Alright guys, if you have been following my Predator tutorials/walk through’s then you have a biohelmet without a laser site! Time to fix that! I want to preface by saying I am in no way an electrician and I certainly may have done something incorrectly.
You are going to need:
- 3 LED’s in the color of your choice (I used red cause it’s what I had… wanted to use purple though)
- Resistor (use online Ohm calculator to find out what kind)
- Extra wire (might not need this, but it’s good to have on hand)
- Soldering iron and solder
- Electrical tape
- Plastic washer of some sort (got mine from the plumbing section)
- Battery connector
- Worbla
- Hot glue gun with glue
Okay, so first, you need to drill your holes for the LED’s into your biohelmet. Since this was my first sculpt and cast, I didn’t get the sizing right, so I drilled three small holes and put my LED’s up to the hole, but now through it.
This is what it ended up looking like. Don’t worry, I’ll explain how I got to this part. Once your holes are drilled, make a paper template of your holes, as well as your circuit (I placed the paper over my site and marked with pencil where the holes were). YouTube has been a life saver on this Predator build. I scoured YouTube and watched roughly a bajillion videos on how to do LED lights. It helped give me a bit of confidence. Also, my dad helped a lot. 🙂
Things to note: On your LED individual pieces, there is a long end and a short end. Check your supplier, but typically the long end is positive, the short negative. I drew out my circuit, just as a helpful reminder of where everything goes.
In the first image, you can see my plastic washer thing. I used my paper template to mark the holes on the washer. Then, held it in place in my biohelmet and made sure everything lined up. Then, I drilled the holes.
Once your holes are drilled, shove the LED’s through. Then, bend the wires so the + are together and the – are together. Do not let the + and – touch each other. They need to be separate.
Solder your wires together (+ and -, separately). Your resistor goes on the positive side. Solder in place. I used hemostats to hold everything in place while soldering. They are terribly good conductors of heat, however, so I burned my fingers a few times. I’d recommend using something with some sort of insulation.
Strip the wires on your battery connector and attach + to + and – to -.
Test! Make sure everything works. If it does, wrap everything in electrical tape, making sure to wrap the + and – wires separately. If they touch, you will get a short. My dad said you don’t need to wrap the – end since it’s a ground, but I wrapped mine anyway to be safe.
Once everything is wrapped, install. I held mine in place and just squirted some hot glue on it. Make sure the glue doesn’t seep out the holes, or onto the LED (it’ll dull the light).
I then made a battery pack out of worbla and attached to the crown of the biohelmet.
Paint that, and you’re done! See, LED’s aren’t that scary! And the finished product:
Until next time, keep cosplaying! Any questions, comments, or requests, leave them below!
Anna Stasia Cosplay 