Oh how I love Skyrim. Today I decided to make the Helm of Ygnol from the game. In Skyrim you can acquire this item by delving into a draugr crypt and stealing it from a skeleton. However in my mundane existence I have never found such a crypt and I am too much of a milk sop to adventure anyways, so I decided today to make the legendary helm out of foam. I made a helmet very similar to this last year so I already had a pattern.

This build cost me nothing because I had all the materials and took about 12 hours to complete.

Step 1: Materials

-2mm, 3mm, 5mm, 3/8 inch foam

-Contact Cement + disposable brushes

-Superglue

-Elmer's glue

-Exacto knife/ blades

-A heat gun

-Acrylic Paint

-A dremel with a round bit

-A hole punch

Step 2: Patterning and Cutting Out the Foam

Because I made this helmet last year, I already had a pattern. I did change the shape of the eye holes this time around though, and made them more rounded. I cut all the pieces out of 3/8 EVA foam mats.

If anyone would like to tell me how to make PDF files, i'll definitely do that, so you guys can use my pattern.

Step 3: Foam Smithing

I used contact cement to glue everything together. I coated both edges of the foam I would be attaching evenly with contact cement, waited 10 minutes then carefully pressed them together.

I use to use hot glue to glue all my projects together until I found out how awesome contact cement works. Hot glue can leave all those nasty little strings, and get bulky on some of the fine details of projects, also it takes a hell of a lot longer to use because you can only work in small sections, and it has the possibility of falling apart when you are heating the foam for sealing. So I would highly recommend using contact cement, I bought my quart of it for only 7 dollars.

Step 4: Horns

I patterned the horns off of my last helmet, by covering the old horns in aluminum foil then taping over the foil, then cutting the foil off of the horn into manageable pieces for tracing onto 5mm foam. I cut the foil into 3 fragments and cut them out of the foam. I glued them together with contact cement.

Last year I made my horns our of expanding foam, lots of carving, and spackling paste.

I made one of the horns slightly shorter for aesthetic purposes.

Next I cut out thin strips of 2mm foam. I covered both horns in contact cement as well as the strips of foam. I wrapped the strips of foam around the horn, and cut off any excess foam.

Step 5: Detail Pieces

I cut 2 front face pieces out of 3mm foam, and cemented them to the front of the helmet.

I drew a pretty swirly design onto card stock and cut 2 pieces of the design out of 2mm foam then cemented it onto both sides of the helmet.

I cut out two 10 inch strips of 5mm foam for the sockets of the horns and glued them onto the helmet.

I did not glue the horns into the helmet yet. The fifth picture is just them resting in the sockets.

Step 6: Dremel That Sucker

I used rounded dremel bit I bought at Menards to dremel a hammered texture onto the foam.

I smoothed out the rough edges of the 2mm foam on the horns with the dremal as well so it looked more like a horn.

I used a hole punch to punch out circles of 3mm foam and super glued them around the face piece.

Finally I heat sealed the whole piece with my heat gun. Just heat the foam until it looks a little shiny. Just be careful to not burn it! I heated the front of the piece and pulled the cheek guards closer together. A nice before and after pic (pic 5 & 6) so you can see what I mean.

Step 7: Painting

I started by painting the helmet a light grey color. Then I brushed on a coat of silver paint. To weather the helmet I scuffed black and brown paint in the underlying parts of it, and wiped off the excess so it looked like it had been stuck in a dusty old rotting tomb for the past few hundred years. With a hard bristled brush I scuffed a lighter silver over the highlights of the helm.

I made some rust out of various orange paints mixed with salt to give it a grainy texture.

I painted the horns in a fleshy base coat. When they were drying I propped them on the horn of the helm I made last year. I painted the tips of the horns white then slowly gradated it to a light yellow, then a flesh color, then burnt umber, then burnt umber mixed with black.

To attach the horns I poured Elmer's glue in the sockets then placed them in. I used Elmer's glue rather than super glue because it has a longer drying time so I could place the horns the exact way I wanted them.