Forehead plate and mystery bracket

I've printed, sanded and assembled the forehead plate and bracket.

I was thinking that I should replace the dummy clamps on the bracket with holes through the bracket and plate that you put a steel wire through. Originally I suspect the bracket was simply stapled on to the plate this way. Perhaps the original plate was made of cardboard or soft plastic you can staple through?

These printed ones turned out looking pretty good and if I glue them in place they probaly won't come off.

Then again, nothing beats doing it the same way the originals were made, I'll have to think some more about this.

More parts printed

Now that my printer is working fully again I printed more parts.

I sanded and assembled these, then I added them to the Ear piece.

Of course I won't print the last insert as the ear piece and that part also will need to be changed for more of a curve to it.

Ear piece printed with minor issues

The print quality

I printed the ear piece body, but my printer had developed a minor fault causing a pitted and incomplete effect called "pillowing".

This was due to a power cable getting bent near the connector during printing and it's a well known issue that the manufacturer solved almost two years ago with a replacment housing.
I should have taken preventive measures against it long before this, I was simply being lazy.
Anyway, it's fixed now as you'll see in my upcoming posts, my printer is again perfect.

Luckily the model was still useable to test fit on the helmet as well as the inserts I've printed previously and it looks better than I expected for a first print.
Bear in mind that I don't havd a 3D-scanner (the good ones are still prohibitively expensive), I just use photos and measures to make a dummy model of the helmet that's far from exact.

The part fit on the helmet

I made screw holes in the helmet and screwed the ear piece in place with M3 screws, nuts and washers. The screw positions are covered by the bolt head plugs.

As often is the case it's not the things you think that actually go wrong. I put a lot of thinking and effort into the fit of the ear piece toward the rubber edge of the visor. This fit was spot on as seen in the photos.
The thing I got wrong was the angle and flatness of the
 helmet at the back where the L bottom of the ear piece meets it.

The gap is visible in the photo above and well as from the under side seen below.

I'll curve the L bottom of the CAD model in further to meet the helmet this week and then re-print it next weekend (it's a 3 day print).


After analyzing the problem with the printer, fixing it and planning the changes to the 3D model I played around with making some mockup photos with the chin light and the rubber bellow.

Ear piece inserts printed

I've printed and sanded some of the ear piece insert blocks and their details

M8 screw to hold the printed nut and real steel rivets turned out to be a perfect fit when my printed rivets came out as a failed print. ;)

Screencap comparison

Assembled parts, except the nut because I couldn't find my thread tools.
I guess I'll just thread it at work during my lunch break tomorrow.

The leftover holes in the big block is for the "Mystery clamp" (plausible old camera mount).

Comparing with the screencap of the panels it does seem I made them too tall. The screencap isn't the greatest and may be angled more than is apparent but regardless I may have to rethink some positioning and dimensions.

As I've noticed on my Gunstick project as well as this one these things are hard to spot until you have physical parts to compare with.

Mysteriously looking at another screencap my panels look to be just right. I need to look further into this.

Here's the nut threaded and mounted on the insert.

Chin light assembly with battery loom

Today I cut out the lens and mounted it in the Chin light Body.

Then I added the led collars and leds to the Chin light Core insert.

I inserted the core in the body. seemed to be a very nice fit, though it's not gripping which I most prefer. I may adjust the measures of the parts for that.

Then I tested the leds with a 9v battery.

Note the blue light?

This is also seen in screenshots from the series, as shown in several images I've posted earlier, thoguh these LEDs are brighter and I might need to use a weaker battery for them to get the exact same results. This is 9v leds powered with a proper 9v, I can power them with a pair of 1,5v instead to make them less bright. 

Note that the blue light from these lenses are only visibly blue in photos, it looks white to the naked eye. But when my helmet's done people taking photos of it at Cons will get the same blue as seen in the series which is cool. :)

I won't repost photos of the chin light on the helmets in the show, it's been done. Just check on earlier posts if you want to compare.

