Page 1 of 1

Creating Headgear....

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:39 am
by Dalailiam
.... no not to fix my teeth.

I'm a naruto fan. Most of the time I see it cosplayed I see tacky chrome headgear. Honestly after watching 170+ eposides... I've never once seen a glare off a headband, much less a reflection. Metal yes... chrome... No. and that stick of metal seems to conform to the forehead in the show a bit better than the cheap headbands I've seen.

Anywho.. I decided that I'm going to go as Jiraiya for atleast part of the year, if for no other reason, because I know I'll get dragged to an Otaku Booty meet ATLEAST once.

Now Jiraiyah has a big frikking piece of metal on his head... and it's distinctive. It doesn't look like some little thin chrome dish to me.

So let's get started crating shall we? My weapons of choice... paperclay and fiberglass resin.

Well.. I found no paperclay:( I did find some Crayola stuff that seemed simmilar, but is foambased..... And alas, I have "Model Magic"

I started by rolling out a few spikes. the diffrent sizes don't matter so much as the fact that the angles and roundness of the tip are the same. You can level them off to the same height when they dry. (Also pictured, some assorted plated cabochons I found in the bead section that I'll use for rivits.)
Image

The I took a sheet of tin-foil and rolled out a flat layer of "Model magic" on it. I then cut it out with a hobby knife to the genral shape with some predetermined measurments. I added some depth to the center to of the clay so when I put it on my forhead it would dome out a bit. i placed it on my forehead and bent it down to fit. You can see pictured where I added two more pieces to bulk up the sides a bit. (My god, I just could not crop enough of my face out of this picture. I photo horribly) Also not the nakin. I put that in there so that as my forehead sweat that it wouldn't moisten up the clay more. It actually bonded a bit to the clay and helped it keep it's shape while drying.

Image
Image

Now this is where I realized I was short on Model magic. Which is good because I forgot to pick up some cheap brushes for the fiberglass too. :P

Also not that it stretched a little. when it's dry I'll recut the shape. I still need to round out the sides a bit, and then add a seccond flat layer on the outside to get a smooth surface.

more in a bit. I'm gonna run to the crafts store.

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:40 pm
by Dalailiam
Ok, after I got back, I added a few more pieces to make the thickness pretty uniform all around, then rolled out another flat sheet on the tin foil. this one was pretty thin, about 1/8 inch. I put it over so I'd have a smooth working surface to sand down once it was dry.

(Did I mention the nasty concussion I recieved in the prossess?)
Image

after about 3 hours and some blowdrying... it was ready to stand on it's own.
Image
Image

tomorrow after it's dry (24 hours) I should be sanding it down to a smooth even surface, gluing on the spikes and rivits, and painting a few thin layers of fiberglass onto it so it'll have a nice paintable surface.

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:01 pm
by Dalailiam
supprizingly enough after about 6 hours, it was dry enough to cut down with my Foam cutter. :)

Image

I'm starting more and more to look like an old pervert than a guy in a hospital.

First thing tomorrow (weather permitting) It's going to get some thin coats of fiberglass to give it some rigidity and make it suitable for painting. :)

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:00 am
by WINGS
looks nice. great job!
WINGS

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:14 am
by Dalailiam
wow, site was down yesterday. So I couldn't update. Oh well A day late...

So On to fiberglassing. I just coated it in two layers of fiberglass resin to get it to stiffen up a bit. Just make sure you don't let the resin gather around the base of the studs/horns. :P Brush those areas the thinnest.
Image
Image

Next sanding, then came some primer. The pimp hat(as it's come to be known) is progressing. Looks like I'm wearing clay. Oi!
Image
Image

After that I got to hit it up with some silver paint. :) But first I added a few little pockmarks with an X-acto knife(Chipped away at the fiberglass a little) which I'll add a red-brown wash into later to give a small rusted effect. I decided to be super detailed. I'll add some under the horns/rivits too. I also added a litel black to the mix around the rivits and horns so they'd stand out a bit more.
Image
You just KNOW what kind of dreams this hat is giving me!

Anyways... Moving on. Next step is to wash in a few rust spots, then hit the thing with some sattin sealer. This will give it a non-gloss finnish, concealing a few of the imperfections(where it was sanded just a tad lumpy) and make the painted symbol stand out quite a bit more.

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:07 pm
by Dalailiam
Next, I washed it in black to give it some wear and tear.

What a wash is is EXTREMELY watered down acrylic paint. It usually just runs into cracks and leaves lines there, but the otehr use of it is "Antiquing" I used black here to give the silver a little bit of depth. Since it's heavily watered I just dab it on, it usually leaves the typical water bubble, let it sit for a minute (The paint will start to dry to the outside first as the water evaporates) leaving usually a minor stain, and a darker ring around the edge of the water. I thin dab off the wash with a papertowel. Repeating the prossess a few times builds up some tones. While the eash is still wet, you can buff off some of it with a paer towel and a little scrubbing to bring back out the shine in ares.

Image
Image

I did this to take out some of the brightness and glare of the silver. And add a little depth to the metal. give it a little wear and tear.

Next I'll seal all this up with a satin sealer on it to take down some more of the glare, then Paint the symbol on the front super glossy so that It'll stand out. I'll dinish off the whole thing with a brown wash to add a little dirt.

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:07 pm
by Blue Eternity
Omgosh WOW that is awsome!!! It looks amazing. *thumbs up* ^___^ So sweet. <3 lol

I was wondering, would that work for armor/metally looking headpieces? Like is it really heavy? I'm making Hikau from Angelic Layer and I need to make some of the harder pieces for the headgear and some of the white parts. Thanks!!!