Cylon armor in EVA foam

Kilted Rennie

New Member
Has anyone here made Cylon armor in EVA foam? I'm starting with Bazooka Joe's pepakura patterns.

I put together a card version of the helmet and found it to be a bit small for my large noggin . I scaled the template up 20% to adjust for the EVA foam thickness and to give me a bit more room. Does anyone have a rule-of-thumb at what point does scaling a bucket makes it look cartoonish?
 

Kilted Rennie

New Member
I ordered a Larson Scanner from Evil Mad Scientist. At $13 it's worth a go. I ordered the smaller clear LEDs instead of the diffuse ones. I intend to add a diffuser across the eye slit in front of the LEDs.

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I spent the last couple of days attempting to make the helmet from 10 mm EVA foam interlocking floor mats I picked up at a local store. They cut just fine and the hot glue worked well, but the mats were just too thick and inflexible. The heat gun wasn't doing the trick.

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I think the material is just too thick for what I'm attempting. I'm going to retry with 6 mm foam.

On a positive note, the Larson Scanner went together great.

 

Kilted Rennie

New Member
After all the trouble with the foam material I purchased wouldn't you know there's a place within an hour drive that sells large sheets and rolls of cross linked polyethylene foam. Now I just have to figure out what I need.

The Foam Factory has so many choices I'm not sure what to get.
 

Revell-Fan

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13 § is a very good price and I am sure it will serve you well! :) You could try a thin strip of clear plastic which is sanded on one side for diffusion. Or a strip of thin paper.
 

Kilted Rennie

New Member
I'm either going to go with polyethylene foam by the roll (2 lb density, 1/4" thick x 60" wide, $3.59/foot) or in sheets (2 lb density, 1/4" thick, 72" x 48", $21.99/sheet). They are both cross-linked. I think the 1/4" (6 mm) should work. Not sure if the density is correct. I'm afraid 4 lb would be too dense.
 

Kilted Rennie

New Member
13 § is a very good price and I am sure it will serve you well! :) You could try a thin strip of clear plastic which is sanded on one side for diffusion. Or a strip of thin paper.

Good ideas. I think a slightly tinted plastic would still allow enough light out (the LED's are pretty bright when viewed straight on) while still obscuring the view into the helmet from the outside. I'll have to experiment with that.

I may use fiber optic cables attached to the LED's so I can put the electronics somewhere other than right on top of the visor slit. The helmet is small enough without adding a circuit board right on the bridge of my nose. I wish I could afford to add a "Google glass" style HUD with an external camera for visibility, but that's just way out of my price range.
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
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Good ideas. I think a slightly tinted plastic would still allow enough light out (the LED's are pretty bright when viewed straight on) while still obscuring the view into the helmet from the outside. I'll have to experiment with that.

I may use fiber optic cables attached to the LED's so I can put the electronics somewhere other than right on top of the visor slit. The helmet is small enough without adding a circuit board right on the bridge of my nose. I wish I could afford to add a "Google glass" style HUD with an external camera for visibility, but that's just way out of my price range.

These are quite cool looking!!!
These would be a GREAT way to make people wonder if it is real or not and if you are really recording everything that is going on.
 

Kilted Rennie

New Member
After looking for an eye scanner audio solution online I came to the conclusion I either have to shell out some bucks for a prebuilt turnkey solution, roll my own electronic sound clip repeater, or hack something together. I decided to go the hack route.

I have several mp3 players gathering dust. Now that the family all has iPhones they just aren't used any longer.

My first thought was an first generation iPod touch. The battery life on this little guy isn't very good any more.

My second choice was this very cheap mp3 player. I can't even tell you what brand it is. After looking around online, it appears to have been something generic used by a lot of manufacturers. It appears to have a repeat option, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. I remember them as rather unreliable.

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My final choice is an old Sansa e250. It has 2 GB of storage, and a nice repeat option. The controls are a bit funky, but it has a hold button. It also still has a pretty good battery in it. I'll have to set it up sometime and let it play continuously to see how long it will run. It will run while plugged into a USB port, so I might be able to use an external battery pack of some kind.

I hooked it up to a cheap USB/battery powered speaker to see how it sounds. It'll do.

 

Revell-Fan

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At the end of the "Galactica 1980" episode "The Night the Cylons landed, Part 1" you hear the Cylon eye sound effect without any background noise (when the pictures freezes and you see "To be continued"). You may use this for your Centurion. ;)
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
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Odd, I just tried it and it worked. Here's the direct link:
Code:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_sgJFDlRY8
When I click on both the link you posted and the video in your post, a message pops up saying that the video is "PRIVATE". Therefore, can only be seen by the person who posted it.
 
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