I've had a lot of people ask me over time about how I made my own BTSM helmet, following is an in depth guide as to how I made just about every part of it including resources I referenced and other things I found helpful.  

RESOURCES AND REFERENCES

AXIS PROTOTYPES BTSM HELMET CASE STUDY: https://www.axisproto.com/casestudy/btsm-helmet/

GABRIEL HEBERT PORTFOLIO ENTRY (ORIGINAL HELMET DESIGNER): https://www.gabhebert.com/btsm2017

THE POPULAR FREE THINGIVERSE HELMET: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4816454

MODELING

My model was created in Blender.  I tried for months in Autodesk Inventor, hard surface modeling was easier to learn entirely than trying to make it work in there for me.  The shape of the helmet is EXTRAORDINARILY difficult to replicate, to get as close as I could, I imported the thingiverse helmet .stl as a reference to work off of, and modeled it side by side with a giant grid of reference images of all angles of the helmet I could find.  Made by scouring their socials.

HELPFUL LINKS

PRINTING/PAINTING

• My Personal helmet was printed in 3 parts on an Ender 3 V2 Neo

• The best printer out there for printing full size helmets (FDM) is the Elegoo Neptune 4 Max

• For literally any other printer you will have to print it in several pieces and adhere them together

TO CUT THE 3D MODEL:

Microsoft 3D Builder
Bambu Studio

Filament: I used Overture PLA+

PRINT SETTINGS:

as much support as physically possible ESPECIALLY around the eye channels as those are fragile as hell.  I orient all my prints so that the supports are only contacting the internal parts of the helmet.  this makes sanding/finishing a lot easier as the exterior wont have all that support contact garbage on it.  be really really careful removing supports around the eye channels.

 TO ADHERE PIECES TOGETHER:

I connect all my prints together using a  2 part resin/epoxy glue.  It cures pretty fast but I  don't recommend sanding for at least 24 hours.  Another method I've tried and enjoyed  is plastic welding, which is just going up and down the seam of the print  (from the side that is not visible) and just cross-hatching the plastic to kind of melt one side of the seam together with a soldering iron.

TO SAND:

I clean up all my print lines/seams with my orbital sander at 120 grit, use Bondo Body filler to fill in problem areas and sand those back down with 120/220, a layer of filler primer to see what needs more cleaning, then sanded back down with 220 again, a wet sand at 320, then like some final dry sanding @ 320/400.  Some combination of these sanding tasks gets a really damn smooth finish, this part is just long annoying and tedious but worth it because smooth helmet is cool and awesome.   

TO PAINT/PROTECT:

I used Rustoleum pro brown primer and the pro flat black on mine.  I however did not use a clear coat because I did not feel like it.  You should really use a clear coat though, and matte if you're going for accuracy.

ELECTRONICS/EYES

this parts scary if you've never worked with electronics before but it's a lot easier than it seems i promise teehee.

Challenge 1 is soldering the eyes together into the shape you need

CONTROLLING THE LIGHTS OPTION 1:

Use WLED.

The controller I used was an Arduino Nano Every 

I soldered my controller STRAIGHT into my eyes/helmet.  you can definitely throw a connecter in between them pretty easily but up to you.  

To upload WLED, all you need to do is plug the arduino into your PC, use the install/wled link, then once configured to the LED strip should be good to go.  You will be able to change colors and animations using an app controlled on your phone.  This should work with bluetooth, so you should be able to control this virtually anywhere without wifi.  

CONTROLLING THE LIGHTS OPTION 2:

This isn't the most beginner friendly option in the world, I will be as descriptive as possible.  The issue with WLED for me is needing your phone to change colors/animations.  This option includes creating a custom controller that has preloaded colors/animations that you can change by clicking a button.  HOWEVER you have to program everything yourself :(

WIRING THE CONTROLLER

This board can be powered by plugging a battery bank into the USB-C Port.  To send power to the lights, they will be connected to the 5V and GND pins.  To send control signals to the lights/button to change colors/animation we will be using the D# pins.  I'll go into them more in the programming section.

PROGRAMMING THE CONTROLLER

MAKING IT FIT/WEARABLE

THAT'S IT I THINK