I could just wire this up in the helmet at this point, but I wanted the chin light to be replaceable and easy to install on the helmet so I took the extra time to make a cable and male/ female two part connector and battery loom for it.

For that professional look ;)  and also this makes for a better interchangeable assembly where i could even make spare parts of the chin light unit or battery pack to swap at Cons if needed.

Did I forget something part 2

So the air coupling was moved from the original position by the propmakers at BBC.

Let's have another look at that.

This is the coupling in its' original place.

The helmet mating surface for the coupling looks like this.

It's actually a flat surface, but with tracks for the locking mechanism. 

The yellow arm thing is the lock, it needs to function with the new placement or the hose may disconnect or tear loose unexpectedly.

I modeled it on the photos above and some measures of the physical parts.
The adapter should look something like this:

This is close enough to do a test print on at least.

New versions of lantern and chin light

I've put a lot of work into getting the ear pieces perfect but the parts I started with like the lantern housing have stayed largely the same thoughout the process.

As I discovered screenshots showing new angles I haven't kept up to date with some parts, namely the chin light and lantern. Some of this wasn't even apparent until I had the lantern housing printed in my hands.
So I decided to put some more work into them.


These are the new versions.

The plug at the back is visibly far larger than I had made it previously. 
The top transparent part was also far wider, with a large radius ridge and a wider angle on the sides, it's also supported by mesh like the front lens.

The peak and top of the housing are also not as high and the front is slightly angled (15 degrees to be exact).

Ep. "Kill the Moon"

Perhaps the lantern needs to be a little wider still, the peak block corners should also have less of a chamfer and the back block has a different angle to the top edge chamfers.
Still work to do apparently, but clearly improved.

Photo from the "Doctor Who Experience" in Cardiff. Note the mesh structure inside the top lens. To the right a "white" mesh material with a clear or possibly no lens mounted is visible.

Chin Light

The chin light was also not perfect so I changed it, although only minimally.

3D CAD model cut to show the layers of parts

Rough scraped and sanded parts just after printing, this photo also shows the insert holder for the LEDs. LED collars and 5 mm white LEDs will be fitted later. 

3D print sanded. 
The setting I used didn't create a perfect solid so fill texture is visible even after sanding.
I'll have to use filler and paint this housing before final assembly. Maybe for the best though becasue it has some scuff marks showing a glint of metal in some scenes in the show. That's best to add to a paint surface, not plain plastic which won't fool the eye and just look tacky.

Quick mockup showing what it'll look like. The curve of the base plate turned out to be a perfect fit on the helmet.

The chin light now uses the same lens cut from the weld visor lens material and a securing block behind it. I added LED collars because it's the easiest way to fasten them safely and they can be replaced later if needed.

 Photo above is from the episode "Impossible Planet" (All rights BBC, with David Tennant as the 10th Doctor) showing 3 distinct white LEDs behind a frosted (or say a protective covered) lens giving it a blueish tint.

Adding lens and mesh to the lantern housing

The lantern housing has now been sanded enough so that minor remainig scrathes will be filled in by painting.

So I was eager to try mounting the white lens and mesh backing.
I made a cardboard template, tried that in the window and then cut the welder lens I got in the box with the Pro-Cap helmet, leaving the protective white film on.
I strongly suspect this weld lens is what BBC used to make the lamp lens from. It comes with the helmets and is left over if you don't use the outer welding visor.

I cut the aluminium mesh the same size, trimmed off just a little on the sides and bent it slightly along its' length to fit it more easily.

Then I slid it into the slot behind the lens, had to work it in a bit and at the end I flattened the top by pressing it to the lens. Then I worked it home into the top slot.

Just a perfect fit!

Then, the light test, would it look as it does in the Show?

Comparing to a screencap from "Kill the Moon"

 I'd say yes! The seemingly white film even gives the same light blue tint to the light. And the lens also looks to be the right dimensions. :)