 Brush-able silicone Rubber
Smooth-on's Smooth-cast 300 Bright White Liquid Plastic
Smooth-on's Thi-vex II

Tools I used:
Dremel or any other rotary tool (It is my new best friend)
Scissors
Shop Vacuum
Hacksaw
Hot glue gun

Optional tools to have at hand:
Jigsaw
Sander (I wish I had one..)

And for safety matters:
Goggles
Respirator
Leather gloves
Latex Gloves
Vinyl Gloves

Body Attire:
Black Leather Jacket
Black Leather Pants
Black Hiking Gloves

Step 2: Base Model

So I began With a simple cardstock model, just to figure out the size my helmet was going to be, it looked like the one in the picture (This picture belongs to Volpin himself)
I guided my work off of him very closely since he is a true inspiration to me, unfortunately I did not take pictures of the base model when it was done, but I will explain
Basically, you want to begin with a model that looks like the one in the picture, and then take your spray foam and spray away!
When the foam Is hardened, just sand/carve the piece, until you have a desired shape.
I sanded my piece until I got a basic shape of the helmet, so with that being done let's move onto the bondo Part!

Step 3: Bondo Filling!

So if you haven't ever worked with Bondo Body filler, it can be a little stressing at first, but I now have got the hang of it, and trust me, it is great!
So you want to make a mix of quantities of bondo body filler and then just spread it all over the surface of the helmet and keep sanding with that 40 grit sand paper.
If you have a sander, it is even better, less work to do!
So now just keep adding more bondo, until your base model, shapes out to a smoother surface, such as my first basic smoothed out shape.

The ears I made were constructed out of a block of foam and then they were shaped out and glued to the model.

By this step, I had already revised any blemishes by prime-ring the helmet with brown primer paint.
Brown primer will allow you to see imperfections much more than white.

The red spots you see are filled dents by spot putty.

The annotations in this image deal with the next step.

Step 4: More Bondo, More Sanding, More Work!

Keep doing the bondo stage until you have finally reached your satisfactory state!
Don't just quit halfway there, keep going! It will all be worth it at the end.

Notice that I shaped out my helmet a little more, look back at the last picture and then look at this one.
I'm not sure what to call it, but the meeting point of the visor piece with the bases, uhh, not sure how to say it..

Look at the picture for the tiny annotations made, but I made that little line between the visor and the helmet itself, thinner, it was way too thick before.
I also sanded down the ears, as they were too big before!

Step 5: Primer and Details

When you have your desired shape, smoothed, you want to go on ahead and primer the whole thing.
This will allow you to see any imperfections such as small dents, bumps and areas that need a little more work.

So it's simple, just spray the whole piece with (preferably) brown primer paint and it will reveal those blemishes.

Also! I forgot to mentions, by now, you want to go on ahead and use you dremel to cut out details around the ear and that side grove joining the top lip to the side/rear lip.

Step 6: Spot Putty Done!

So I finished my master, completely smoothed and all I was missing were the "Digi-ears" and the "Ear pucks"

Step 7: More Details!

So I just spent about half an hour looking for the picture of my digi ears, and! Nothing was found. I did a factory reset on my phone and that is where the pictures were.. Ughh.. So I will have to explain in detail.

Take the plywood board and cut out 2 pieces the same size and shape as the inside of the helmet ears.
Then I designed the digi pattern in adobe illustrator and then I printed out 2 copies of the design.

The printed design was then taped onto the plywood board and was manually cut by hand with my dremel tool.

Now in this step, I would suggest to laser print the digi ear design onto the wood board, but I had no place near that would laser print, so find out if anyone or any store around you does laser printing.

The ear puck was also made from a tiny foam piece, it was covered in spot putty and sanded.

Once I finished the ears I glued them into place with Liquid Nails. (They sell this in home depot)

Then once it was all done I spray the whole piece with white primer paint and wet sanded the master with 2000 grit sand paper.

Step 8: Replicating the Replica of the Helmet.. Funny Right?

So mean while I waited for my smooth-on materials to arrive, my lover decided to draw on the master and here is the verdict.

She drew some cute stuff on it.

Step 9: Finally Got the Materials Yay!

I got the materials 2 days after the whole doodling on the master phase so let go!

Now the Smooth-on Rebound 25 comes in.
I have never worked with this material, so if you are new to it, just follow the instructions and look up youtube videos on it, it is fairly easy to do.

