Another way to not make a helmet.

What is this, I don't even.

Okay, so I'm working through my "practice" helmet, which is pretty good but not nearly the quality I want. I picked my paints, and I'm ready to prime it.

The current helmet...well, there's a lot of problems.

Everyone get ready to laugh at my massively idiotic, biggest mistake.

THIS IS OPEN CELL FOAM. I AM SO DUMB. Don't stop reading just because I made the most basic mistake ever, though...There's more to come!

Here are the rest of the problems (none so bad as using open cell foam):

1) I used 1 cm thick foam. Just bad from the start... The first time I couldn't get a curve to hold should have been a red flag that sent me running. It was hard to cut as it dulled the heck out of my blades and was nigh impossible to shave down even with brand new blades.

2) I opened the paper helmet and just traced it out on the foam then cut it. It was lazy, and it didn't give me a reliable piece.

3) ANGLES. When you work with paper or thin craft foam, cutting it is crazy easy. When you work with thicker foam, the angle of the cut is suddenly VERY important. Assembly was difficult on many of the seams.

4) I'm a spaz. I burned myself about 35 times every time I sat down to work, and if a seam didn't quite match up, I just sort of filled it with hot glue.

Oh well. Here's some more pictures of the fail.

The weird alien shape of the helmet makes the cheeks extra pinchable.

TTFN.

Forward Progress

I reprinted the pep file scaled up, and it's awesome. Nearly a perfect fit, and I don't think I will need to work out an opening system to get it on and off!

As big as a car, apparently.

I actually really like how the shape of this one turned out. Much more intentional than the first.

As for the first helmet, I have added a PlastiDip coating, and, except for the ear areas, it looks awesome. The ear areas are very rough because I oversprayed them trying to get into the bends and crevices...lesson learned!

Spraying on the PlastiDip; the front and top look great.

It's hard to see, I know, but I'm immensely pleased with how the mask portion turned out.

I'm a little less pleased with my poor spraying skills here....I wonder if I can sand that down.

Honesty is telling the internet how bad you are at spray paint when you're trying to pass as a competent cosplayer.

Two steps forward, one step back.

I am backtracking on Rescue just a little bit. I coated the helmet with PVA glue (diluted wood glue in this case), and opened up the back a little bit more for ease of access (to put it on). Then, when I tried it on, the glue cracked (crazed?) and it fit, but it was a huge pain to put on and wear. The chin also rubbed rather annoyingly on my chin/neck and we just weren't having that.

Not pictured: my head.

I went and bought Pepakura Designer so I could scale the armor up a bit. I basically went by percentages instead of measuring exactly for every dimension of every piece (the armor was designed for someone 5'7" and I'm 5'10") and have saved the new, larger sized files. I am a lazy person. Sometime this week I'll be re-printing and trying out a heavier foam (I guess). The craft foam is awesome to work with because I can do most of my pieces with scissors, but it's VERY difficult to get the seams to be smooth. There's not much space between "outside" and "inside," so gluing it down from the outside in doesn't do all that much to prevent glue leakage.

I'm still going to keep finishing the first helmet and make it my experimental piece, basically. I've got Plasti-dip and am choosing paint soon. This way, if I mess up, it wasn't the final helmet anyway. If it looks good, I'm sure I have a (smaller than me) nerdy lady friend who wouldn't mind having an Iron Woman helmet.

I took up Rescue before any of the other potential projects because I got a FANTASTIC pepakura file for it already from JFcustom on the Replica Props Forum (RPF) - I love that place, and I love that guy.

TTFN!

Still don't know: first pepakura

Cel phone update? Let me take a selfie.

First move into pepakura to make a mock-up of Rescue's helmet. I look like a hollow!

I forgot the round ear pieces before I took this one. Oops.

I also made the neck piece. I have to rig up some way of fastening the neck and opening the helmet to make it more wearable.

I don't know what I'm doing: a start to cosplay

Cutting mat, craft foam, rotary cutter, glue sticks: Hobby Lobby; Xacto knives, posterboard, cardstock, tape, yoga mat: Wal-Mart; heat gun: ACE Hardware ($25); utility knife: accidental gift

What you see here is my "work space" for my first forays into foam fabrication. I'm starting with thin sheets of craft foam from Hobby Lobby and a yoga mat (10mm) from Wal-Mart. I think I'll bite the bullet and order L200 foam before things get too far. Things I'd like to try include: The Monarch (Venture Brothers), Strax (Doctor Who), Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist), and Rescue/Pepper Potts' suit (Iron Man comics).

For now, I'm watching Once and playing around with the collar and helmet for Rescue. I do have a hot glue gun and scissors, just not in the picture.

Here we go!