How to Make Alphonse Elrics Helmet from Fullmetal Alchemist

Mar 16, 2021 17:36 · 4027 words · 19 minute read

welcome to the shop steve here at sks props and in today’s video i’m going to show you how to build alphonse’s helmet from full metal alchemist now i’ve been on a huge anime and manga kick recently so don’t be surprised if my next several videos are on that subject matter and if that’s something that interests you be sure to hit that subscribe button now this helmet of course has been on my bucket list for a while and luckily for me my buddy josh cullen of cullen cosplay unfolded the pep version of this not long ago now i’m not a big pep fan but he was able to get me those files and i was able to manipulate them and make my own version of it which you can download over on my website for absolutely free download that so you can build right along with me now this awesome helmet is of course made all out of my hd phone which you can find over at blick art materials and i want to thank everyone that’s been supporting me and my channel by purchasing hd phone from blick especially those of you that go through the links that are in the description section and on my website because i do receive a small vendor affiliate which allows me to continue to build awesome things like this and show you how to do it now i want to show you all the steps that it takes to put your own alphonse helmet together so let’s go ahead and get started now the first thing i did was print off the base files that i created in photoshop you can find a free pdf file for this helmet over on my website there’s a link in the description section now when you open the pdf you need to open it in adobe acrobat or adobe reader and click poster in the printer settings that will scale this helmet over several sheets to the correct size so i’ve cut out all the pieces that i’m going to need for this particular helmet and i made sure to write on the pieces that need to be flipped and reversed for the opposite side and now i’m going to transfer all these onto some six millimeter hd foam and because my foam is light gray to do that i’m going to be using my pencil and i prefer to use a pencil instead of a sharpie just because there’s not as much guest room so i feel that my templates come out a little more accurate and i’m going to be as efficient with my foam as possible because i don’t want to waste it i always sharpen my knife to make sure i get the cleanest cuts possible now all these cuts will be at a 90 degree unless i specify later on parts that need angles like part n and part o after all my pieces have been cut out i take a compass and i mark it in about a quarter of an inch on parts j k and l this will be a ridge detail that we’ll define later on using a scalpel blade on part i i cut out the detail slots on either side of his cheeks using the same blade i followed the lines that i’ve drawn onto parts j k and l i’m making sure not to go all the way through the foam just about halfway through because we’re going to open this up with a heat gun using my heat gun i lightly apply heat to the foam this will make the cuts open up now make sure that when you’re doing this you do it in a well ventilated area and always wear your respirator this is also a good time to start adding a curve to these pieces for assembly later on now i take my heat gun and heat up parts a b and c here i’m just rounding the foam over to make them conform to the shapes that i’m going to need for the adhesive on this piece i’m pretty much just going to be using weld wood contact cement this is going to be applied generously to the inside seams on part a and b and left to dry after the glue is dry the foam pieces can be firmly pressed together now here you’re just trying to line up end to end and follow the contour of the cut next i’m going to apply glue to the inside seams of part b and c now unlike the previous piece i like to start off on either end and then work my way to the middle that way i can make sure that it lines up properly on either side and you can see how these three pieces give a decent shape to the lower jaw of the helmet i go ahead and grab part d and apply adhesive to the inside that will have contact with part a so i start off in one corner and work my way around the shape now if it doesn’t line up perfectly don’t worry about it you can clean it up with a rotary tool later on now it’s time to place part e and this is the piece that goes underneath of the chin and if you notice mine looks a little bit different than the one on the pdf and that’s because i’m constantly updating this pattern as i’m building it not knowing if this was going to be my final piece i actually glued it in using some bobsmith super glue rather than the contact cement either adhesive is a fine option and both will work great for this build for the top of the helmet i’m going to need part f and 2 of part g one of them being reversed for the opposite side notice when i’m pressing these pieces together i’m really having to force the foam to conform to the shape that i need what this will do is round over the top of the helmet once everything is glued together and complete glue can now be applied to the middle seam and i work from the middle of the helmet down to the back by gluing these pieces that are flared out together you can see how it starts to round over the top of the helmet this same glue and pressed together process is also done to the smaller cuts on either side of part g just like i had mentioned earlier some of these seams are kind of tough to put together so they may not always be that pretty but you can clean them up later on with a smooth sanding drum contact cement can now be applied to the interior seams of part g and part h this is going to finish off the top of our helmet just like the top i like to start my assembly in the front and work my way towards the back if the bottom of this doesn’t line up properly it’s not a big deal because there’s a guard that covers it later on i glue together the final cuts on part h and the top of the dome assembly is complete now i can take my dremel rotary tool and clean up my seams this is done with the smoothest sanding drum i have and remember when you’re working with rotary tools it’s always safety first you want your proper respirator and eye protection and here you can see seams that have not been touched versus ones that have started to sand over this is a process that requires a very delicate light touch you want to make sure not to press too far into the foam this same seam process is applied to the chin and i also round over the front at this stage we’re trying to get the foam as smooth as possible even though