Costume question: helmet base

[whaleboy]

Costume: a headdress/spacehelmet kind of thing, art deco ish, like the space angel kind of look.

What will work well as a form-fitting low profile helmet? Paper mâché o a swim cap? Liquid latex poured on and hardened? Is there some sort of sculptable medium that can be bonded to a swimcap or a paper mâché base helmet?

Made something incredibly bad last year with fAbric on a baseball cap base. Hopig to do better.

[Fire_Moose]

my mind immediately thought of a knit beanie....but im not a costumologist.

[ygmir]

spray foam expanding polyurethane foam insulation?

[TomServo]

Liquid latex reeks to high heaven...go with paper mache'. Ill be wearing my stahlhelm..

[C.f.M.]

You're asking what to use, for the part of your helmet that will actually rest on your head? What's the rest of the helmet made of? How much hair do you have?

[Mister Jellyfish Mister]

When Chris Munz, and I worked on our Prosthetic Forehead (fake forehead with a tv screen displaying video of our real forehead), we built the prototype based on a low profile motorcycle helmet that was not DOT rated hence lightweight and just for show. They are also called a "skid lid" or in this case "Lidz Novelty Black Motorcycle Helmet beanie lid shorty".

After that prototype, my friends Dave and Cory who work at a real prosthetic lab took a cast of my noggin and we created the base for this using their vaccuform plastics:

http://www.mutantvehicle.com/small_projects.htm

Certainly more pricey if you were to hire it done, but the original skid lid prototype still works and Chris wears it with pride.

For your purposes, the skid lid may be a good start.

Good luck!

[Ugly Dougly]

Go to the Army/Navy surplus store and try on helmets. They all have good suspension systems. Surely you can find something that you can build on.

[lambert13]

we built the prototype based on a low profile motorcycle helmet that was not DOT rated hence lightweight and just for show. They are also called a "skid lid" or in this case "Lidz Novelty Black Motorcycle Helmet beanie lid shorty".

That was my first thought as well.

Another idea if you want to use paper mache is to use the plastic inner part of a hard hat as a 'frame' of sorts to work from. The part that actually sits on your head and suspends the helmet part of it over your head.

[Oldguy]

Native peoples sometimes use old felt hats as a stiff base for headdresses. Old fiber GI helmet liners are cheap, so are plastic construction hardhats. I cut an old soccerball to make a rubber skullcap : turned it inside-out to make smooth rubber, instead of the pentagon pattern.

[TomServo]

Just for shits and giggles, my son and I made our own helmets, starting with a balloon, blown up to the size our heads. Paper mache'd the side, so it would conform to the skull better, than just round. Got it a few layers thick, let it dry and popped the balloons. Or...look online for cheap REPRODUCTION fallschirmjäger helmets. Well not that cheap, but a hell of a lot cheaper than originals..

[Tamino]

Craft stores have plaster mesh that you can cut into strips and dunk in water.
I used it on an old motorcycle helmet with saran wrap. I'll build from that base and then use fiberglass resin to harden the shell. Inside I'll use foam weather stripping for inside.

[robotland]

Also comb the thrift stores for kid-sized sports/play helmets- I've had some success with removing the liners from helmets that wouldn't otherwise fit. (Then add a terrycloth liner or scraps of craft foam to reduce the Rattlenoggin Factor.)
The cold-weather liners for construction helmets work well as bases too, and look a little like the "Snoopy cap" that the Apollo astronauts wore.
You can also stiffen fabric with a 50/50 mix of water and wood glue, but I wouldn't recommend wearing it until it's dry...A little trial and error with a styrofoam head and some duct tape can make you a reasonable helmet form. (Wrap in plastic to reduce sticking from the glue.)

[theCryptofishist]

Craft stores have plaster mesh that you can cut into strips and dunk in water.

It's be heavy unless you do the armature right. You might want to look at model train landscaping techniques. Although weight isn't really a consideration there.

[mdmf007]

I always use me head as the base for my helmet. it works great!

[Mojojita]

[quote="ygmir"]spray foam expanding polyurethane foam insulation?[/quote]

Have used this stuff for masks - do a very thin plaster casting, then cover with the urethane foam. Its very tough, sandable, paintable.

[whaleboy]

HEre's where my experimentation has gotten me:

I've got a space angel helmet in progress that's going very well using the following technique:

-baseball cap, cut off the brim
-using this posable wire mesh I found at an art store (Activ-wire) build the armature and pinned it on
-did all the wiring and LEDs at this point
-secured it with hot glue gun
-stiffened everything by laying gauze saturated with premixed wallpaper paste

and next I"ll do a thin layer of celluclay paper mache, because that's well sculptable and sandable to get the detailing and a smooth finish

and last but not least paint it.

The past, mesh and gauze have added some weigh, but its still significantly lighter than your average hard hat, including the batteries. And since its a baseball hat it fits my head well. No straps will be needed.

Ok it hasn't been really fast, I figure I've got about 6-8 hours into it at this point, with probably 4 more to go, not including drying time, but it will be awesome. And then I'm going to make a similar one for my wife, but hers will probably have blue LEDs instead of green. Awesomeness!


I wonder if I could just did the fabric of the cap into the wallpaper goo and save the step of the gauze next time...

thanks everyone! If you see me on the playa, it's silver helmet with cheek protectors and widows peak, two backward sweeping spikes, and 4 green LEDs going in a line from third eye back to tip of top spike.