EVA foam armor, first build, dark souls

Osbor

New Member
I'm attempting the impossible, making the Elite Knight armor set from Dark Souls for halloween.
i have very little actual prop building experience (did a lot of research last halloween and the one before that though).

Most of it is pretty simple stuff, and i'm using the Armour archive as the basis for many of the armor pieces.
Armour Archive Pattern Index
The gauntlets, greaves, kneecaps, sabatons, and possibly the shoulder piece probably won't be too bad...

but the real problem, and the reason i'm here, is that darn helm!
the upper and lower visor aren't too bad, i already have a paper prototype which looks great

but how the heck do you form craft foam into a nice dome shape for the main part of the helmet?
i have three main approaches, which is best or would look the best?

1) cornrows, basically make a series of specially formed strips and glue them along the edges, and shape them a bit from there. This would end up looking EXACTLY like the reference armor helmet, which has this cornrows like pattern
PROBLEM; i have no idea what shape the strips should be, they'd have to be pretty exact such that the foam doesn't bunch up a lot on a curved surface (my noggin). Are there any patterns like this i can adapt for my project?

2) Two Halves, using the armor archive pattern for the Closed Helm in a very literal sense.
PROBLEM; I've already tried this and it doesn't work well, mostly because it comes out comically large and i'm having difficulty making the foam "dish out" correctly, so it makes more of a weird oval shape instead of a smooth circular base. It's designed for sheet steel. How can i adapt this pattern to foam?

3) the "closed flower", four equal rounded triangle pieces that fold onto eachother. as seen in this inscrutable
PROBLEM; i don't know how to calculate out the triangle sizes required to make it fit my head correctly (24" circumference), and a rough craft foam model of the thing made from some spare foam doesn't look right (it's not smooth looking in the slightest, and the foam is under great tension)

so, RPF, what should i do? :confused

note: i'd be happy just finishing the helm and maybe the sabatons before halloween, i'll go to a party with the helm and boots and a fancy tux, handing out business cards that say "medieval business practices"
 
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another possibility is just modifying an existing armor pattern designed for foam, but i have not found a good one....
 
might have found an interesting possibility, using a modified form of a magneto helmet i found. Foam seems to work well in long, thin strips, so this SHOULD work...





has anyone else tired something like this with foam?

is there a better solution i'm missing?
 
have i unknowingly stumped the RPF?
although related; the sabatons (foot armor) came out great, mostly because they're simple, and the pattern is large enough to fit over my sneakers easily
 
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