Destiny Warlock Build: Skull of Dire Ahamkara

[Buckethead]

Hi I'm Dan, new member, and I just thought I'd share my first build, starting with the helmet I am working on; the Destiny Warlock helmet the Skull of Dire Ahamkara which is my absolute favourite design from Destiny. I was scouring the rpf and the 405th for Pep files and found some great ones by Crimmson over on the 405th, which were already modelled and unfolded, all credit to him there. So I thought I would give it a go. (pic heavy post)

My inspiration is my own character from Destiny.


I modified the Pep file in Pepakura Designer for A4 size paper and checked the scale with the neck opening, which seemed fine for my large-ish head (about 61cms around)

I printed onto 250gsm/ 100lb cardstock which I got from 2 Daler Rowney Bristol Board pads

Building
I started with superglue but quickly moved onto a hot glue gun as this sped up the process considerably


My first go at Pepakura. I know Pep takes a long time but this seemed to take forever, as parts overlay and fold back on each other.

The finished Pep helmet

Next was the fibreglass resin on the outside. For this I used David's Fastglas Resin which I got from Halfords (UK)


Applied Resin


I decided to go with a casting plastic to harden inside, mainly because the mandible and horn parts meant that fibreglassing the inside would be next to impossible, short of cutting them off which I was not keen on. I used Polycraft Polytek Easyflo 120 which is a 1:1 polyurethane plastic, which I got from here: http://www.mbfg.co.uk/polyurethane-casting-resin/easyflo_120.html

The nice thing about this is that it is sold in numerous quantities. I got the 2 litre kit which contains a litre of each, part A and part B. I slushed this inside, trying my best to cover all the inside evenly, including the mandible bits which I could not see down into.



It ended up coating quite thick in some areas, especially in the horns and I had a few wayward drips which I can just cut and sand. This has left the helmet fairly heavy and I would definitely try and go for thinner coverage next time.

I am now at the bodyfiller (Bondo but not bondo) stage, for which I am using a filler called P38 (also from Halfords)

Thanks and I will update as and when there is something to update Any feedback, tips, tricks and comments most welcome.

 

[Buckethead]

Hi, a bit of an update following some more progress on the build.


First layers of body filler



A few finished passes of filler



A pass of grey primer to see what things I need to fix and fill before final painting, and there are quite a few.



I have left the top and side parts deliberately rough and ready which I hope will give a good bone texture when painted and weathered. Otherwise just waiting for some good weather to go and fix the parts which need filling and smoothing, then I will be cutting the visor and prepping for paint.

 

[BLACKULA727]

Looking good bud. Can't wait to see the end result. keep up the good work!

 

[RiotJavelinDX]

Looking good

 

[Buckethead]

OK finally some progress made as we have had some good weather:

Some final filling before painting



The visor was then cut out using a rotary tool. Two visor pieces cut from semi transparent 3mm black acrylic sheet. These were then bent with a heat gun to fit the curve of the helmet.



Final sanding and priming


First pass in silver for under the ear pieces and as an undercoat for the gold.



Just a tease of the final colour. Got a few more colour passes then the fun begins with the weathering and final assembly.

 

[BLACKULA727]

Nice work! looking really good. I like your visor idea.

 

[Buckethead]

Thanks Blackula, it's coming along nicely. Getting on with the paint job now which I think I am better at. Yeah the visor idea just seemed like the easiest way to do it, and have it strong and looking like a visor. Can't wait to assemble it all together now

 

[mallu]

Looking great! Great idea on the visor. I'm actually working on the same helmet too and i was going to use the same method for the visor. How much sanding did you do to get the helmet that smooth and how high in grit did you go? I ask because even though this is my first attempt at doing pepakura i feel like the majority of my time has been spent sanding it over and over and over. Also, what did you use as filler? Keep up the good work.

 

[Buckethead]

Looking great! Great idea on the visor. I'm actually working on the same helmet too and i was going to use the same method for the visor. How much sanding did you do to get the helmet that smooth and how high in grit did you go? I ask because even though this is my first attempt at doing pepakura i feel like the majority of my time has been spent sanding it over and over and over. Also, what did you use as filler? Keep up the good work.

Hey, yeah it's my first build as well, would love to see your progress. The filler stage does take some time, but I just went until I was happy to move on, its nowhere near perfect but I was satisfied. I think in the end I went to a 400 grit and then a quick pass of 600 grit sandpaper which gave a nice enough finish for paint. Leaving the 'bone' a little rough and ready works quite well. I didn't use any kind of different filler than the car body filler ('bondo' but one called P38 in my case). I have mine painted up now and have just need to do a pass with a superfine sanding sponge before I add 1 more clear coat (already done 2). Then its just putting everything together, glueing the visor, adding the lining etc.

 

[FEVERHUNT]

looks amazing. can't wait to see this finished.

 

[Buckethead]

Woooo, finally finished the helmet! Pics coming up.

I thought I would first start with the base spray paints which I used on this project, just in case anyone was interested. They are basic primers and lacquers from Halfords, and then Rustoleum Bright Gold, Ivory Bisque, and Silver (which I got from Homebase).



Now continuing on, the black layer



and the Ivory Bisque layer


and the reveal; the raw spray painted helmet. Not very exciting but covered in colour. Now the fun bit, painting it up with texture and weathering.



A cheeky glimpse of the paint job, proper pics t follow. I used lots of different acrylic paints, including; raw umber (very good colour), burnt sienna, yellow ochre, black, cadmium red hue, primary blue, white. metallic titanium gold, metallic silver (metallics were Anita's all purpose craft paint, from the bargain bin at the craft store, the silver is very good for weathering)



The helmet in the game has screws which hold on the Ahamkara bone. I bought some plastic screws from ebay and cut off the threads. These were then weathered and hot glued down.



Around the screw was also weathered, once it was glued.



I had an old motorbike crash helmet which I also used for parts. I will use the cheek and strap system inside once I figure out how I want to do it. It also had a leather edging which was stitched around....well, the edge. I cut apart all of the stitching and removed it. This was then hot glued around the edge of the head opening on the bottom to soften and cushion it. It also narrowed it to the point where I really have to work my head into the helmet. I would recommend making a two part helmet for any of the destiny warlock ones, having it open with a hinge or magnets.



And that's it, there are photos to follow of the final helmet once I am happy with them, which should be later today or tomorrow.

 

[BLACKULA727]

The helmet looks real good my man. Great work!

 

[LancLancDoubleD]

Good looking build I like the weathering of the bone. I'll be keeping an eye out on this to see how it fully turns out. Definitely one of my favorite looking helmets in the game.

 

[Buckethead]

OK here we go, some finished shots of the finished helmet. This was really fun to do as a first pep project and I learned a lot about the different processes. I am actually working on the rest of the costume for this, building an iron regalia set

 

[Buckethead]

Made some progress on my iron regalia, the pauldrons are made up out of foam and have since been coated in 3 coats of PVA. Next is to cast the outside with plastic which will hopefully stick due to the PVA, and give a hard shell, which I want to do 2-3 layers of.