Art Deco Eagle Wings for Captain America Helmet

I share a love of bike riding and of Captain America with my son.  His bike helmet was stolen from his school storage bin a while back and the school Principal was kind enough to give him a new blue bike helmet.  I was not thrilled to hear that his helmet had been stolen while he was in school, after all we wrote his name across the back of his old helmet.  When I saw the new helmet I decided we needed to make it more easily identifiable, using some white duct tape we fashioned an A and a pair of wings for his helmet.  He loved the new look to his helmet but I was not really happy with it.  After seeing an art deco eagle hood ornament on a vintage car I had an idea to remedy that.

I drew a sketch of the art deco eagle I had seen and used it to make a template of the eagle wings.  I transfered the outline of the wings to some 18 gauge sheet metal and rough cut the wings out with a metal shear.  I finished shaping the sheet metal with a drum sander bit on a rotary tool.  I drew the interior lines of the wings and stamped them in with a peice of wire hanger, cut to fit, and a big hammer.  The peice of sheet metal that I had was painted so I sanded the old paint off and repainted the wings with a metallic aluminum enamle paint.  I colored the stamped lines in with some black, just to make them stand out more.  I used 3M double sided adhesive tape to attach the wings to my son's helmet, now we are both thrilled with the look of his custome bike helmet.

Step 1: What You Will Need

Sheet metal
Metal shears
Art deco eagle wing template
Rotary tool with sanding or grinding bits
Sand paper
Hammer
Wire hanger
Paint-the metallic of your choice
Double sided adhesive tape-I used 3M super strong automotive attachment tape.
http://www.autogeek.net/3m-03616.html
The "A" on the helmet came from a 2005 toyota Tacoma tailgate that I replaced at work.
It can be bought online or at a Toyota dealership.
http://toyotaoempartsworld-px.rtrk.com/shoppingcart/index.cfm?siteid=215233&retVal=%2Fparts%2F2005%2FTOYOTA%2FTACOMA%2F%3Fsiteid%3D215233%26vehicleid%3D1431544%26section%3DBODY%20HARDWARE%26group%3DPICK%20UP%20BOX%26subgroup%3DEXTERIOR%20TRIM%26component%3D%26startrow%3D61%26searchtext%3D

Step 2: Cut Out the Wings

I used my sketch of the art deco eagle to make a template of the wing. I used a card stock paper for the template because it is easier to transfer the ourline with a heavier wieght paper.  After transfering the outline of the template to the sheet metal, roughly cut out the wings with metal sheers.  There are a variety of ways to finish shaping the wings, I used a rotary tool with a drum sanding bit to remove unwanted material from the outline.

Step 3: Details

Draw the interior wing lines onto the metal.  I chose to stamp the lines into the metal, to do the stamping I cut off a piece of a wire hanger, placed the wire on top of the wing lines and hit the wire with a hammer.  For the curved line at the front of the wing, bend the hanger wire a bit before hammering it.  My sheet metal was painted already and I did not want green wings so I sanded the old paint down to bare metal.

Step 4: Paint and Tape

I wanted to keep the wings durable and looking metallic, so I used an aluminum enamel paint that I use for painting rebuilt transmissions. 
I wanted the wing lines to stand out more, so I added some black to the lines with a sharpie.
When the paint has dried cut some squares of double sided adhesive tape and put them on the back of the wings.

Step 5: Attach the Wings to the Helmet

I already had duct tape Captain America trim on the helmet, I removed the old tape before procedding with installing the new and improved trim.
Pull the red backing off the adhesive tape and press the taped end of the wing down firmly against the side of the helmet.  Follow the same method for adhesive taping the "A" onto the front of the helmet.