Space Helmet: Designing the mouth/nosepiece

When I tried on the plastic child's astronaut helmet, I could barely squeeze my head into it, and it touched my nose, so I decided early on to make a removable "snout" to give room for the nose, and to allow the wearer access to the mouth and nose without having to remove the helmet. Today I worked on designing that piece, working with green paper to figure out the patterns.


Once I was satisfied with the pattern I cut it out in leather, wet it and sewed it together with waxed thread. The snout will have two matching cold cast respirators on either side (where the two holes are), and one small something on the front. I have mostly built the respirator model out of acrylic sheet, and will mold it in rubber and cast it in resin.

The snout attaches to the helmet with four snaps on each corner, plus a buckle on each side (notice the protruding rivet where the buckle will attach on a short strap).

Next up will be making a visor which will completely cover the eye opening, and a collar to hold the helmet up off of the head, and to help keep its shape.