Not Another Daft Punk Helmet: Part 6

It’s finished! It has taken about 8/9 month in total. I hesitated on many aspects as I wanted it perfect but I heard the saying “perfection is the enemy of good enough” so I compromised on some aspects such as paint/chrome and coding. Here are some pics of the last stages of the build. The…

Not Another Daft Punk Helmet : Part 5

The electronics for this helmet initially seemed daunting but turned out to be a really rewarding part of the build. I used an Arduino UNO and 5 MAX7219 chips to control the lights. I started by deciding on how many LEDs I wanted in the visor. I chose 5 8×8 matrices of 5mm LEDs (320 in…

Not Another Daft Punk Helmet : Part 3

In Part 2 I fiberglassed the inside of the paper helmet to add strength. The next stage is laborious but also quite rewarding. In order to get the smooth shapes of the real helmet I used U-Pol P38 Car Body Filler (similar to Bondo in the States). The process is sand – fill – repeat. I…

Not Another Daft Punk Helmet : Part 2

In Part 1 of the build I made the basic shape from card. The next step was to strengthen the model with fibreglass. This is a 3 step process: Coat the outside with polyester resin (no fibreglass) Coat the inside with polyester resin. Add fibreglass to the inside of the helmet with polyester resin. The first…

Not Another Daft Punk Helmet : Part 1

I have always been a fan of Daft Punk. I think the main attraction has always been the mystery around their characters created by those shiny blinking masks. I have decided to build my own as a side project. Inspired by the beautiful helmets made by Volpin I wanted to make a Thomas Bangalter helmet….