The helmet is worth it´s own post!

Here you can see the first mock- ups we built. It´s been a long process and it´s far from being developed enough!

From our first idea of a Nautilus shaped helmet that you can fold and unfold into the realy implementation we had to build a paper model, then a cardboard one, then a plastic one and finally the real prototype from clear plastic and metal sheet. It´s been such a tedious process because each section of the helmet has a slightly different length, that doesn´t change consitently. That means there was quite a few try and error going on. There is probably a method of how to solve this mathematically, but I am such a hands on person… so I didn´t try to hard to do the math.

I attached two bend metal parts – the first and the last – to give the helmet enough rigidity to hold it´s shape on it´s own. It´s put together only with two M5 bolts and nuts, plus counter nuts and washers. Not quite the prettiest solution yet. One side though will be hidden in the end, since we are planning to attach an oxygen hose to it.

The helmet looks great! It´s really big, but that also means the actor´s head can move freely. The only problem really is that it is quite fragile. It likes to pop open if the actor isn´t careful with it. Since the single parts of the helmet just lock into to next bigger one by being trapped – the sometimes slip apart. Wich is not so great during a play. What it actually means is that I´d like to built the helmet again. Much more acurate and precise with a locking system. I´ll post my solution ideas soon.