While final projects and exams in other classes have kept us busy over the past few weeks, Jack and I were able to get through the first step of the construction of our helmet: gluing stacks of foam together. On Monday, we plan on carving this foam into a helmet-like shape, and carve out the middle so that a head will be able to fit inside of it. The gluing and drying process took almost a full week. There were a few time lags as we had to find the right type of glue to insure the foam would stick and settle together properly. I had to make multiple trips to Menards to resupply on liquid nails, a tough adhesive, typically used in construction projects. Additionally, we have been drawing up some designs as to how we want the outer shell of the helmet to look. We rastered and cut some acrylic for the eyes of the mask, and plan on 3D printing a front grill. We also have been considering 3D printing additional parts such as ears/horns/headphones that we could attach to the sides. In the coming weeks we will be working and experimenting more with acrylic and 3D prints. We also plan on adding arduinos to the grill and front of the mask as well.
Here is a rough sketch of how we want the helmet to look (Jack has a more detailed drawing, my art skills are lacking):
(front view)
(side view)