How to make a cardboard costume helmet

Step 7: Painting/finishing

Now coat the entire helmet with some Minwax Polycrylic sealer. This will seal everything and make your helmet much easier to paint as well as help make your helmet water resistant. Then just primer and paint your helmet! A Boba Fett helmet takes a long time to paint........

The visor is just some tinted plastic that is then glued in. I used hot glue but epoxy putty works really well too and is probably stronger. I then added some foam to the inside of the helmet to make it fit my head so it wouldn't flop around.

That's it- time to go trick or treating!

Comments

[Ernext]

this is awesome! I love it!

[Honus]

Thanks!

[AustinL97]

This is soooooo awesome...

[dylanl]

YES! YES! YES!

[vincentleest]

Are you the accordion guy?! :O

[Honus]

Nope- no accordions here!

[Under_miner]

Where did you get the tinted plastic from?

[Honus]

I used stick on car window tint from AutoZone and applied it to a clear plastic face shield from a hardware store.

[Under_miner]

Thanks so much!

[articseabear]

How do you get the paint to look damaged? Thanks

[Honus]

I just traced areas on the helmet with a pencil and then painted them in with silver paint.

[tox1cchicken]

could this be coated in fiberglass or bondo to give it a more finished look?

[Honus]

Yep- you can do that.

[hpfev]

Great tutorial!. I was just wondering what is the name of type of the foam you use and where can I get it? Thanks

[Honus]

Just use upholstery foam- it's sold at craft/fabric stores like HobbyLobby and Michael's.

[zombiesnare]

im thinking of making two: one for general wearing and one to wear when i perform my music. ill post pics when im done :D
will i have enough leftovers to do so or will i have to buy double?
thx in advance

[Honus]

You'll probably just have to buy extra paperboard.

[dnyers]

AMAZING tutorial! thanks a BUNCH for this man. I have 2 questions though. does the minwax plycrylic sealer need to be the gallon or the SPRAY? AND. can i use Fiberglass resin INSTEAD of the Minwax? if so. when do i need to put it on. i would like a nice, strong helmet =] again. thanks

[Honus]

Glad you like it! You could use polycrylic sealer in can or spray. I've always just brushed it on as then you don't have vapors to deal with. You certainly can fiberglass it- lots of people have done it. You want to fiberglass it before you do the spackling and then you want to use Bondo filler instead of spackling paste- spackling paste won't stick to the fiberglass.

[dnyers]

again, thank you for the advice. if i have any troubles ill be sure to consult you with them if thats fine?

[Honus]

Absolutely- I'm here to help!

[dnyers]

What do you prime it with? just a base coat of any color?

[Honus]

Just use a gray primer- that worked well for me.

[TxtbookNinja]

Im building a different helment but using a lot of your advice on this project. Quick question though, when using this type of cardboard should I just stick to the polycrylic sealer or can I use resin?

Only reason I ask is because Im about at that step and some other sources say resin and I honestly dont know the difference.

[Honus]

It's really up to you. Polycrylic is a lot less messy/smelly but polyester or epoxy resin will make a more durable helmet.

[lucydavi]

Here we go
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j457/NarcolepticWookie/088.jpg

[Honus]

That really turned out great!

[lucydavi]

Whats up, Thanks for taking your time to make this tutorial, It has helped all of us alot. I just completed my helmet, and i had lots of fun making it. Heres a pic

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j457/NarcolepticWookie/083.jpg

[Honus]

That looks awesome!

[lucydavi]

Heh thanks, The pictures not that great quality. Ill see if i can get a better one.

[adaniel5]

I know this is a lot to ask, but could someone give an in-depth explanation of the templates for the bottom section of the helmet, explaining how they fit together and what not? Looking at the PDF's I'm having a hard time understanding how everything is put together and what goes where. Any help would be much appreciated

[Honus]

No problem- give me a couple of days and I'll do an assembly drawing that shows how it all goes together as it'll probably make much more sense if I do it that way.

[adaniel5]

Thank you very much :D

[adaniel5]

Also, for the larger spots that need to be painted such as the green, red and black, would you recommend spray paint or handpainting? Because I wasn't sure considering there might be brush strokes.

[Honus]

I'm working on the drawings and should have them done soon. As for the painting I used spray cans for the large areas and then did the small details with a brush.

[adaniel5]

Cool. Also, after a number of failed attempts using different types of cardboard, I'm going to try what you suggested. Is this the right kind?

http://www.dickblick.com/products/crescent-gray-news-mounting-board/

[Honus]

Yep- that's the stuff. What I used might have been a bit thicker but that should work just fine.

[adaniel5]

My first attempt did not go well, hopefully seeing how all the templates fit together will show me what I did wrong.

[Honus]

I've updated it a bit to show how the templates go together for the lower part of the helmet so hopefully it makes a bit more sense. There's still a few other things I want to add/change but that should get you started.

[adaniel5]

Thank you very much! Especially for taking time out of your day to help me out