Roman-esque soldier uniform - from cardboard!

Step 4 Create the helmet crest

This part was rather difficult to make it look how I wanted it to look. In the end, it looks fine, but I'm still overly critical of it.

The BROOM!!! (images 1-4)

I cut apart 2 brooms since I found that one didn't cover the area that I wanted. I ended up using 1.5 brooms. The brooms I found were a bit expensive in the dollar store - around 2 dollars. I cut them apart and saved the pieces.

The bristles are bundled with wire - DO NOT CUT THE WIRE!! You will make a mess and make it much more difficult to mount. I'm fairly sure that most brooms have a twisted wire configuration to hold the bristles in.

I tried using my airbrush to paint the bristles - man, how naive I was. I recommend using thinned red paint (deep crimson, like dried blood color) and painting it on with a paint brush. It wasn't perfect, but it worked well enough.

The crest holder

I traced the curve of the helmet on a piece of cardboard to make a template (images 4,5,6). I then used the template to create curved sections on larger pieces of cardboard. I oversized the rough curve so I could incorporate flaps on the bottom to attach to the helmet.

I then used this template to cut curved pieces to sandwich the broom between, since I knew that I'd need to attach the broom at another time. I eyeballed the whole thing including the flap size. Flexibility of design is key.

I made the crest holder a little thicker than the broom bristle bundle for two reasons.
1. I wanted to make it look robust, and I needed the surface area to make a strong bond with the glue.
2. I sandwiched the broom section between two pieces of curved cardboard. This gave me flexibility in case I messed up and glued them incorrectly - I wouldn't damage the crest holder re-positioning the broom location.

The sandwiched pieces were then glued into the crest holder. I failed to make sure that the crest was perfect, so the mohawk is just slightly crooked.

No one cares but me.

Comments

[TForsman]

Painting the bristles - wouldn't putting the thinned paint into a small coffee can up to the level of the bristles work? Then dipping the bristles into it? Easier to coat and more thoroughly.

[laernmoer]

try it and reply back how it goes.. I have no idea..

[sstephens2]

i wish you would have added dimentions...2" here and 2.5 here would have been better than "i just eyeballed it" >.> mind adding that? haha i have to make 4 of those by friday ...sheesh!

[laernmoer]

Haha, sorry, I was avoiding using dimensions to prevent people from getting upset with me for giving them numbers that don't work.. if I said 2 inches and it didn't fit, i thought I'd get complaints.. you have a point tho.I should have put a ruler in for easier "eyeballing"!