The final piece for the Thor cosplay, once I made sure everything else worked well, was the helmet. I have always had difficulties finding hats and headbands, because my head is larger than "one size fits all," and it turns out that cosplay helmet patterns have the same limitations. I started with a motorcycle style helmet pattern, but both it and the material I started with (1/4" thick foam covered in Worbla) just didn't work well. It was huge, hard to fit, and heavy, which is a shame because it took many hours getting to that realization point:
I scrapped that one, purchased a template of several helmet styles, and set about tweaking one to fit my gigantic head. Wanting to make it lighter, I made it out of craft foam cut slightly too small and then covered around the edges with Worbla; then fit the pieces together so the Worbla would hold them together. Despite my best testing, there was a small hole in the top where the pieces met, but I knew I'd have to cover that with a point later, so didn't worry about it.
For the wings, I completely cheated: I found a picture online of someone else's helmet wings, resized it, printed it, cut each piece out, and the extended the base of each piece in order to make layered wings, figuring that several layers of Worbla would be pretty dang solid (they are).
That, my friends, is a LOT of cutting out. First out of paper, to test it, then out of Worbla - twice! - for the actual wings. I cut a base piece, and spent a ridiculous number of hours heating up each piece, layering it on (zero room for error here), and then reheating the entirety of each wing to attach it to the helmet and mold it to follow my jawline and flare out at the top. I spent some time cutting an oval to make the pointed top of the helmet and while I wasn't 100% happy with the final result, I realized it was the best I was going to get:
After all that, cutting out a front design and attaching it was pretty easy, then I coated everything with base layers of glue.
Finished it off with some spray paint and detail painting, then a final clearcoat. Added some padding on the inside to make it more comfortable to wear and sit properly and voila! Finished helmet, finished cosplay, ready to go. I did attempt to add shades, so you couldn't see my eyes peering out, but I couldn't find any material that would stay completely clear once bent into shape, so I just went with open eyes. Total time: 47.66 hours, including the time on v1.
I scrapped that one, purchased a template of several helmet styles, and set about tweaking one to fit my gigantic head. Wanting to make it lighter, I made it out of craft foam cut slightly too small and then covered around the edges with Worbla; then fit the pieces together so the Worbla would hold them together. Despite my best testing, there was a small hole in the top where the pieces met, but I knew I'd have to cover that with a point later, so didn't worry about it.
For the wings, I completely cheated: I found a picture online of someone else's helmet wings, resized it, printed it, cut each piece out, and the extended the base of each piece in order to make layered wings, figuring that several layers of Worbla would be pretty dang solid (they are).
That, my friends, is a LOT of cutting out. First out of paper, to test it, then out of Worbla - twice! - for the actual wings. I cut a base piece, and spent a ridiculous number of hours heating up each piece, layering it on (zero room for error here), and then reheating the entirety of each wing to attach it to the helmet and mold it to follow my jawline and flare out at the top. I spent some time cutting an oval to make the pointed top of the helmet and while I wasn't 100% happy with the final result, I realized it was the best I was going to get:
After all that, cutting out a front design and attaching it was pretty easy, then I coated everything with base layers of glue.
Finished it off with some spray paint and detail painting, then a final clearcoat. Added some padding on the inside to make it more comfortable to wear and sit properly and voila! Finished helmet, finished cosplay, ready to go. I did attempt to add shades, so you couldn't see my eyes peering out, but I couldn't find any material that would stay completely clear once bent into shape, so I just went with open eyes. Total time: 47.66 hours, including the time on v1.
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