A Pair of Mandalorian Helmets

Quaralane

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Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
11,258
For a cosplay my son and I are still hoping to use at Celebration, or possibly FanX this year, I started work on what is arguably the most difficult part of an Mandalorian-style bounty hunter: the helmets.
I apologize for not posing the pics, but the video really tells the story
 
Using a latex caulk. It'll stay flexible, yet fill the seams fairly well.
Odin Abbott, whose templates I used for my son's helmet, uses something similar
 
With the builds complete, I am now posting the FULL build gallery

Building a couple of Mandalorian helmets for cosplays my son and I will be doing later this year
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My son's helmet will be based on the "Heavy Infantry Helmet" templates by Odin Abbott
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For my helmet, I'll be using the "Mandalorian" templates from DIY Props and Punished Props
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Laying out the parts for my son's helmet on some 10mm HD EVA foam
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Then laid out mine on the same
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Then we have the parts to be made from 6mm HD EVA foam
There will also be some parts cut from 2mm foam
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The completed dome of my son's helmet
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Back piece and main face piece in place
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Back vent detail
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Starting formation of the cheeks
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Cheeks fully in place, and visor opening cut
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Ear pieces under construction
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And fully assembled
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Starting work on my helmet my heat forming the pieces to give them a bit of shape
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Dome assembled
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Back in place
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Visor and cheek pieces
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Assembled cheeks
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And the cheeks are glued into place
I also cut a groove for later placement of the visor
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Ear pieces in place, and additional piece over the visor section
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Rear vent detail
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Beginning sanding work with a detail sander.
The foam is getting a little chewed up at this stage.
I also had to thin down the interior of the cheeks as they were rubbing on my son's cheeks
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Sanding on my helmet. I've also opened the visor
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Filling seams on my son's helmet using Kwik Seal.
I also used it on the rough areas of the surface
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For my helmet, I did the seam filling with a spackle compound
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A coat of black Plasti-Dip
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Followed by a coat of "Flat Cold Iron" spray paint
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Masked off and sprayed the red sections on the front of my helmet
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Painted in the cheek insets and ear pieces in Vallejo Dark Grey primer
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For my son's helmet, we went with Krylon "Global Blue" and the same red I'd used on mine
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While Odin included a template for the visor on his, I needed to make one for mine.
This was done by placing printer paper behind the opening and tracing it in Sharpie
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Took three tries, but I got a template that would fit
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Masked off some detail areas, as well as free-handing some markings
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Removing the masking did some damage to the metallic color.
Luckily, the sealer coat did bring it back into normalcy
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Laid painter's tape on both sides of the visors I'd be cutting, and then taped the templates into place
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Cut the visors out using my Dremel
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Used a heat gun to make the visors better fit the shape of the helmets.
(In retrospect, I'd have had an easier time if I'd done the heat forming BEFORE cutting the visors)
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With the visors in place, here are the finished pics:
My son's helmet:
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My helmet:
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Youtube link to the finale:
 
Decided to go in and fix a couple of flaws in my Mandalorian helmet.

My mandalorian cosplay helmet as originally finished.
Visible here are some areas where the paint had bled under the tape I'd used for masking
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And here is the main reason for this update.
I don't really like how this emblem turned out
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Used my printer-which opted to be VERY uncooperative-to print up some emblems more along the lines of what I was looking for.
These were painted over with Tamiya clear red to fix some of the printing issues, and are HEAVILY based on the emblem for Games Workshop's "Luna Wolves" Space Marine Legion
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Striping cleaned up after decanting some of the spray paint used for the base color.
I also completely painted over the old emblem attempt that had disappointed me
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End results:
Clean striping
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MUCH better emblem.
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Youtube link:
 

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