Introduction: Mola Ram Costume (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)

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This tutorial  was made about 1 year after I had already created the costume.

I still had the headpiece, but all other parts were destroyed to make other projects.

This tutorial will be a guide on what to do and not exactly how to make the costume, therefore, some of the steps will be shown using drawings.

I love doing themes for Halloween so I had a buddy of mine dress up as Indiana Jones, and no, no a store bought costume but using real pants and a real leather jacket.  I hate store bought costumes.

Also, I smudged my face out since I don't need certain people seeing this tutorial and recognizing me.

Forgive spelling/grammar errors, I did not proofread this instructable....shouldn't be too many of them though.

Anyways, here it goes.

Materials:

Helmet:
balloon
Glue (Elmer's is fine)
newspaper
masking tape
Ivory spray paint
Black Acrylic paint
Shrunken head
black wig
heavy duty glue

Robe:
Black cape/sheet
red sheet
fabric glue or needle/thread

Accessories:

Human heart(fake)
Bone necklace

AT ANY POINT, GO TO STEP 5 TO VIEW ALL IMAGES OF THE HELMET FOR REFERENCE!



Step 1: Making the Base of the Helmet

AT ANY POINT, GO TO STEP 5 TO VIEW ALL IMAGES OF THE HELMET FOR REFERENCE!

To make the base of the helmet, you should use a balloon and papier mache it.

Picture 1 is of a general balloon.

Make sure the balloon is around the size of your head.

Picture 2 shows the balloon covered in the papier mache.

Papier Mache:

You can buy papier mache at an art store or you can make your own.  I decided to make my own.

All you need is Elmer's glue and some water. 

Mix the glue with water in a bowl you don't care for(or even just a disposable bowl)...you should have more glue than water but you can decide the ratio yourself.  I tend to use about 60% glue 40% water.

Cut strips of newspaper, about 4"x 1.5" (The reason why such small strips is that you will provide much stronger support for the helmet by having more sections.

Submerge a strip into the bowl of glue/water.  Make sure it is coated nicely, and remove any excess glue from the strip.  Place the strip onto the balloon and smooth the strip out nicely.  You don't want many bumps.  It may take practice.  Minor bumps are ok and you can even remedy this when you add more layers.

The balloon should have a few layers on it.  When it dries, give it a feel to see if you think it is sturdy enough.   You don't want too few of layers because when you pop the bottom part of the balloon, Picture 3, it might destroy all the work you just did if it is not rigid enough.

Step 2: Making the Horns

AT ANY POINT, GO TO STEP 5 TO VIEW ALL IMAGES OF THE HELMET FOR REFERENCE!

The horns may look difficult but they really aren't.

These are just animal horns that have curves to them.  Look at pictures of Mola Ram to see how they look, or just animal horns in general.

Mola Ram's horns are really smooth and that can be a pain to try to do with papier mache.  If you have the time to add more layers and make them really smooth, go ahead, I had 3 days to make this so I went with a more rigid horn style.  Some animals do have rigid horns so this did not bother me. 

To get the basic shape of the horns, look at Pictures 1-3.

You are going to take a roll of newspaper and twist the roll.  As you twist, add masking tape to hold the horns in the shape you want them to be in.

The horns are bent horns that also curve in.

Use the pictures for reference.

If you need to add news paper, do so.  You can just add clumps of newspaper and tape it to the horn if certain areas look like they need more beefing up.

Once you Have the basic shape, using masking tape to wrap the entire horn.

You need to make two of these, and try to make them somewhat symmetrical.  They don't have to be exact but shouldn't be radically different.

Use Picture 4 as a reference

Step 3: Putting Main Helmet Together

AT ANY POINT, GO TO STEP 5 TO VIEW ALL IMAGES OF THE HELMET FOR REFERENCE!

Look at picture 1.

All you have to do now, is attach the masking taped horns, to the papier mache helmet base.

To do this, just use a lot of masking tape.I mean a lot.

Where the base of the horns meets the helmet, it should look like one solid chunk.

After you finish taping, Go over the entire thing with papier mache.

