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Step 6Making Gort's Ears
When you look at pictures of Gort, one of the more noticeable features on the head (other than the moveable visor and death ray) are what I call the "ears". Three round stacked disks with holes sit in the spot where we mere humans have ears. Since they are so distinctive, they are an essential part of creating a believable Gort.
I looked at TinkerToys(tm) briefly since the smallest section is a near match to part of a TinkerToy set. In the end I did not use them because a) the piece was too thick and b) I had no solution for the larger disks.
I opted for balsa wood since I thought it would be easy to cut and drill. I suspect styrofoam or florist's foam might also work but I was concerned about durability so went with balsa. I got a 1/4" x 4" x36" piece from the local craft store (half the length would have been fine).
To get the relative sizes of the three disks and the hole placement right, I took a side view of Gort from a picture on the Web, enlarged the ear section and printed it to make a template. Print it three times and cut them so that you have the innermost circle, inner two circles, and all three together to provide guides for tracing your circles on to the balsa wood.
A single edge razor, Exacto knife or even thin sharp kitchen knife will serve to cut out the circles. Balsa is pretty brittle so you may get some rough edges. I dealt with this by some sanding and in the worst cases some wood putty to fix holes in the edge of the disk. I think a better material could be found but I couldn't come up with one at the time.
Place your template over the wood circle and using a sharp point (pin, nail, geometry compass...) puncture the holes in the template to transfer markers to the balsa for drilling the actual holes. My study of the ears seemed to show that the holes did not go all the way down except for the center hole in the smallest disk so I drilled them accordingly. This avoids any problem of seeing through to the helmet on the outermost disk.
Now you can spray paint the disks. Painting the back side is not crucial though a little outer spray on the largest disk might help depending on how it fits the contours of your helmet.
When dry, you can use wood glue to join the three disks together.
My helmet had slightly raised circles at the pivot points where the face shield could be rotated up to open it. These looked like ideal places to glue the ears since this would leave the face shield openable and still have the ears attached in the right spot. Your helmet may be different so you may need to adapt accordingly. In my case, I cut a recess in the reverse of the outer disk to get a closer fit to the surface of the helmet (see picture). Again the shape of your helmet will determine if this makes sense for you. Don't glue them on the helmet yet. That's almost the last thing you do.
I looked at TinkerToys(tm) briefly since the smallest section is a near match to part of a TinkerToy set. In the end I did not use them because a) the piece was too thick and b) I had no solution for the larger disks.
I opted for balsa wood since I thought it would be easy to cut and drill. I suspect styrofoam or florist's foam might also work but I was concerned about durability so went with balsa. I got a 1/4" x 4" x36" piece from the local craft store (half the length would have been fine).
To get the relative sizes of the three disks and the hole placement right, I took a side view of Gort from a picture on the Web, enlarged the ear section and printed it to make a template. Print it three times and cut them so that you have the innermost circle, inner two circles, and all three together to provide guides for tracing your circles on to the balsa wood.
A single edge razor, Exacto knife or even thin sharp kitchen knife will serve to cut out the circles. Balsa is pretty brittle so you may get some rough edges. I dealt with this by some sanding and in the worst cases some wood putty to fix holes in the edge of the disk. I think a better material could be found but I couldn't come up with one at the time.
Place your template over the wood circle and using a sharp point (pin, nail, geometry compass...) puncture the holes in the template to transfer markers to the balsa for drilling the actual holes. My study of the ears seemed to show that the holes did not go all the way down except for the center hole in the smallest disk so I drilled them accordingly. This avoids any problem of seeing through to the helmet on the outermost disk.
Now you can spray paint the disks. Painting the back side is not crucial though a little outer spray on the largest disk might help depending on how it fits the contours of your helmet.
When dry, you can use wood glue to join the three disks together.
My helmet had slightly raised circles at the pivot points where the face shield could be rotated up to open it. These looked like ideal places to glue the ears since this would leave the face shield openable and still have the ears attached in the right spot. Your helmet may be different so you may need to adapt accordingly. In my case, I cut a recess in the reverse of the outer disk to get a closer fit to the surface of the helmet (see picture). Again the shape of your helmet will determine if this makes sense for you. Don't glue them on the helmet yet. That's almost the last thing you do.
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