Stickalope
New Member
So this is actually about 90% post-mortem, since the helmet is basically done except the visor, but anyway here goes.
I'm new here and to cosplay/prop-making in general, so I went into this build with the goal of buying as few things as possible and just using what I had on hand, partly so as not to sink a bunch of money into something new, and partly because I was unemployed for the duration of the build (yay covid). I have done some making in various adjacent mediums in the past though, and had some materials on hand, so I felt like I could at least end up with something passable.
This being a budget build, I tried my hand at pepping since the cost of entry is low and I wouldn't feel bad about using a bunch of cardstock if I failed horribly. Which is good, because the first try ended up too small and a little sloppy. Second one was about the right size (and neater, thanks to the practice).
Once I was confident with the size, I hardened the paper with some epoxy I had leftover from an automotive repair, then reinforced with fiberglass I had for the same purpose. Hours of filler primer and bondo later, it was onto paint; the base color wasn't quite what I used for Reach multi (as close as I was using to a reference), but honestly better than I expected for a rattle-can I had lying around. It is very orange.
I steeled myself and cut the first ding into my shiny new paint job, followed by lots more abuse to get the worn-and-beaten look. Anywhere it cut deep enough to show resin/paper, I hit it with a silver paint pen (that I also had lying around) and pretended it was metal. Then lots of dirtying up with acrylics I had from various painting projects.
Overall I'm fairly happy with it, the photo doesn't quite do it justice in my opinion. I think it could use some more oil/grime and larger scale weathering, so I may revisit that once I have a visor to finish it out. I've been debating over going with a cheap motorcycle replacement or try my hand at building a vacuum former. Now that I'll be making a steady income again, I might put a bit of money into it, but as of now the only thing I had to buy was more epoxy.
Thanks for reading; hopefully I'll have an update soon with the finished thing, but for now we can pretend
I'm new here and to cosplay/prop-making in general, so I went into this build with the goal of buying as few things as possible and just using what I had on hand, partly so as not to sink a bunch of money into something new, and partly because I was unemployed for the duration of the build (yay covid). I have done some making in various adjacent mediums in the past though, and had some materials on hand, so I felt like I could at least end up with something passable.
This being a budget build, I tried my hand at pepping since the cost of entry is low and I wouldn't feel bad about using a bunch of cardstock if I failed horribly. Which is good, because the first try ended up too small and a little sloppy. Second one was about the right size (and neater, thanks to the practice).
Once I was confident with the size, I hardened the paper with some epoxy I had leftover from an automotive repair, then reinforced with fiberglass I had for the same purpose. Hours of filler primer and bondo later, it was onto paint; the base color wasn't quite what I used for Reach multi (as close as I was using to a reference), but honestly better than I expected for a rattle-can I had lying around. It is very orange.
I steeled myself and cut the first ding into my shiny new paint job, followed by lots more abuse to get the worn-and-beaten look. Anywhere it cut deep enough to show resin/paper, I hit it with a silver paint pen (that I also had lying around) and pretended it was metal. Then lots of dirtying up with acrylics I had from various painting projects.
Overall I'm fairly happy with it, the photo doesn't quite do it justice in my opinion. I think it could use some more oil/grime and larger scale weathering, so I may revisit that once I have a visor to finish it out. I've been debating over going with a cheap motorcycle replacement or try my hand at building a vacuum former. Now that I'll be making a steady income again, I might put a bit of money into it, but as of now the only thing I had to buy was more epoxy.
Thanks for reading; hopefully I'll have an update soon with the finished thing, but for now we can pretend