there are steps later on that we can help fill the gaps now because the density of my hd foam is really high it sands very well and i can even use a sanding sponge to help smooth out all the seams since i’ve got my rotary tool out i decided to go ahead and work on parts j k and l and i start this process by rounding over all of the edges remember the line that i cut into the foam earlier and opened it up with a heat gun here’s where that foam trick really starts to pay off i’m going to use that line as a guide and bevel into the interior using a rotary tool that’s going to give me a really cool detail lip along the perimeter of all these pieces i again use the heat gun to smooth everything out and i can start to round everything over by hand now i’m going to move on to the face shield or part i notice there’s a little bit of foam in between the eyes that’s so i can apply adhesive here and glue that to the back of part j now this middle section does go behind part j but the outsides of it go on top so i mark that with a pencil and then glue that into place using some bobsmith super glue notice how this piece also lines up parallel to the ridges that i’d cut in earlier the face mask can now be glued onto part c and i start by marking it with a pencil so i know exactly where my adhesive needs to go if you’re looking for a reference point you’ll see that the outside jaw and the outside of the cheek line up going back to the dome of the helmet i’m going to be applying part k to the lower edge now this piece doesn’t need a lot of overlap just enough to hang on securely so i put a bead of super glue along the perimeter and then work my way around this same overlap process is also applied to part l the biggest thing to note here is that you want the ends of part l and part k to line up the front facial can now be applied to the back of the helmet just like before i lightly mark with a pencil exactly where this piece needs to go before i apply my adhesive again for a reference you’ll see how part k and part i line up pretty parallel once those are glued on you want the front of the dome to lightly tuck behind part j this is going to give enough separation that it looks like a separate piece but you’re going to put a bead of glue in here to keep it in place isn’t it awesome to see how 14 flat pieces of foam can be manipulated and take the shape of this helmet now even though the pdf that you can download has already been updated this is me showing that even while i’m building this i’m constantly going back between the pieces and the templates and refining them to make them work for the raised section at the top of the helmet i’m going to take part m and transfer that onto some four millimeter hd foam now one thing to note that i constantly take into consideration with my templates is that this covers a lot of the seams that are in the front to give it an overall cleaner appearance i mark on the top of the helmet exactly where this piece needs to go and i apply glue to the front this will tuck right behind part j when you’re gluing down a section to a piece that’s already been rounded over you want to make sure that it’s very important to work in the middle out the foam is flexible and it will conform to the shape that’s already there and here you can see just by adding that piece how much cleaner the top of the helmet is now part n is transferred onto some four millimeter foam and either side is cut at an angle this will give the detail piece a curve while still sitting flat on the top of the helm to make the cone at the front of the helm i transfer part o onto some four millimeter foam the sides of the cone are cut at an angle while the back is cut straight this will help me glue it together now at the very top of the cone i need to remove a little bit of material with my dremel rotary tool so that way it can close properly i add more contact cement to this piece and i start by gluing it together at the bottom and working my way up and if you cut it just right and remove enough material see how the tip of the cone comes together now of course i do have a seam on the bottom of the cone and i’m going to try to remove as much material of that as possible using my rotary tool and because i did have to remove some material i added a small strip of two millimeter foam to the inside of the cone to reinforce the seam after i mark exactly where the cone is going to go on the forehead i remove some more material from the top and bottom of the base and that’s because the forehead itself isn’t flat it’s curved so by removing material from the middle it will help the cone sit flush super glue is applied to the base of the cone and can be pressed into place now like you’ve seen me do with several other of my pieces i want to protect the end of this cone so it doesn’t get messed up so i’m going to do my super glue method i’ll put a link up above to the original video but basically i spread super glue all around the surface and then hit it with an accelerator this will harden the foam and make sure that the tip of the cone stays to a point the surface can even be sanded with a sanding sponge to keep a consistent texture to create the fake rivets on either side of part i used a small hole punch on some four millimeter foam now if you don’t have a hole punch you could also use a sharpened pipe or just some scissors the small rivets for the top of the helmet were first marked for placement with a pencil these rivets were then cut from some two millimeter foam and put into place with some tweezers part p was traced onto some six millimeter foam and this could be cut out with some scissors but i also have this awesome circle jig that i created for my band saw once i had all four circles cut out i cut out the middle of two of them with a scalpel blade for a tiered effect the inside and outside of these pieces were cleaned up with a rotary tool before i glued them together using some bob smith super glue after the glue had cured they could then be attached to either side of the helmet now it’s time to fill and clean up our seams and to do that i’m going to be using some quick seal along with some silicone tip tools quick seal can be applied to any of the seams or gaps with a silicone tool and then you just wet your finger to smooth it out this is what i was saying earlier about if your seams aren’t perfect you can always help it out later on now if you didn’t have quick seal you could also use foam clay which can be sanded to seal this helmet off i’m going to be using plasti dip and i’m probably going to use two to three light layers you want to stay at a uniform distance and don’t over spray because then it might run going