How to Make a Cosplay Helmet!

Intro: How to Make a Cosplay Helmet!

Always wanted to make a helmet from Halo, Daft Punk, Gears of Wars, or any other iconic character that you like a lot? This instructable is for you! (And it works for armor too!) 

Obs: This is my first instructable, and if there is any grammar mistake, sorry, english isn't my first language! and the .PDO for Guy's Helmet is in step 2.
Obs²: Gloves tutorial are now on page 10!

STEP 1: Materials

FIRST: If you don't have patience, just leave, you need A LOT OF PATIENCE!
*Pepakura Viewer 3
*.PDO file of your desired helmet (.PDO for Guy's Helmet is in step 2)
*Printer
*Paper (Of any kind, but I use cardstock)
*Glue
*Scissor or X-acto knife
*Fiberglass and Fiberglass resin
*Bondo (Car Body Filler)
*Sandpaper
*Paint
*Primer

STEP 2: Paper Model!

Print out your paper template in Pepakura Viewer, cut out and start gluing everything in place! (How to do this is theme for another instructable)

Here's a tip for gluing the parts togheter: https://www.instructables.com/id/Pepakura-armor-making-quick-tip/

Update: I've uploaded the pepakura files for people that wants to make the same helmet!
http://www.4shared.com/file/GjlA4-nw/Guy_Manuel_Helmet.html?

STEP 3: Fiberglass!

Apply your fiberglass mat or cloth and resin over your paper helmet or armor, let it dry and it will be hard as a rock!
(TIP: Fiberglass the inside, not the outside as I did)

STEP 4: Bondo!

Apply bondo to the places you need to get smooth! (Normally round or curved places, straight parts don't need to be "bondo'ed")

STEP 5: Sanding! (And Lots of It)

Take your various grit sandpaper, and start sanding from 150 grit, until 600 or even 700 grit! Get everything nice and smooth or you may regret it in the future!

STEP 6: Painting!

Take your spray paint and put a layer of primer on this helmet! Sand off any imprefection and primer again if needed! Then, your final color and a layer of clear laquer!

STEP 7: Visor!

Next you need to add a vior, and you can buy plastic, plexiglass, a motorcycle helmet visor, but in my case I needed to vaccumform a visor! And attach it with superglue or hot melt glue!

STEP 8: Last Details! (Optional) (LEDS)

Depending of the helmet you're making, you can weather the painting, or in my case, I added the LED lights in the helmet!              

Here's a video of the LEDs:

For those interested in the electronics things, I simply used a 555 timer and a 4017 decade counter to drive 16 leds boards with 4 leds each, and two more differents boards, with 8 leds each, and two other boards that are not connected to the 555 circuit, but still, have 4 leds each, with ~90 leds in total! Everythings runs out of 8 AA batteries (12v)

STEP 9: Be Happy!

You have now completed a helmet or armor for a cosplay! Goodbye and be happy! See ya' in another instructable xD

STEP 10: Quick Uptade! GLOVES!

So, I've found the photos I took when making the gloves, so why not show how I made it for you guys?

STEP 11: Make a "Blueprint"

Draw your hand in a piece of paper, just like you did when you were a kid, and draw the little pieces on each finger! You just need to make one side, because both sides are the same, but the big hand piece, this one, you need to make one normal, and one mirrored for the other side! Remeber to leave your pieces between two finger joints, or else, you won't be able to flex your hand!

STEP 12: Cut'em All!

Take some type of hard plastic, that is slightly curved, and use your patterns you made before and cut them, every piece will have a duplicate! And sand the sides smooth with some fine grit sand paper!

STEP 13: Painting!

Primer all of them and use the same paint you used to paint your helmet, so the colors will match! There is no need to sand between paint coats, but some hard work will be worth on the end! Again, remember, PRIMER, COLORED PAINT, ENAMEL!

STEP 14: Glue Them!

Find some nice gloves, all black if you can, and use some hot melt glue to glue them in place! Wear the gloves, and ask someone to help you glue the pieces in the gloves! You don't need too much glue, just a little drop is sufficient!

Now you have your beautifull pair of gloves! Now go be a Daft Punk!

Comments

[Anakin_Starlord]

Do you know a site where you can find .pdf of templates to use?

[MaryW150]

How do i use plexiglass. Can i vaccum form it? I wanted to make the glass green and found green plexiglass.

[mechagical]

When you said you made a mistake by fiberglassing the outside instead of the inside, how was it actually?
Also wouldn't fiberglassing the inside make the helmet smaller to wear? Because i think it would kinda "fill" the space.

[aliya.k.jackson]

If you think about, the paper version is very thin and represents the outermost layer of the helmet. It wouldn't make it too small and it would give you a better idea of the shape you want.

[Mostlymade]

What would be really helpful on this is a LOT more detail about the vaccum forming step to make the visor. That is the most impressive and definign part and it was breezed over here. You did a great job, and I for one want to know more!

[yuzuru otanashi]

that is a Daft Punk helmet, right?

[thatguy900]

could you make it without fiberglass because i can't use that

[DoctorWoo]

Late reply is late, but look into something called epoxy resin. If your in the states, I would recommand using TotalBoat 5:1

[DoctorWoo]

Since this was the post that got me into prop building, I figure it's only fair I share something I just found out!

Polyurethane resin (as used in here) is really smelly and can cause issue. For some people, this isn't an issue, as yard space and weather is on their side. It's also cheap, easy to find, and does a good job.

However, if you don't have a yard, or don't have good weather, you can swap out from polyurethane resin to a two part epoxy, more commonly used for boat building. Although it is a tad more pricey, it can be used inside! though, you will want to get air flow as the epoxy resin smell (though not as dangerous as polyurethane) can case issues in small spaces. It's also very picky on mix ratios. Most good epoxy systems (TotalBoat is what i use) comes with a pump system that you can use that means you take one pump of part A and part B. This sounds bad at first, but since you have a set ratio of the two, this means you can mix up only what you need and have little to no waste. And! Added bonus! You can make body filler by mixing the epoxy resin with an equal part talcum powder (easily found in baby powder!) to thickin it as needed. So what you pay for polyurethane resin and body filler you more or less equal out to in the end with epoxy resin and baby powder.

The best part of all though: this awesome ible' can still be applied to either polyurethane or epoxy resin!

[OxyPinecho]

After hours of cutting and pasting, i have come to the realization that the template that you provided is too small for my head. Will it get larger in future steps, or do you have any other templates?

[OxyPinecho]

Did you add the fiberglass to the body and visor separately or together then cut the visor out?

[degomag]

Boa japa!

[FabiojapaXD]

Valeu!

[o__o]

What did you use to stick the peices onto the gloves? Nice work btw. :)

[FabiojapaXD]

Thank you! I used simply hot glue gun! It works wonders actually!

[o__o]

Cool thanks! I'm making a daft punk costume. This helped alot. :D

[FabiojapaXD]

And that is very nice to hear! You may ask anything you want, someone to help is very useful! (

[ikendall]

vai Brasileiros/as no Instructables!!!!!!!!

[FabiojapaXD]

Woooooo! Brasileiros dominando a internet! \o/

[thealerosenbaum]

lol, parabens cara, já tinha ficado fod@o, mas agora....xD!