help needed please.....helmet related

[royke gahil]

So im making(trying) my daughter a Rebels Seventh Sister costume. Im only at the helmet stage. Ive made the base of it out of paper mache which I was more than happy with. Now im currently filling the shape to make it more accurate. Ive been using wall fillers. This is the first time ive tried to do more than paper mache so I found out fairly quickly after filling that the helmet was getting too heavy. so im fairly sure I can make a good enough job of the overall shape with filling and sanding but this will almost definitely not be wearable due to the weight.

so my question is..... apart from making a mold and casting are there any other ways (cheap if possible) to copy what ive done?

ive seen vids where you wrap the helmet in stretch wrap, then cover in brown tape and then draw on the lines etc and then lay it flat on foam and then join the foam back up but im not sure how easy it would be to do that with the pointed tip of the helmet.

Are there any easier ways? or cheap ways to make a mold and cast?

hope someone can find the time to give me some advice, help would be really appreciated.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Remember the stormtrooper helmet? Ultimately it was vacu-formed over a casting or original design (?) Or the Vader helmet which was fiberglassed in a negative mold? ... Perhaps this might give you some ideas to persue?

Chaim

 

[Darth Lars]

Vacuuforming requires a bulky machine and casting often involves smelly chemicals. Also not always worth it if you are only doing a one-off.
Many fillers such as Bondo often contain "microballoons" filled with air to keep the weight down, but I suppose that your wall filler does not.

Yes, I would try to tape on pieces of paper onto the helmet to to make a paper pattern for building a new helmet out of card stock/papier mache, foam sheet or even plastic sheet.

Then try to make most of the curves in it by cutting away and/or adding the same type of material instead of using filler.
With papier maché you could add bulk on an inner edge, remove material on the outside (with a rough rasp) and then laminate over that. That would be time-consuming of course because of the drying time but you would keep it being the same type of material.
With foam or plastic sheet you can often make things curvier with a heat gun but one has to be very careful to not overheat or it will sag.

 

[JJ Griffin]

Have you considered building it out of eva foam? Very light, cheap, forgiving, etc.

~JJ