Need Some Advice on My Finished Capt America Helmet...

[Gimpdiggity]

Hi everyone.

This is my first foam helmet build of any kind. I think it turned out pretty well, however, during the making of it I realized that...

...my ears sit strangely low and far back on my head. Maybe this is why I've always been told that my ears look "off."

Anyway, as you can see the ear arches are off. The thing is, the helmet fits me very well. The top of it rests lightly on the crown of my head. The front and back fit pretty much perfectly. Since those pictures I've formed the front to fit my face even better. Basically, the helmet fits like the proverbial glove.

Due to how well it fits, I don't want to make the helmet any larger. I will probably try making it bigger by 10% just to see how that goes, but I think that will ultimately look too big overall, and I'll be back to this general size.

I have also thought about bringing the sides down a bit, but I think that will look a bit odd, as it has the lines and aesthetic that I was hoping for already, as I wanted it to look kind of like a "half helmet."

It also seems that if I moved the ear arches back, that would also look quite a bit off as they'd look like they were too far back on the helmet.

I have designed the helmet to go with a cowl, as my costume will use the cowl. With the cowl on, it kind of hides the strange locations of my ears...

So, I'm looking for any input here. If the helmet fits the way I want, then changing the size seems out of the question. Would moving the ear arches back and down a bit look really off? It seems to me that it would look a bit odd.

If I'm planning on wearing the cowl, is worrying about any of this just unnecessary?

Thanks!
Jeff

 

[cdkealey]

Looks good. My vote is to either remove the ear holes all together, or just make them shorter so the gap doesn't look so big. But, yeah with the cowl it probably won't be noticed much either way.

 

[Gimpdiggity]

Thanks.

I ended up making a second helmet.

I ran the rear down a bit more, which allowed me to move the ear arches to where they need to be so that they look good on the helmet and fit my ears better.

I also formed the front a lot more on this one, so it fits really well. It looks like the nose arch isn't connected very well, but the photo doesn't show the glue that's there. I think this one looks better than the first one, so I'll probably go with this one.

Who am I kidding, though...I'll end up making 10 more of them before I finally get one exactly how I want it!!!!

 

[Gimpdiggity]

Okay, so I built a third helmet tonight, this one by enlarging the pattern for the first helmet by 7%.

It's clearly my best made helmet of the bunch, as I'm getting better with each one...however, I don't like the way it fits at all. It's way too big on my head. It's possible that if I added some padding and the leather "under" helmet to it that it would fit pretty well, but I'm not sure I like that it looks so big on me.

I think that for now the second helmet will be the one that I end up using.

 

[IronMeg]

The second one definitely looks better, more rounded. Plus I think the ears being lower helps as well. Keep it up! The more you make the better you'll get

 

[Gimpdiggity]

Thanks IronMeg!

 

[cdkealey]

Looks much better! Good work.

 

[Gimpdiggity]

Looks much better! Good work.

Thanks.

I did some detail work to it today. Obviously when it's painted it will all be blue. The red was the only 2mm color I had laying around. My hope is that once the PVA and PlastiDip are laid it will kind of "round" the edges of the 2mm red strips a bit. If it doesn't, I think it will still look pretty good.

I started putting PVA on it today, too.

I heat treated the foam after getting it all together to seal it, so I figured I could have probably just gone right to PlastiDip, but I wanted to have the helmet a bit more "solid" than the pieces that I've put together with just the PlastiDip on top of the heat sealed foam.

I ended up doing two coats, letting each sit for about 6 hours. The third coat is curing as I type this. I think that will end up being enough, but I'm not going to be able to work with the PlastiDip for another few days, so I may do another thin coat or two just to keep getting it harder.

I'm having a lot of fun with this. I think it's turning out pretty well, for really my first time doing it.

 

[Gimpdiggity]

Well, I laid the Plasti Dip and then put on the paint, and I am less than impressed with my results.

I think I should have spent more time wet sanding the PVA layer to get the Plasti Dip to lay a bit better. I was able to salvage it for the most part, and may end up doing another set of coats of paint...but this time with acrylic and a foam roller.

I honestly was kind of planning on this, though...this helmet was always meant to be kind of a "rough draft" to see where I could improve and what I would need to change.

So, I've learned to do one of two things differently:

1. Be much more diligent with my sanding of the PVA layer.

--or--

2. Just heat seal the foam and go directly to the Plasti Dip instead of worrying at all about the PVA.


I will see how well can salvage the paint that's on it now, and go from there. I will probably end up stopping by Hobby Lobby in a few days so that I can get some more foam, then cut and put together another helmet on my days off next week.

 

[Gimpdiggity]

Okay, I think I may have actually salvaged the finish enough to be able to put some acrylic on it just to see how that turns out.

If it turns out good, then I'm good to go and won't need to make another helmet.

However, I'll still make another helmet, just to see if I can make it better looking than this one, because I'll already have all of the stuff to do it other than the two sheets of EVA foam, which is like $3.

 

[jamesalton1]

did you use a template at all? or just free hand everything?

 

[TheFrankTurk]

I'm a huge fan of that cowl under the helmet.