through my reference images i found some statues that i really like to give the armor a hammered or pitted look and i really want to replicate that so to do that i’m going to be using some creature cast with some neo thicks on top of the plasti dip this is going to be for texture purposes only since the foam is already sealed and unlike the other builds where i’ve used creaturecast i add more neothix than normal because i want it to be a thick consistency now to get this hammered or pitted look i’m going to be using some upholstery foam and stippling the creature cast onto the helmet my first pass of this is pretty thick because i want a consistent coverage but then i go in with a clean block and blot it down and in this current state it looks a lot more dramatic than it really is once paint is applied it will knock this down quite a bit now your upholstery foam will eventually start soaking up this creature cast and it gets to that point it’s kind of unusable so just take some scissors cut off that and you’ve got a new surface so i apply this texture to the entire piece as well as the back of the interior on the inside and then i used a hair dryer to speed up the dry time after the creature cast is fully cured it’s time to start adding my base colors and to do that i’m going to be using rust-oleum hammered metal antique pewter the rust-oleum hammered metal is applied generously to the entire surface and you can see even after it dries the creature cast texture still shows through to begin the weathering process for this helmet i’m going to start by using liquitex brand marsh black as a wash this paint is applied directly to the surface using a one inch mop brush and a lot of water after it’s allowed to sit for a little bit i then go in with a damp paper towel and mop up a lot of the excess paint what this process is doing is it’s getting paint down into all of our cracks and crevices which is great but it’s also priming the rust-oleum for more additional acrylics a hairdryer can then be used to lock this layer in and now it’s time to move on to layer two layer two involves a lot less water and a higher pigment count i specifically switch over to a filbert brush so that i have more control of where the paint’s gonna go a lot of the choices for where the paint goes is based on light sources most of the time the light is coming from the top so you’ll see paint on the underside of the jaws and then shadowed areas now alphonse has this little detailed area at the bridge of his nose and rather than building that out of the foam i figured it’d just be easier to have it as a flat piece and paint in this detail i do that by laying out the lines of this detail and then going in with a dry brush and feathering the paint away just like i had done for the jaw this black paint and mopping up process can now be applied to the entire helmet i want to take a moment to thank all my patreon supporters because a lot of you have been with me for quite some time and your continued support allows me to build awesome things like this and freely share it with the community now if you’re new to my page feel free go over and check out my patreon one of the first things that you’ll notice is that i don’t have pay walls on my page everything that i do all my information my templates are absolutely free patreon is only there as a donational basis and if you can’t do it by the month on my main page under templates i do have paypal buttons so if a particular tip or trick or template helps you out and you have the means to donate to help support the channel please help me do that because every little bit helps so i want to thank you all for your continued support and i’ll keep making videos now that i’ve really dirtied the helmet up i can start to add the highlights and to do that i’m going to be using liquitex heavy body iridescent rich silver now this particular paint is not applied to the entire area i’m picking specific spots around the teeth around the jawline that need this brightness either to subdue the shadows or add a scratch metal texture now if you haven’t used iridescence before one thing to note is you do not want to add water to these you want to just use the straight pigment because water will displace it too much and here’s the cool thing about paint too it’s all about the layers so if you went a little overboard and you’re beginning processes of doing the washes you can add as many of these highlight layers as you feel necessary so prop makers and cosplayers are pretty much hoarders and i purchased this horse hair about seven years ago but i finally have an opportunity to use it these three sections are bound together with some metal wire now the hair that comes out of the top of alphonse’s helmet doesn’t sit flat it actually kind of sticks up a little bit and to replicate this i’m going to be using a metal rod this rod is painted with some unbleached titanium just so it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb and then i super glue the end of this into the middle of the tufts and then glue the hair around it now the horsehair is pretty stringy but when you look at the reference images for the anime and for the statues the hair is clumped together pretty tight so my solution for this is to use some elmer’s glue the elmer’s glue can then be painted onto the hair and it’s just enough to bind it all together the end of the hair can then be pressed into the detail cone at the top of the helmet and glued into place and what’s great about having the metal rod in there is that i can now bend this to conform to the shape of the helmet now to make sure that the rest of the horse hair isn’t completely frizzy and kind of stays together i take more of that elmer’s glue and add some water to it and run it through the hair what’s really neat about this process is this glue is water-based so if i added too much i could take it away or i could always add more so you all can see the steps that i took to put together alphonse’s helmet now remember the templates for this are absolutely free so go over and download those from my website and build right along with the video and you can have your own helmet in a short amount of time now if there’s a particular proper costume piece from an anime or a manga series that you’d be interested in go ahead and leave that down in the comments section and i’ll see what i can do now if you’re enjoying these videos give them a thumbs up share them with your friends and family and remember if you’re building any of my builds or using hd phone be sure to tag me at sksprops on twitter and instagram because i want to see your creations until next time build your best with the best hd foam.