My first attempt at costume making! Monty Python & the Holy Grail

[LemonTacoNinja]

Hello everyone,

I am attempting to recreate one of my favorite characters in MPATHG, the French Taunter. I am trying to make this in the style of Monty Python, using what I have or what I can get cheap and doctoring it up. I want to use this for my local renfest and Halloween, so making it last and making it comfortable is my best options.

I do not have any real experience in blacksmithing or easy access to a 3D printer, so the helmet is my main source of contingency. I got a cheap Conehead latex cap from Amazon that I want to cut the ears off of, spray paint silver, and harden if possible. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when he hits his head with the gloves he has on, so I would like to be able to recreate that, without the metal-on-metal sound effect because cloth hitting rubber doesn't have the *tink* effect. I also want to add the brim to the outside of the helmet along with the rivets they added on theirs.

So, my questions with this are,
1. In your experience, what are the best spray paints for rubber?
2. Do you know of any ways of stiffening up the latex without stuffing it full of cotton or grocery bags?
3. If it is possible to recreate the sound effect, how would you go around doing so?
4. What would you use to build on to latex?

P.S. I also got little plastic farm animals I can "launch" over the cardboard castle wall I am making. No rabbits, though. Nasty little buggers.

 

[Dr Jones Sr]

Luckily for this costume there's this great photo showing the helmet and upper part of the costume from various angles.

If it was me, and it was going to be on a tight budget, I'd make the helmet out of plaster-impregnated strips of cloth.

Here it is on Amazon Amazon.com

Once the plaster is dry it's rigid and lightweight and stands up to abuse.

My son made a helmet out of that stuff for a school project and now 25 years later that helmet is still around, in perfect shape though it's been dropped and whacked with wooden swords.

As you can see most of the costume is chain mail. They have fabric that does a pretty good job of mimicking that look.

Then there's leather with studs. It all looks pretty easy.