first helmet help

[ScoobiJohn]

i see all these cool helmets people make and i've decided the time has come to try making one myself but i dont quite know where to start - i was thinking judge dredd or something star wars

so any opinions on what would be a good one to start with, something nice and easy and also what materials would be good to make it from

 

[Zinger]

How experienced a prop maker are you? If you're just starting out, foam floor mats are an easy way to get into helmets. With a little practice and patience, you can get really good results without spending a fortune. Like a "10 ft prop", one that looks great from 10 feet.

Evil Ted Smith has a bunch of great videos including a basic helmet tutorial.

If you're more experienced, e.g. comfortable working with fiberglass, resins and molds, XRobots has some great Iron-Man builds you can learn from.

XRobots

 

[Trooper_trent]

If you're new to the hobby, I'd also recommend getting your feet wet by buying a kit instead of starting from scratch.
For a first attempt you can get really great results by putting a kit together and painting it using tutorials. That way you learn some basic skills for assembly, sanding, prep, painting, weathering etc. without the need to invest in 3D printers, molding supplies, vacuum form tables, etc.

A good one to start with would be an X-Wing helmet. TheDarthHair has a great kit on etsy. I believe he goes by DHPFX. He even has assembly and painting/weathering video tutorials on youtube.
That would be a great way to get started and have a really nice helmet to show for it.

 

[ScoobiJohn]

i'm not completely new to prop making but also not done many from scratch - certainly nothing like a helmet - mostly swords and guns (and woodwork but thats not props just bowls and vases and stuff like that) so i would like to start easy - but certainly eventually would like to get into more professional efforts later down the road

i'm pretty well setup in my workshop - probably the one thing i dont have that i might need is a vacuum form table but i have plenty of dust extraction vacuums and lots of plyboard and my workshop is crying out for an excuse to buy some more heating (my 3d printer refused to work yesterday morning because the temp sensors were in the negative and was reading as an error now leaving a greenhouse bar heater in the enclosure overnight so it will work) so might well make a vaccum form table if its needed

found the x-wing kit you mentioned and it looks good but i think i will check out the foam helmets first - i've got some foam floor tiles lying around and the kit is a bit expensive by the time its got to the uk anyway

thanks for the advice - hopefully will have something worthy of posting soon

 

[Funky]

I was just going to echo what Trent said. Start with a kit and see how that feels.