Max Replica
Well-Known Member
Down to the finishing touches on this costume.
I knew I wanted to line the helmet, and researched for a while how I was going to do it. The tricky part was, there really wasn't room in the helmet for a full liner, at least if I was going to have it sit on my head at the height I wanted.
I originally had wanted a real professional looking liner, something like you'd see inside a motorcycle helmet. But in order to get the helmet to fit just right (at least with my skills) it just wasn't going to be possible.
In the end, I glued in some EVA-type foam. Near the bottom of the helmet (up to ear level), I used 1/2" thick foam. This would probably have been what I would have used for the whole thing, since it has a "real" helmet liner look, but it would have made the helmet sit too high and too tight.
I cut some ear holes for comfort, and I wet-sanded the edges of the foam before gluing the piece in in order to give a more rounded, finished appearance. So at least while I'm wearing the helmet, it looks like it has some kind of factory liner in it.
For the upper part of the helmet, I switched to 1/4" foam, and I actually left the foam out of the very crown of the helmet so that it would sit lower. I had to experiment with putting in some extra pieces here and there (the very front of the helmet, just below the badge, has a second 1/4" layer, which keeps the helmet's visor off my nose).
The foam was glued in with Barge brand cement and then painted with Meltonian spray paint meant for leather and vinyl. (The foam was already black, but looked better and more uniform after spraying with black paint).
The helmet fits great now. Snug and comfortable, but not too tight and doesn't shift if I shake my head back and forth.
Here's are two pics. Because I took the photo of the liner with a flash, it looks a little washed out and grey, but it looks pretty black overall in real life. The black helps cover some of the flaws in my work (like the seams in the back where I had to put in an extra piece because of a mistake).
Oh, and the first pic is just me spraying the inside of the helmet black. It was originally bare red fibreglass (I forgot to take a "before" pic of this, as usual), and I knew I'd want a black base of primer before applying the foam, just in case I left any gaps. Since I later realized the crown would have no foam at all, this worked out well. You can see that the very top of the helmet is still just painted fibreglass in the second picture.
(I used Duplicolor black automotive primer, and then the Meltonian black over it).
View attachment 58872View attachment 58873
I knew I wanted to line the helmet, and researched for a while how I was going to do it. The tricky part was, there really wasn't room in the helmet for a full liner, at least if I was going to have it sit on my head at the height I wanted.
I originally had wanted a real professional looking liner, something like you'd see inside a motorcycle helmet. But in order to get the helmet to fit just right (at least with my skills) it just wasn't going to be possible.
In the end, I glued in some EVA-type foam. Near the bottom of the helmet (up to ear level), I used 1/2" thick foam. This would probably have been what I would have used for the whole thing, since it has a "real" helmet liner look, but it would have made the helmet sit too high and too tight.
I cut some ear holes for comfort, and I wet-sanded the edges of the foam before gluing the piece in in order to give a more rounded, finished appearance. So at least while I'm wearing the helmet, it looks like it has some kind of factory liner in it.
For the upper part of the helmet, I switched to 1/4" foam, and I actually left the foam out of the very crown of the helmet so that it would sit lower. I had to experiment with putting in some extra pieces here and there (the very front of the helmet, just below the badge, has a second 1/4" layer, which keeps the helmet's visor off my nose).
The foam was glued in with Barge brand cement and then painted with Meltonian spray paint meant for leather and vinyl. (The foam was already black, but looked better and more uniform after spraying with black paint).
The helmet fits great now. Snug and comfortable, but not too tight and doesn't shift if I shake my head back and forth.
Here's are two pics. Because I took the photo of the liner with a flash, it looks a little washed out and grey, but it looks pretty black overall in real life. The black helps cover some of the flaws in my work (like the seams in the back where I had to put in an extra piece because of a mistake).
Oh, and the first pic is just me spraying the inside of the helmet black. It was originally bare red fibreglass (I forgot to take a "before" pic of this, as usual), and I knew I'd want a black base of primer before applying the foam, just in case I left any gaps. Since I later realized the crown would have no foam at all, this worked out well. You can see that the very top of the helmet is still just painted fibreglass in the second picture.
(I used Duplicolor black automotive primer, and then the Meltonian black over it).
View attachment 58872View attachment 58873