#helmet tutorial

I had a hard time figuring out how to make Thor’s odd shaped helmet. I saw where another cosplayer used a hat as the base for a helmet and that inspired me. I still need to add the engraving on the top part but I wanted to go ahead and make the tutorial to help people with weird shape hat/helmets. Note: I have a very small head and once I put my wig on this just barely fits me. Make sure you use a larger party hat if you have a bigger head or attach the mask to the outside of the helmet instead of the inside to save room.

[Previous parts! http://www.dratsing.tumblr.com/post/6059100437/how-to-red-hood-helmet-tutorial-part-1 http://www.dratsing.tumblr.com/post/9109146413/how-to-red-hood-helmet-tutorial-part-2 ]

Hey there!

Your helmet`s covered in bondo and is either a) drying and stinks to high heaven or b) dried and harder than Guy Gardener's nipples. As long as it`s rock solid and not lactating, we can begin the next step.

~SANDING~

[Grit Common Name Uses

40-60 Coarse Heavy sanding and stripping, roughing up the surface.

80-120 Medium Smoothing of the surface, removing smaller imperfections and marks.

150-180 Fine Final sanding pass before finishing the wood

220-240 Very Fine Sanding between coats of stain or sealer.

280-320 Extra Fine Removing dust spots or marks between finish coats

360-600 Super Fine Fine sanding of the finish to remove some luster or surface blemishes and scratches.]

 Since this is your first bondo layer, you're going to want to use a very rough grade (40-60 range). As your helmet gets smoother, move onto finer grades. You can visit your local hardware store. Try to find a quality brand; I went to my local dollar store the first time, and the sandpaper tore apart almost instantly. Canadian Tire or Home Depot should sell a wonderful array of sandpapers. Make sure to pick up a couple sheets of every grade level! You want this helmet to be as smooth as a Flying Grayson's behind.

As well, I strongly reccommend using an electical sander.

Oh baby. Sanding by hand is tedious and requires a hell of a lot of time. I hand sanded my helmet for a week, and it was still very rough. A friend lent me hers and it was like magic. Over a span of two-ish hours, the helmet became very polished and smooth with little effort. You can pick one up in a hardware store, and I think Sears sells some for cheap.

This is what my helmet looked like after sanding by hand the first time. Yep, still hideous. I got a bit over-excited and used spot putty before I sanded a bit more ergo the reddish colour.

(...Then I got excited again and applied a layer of bondo. Again.

The uneccessary layers I put on my helmet kinda weighed it down. If you don't want to be wearing a shit-ton on your head, remember to keep the layers light and to sand often and fastiduously.)

After you're pleased with how well you've sanded your first layer of bondo, then apply spot putty to any cracks, holes, or imperfect areas. It's dries faster and is  applied similarly to bondo.

You can keep repeating the steps of sand, bondo, sand, spot putty until you're satisfied with how smooth your helmet is.

Third session of sanding

Eventually you're going to have moments where you're fed up of your location. I got sick and tired of working on this helmet beside the dumpster, so I took it to school and er. Started working on it under my desk. Needless to say, math class was extremely productive.

My classmate beside me noticed and offered to let me borrow her electric sander after school.

Build Red Hood, Acquire Invitations To Females' Residences. Take off Clothes. Yep, clearly the spirit of Jason Todd was strong with this project.

Note to the wise: while working, wear clothes you will not need again.

Next part of this tutorial will deal with the final steps and painting.

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