I even went over the base of the helmet again with more papier mache to make it even sturdier.

It should look like Picture 2.

Step 4: Add Small Details

AT ANY POINT, GO TO STEP 5 TO VIEW ALL IMAGES OF THE HELMET FOR REFERENCE!

Now that you have the main shape down, you need to add more bone details.

This includes a nose section, eye section, a jaw bone, and three bone things stick out of the top.

Look at picture 1 for the sections.

All you need to do is use small, rolled up pieces of paper or masking tape to create these sections.  Basically, all you are doing is creating three lines at the bottom center for  the nasal cavity and two not perfect eye holes using the paper.  Just tape the paper down to the main base and adjust as you see fit.  Then papier mache over the areas again.  You probably only need 1 or two layers of this section.

Picture 2 shows the jaw bone.

You need to create two of these for each side of the mask.  Just attach these to the inside of the base helmet with masking tape.  Then papier mache each side.  Make sure you use papier mache to secure the jaw bones to the base helmet.  Add a rolled up piece of newspaper to the bottom outline of the jaw bone to give the cardboard a more 3d effect rather than just a flat piece. 

Picture 3 shows this together.

This picture also shows the three extra bone pieces at the top.  These are just three small tubelike bones.  Just roll up small pieces of newspaper, tape them to the top.  Papier mache them.

Paint the entire helmet!
Use the ivory spray paint to paint the entire helmet.

Picture 4

Shows the added features to the jaw bone.

Picture 5/6

Shows the three bones at the top.

Step 5: Finishing Touches on the Helmet

Once painted, add the shrunken head to the center of the helmet, right above the nose. Use the heavy duty glue to keep it in place. Place the wig right behind it, and let the hair flow around the three bones at the top. use the heavy duty glue to glue the wig down the the helmet.

Paint the eyes/nose with the black acrylic paint.


I had access to a cheap plastic helmet with an adjustable strap.  You can see this in one of the pics.  I used that to keep the helmet from moving around on my head.  If you don't have access to something like that, you can take an old baseball cap, cut the brim off, and glue/tape it to the inside of the helmet.  This will help keep the helmet from moving on your head, since you probably would not have made the helmet to your exact head size.

Look at the pics for reference.

Step 6: The Robe


Use picture of Mola Ram as a reference, but the robe can be tricky to understand.

What I used was a black cape.  You can also use a black sheet if you wish, but I liked the material of the cape, and I already owned it.

What I did was, I cut a hole in the cape at point A on the notes on the picture.  This is my arm hole.

The cape extends down to my feet.

The rest of the cape wrapped around my body and around my waist.

At point B, my left side of my upper body is shown.  Unfortunately I do not have pics of my backside.

The wrap the goes along my left shoulder at point C, was created with a flat bed sheet and this covers the left side of my upper body that is left open from the robe.

This wrap, is like a scarf, but really long.  It extends over my left shoulder, down my back, and almost to the floor.  It wraps down the front of my body and back behind my lower back.  It then rests upon my forearm of my left arm.

To make the wrap/scarf, all you need is a black flat bed sheet cut to the proper size.  Everyone is different so the length will need to be adjusted, but the width should be between 1' and 2'. 

As you can see from the pic, the wrap is black and red.  But the red is supposed to only start halfway on one side of the scarf.

So what you do is, You create the black wrap, then on one side of it, you attach a piece of a red flat bed sheet that is half the length of the wrap.  That red section, is the section that rests over the forearm as shown in the pic.  You can use fabric glue or sew depending on your skill. (It is important that only half is red.  The scarf is one long piece.  The section that is over the shoulder, down the back, and to the floor, needs to be all black.  By starting red halfway, you can achieve this effect while having the part on the forearm become red on one side/black on the other.)


With any excess black, you can make wristbands and armbands as shown in the pic.

With the outfit, I would wear sandals.

The heart is great since that is what Mola Ram is know for, ripping hearts out.

The bone necklace is also something that he wore.

If you have the time, you can even paint your head like Mola Ram's, but you probably won't be able to see it with the helmet on.

You are done!

Any questions, feel free to comment.