Starting my first set of armor. Need help with helmet

[Ragejay]

Hey all!

I decided to embark on my adventure on making my first set of halo armor. I know what combinations ill be making and I will be using a mix of pepakura and foam. But my question is specifically for the helmet.
I'm going to make the EVA helmet but I'm having a hard time finding other posts or tips about it because lots of people mention EVA foam.

The only thing I found was this. I like the idea but cuts some visibility. Anyone know any tricks or tips to make a visor like that?
If you have made the helmet mind you sharing it to me what it looks like?

My idea was to make the helmet with pepakura then cut out the visor and vacuum form it then re-attach to helmet. Any ideas will be great!

Thanks in advance

 

[FoxtrotZero]

In my short time here, I've never seen the EVA helmet attempted. For obvious reasons, it would be rather difficult.

I don't know a whole lot about visors - I'm still not sure how I'll do the one on my ODST helmet - but I do think the shape of the EVA visor will prevent anything like vacuforming. You could, theoretically, heat-shape some plastic into that sort of dome shape, but it would probably take a few pieces, and then you'd have to deal with seams, and that's just a lot of trouble.

I think the way it was done in the link you posted might be the ideal way. It'll look closer to the real thing than any other potential method, and it seems very doable.

Hmm. You know, if you made a pepakura model of the helmet complete with the visor, and then did the same thing he did with the heat-formed 1/8in acrylic, but instead of pushing it into holes, just push it all over the shape of the visor, you could theoretically then cut out the pep visor section and drop the newly-shaped acrylic visor in. I don't know if this would work quite as well as it sounds, though, so maybe someone more familiar with the material properties should pitch in.

 

[SIKAXIS]

Okay, so recently I built a EVA helmet from halo reach and trying to vacuum form the visor has been awful. If you don't have any experience with vacuum forming it may not go too well for you. Plus buying full sheets to vacuum form can be expensive. One sheet of PETG plastic can be like 10 dollars and if you get it wrong you'll have to spend more money and try again. Personally I think thorossoli's Idea was genius and If I was going to make a helmet like that I would probably do it his way.

 

[sarlume]

Hey! I've made this helmet for my son's Meta costume that he wore to RTX! I used EVA foam and then attached a vacu-formed visor. I almost did the cut-outs method as well, but I was fortunate enough to find a visor from Armory Props earlier this year. The foam worked well structurally, but the dome at the back was ugly due to the way I built it, so I'll definitely be doing some extra work there. The link to my work on the helmet is in my signature if you wanted to see, but again...totally going back to it later.

My biggest challenge (aside from finding the visor since I'm not equipped or experienced enough to do vacu-forming yet) was padding effectively without the padding being obtrusive. I'm certainly jealous of the view he has opposed to my little bitty windows. XD

 

[Benton188]

I've meet someone who built the Eva helmet and they did in in the same fashion as in the link you posted. It would definitely be the easiest and less stressful way to go, even if it means sacrificing visibility. Plus, it would help get the detailed contours that the visor has on it. I've never tried to heat acrylic plastic before, but I have a hunch that it's not easy to work with when it's hot, and may be prone to fractures.
http://www.405th.com/f21/red-vs-blue-meta-build-hold-37121/?highlight=meta
^ Here's a link to PlayByMyOwnRule's RVB Meta build and how he did his EVA helmet as well. Best of luck =)

- - - Updated - - -

I was just talking about you [sarlume] lol

 

[m00sem4n]

Hmm, very ambitious as a starting point, I like it.
The process you linked to is probably to best to go with as a beginner, or even for more experienced builders just because of cost. Although, the best one I ever saw was a couple years ago when someone went through the trouble of making a pristine opaque visor, made a silicone mold, cast a new thin piece with clear resin and cleaned it up by annealing. Then the usual mirror coatings and whatnot. Very laborious though, and e pensive if you don't already have the setup.

 

[Ragejay]

Thanks for all the great replies! I've been thinking for a couple days and I'll just do it by the linked directions. My second build I'll experiment with the vacuum forming. I've done some acrylic work but dang those ridges would be tough. I probably could pull off the Halo Reach version.

 

[quick221]

Wow. Ambitious project... I'm only new as well... I looked at the link and think it's a great way of doing it, I can see some areas where more visibility would be might be needed but other than that... It's perfect
Good luck! I look forward to seeing your progress as encouragement for myself.

Can't wait to see your awesome stuff.
Regards, 221