How to make a cardboard costume helmet

Here's how to make a low cost costume helmet using cardboard. Helmets are usually one of the hardest and most expensive parts to make for a cool Halloween costume so here's a simple method I use. The methods I describe can be used to make almost any kind of helmet but I'm showing how to make a Star Wars Boba Fett helmet as an example - I have an instructable for the rest of the Boba Fett costume here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/EYA7U14EM9ETVPKGR4/

The templates provided are used by permission from The Wizard of Flight via the Dented Helmet- the definitive Boba Fett costume resource-thanks Alan! The templates are designed to be printed on 8.5" x 11" paper.

For more great scifi costuming templates check out SPC -there's a lot of fantastic patterns there!

boba_fett_helmet_templates_std.pdf802 KB

boba_fett_-_rangefinder_rev_a.pdf215 KB

BF Helmet Dome Templates.pdf(612x792) 39 KB

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Step 1Materials

You'll need some cardboard sheet- about 1/16 inch thick material works best. Use the kind that looks like paperboard- corrugated cardboard won't work. The kind I used is called newspaper board and it comes in 30"x40" sheets. It is manufactured by Crescent as well as Arches and is sold at craft and picture framing stores. Crescent shows it on their website as Grey News Mounting Board:
http://www.crescent-cardboard.com/

You'll also need some white glue, sandpaper, a hot glue gun, some lightweight spackling paste, an X-Acto knife and some Minwax Polycrylic sealer.

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Sep 2, 2007. 6:32 PMSpikeCoatsA says:

For those whom this may concern, I've revised that Leonidas Spartan template to make it look more like it did on the movie.

Oct 15, 2007. 6:48 PMSpikeCoatsA says:

Here are some pics of my helmet. It's made from a child's batting helmet (I cut out most of the padding for it to fit), I cut off the visor and about 1/4 of the back of the helmet (the back is actually the front. I cut the faceplate out of two paper notebooks (the cardboard in the back). I used gorrilla glue to glue it on and duct tape to hold it in place while it was drying. for the crest I cut a couple pieces of some thin board, glued it on, put play-do inside of it, then I used bristles from an old broom to stick in the play-do. Then I sprayed it down with metallic gold spray paint. I used black paint for the crest

Oct 16, 2007. 5:07 PMomnikin says:

Awesome! What did you cut the batting helmet with? Also, what are the measurements for the revised face plate? I'm making a similar one.

Oct 16, 2007. 5:27 PMSpikeCoatsA says:

The faceplate measurements are as is, except I went ahead and stretched out the top as far as I could. I cut the helmet with a jig saw.

Oct 16, 2007. 6:33 PM

Honus (author) says:

Great job!

Nov 4, 2007. 5:20 PMcisco3609 says:

Here is my spartan helmet

$F:\Documents and Settings\Isabel\My Documents\My Pictures\300 005.jpg$ $F:\Documents and Settings\Isabel\My Documents\My Pictures\300 003.jpg$

Nov 4, 2007. 7:10 PMcisco3609 says:

pic

$F:\Documents and Settings\Isabel\My Documents\My Pictures\New Folder (2)\Picture 003.jpg$

Nov 5, 2007. 6:08 AM

Honus (author) says:

Fantastic!

Jul 20, 2008. 1:40 PM

Honus (author) says:

Here's a preview for the next cardboard project- Rocketeer! I've always wanted to do this one. The helmet patterns are almost finished and then comes the jetpack..... stay tuned for Halloween. :)

Aug 7, 2008. 8:42 PMmusicninja17 says:

Holy crap its blender!!! I lOve blender! but how do you make the template? (into a flat page that is?) How exactly could you do that in blender without having to manipulate all the edges yourself?

Aug 8, 2008. 6:48 AM

Honus (author) says:

Blender is great! This is actually the first 3d object I've ever done. Make your model in Blender and then import it into Pepakura Designer to make your template. Pepakura is just awesome.

Aug 8, 2008. 5:07 PMmusicninja17 says:

One question though--- how exactly do you get the .blend file into a usable extension??

Aug 8, 2008. 6:30 PM

Honus (author) says:

You have to export it as a 3d file such as .obj or .3ds

Aug 8, 2008. 8:22 PMmusicninja17 says:

Dude thanks! Pepakura rocks!

