Automata Pilgrim 7000 Head

As I said before: "Movies can be a great source of inspiration for our projects."

Well... I keep watching movies, so I keep inspiring me. I'd better stop watching movies... I'm wanting to make all I see! heheh

The movie was Automata (check out the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3zTb_Zu8DU). I haven't watched the whole movie, so I don't have much to say about it. But a robot really inspired me... it's called Automata Pilgrim 7000.

The next day I started thinking how I would make that head...

Before start the steps, I have to say this is the project which used the greatest variety of materials between all my projects. Chopsticks, toothpicks, fiberglass, polystyrene pieces, Christmas tree ball, PVC pipes, MDF... and it is very cool to see all these materials together to form this head.

Those who intend to work with fiberglass should use appropriate personal protective equipment!

I thought to start with Pepakura because I figured it would be easy to find an ideal head model to work with and because I don't have many skills with 3D modeling. Indeed, I easily found a good model after some Googling (http://ikkakuro.deviantart.com/art/Helmet-Base-Pepakura-243102849).

It looked good because it don't have ears, mouth, eyes, nose... and appears to have the ideal format.

I reinforced it a bit with cardboard on the edges and base for better handling.

As I just need the top of the head, I set some cutoffs and the eyes.

With a Christmas tree ball cut in half I made the cavities of the eyes. Put it in place with hot glue.

Fiberglass time: started with a resin layer.

Fiberglass mat applied with more resin.

Top of the head cut with razor while resin was not completely dry/hard.

After, first layer of body filler. Then sanding. More body filler. More sanding...

Finished with spray primer. Some holes remain, but it's OK, because most of the head will be covered with polystyrene pieces.

The head is formed by multiple small segments. First I thought to carve them in the body filler. I ended up deciding to make them with polystyrene (high impact polystyrene) pieces.

I initially drew the segments directly in the head, based on some images from web and movie scenes.

With vegetal paper, I made some templates to transfer the drawings to the right side of the head.

I used hot iron to bend/mold the pieces. Attach them with instant adhesive.

Mouth and ears grills made with toothpicks.

The stand is made out with PVC pipes.

To finish, the painting. Sanded it a bit to give a damaged look.

The servo motors are TowerPro MG995, controlled by an Arduino board (simple servo "sweep" sequences).