Cerrberus
New Member
My two daughters both love to help with costumes and provide opportunity to do weird and wonderful things. Last Dragon*Con, my oldest and I made a big, elaborate minion costume that got her a lot of attention. For Halloween, my youngest wanted to help make something that was unique and...big. One day, we were watching Spaceballs (not the best parenting decision, but most of the jokes overshot her at ludicrous speed) and she said we should all do costumes from there. I asked her if she wanted to do Dot, Vespa, or Mega Maid. Naturally, she said Dark Helmet. So we set off to work and started creating our Spaceballs costumes. It was only a couple of weeks until Halloween. Short on time, we opted for a quick and cute build that a 6 yr-old could help with instead of a film-accurate build. A great learning experience for both of us.
We started with the helmet. I'm still a noob at fabrication, so I started looking everywhere for a big, lightweight bowl for a base. A seasonal Halloween shop had just the thing. It is a witch's cauldron. I cut off the legs and filled the holes.
Also needed an underhelmet. Preferably one with a visor that went up and down. The local toy store had just the thing.
A little sizing.
Next up, the facemask. We looked up images of Dark Helmet and other costumers that had done helmets. We drew, cut, and taped 3 different mask patterns until we found one that worked. This one was version 1, with the face plate upside down.
Once we had the pattern, the pieces were cut out of foam and hot glued together. We were originally going to use a top from a happy meal as the silver face guard in the front, but we eventually found a drain filter that was perfect.
Once glued together, we spray painted the helmet and mask.
She wanted to do most of the necktie herself. She cut circles and the tie out of craft foam and put sparkly star tape around them. We hot-glued them together on a square piece for the neck and shoulders. We then glued nylon straps and buckles on the back.
And neither of us got burned by hot glue. Quite an accomplishment.
Next, we attached the mask to the front of the painted fireman's helmet and stuck it on our dummy.
We attached the visor hat to the helmet using carriage bolts and padded it inside with thick foam. For the back, we took a long strip of the vinyl used for the cape and secured them with snaps. Add some glasses, and our helmet was done.
"What about his ring?" Now for the fun part. We got some air-dry clay and an old casting kit I had. Did some quick math to make sure we had enough latex and resin, and began working on the ring. We sculpted the ring out of the clay using an image from the movie as a base. Let it dry overnight, then placed it into our lego box and did the whole resin cast process. Once finished, it was painted and sealed.
I didn't have any progress pictures of the sewing for some reason, but we did a small cape using vinyl and satin. We attached the cape to the shoulder pad with snaps. Found a black, long sleeve shirt, black leggings, and a shiny black skirt, topped off with fancy black boots.
We also needed some moichendising.
Once done with her costume, I had about 2 days for mine, but got it done.
Put it all together. Not perfect by any stretch, but she is really proud of it and is already talking about doing something bigger for next year.
Proof photo.
We started with the helmet. I'm still a noob at fabrication, so I started looking everywhere for a big, lightweight bowl for a base. A seasonal Halloween shop had just the thing. It is a witch's cauldron. I cut off the legs and filled the holes.
Also needed an underhelmet. Preferably one with a visor that went up and down. The local toy store had just the thing.
A little sizing.
Next up, the facemask. We looked up images of Dark Helmet and other costumers that had done helmets. We drew, cut, and taped 3 different mask patterns until we found one that worked. This one was version 1, with the face plate upside down.
Once we had the pattern, the pieces were cut out of foam and hot glued together. We were originally going to use a top from a happy meal as the silver face guard in the front, but we eventually found a drain filter that was perfect.
Once glued together, we spray painted the helmet and mask.
She wanted to do most of the necktie herself. She cut circles and the tie out of craft foam and put sparkly star tape around them. We hot-glued them together on a square piece for the neck and shoulders. We then glued nylon straps and buckles on the back.
And neither of us got burned by hot glue. Quite an accomplishment.
Next, we attached the mask to the front of the painted fireman's helmet and stuck it on our dummy.
We attached the visor hat to the helmet using carriage bolts and padded it inside with thick foam. For the back, we took a long strip of the vinyl used for the cape and secured them with snaps. Add some glasses, and our helmet was done.
"What about his ring?" Now for the fun part. We got some air-dry clay and an old casting kit I had. Did some quick math to make sure we had enough latex and resin, and began working on the ring. We sculpted the ring out of the clay using an image from the movie as a base. Let it dry overnight, then placed it into our lego box and did the whole resin cast process. Once finished, it was painted and sealed.
I didn't have any progress pictures of the sewing for some reason, but we did a small cape using vinyl and satin. We attached the cape to the shoulder pad with snaps. Found a black, long sleeve shirt, black leggings, and a shiny black skirt, topped off with fancy black boots.
We also needed some moichendising.
Once done with her costume, I had about 2 days for mine, but got it done.
Put it all together. Not perfect by any stretch, but she is really proud of it and is already talking about doing something bigger for next year.
Proof photo.
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