Foam Loki Helmet

In the festive spirit of the upcoming Thor movie I decided to make Loki's helmet. I've always loved Loki, and I tried to make his helmet last summer. I wasn't super pleased with how it turned out because I couldn't fit it on my head after I added all of the wood filler and stuff to it, and it wasn't super accurate to Loki's actual helmet. One of the reasons I didn't make my original helmet out of foam was because I could not figure out how to make the horns correctly, but I found a way to make a pattern this time so YAAAYYYY!

Anyways this build took a weekend, and several trips to the craft store. It cost about $20 in total. 100% worth it!

Step 1: Materials

• Card stock, newspaper, and masking tape for patterning.
• 2mm, 3mm, and 5mm craft foam
• Contact cement
• Super glue
• Hot glue (optional)
• Primer spray paint
• Gold spray paint
• Clear spray paint
• Black, burnt umber, and gold acrylic paint
• Exacto knife and blades
• Filler

Step 2: Patterning

I tried something a little different for the pattern of this sucker. If you have read any of my other instructables, you know most of the time I pattern using trial and error ( which takes a long time and is super frustrating). I could have used the original Loki helmet pattern I made last year, but that one was a bit more curved and I wanted to try something new.

I took my mannequin head and built up the shape I covered half of the head with newspaper and masking tape, building it into the shape I wanted. I only needed to make a pattern on half of the head because the helmet will be symmetrical.

After I was pleased with the shape. I covered the newspaper in aluminum foil, then covered the foil in duct tape. I drew the pattern of the helmet onto the duct tape (I made sure to make dashes over the seam lines for recognition points), and cut it out.

Finally I traced the duct tape pattern onto the card stock.

Step 3: Helmet Time!

I cut out all the pattern pieces (5mm craft foam), and glued them together using contact cement. This was my first time using this type of adhesive, and even though the man at the hardware store swore that the contact cement would eat through my foam, it didn't.

I used a disposable paint brush to coat the edges of the foam I would be gluing together with the adhesive, when the glue got tacky (about 10 minutes) I squished the seams together. Contact cement makes much neater seams then hot glue, but it sure smells toxic (that's why I glued everything outside).

Step 4: Foam Details

I took my original duct tape pattern, and cut it into smaller detail patterns. Then I traced the patterns onto different sizes of foam (check out pic 5) with super glue ( I used this instead of hot glue, so my pieces wouldn't look lumpy)

Step 5: Making Horns

To make the horns, I made a pattern off of my old Loki helmet by covering one horn in aluminum foil, then I used masking tape to cover the foil. I drew some seam lines onto the horn, then cut the foil and tape off. I transferred this the pattern to card stock.

I cut the horns out of 5mm craft foam. Instead of cutting straight down, I cut the horns out at an inwards angle so that I could glue them together nicely. I used contact cement to glue them together.

I would love to make a PDF file for you guys because this is a pattern that a little more difficult to attempt, but I don't know how. If someone could tell me that would be great!

Step 6: The Triangle Thingie

Loki's helmet has this triangle thing on the front. Like always I made a pattern (by trial and error) and cut it out of foam (3mm). I cut a gutter out of the foam (see a tutorial on how to do this here), glued the gutter to make a ridge. I'm so bad at explaining that. That tutorial sums it up very well.

I cut out a small u shape, and hot glued it in the middle of the triangle. I started using hot glue again because I ran out of super glue, and contact cement. I glued the triangle to the center of the helmet.

I also glued a strip of foam onto either side of the helmet where a ridge should have been. See pics above

Step 7: Horns! and That Other Thing

Loki's helmet has this weird scale thing on the back of it. I made this by layering 3 pieces of 3mm craft foam together then glued it to the back of the helmet with super glue.

I used the last of my super glue to glue the horns onto the helmet.

Step 8: Painting

This whole project has been about trying new techniques, so I decided to use Plastidip for the first time, Unfortunately the Plastidip got all bubbly so my helmet has a little texture.

I covered the Plastidip in a primer. Then I took some water clean up filler (I think it's used normally in showers) And went over the seam lines and imperfections to fill them in.

I sprayed the helmet with a black primer, then gold paint, then a clear coat.

Next I weathered the helmet by painting parts of it black, and burnt umber, then wiping off as much excess paint as I could before it dried.

Step 9: OOoooo Lookin Good

And it's all done! It turned out a thousand times better then my other helmet. For one I can fit in on my head, which is great.

Anyways if you have any questions you can comment or message me :)

My other helmet build

What a nice helmet burdened with glorious purpose!

Comments

[eggselent]

lookin good? more like, loki-n good! am I right?

[duchessstorm17]

hey! could you possibly make a video of this or is that too much to ask? i’ve never constructed any cosplay materials before and i think i would understand better if there was a video. i know there are other videos out there but this is the best looking one i’ve seen! thanks for your time, duchess

[ChristieL10]

You can usually choose the option in a drop down menu during the saving process to save as a PDF. :)

[rotundac]

Really hard to make

[rainingfiction]

Patterning is the most difficult part, the rest is really just taking the time to cut amd glue pieces together.

[CalebGreer]

"I'm not overly fond of what follows."

Nice work!

[rainingfiction]

Hhehehhehehehe thank you :)