USE VYNIL GLOVES!!DO NOT USE LATEX GLOVES, they have a chemical in it that ruins the silicone.
Apply the thin layers of the silicone with a disposable brush.

So you want to make a first thin layer, then a thick one, then another thick one and add registration keys which are some big things that stick out from the silicone, and finally a thin one again to seal it all in.

Step 10: Mothermold!

This step is very important. Materials used here were fiberglass resin and fiberglass cloth.

Cut up the fiberglass cloth (with scissors) into small credit card pieces or any size you desire.
Make sure you have your latex gloves on you and you are going to make a fiberglass layer over the silicone mold.

Now take the cardboard and cut out two lips which will sit around the silicone layer.
Take your disposable brush and then start fiberglassing the whole outside of the silicone mold.
Don't leave any air bubbles while fiberglassing this layer.
The fiberglass should also go on the cardboard lip.

When you are done, it should look like the one in the picture.

Then, drill small holes which will fit screws through it and connect to a wing nut or a regular nut.

Step 11: Casting!

Now that the whole Jacket mold is done, remove the shell from the silicone.
Slowly, peel of the silicone jacket from the master mold and voila! You have your casting jacket.

Place the silicone jacket back in the mother-mold and secure the 2 mother-mold pieces with screws and nuts.

I never worked with Smooth-cast 300 either, but again, I learned from youtube videos, it is fairly easy, so you shouldn't have a problem doing this : )

Mix a batch of smooth-cast and then pour it into the silicone mold and slush it around.
This is either called Slush-Casting or Roto-Casting.
It just means that the liquid inside of the mold is being moved around in order to make a cast.

Do one side of the mold First and let it cure! Then do the other side and let it cure.
I did 4 layers of Smooth-cast.

The liquid plastic will cure into bright.

Step 12: Pull Those Casts! ^-^

Do the same thing as you did before, remove the mother-mold from the silicone layer.
Slowly peel off the silicone layer, and your cast will be there waiting for you : )

Step 13: Cut Out the Visor and Place It on Your Vacuum Form

So, the title of this step pretty much says it all.
Take your dremel and slowly start cutting the visor off of your cast (This will be used later for the vacuum forming process)
Once you have your two separate pieces, you might want to already paint the cast body and leave the visor untouched, I put primer on mine because I wanted too, you could do so as well : )

So since painting it chrome would take too much money and time, I decided to do the Alive 2007 Encore version of guy manuels helmet.
If you want to do this version, then you are going to need some EL wire (Red)

I painted my body cast with car paint (Black) and sanded it with 2000 grit sand paper.

Step 14: Vacuum Forming

There are many instructions out there on how to make a better vacuum forming machine than mine.. Trust me, I build it because I needed it for the timespan, I plan to build a better one later on.

So now place that visor you cut out on the board of the vacuum form machine and then clamp your acrylic sheet onto a wooden or aluminum frame.
Place it the oven (Broil -High)
Quickly but surely take it out of the oven, place it over the visor and turn on that Shop Vac!

Let the plastic cool for a good 30 seconds before removing it (Keep the vacuum running)
When cool, remove it and yay! you got your visor!

Step 15: Cutting Excess Plastic, Tinting and Mounting

So, I was stupid enough to not take picture while doing these two steps... Ugh.. But, what you have to do, is cut the visor out of the formed plastic and then spray the surface with the VHT Nightshades.

Use the VHT Nightshades exactly like spray painting any other piece, allow it to fully cure.
When you are done, check it for a test fitting in the body cast.

You can use either epoxy glue, hot glue, super glue (not recommended) or any glue that can be used to band plastics.
I used epoxy glue for plastics and hot glue to just make sure it wouldn't come off for a very long time.
Once you have done the test fitting, glue that visor in!

And to make it up for not showing the cutting and tinting process, I am uploading a picture of me working with a funky face ^-^ Why not?

Step 16: EL Wire! Red of Course

When you get your EL wire (red) you are going to want and pace this all around the helmet, you can look up reference pictures to use.

So I thought that 9 feet was going to be enough to get the full detail of the encore helmet, but I was wrong of course, so I just have to deal with what I have.
I would suggest having 15+ feet of EL wire to get it better.

Run the EL wire throughout the helmet, while gluing it of course, plug it into the control and enjoy the lights!

Step 17: Enjoy Your Daft Punk Guy Manuel Helmet!

I am planning on wearing this around school on monday, on halloween as well and just anywhere really! Haha!
Thank you guys for sitting through this instructable.
Don't forget to vote!

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