Aug 9, 2008. 10:17 PM

chinchymork says:

Thanks!

Aug 10, 2008. 5:30 AMminerug says:

On the topic of blender, do you have to model the helm from scratch, or can you upload a pic or something?

Aug 10, 2008. 6:45 AM

Honus (author) says:

I had to model it from scratch based on reference photos.

Aug 10, 2008. 4:52 PMminerug says:

How long doe it take to make a pattern like the rocketeer?

Aug 10, 2008. 6:23 PM

Honus (author) says:

I could probably do the 3d design in a couple of hours now that I sort of know what I'm doing. A really complicated design could take several days.

Aug 10, 2008. 6:49 PMminerug says:

Could you send me the .blend file of your rocketeer helm, I am interested in modifieing it to suit the helm I am designing. (minerug@hotmail.com)

Aug 11, 2008. 5:40 AM

Honus (author) says:

Sorry, but I'm not posting it until it's finished- there's still a lot of work to do! There are a ton of online Blender tutorials- just click the help button in Blender.

Aug 12, 2008. 2:19 AMminerug says:

ok, np

Aug 15, 2008. 3:31 PMmusicninja17 says:

Also look up blender noob to pro wikibook. Its THE BEST learning guide!

Aug 15, 2008. 3:33 PMmusicninja17 says:

But you can upload a pic to paste into the backround of blender so you can kind of trace over it in 3d.

Aug 16, 2008. 9:23 AM

Honus (author) says:

You sure can- the trick is to get them scaled the same.

Aug 16, 2008. 5:22 PMminerug says:

ok, thanks

Aug 16, 2008. 5:26 PMminerug says:

thanks

Aug 23, 2008. 6:16 PMMr.NHRA says:

I see the dome of the helmet looks to be tricky. I measured around the boba fett helmet and then blew up a balloon to that size. then i paper machete the balloon. it worked great and was so easy compared to all those triangles.

Aug 26, 2008. 5:11 AMminerug says:

bloody good idea

Aug 27, 2008. 6:46 PMnoxvox says:

Gasp! I love that movie, and no one's ever heard of it! Stop encouraging my fetish for heroes with jet packs. Great job BTW.
For those of you who want to make helmets on the cheap, art stores sometimes sell silver reflective paper that looks a lot like metal until creased. For some reason, my school had reams of it, so I used it to make a murmyllow sp* gladiator helmet (one with a fish crest). It stayed in my car for months and I wore it occasionally to scare other drivers.

Oct 23, 2008. 6:34 PMdiablo_03 says:

hello i love this helmet, you are great. can you please tell me how you did it? what are the measurements that you took? thanks allot.

Oct 26, 2008. 5:35 PMChicken2209 says:

hows the rocketeer helmet coming?

Oct 26, 2008. 7:57 PM

Honus (author) says:

It's getting there but it's going to be a while before the project is finished.

Oct 27, 2008. 12:10 PMChicken2209 says:

cool, i wish i could do something as cool and inspirational as this

Dec 29, 2008. 3:16 PMstarwarsfanatic95 says:

so finished the helmet(had alot of fun building it).im trying to build this helmet.do u think i should use the newpapaer board or should i use a boba fett helmet as a base and paper mache from there on.

Dec 29, 2008. 10:49 PM

Honus (author) says:

I'd make it from scratch- it's too different. You might do a search and see if someone has already made a template for it.

Nov 1, 2009. 3:10 PMkoopatroopa says:

Here is my helmet i used the cardboard at the bottom but used plaster for the top

Nov 1, 2009. 4:15 PM

Honus (author) says:

Awesome!

Nov 12, 2009. 7:50 PMAnoop101 says:

Its awesome

Jan 29, 2012. 10:54 PMchrisryan says:

hai Honus, what a great tuts, i'm still finding a cardboard fits for the helmet later on.

I could't find it this kind of paper. will it do ini a 2mm cardboard? this kind of cardboard used as a hard cover of a book / story books that you can found it in book stores.

BTW, check your inbox. Waiting for 2 replies. :D

Regards

Chris Ryan

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