Step 10: Painting and finishing
Almost done- time for paint!
When painting this I first gave it a coat of Minwax Polycrylic sealer using a large brush to seal the foam and prevent the spray paint from damaging it. Then I sprayed the helmet and fans silver. This was followed by a coat of copper on the beak section of the head and the lower part of the helmet.
Painting was then followed with some pastel work. I first went over the helmet with some dark blue pastel powder (I scraped the pastel stick using my multitool blade to make powder) using a small soft paintbrush and a cotton swab to blend it. Copper areas were then highlighted using a reddish brown pastel stick and that was blended in using a brush and cotton swab. Black pastel powder was applied around the detail lines to add some definition. Finally the entire helmet was given a satin clear coat and it was ready to go!
As a side note, instead of wearing this as a costume you could also use it as a Halloween prop- dress up a mannequin, add a motion sensor and a Adafruit Arduino Wave Shield for sound effects and set it outside your door and wait for trick or treaters!
This project was a very long time coming and was a real challenge for me- it was a great experience seeing this come together and solving challenges along the way. I learned an awful lot building it and will be applying that knowledge to future costume projects. It was very important to me when building this that other members of this community be able to replicate it so I wanted to use low cost materials and focus on build techniques that would make it as accessible as possible. The side effect is that the construction method presented here could be used to create all kinds of wonderful costumes and Halloween props.
So go forth and build your Stargate helmet! As always, if there are ever any questions feel free to ask away. I'm here to help and nothing would please me more than to have a whole bunch of these out there. :)
I'd also like to tell everyone thanks for the nice comments- I've been floored by the response to this project!
When painting this I first gave it a coat of Minwax Polycrylic sealer using a large brush to seal the foam and prevent the spray paint from damaging it. Then I sprayed the helmet and fans silver. This was followed by a coat of copper on the beak section of the head and the lower part of the helmet.
Painting was then followed with some pastel work. I first went over the helmet with some dark blue pastel powder (I scraped the pastel stick using my multitool blade to make powder) using a small soft paintbrush and a cotton swab to blend it. Copper areas were then highlighted using a reddish brown pastel stick and that was blended in using a brush and cotton swab. Black pastel powder was applied around the detail lines to add some definition. Finally the entire helmet was given a satin clear coat and it was ready to go!
As a side note, instead of wearing this as a costume you could also use it as a Halloween prop- dress up a mannequin, add a motion sensor and a Adafruit Arduino Wave Shield for sound effects and set it outside your door and wait for trick or treaters!
This project was a very long time coming and was a real challenge for me- it was a great experience seeing this come together and solving challenges along the way. I learned an awful lot building it and will be applying that knowledge to future costume projects. It was very important to me when building this that other members of this community be able to replicate it so I wanted to use low cost materials and focus on build techniques that would make it as accessible as possible. The side effect is that the construction method presented here could be used to create all kinds of wonderful costumes and Halloween props.
So go forth and build your Stargate helmet! As always, if there are ever any questions feel free to ask away. I'm here to help and nothing would please me more than to have a whole bunch of these out there. :)
I'd also like to tell everyone thanks for the nice comments- I've been floored by the response to this project!
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here are some other projects me and my girlfriend have built thanks to people like you and this great website.
You rock. Thanks for taking the time to document and explain it all so well. That multi-layer craft foam construction is brilliant, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be using that trick on some of my upcoming robots!
I look forward to seeing your robots!
I really liked SG-1 too- have every season on DVD.