Armorsmith:
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Or... Measure your head and measure the STL in software.
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Head is 15... space in the STL is 13.... I'll have to scale it up
Personally though... I'd urge you to not get into doing a helmet as your learning project. People will boo me for that. But your learning part will always look like the first thing you ever made... because it was. Do you want what is arguably the most important part of your armor that everyone judges you on at first glance to be the part you knew the least about making and had the least amount of skill for when you made it? I regularly say "Start at the boots and work up doing your helmet last so you make it when you have gained skill and technique."
So I tend to post this response to the common or Frequently asked questions when people ask on the various social media channels. I copy/paste it to Facebook, or the Discord server and some folks urged me to post it here and just link it in the future. Ok, here goes. These are my tips and how...
www.405th.com
I would generally agree with this.
If you intend to make a suit of armor, I would point you in the same direction that SgtSaint did. Start on the parts that are not visible and develop your technique as you work towards harder armor pieces.
If you only plan on making a helmet, I'd recommend you plan on making
two. The first will be your test subject. Experiment with different techniques and ideas, see what works best for you. don't expect it to look like a proper finished product. Don't get discouraged when it doesn't turn out 100% how you hoped, because -after all- it's only a test. You should go into it expecting to learn so that you can nail your second go.
I prefer this over going full send with a new technique on attempt #1 - the risk is getting discouraged, causing you to drop the project altogether and no sick hobby gained.
If you follow these kinds of guidelines, your finished product will turn out much better. I've made many foam, 3D printed, and pepakura helmets and my first attempt with each method was not up to the quality bar that I had set for myself. Now that I have experience, I can do helmets without redoing it a ton of times but that takes time.
If you've made props or similar type things in the past, your mileage may vary. Your first attempt might turn out great! (and I hope it does!) - i'm just trying to frame things with a realistic lens.
But that's a
giant tangent and isn't the question you asked. Lol.
When I go to scale helmets, I use Armorsmith. Same thing that Saint uses. It is possibly the best tool that i've used - it gives really reliable results and makes it easier to visualize with a full suit of armor. That's really important - a lot of cosplayers make the unfortunate mistake of scaling too large, resulting in bobblehead look. (Think a kid in a costume.) When scaling, think about how proportionate it is with the rest of the suit. Halo, in particular, deals with very large men (and women) wearing a lot of armor. Their sheer height/size/broad shoulders makes their helmets look smaller than they actually are in relation to the rest of the suit (at least, in comparison to the rest of us who have the same size heads but much smaller, more average bodies.) To get the same proportions as a game spartan, I'd really recommend scaling as small as you comfortably can with at least a half-inch between your skin and the helmet. Use Armorsmith to check that it doesn't look weird with respect to your whole body.
I usually 3D print the opening of the helmet to see if I can just barely squeeze my head in. That's usually a pretty good indicator that i'm in the ballpark before I commit to printing a full bucket. Measure twice cut once kind of mentality. The more practice and tests you do, the more calibrated you'll be for building the real thing.
Glad you're thinking of getting into the hobby. You got this!
