Wire Monkey - DIY Blimp

Wire Monkey DIY Project: Shotgun Microphone Blimp

This was probably the most difficult part because of all the fitting and sewing and spraying glue, etc.

The blimp is constructed of 1/4" open cell foam that I got from a local mattress foam joint, black plastic hardware cloth (screen), zip ties, thick thread, elastic and some hooks.

First you have to cut a rectangular piece that is slightly larger than what it takes to wrap around the shock mount. I didn't take measurements and ended up trimming here and there to get what I wanted anyway. Lay the hardware cloth down on newspaper and spray it with a decent coating of foam contact cement. Remove it from the newspaper quickly so you don't get the paper stuck to it. 3M makes a good contact cement. Let it sit for a bit to get tacky and then lay your precut, slightly larger piece of foam on it and push to make sure it makes good contact everywhere. (This step is not shown) Then cut a round piece a bit larger than the front of the cylinder. You can always trim it down. I actually curved the front slightly by setting the oven to 200 degrees and placing a round bowl in the center of the hardware cloth. When it got hot enough it bent slightly. Not sure if I would do that again. It's fine to have a flat front and rear and would probably look better. I sewed the front round disk on with thick black thread and that worked very well. If you look below, you can see a notch cut out for the microphone holder. Once the front is sewn up with zip ties and thread, you can slip the shock mount in.

If you look at the front of the bottom seem here, you can see one of the small zip ties I used to connect it. You can also see the hooks that are used to hold the rear foam panel on. It is hinged at the top with a couple of zip ties.

I use two rubber bands to hold the rear seem together. This works well because you have to be able to remove it. You can also see the hooks here. I used fishing hooks that I cut the barbs off of and tied them to elastic cord.

Here is the rear cover. You can see this one I bent using the oven, but had I to do it again I would keep it flat. The two green zip ties act like a hinge so you can easily remove the cover to get at the microphone and cable.

Here's what it looks like with the rear cover on, the second elastic holding the seem tight and the mic. cord coming out. See how the hook holds it secure and makes a pretty good air tight seal.

Here is the rear view with the cover open.