Red Hood Helmet 1st attempt... help and tips appreciated

[RandomAdam]

I'll be going to c2e2 this week and decided fairly last minute that I wanted to cosplay. this will be my 1st con & my first cosplay. I decided on the red hood as I have virtually all I needed for the costume baring the helmet.

I've been reading up on the red hood costume threads on here for inspiration and tips. I'm now totally impressed and quite intimidated.

Originally I got some thin craft foam boards with the intention of doing a pepakura helmet but having never done that before I decided I didn't have time. Instead I bought an inexpensive iron man helmet off amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BSGAJ7O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and was going to spray it red, but when it arrived I liked it too much as it was better quality than i was expecting. However the helmet came in a plastic blister pack that was the same shape with a bit less detail so I bodged together a red hood helmet from that. It's a little crude so I am asking for some advice...

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the building process but I will take some when I get home and post them to show my current progress. I used tape to hold everything together and now that I have added the 1st coat of primer it's really obvious. I was hoping someone could recommend a way to cover the edges and fill in a few of the gaps that won't take too long or be too complicated? I was thinking bondo spot putty? initially I'd hoped a few coats of primer would do the trick but now I want it to look as good as possible.

 

[Vox]

If you are just filling in cracks and minor depressions/holes, Bondo Spot Putty will work. If you actually want to round a few of the more "obviously Iron Man" details (example: the cheek depressions), I recommend Bondo Body Filler. Either way, they both are easy to apply, dry fairly quickly, and are easily sanded. Just make sure you don't allow for any bubbles in thick layers.

 

[RandomAdam]

Cheers Vox,

That's what I figured I'd need. I should have just gone with that from the start instead of trying to use tape, I guess it's just a learning curve. I was really impressed with your costume, so much so I briefly reconsidered doing mine as I figured you'd be at c2e2 this year and wasn't sure mine could hold up. I'm doing a pre-52 version though and as it's my first con and i've only been working on it for a week I figured what the hell! I'll keep working on it and give you a real run for your money next year!

 

[Vox]

Cheers Vox,

That's what I figured I'd need. I should have just gone with that from the start instead of trying to use tape, I guess it's just a learning curve. I was really impressed with your costume, so much so I briefly reconsidered doing mine as I figured you'd be at c2e2 this year and wasn't sure mine could hold up. I'm doing a pre-52 version though and as it's my first con and i've only been working on it for a week I figured what the hell! I'll keep working on it and give you a real run for your money next year!

I 100% understand wanting to have the best costume you can build. On the other hand, don't worry about "holding up." Enjoy cosplaying the character and then, if you want to push yourself to be better next year, do it. No one worth your time is going to judge you.

I hope to spot you there. We'll have a cross-generational pic taken.

 

[RandomAdam]

I'm not worried about being judged it's my own personal competitiveness and ocd/perfectionist tendencies coming out.

These are the photos of what Ive done so far. I stopped into true value to look for the bondo but they didn't have spot filler so i got a can of plasti-dip spray so hopefully that will work.



I'll keep an eye out for you and we'll grab a photo for sure.

 

[RandomAdam]

I did two coats of the pasti-dip yesterday and that helped to fill a lot of the edges/gaps


I then applied another coat of primer and this morning did the gloss cherry red. I'll add the black detail tonight.

 

[RandomAdam]

It's a bit late going up as I only finished the morning of the con but here is the finished helmet and a few pics from the weekend. I also cut a symbol out of foam board and sprayed it red. The trousers are more brown than grey (the perils of buying online), I got the gun (rubber prop), holster and knife (also rubber) from amazon. I already had the jacket.




All in all a good costume for my first attempt and just over a weeks work, evenings and weekends. next step is a properly 'armoured' shirt and potentially a pepakura helmet.

 

[RingDeacon]

Once I am done withy arkham origins and midevil batman, the red hood is my next pet project. I plan on modifying the unfold of the captain America mask. I have found that it will work for not just Cap but hood, flash and nova too.

 

[RandomAdam]

Been a while... I switched focus for wizard world last year and did a full size soundwave in card (I'll eventually get around to posting that build), I also did my 1st foam build of daft punk, and went for deadpool and spidey variants for this years c2e2 so not much red hood action recently. However...

I've just bought another iron man helmet like the last one (actually it's an iron patriot) that i'm going to do what I should have done last time. I'll probably use paper mache as its cheap and easy and something I have experience with. I'll use it to mask a lot of the iron man details and re-enforce the plastic as its quite thin. I'm going to add some custom details too.

more updates soon hopefully....