Metal/hybrid Wonder Woman armour

I recently took my wife to see Wonder Woman for her birthday and was thoroughly impressed that DC finally got a movie right.

I thought I'd make my wife a WW headband out of aluminium. I surprised her with it last night and she loves it.

Upon getting this far, I am seriously thinking about doing the rest of the costume for her.

Starting with the head band, I used screenshots from the movie, blown up on screen to a known face height, then used a ruler to scale it all directly onto paper, glued to thick aluminium sheet. The pieces were cut out using a hacksaw and filed and sanded into shape. I used a mill drill to cut a couple of fancy ledges in the centre piece. I will bend it into shape, rivet the larger pieces on then JB-Weld the star on in the centre.

I decided on drilling and tapping to fix it all in place. Countersunk M4 machine screws, peined on the back then ground flush. Bent around the post anvil but will have to shape it specifically for the wearer later. Tonight I'll JB-Weld the star on.





Can't make noise in the shed at night so it's a bit of drawing to keep constructive. Arm band scaled from a screenshot and wifey's arm.

Wow, that's awesome. She's probably the only on in the world with a real METAL tiara. Excellent work.

13doctorwho said:

Wow, that's awesome. She's probably the only on in the world with a real METAL tiara. Excellent work.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate.

Secured the stars with JB-Weld last night. After curing this morning, I have filled in and built the JB-Weld into all the cracks and gaps to solidify the stars as one on the crown. In 24 hours I can do a final trim, clean up and sand.

Looks amazing mate!!

^^^ Ta mate.


Back to prototyping in cardboard. Wonderful stuff! Such a time and money saver! Freehand from a screenshot and wifey's wrist. I think I'll transfer this onto a sheet of thick aluminium, make up a couple of shaped steel punches and tool all the details in. Just like leather-work only hitting harder.





Making the bracers out of sheet aluminium and chiselling/punching the details in. Not entirely confident this will work out. It's going to take a lot of tooling. I have another idea if it doesn't work out.








So, aluminium and I just aren't good bedfellows. As per the Iron Man build, first tried aluminium and was really bad at it then decided on steel.
The grade may be wrong, the work hardening may have made it brittle and it needed annealing to work it further.
The chisel I used for details was too sharp and I probably was hitting it too hard. As soon as I bent it, all the chisel lines snapped.
The aluminium was also likely too thin. I can either make it again out of thicker aluminium, or accept defeat and move back to steel, half as thick. I'll try that tomorrow,








Traced it out on .95mm cold-rolled mild steel sheet this time. This is the same steel I used for the Iron Man suit. At least I know I can do lots with it. What's nice is that part of my suit's leftovers becomes one of the parts of my wife's costume.

Like your works :eek

^^^ Ta mate.

This method's a winner. hammered in the details with some custom punches made from mild steel bar and an old chisel shaped to suit.


The steel is half the thickness of the previous aluminium attempt, and marginally heavier. No biggie.

Used alcohol ink to stain details in the steel.

Absolutely amazing! The details and craftsmanship... just awesome!

Oh nice, I'll be following that. Very nice work!
Don't know about you, but I often get even more motivated doing stuff for my girlfriend