Comic Con 2009 had a special visitor- The Orange Knight came by to sign autographs with Dan and the Orange Princess! Since we like to build stuff here at the Behemoth, I’m going to detail how I made the helmet. There’s no right or wrong way to build them, but this one is light and durable and provides good visibility. The one thing you might need to order is the foam filter material I used for white cross on the front. The pores of the foam are pretty far apart, so the visibility out of the helmet is great. This is what I ordered:

Polyurethane Foam Air Filter Pad, 1/4″ thick item # 9803K3 from McMaster.com 20 pores per inch.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#9803k3/=459erh

Everything else you can get at a hardware store. You’ll need a five gallon bucket, mat knife, cardboard, paint, scrap foam blocks (rigid styrofoam, like packing material) and soft foam, hot glue, Elmers white glue, Gorilla glue (for filling gaps) and tape. Ready, Set, GO!



1.We’ll start with a 5 gallon bucket for rigidity and durability. But it is heavy!



2. Mark out the outlines of the helmet. These will be cut lines later.



3. Cut out most of the helmet, leaving a good framework of plastic. Be super careful with the mat knife. Make multiple passes to cut through the material. Now the helmet is really light!



4. Add a foam block about half way. Adjust this to the height of wearer and glue it down.The three vertical blocks lock it into place so it won’t slip.



5. Add a ring of cardboard to the top of the helmet. The diameter should match the base helmet diameter if you want parallel sides. (Parallel will be easiest to skin)



6. Add a doubled up ring of cardboard to the base. This will give you something to glue the cardboard skin to. It’s easiest to laminate two sheets of cardboard together (rotate one sheet 90 degrees for strength) then cut them out together. In the background you can see the skin being prepared…it is a sheet of cardboard with one face removed so it will curve easily.



7. Skin the helmet. Add a lot of extra length to the helmet so you can cut a nice curve in the bottom to fit shoulders. Glue the skin to the cardboard rings and use straight pins to hold it in place till it dries. I use white glue b/c it is strong and won’t foam.



8. Glue in some spongy foam after test fitting. Gorilla glue works well because it will fill gaps, but needs to set up overnight. The foam ring should just grip the wearer’s head. When they wear the helmet, it will move easily with each head movement and not slip.



9. Paint is next up. Painting now will give it a super clean look when finished. If you are adventurous, you can fill any openings with Bondo before painting.



10. Cut a couple of foam disks for the ears. Foam disks allows the sound to travel through. Cut out the cardboard skin for the disks, then mount them into the sides of the helmet.



11. Using a figurine as a guide, cut out the openings and the curves on the bottom. Almost done now…



12. Test fit. Helmet should move with the head without slipping.



13. Carefully cut through the skin where the white cross will be. Reinforce the area between the skin and the bucket structure. Paint everything visible black or else it will show through the foam after it is applied.



14. Cut the foam filter material to size but don’t glue it in. Lay out and mask off the eyes and other details. These will stay black once everything is painted white.



15. Remove the foam cross and paint it with a dozen very thin coats of white paint. Lots of thin coats won’t clog the pores of the material. Glue in the front piece with Elmers.



16. The rest of the costume is a simple grey long sleeve shirt with a white wife beater tank. Add a cross with tape to match the helmet color. Grey sweat pants, boots and the biggest foam sword you can make finish this costume off.

Make sure you enter our Halloween Costume Contest!

Trick or Treat!

-john