Eomer from LOTR build - WIP

Sorry I missed this at D*C. The whole ensemble turned out fantastic -- from head to toe! Inspiring and gorgeous work!
 
WOW, this costume is incredible! Can you describe the painting technique you used on the foam "metal" scales and what paints you used? I love the look, I'm currently working on my breastplate for my female Thor costume for Halloween, and trying to find the best technique to make the foam look metal-like. Thanks!

The foam scales were originally going to be done in black foam, but I couldn't get the large roll of it until too late, so they were cut out of white foam. After cutting I painted them with black acrylic, making sure to get the sides and bottom as well (so use black foam!). Finally, I applied silver rub-n-buff.
Edit for better description: I'd get a tiny dot of rub-n-buff paste on my finger, then start at the center of one scale, rubbing in a circle outwards. That way, the edges turned out a bit darker than the center, which I felt added dimension and realism.
The whole time, I kept them in the rows you see in the image, so they'd be easy to sew.
I was also originally planning to heat-form each scale to have the slight center ridge you see in the original. I even built a tool to do so out of pliers and some sheet metal. However, I found that heating them caused too much curling, and trying to form them with little to no heat resulted in the ridge going away when I applied the rub-n-buff. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1379305583.490373.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1379305598.154580.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1379305620.732980.jpg
 
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Since last year I've been wanting to complete this armor with a few of the pieces I didn't get to finish for DragonCon 2013. Build write-up coming soon, but for now here's the completed helmet!
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I just saw your post on the FB group, but had to come over here to see the build. I've got to say, its a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL set. I can't wait to see the write up for the helmet, it's one of my all time favourites, and this looks like you have totally nailed it. I love the Rohan designs, and always wanted to make a Royal Guard, or Theodred set of armour, alas, I only ever got as far as making a shield!

Rohan Shield

Again, stunning work mate!
 
My first step was to draw the basic shapes in Illustrator, and scale them to the correct size. I was a bit off in my interpretation of the ear details, but I’ll fix that later. The front and side shapes were straightforward enough, but I had to guess at the shape of the circumference. Once I printed those out at the correct scale, I cut them out of 1/4″ MDF, then slotted and glued them together with wood glue. I then filled in the voids with pink insulation foam and carved it to shape with a rasp. At this point I was only worried about the main portion of the helmet – I would tackle the cheek guards separately. I could have done them concurrently, but I felt a helmet with a flat base like this would be easier to work with.

Once the shape was where I wanted it, I covered the entire form with acrylic paint, then a coat of wood glue. I’d never tried this technique before, but I know that applying Bondo directly to foam is bad news. The foam will degrade and you’ll be left with a mushy mess. Next came several layers of Bondo, with plenty of sanding in-between. It was most important to get the four “quarters” nice and smooth. The MDF ended up showing through a bit, but I wasn’t too concerned – I’d eventually be building these areas up to simulate the metal bands on the finished helmet. To do that, I used something I picked up from Blind Squirrel. I first used a compass to trace a line all the way around the helmet at the width of the band. Then I used masking tape to build up an edge at that line – I used 8 layers of tape. I then applied a thick layer of Bondo right up to the tape, sanded it when it was cured, and removed the tape. I also used masking tape to make the recessed sunburst design on the front.

First, I put down some masking tape on my cutting mat, and taped the shapes from my Illustrator print-outs onto the tape. I traced those shapes with an exacto, then peeled them from the cutting mat and stuck them to the helmet by eye. Next, I skimmed a layer of Bondo over the area and sanded it once cured to expose the tape and blend the edges into the rest of the helmet. Finally, I extracted the tape to reveal a nice recessed sunburst. I imagine filling primer would have worked as well as Bondo for this purpose.
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Last thing I did before molding was to add the semi-circle details to the sides. These were just cut from card-stock and glued to the helmet. Next it was time for silicone (Smooth-on Mold-max 40). Once the silicone cured (2 coats), I made a mold jacket with MDF and fiberglass. For the cast, I ordered Onyx resin and aluminum powder from Smooth-on. I brushed the entire mold with the dust, as well as mixing it into the resin. After slush-casting the helmet, I left it in the mold and reinforced it with a couple layers of fiberglass. When I finally pulled it out of the mold and polished it with steel wool, I was overjoyed with the finish.
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The crest began in a similar manner to the rest of the helmet, but instead of using Bondo, I skinned the foam with sulfer-free clay. I was more comfortable making the organic shapes I needed out of clay, and I knew from experience I could take a mold from this clay with no problems. Lucky for me, a few days previously Weta had launched their new website which features spectacular close-ups of this helmet. I spent two nights sculpting the horse head before I was satisfied and it was time for silicone. In a perfect world I would have cast this solid, but I was low on resin and I knew I still had to cast the cheek guards, so I slush cast the crest and filled it with Crayola Model Magic (I was totally winging it at this point). This was 8/17, exactly 6 days until I needed it completed.


My documentation fell off a little from here on out, and I don’t have any pictures of sculpting the cheeks or ear-disks. The cheeks were a scaled-down version of the main helmet procedure, including layered contoured foam, acrylic, Bondo, masking tape details, more bondo, lots of sanding. The ears were just super-scuply, baked, sanded, molded, cast and painted. I noticed by following Blind Squirrel‘s Theoden build that one of the details on his helmet is the same as on Éomer’s, so I used his version as a reference for sculpting mine.
The last detail that had been keeping me up at night was the knot-work trim that went all the way around the helmet, up the sides and down the cheeks. I considered 3D printing it, but I have no experience doing that and not enough time for trial and error. I considered braiding actual metal wire, which I later discovered had been used on another costumer’s version of this helmet. I considered finding fabric trim and somehow making that look like metal. BUT NO! I had an epiphany late one night, and went out to the garage to confirm that it would work. I had bought this roll of really thin aluminum from Michael’s, and I cut off a piece and drew on it with a ball-point pen. This actually did a great job of embossing the metal with my pattern, so I just traced the braid onto the thin metal and cut strips.
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I bought a platinum blonde extra-long ponytail from ebay. It has a loop on the end, which would make it easy to attach.
Before gluing the crest to the helmet with E-6000, I needed to make sure I could attach the ponytail. To attach the ponytail, I drilled about a 1/2 - 3/4 inch hole in the crest, and a much smaller one in the top of the helmet. I also screwed a small picture-hanging hook into the interior of the helmet, close to the new hole. After gluing the crest down, I looped wire through end of the ponytail, and fished that through both holes, then secured the wire to the hook. The tail remains removable, in case I find a better one someday, or can afford a real horse tail.
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This is so alarmingly realistic... totally blown away. Some day I MUST see this in person.

Finally got to see it in person!! Such a crazy night I didn't get to study it up close enough, though. :p But it is beautiful! (and yeah, I stole your photo you took because we didn't bring our camera)

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