Adventure Time: Helmet and Sword – Case Study

I’ve talked about the reasoning behind making this helmet and sword in these two portfolio posts, here (Full costume) and here (Just the helmet and sword). So I’m just going to jump right in and tell you how I made and came up with the design for this helmet and sword.

This build was much like my previous build aside from the fact that I was using slightly different tools and techniques along with using some additions to the finishing process.

The Hemet – For the helmet I was going for something based on adventure time but something more real and practical than a felt hat you commonly see on people costumes of Finn. I was toying with the idea of getting an actual bear pelt but that was much more expensive so I went with something more creative and stylized and made a helmet.

As usual the first thing I did was to make a sketch of what I wanted it to look like. Generally, when I’m making something that is my own, I’m not too worried about making anything more detailed than a sketch. This is because I like to design a little while I’m building. It allows for me to have a faster workflow and to add or change things if it looks better. I think this is partly due to my lack of drawing skills but I definitely think it worked out for this helmet.

When coming up with the design the two major references I looked at were bears and medieval helmets. I wanted something that personified the bear aspect of Finn’s hat but something more practical for the warrior that Finn is. The other thing that I wanted to make sure is that I kept the the shape true to the cartoon, which was difficult because of the actual shape of a bear’s face.

Again if you haven’t checked out my last post I recommended Evil Ted Smith’s and Punished Props helmet building tutorials. Using this technique, I took my sketch, made a template on poster board  and then transferred it to my EVA foam. Then, I glued the pieces together with barge cement. It ended up looking like this.

Originally I had planed on making the helmet look some what like a bear skull that rested on the top of the helmet, but as I was building it I realized that the face portion would make a perfect visor. So, I ended up getting some large nuts, bolts and washers so that the helmet would actually function. Cutting two holes on either side of the helmet with my dremel, I connected the two parts with the bolts.

I then sanded all the seams and rough spots with 80, 320, then 400 grit sandpaper. I also used dap kwik seal to fill all the gaps. Something I found while making my vanguard armor is that kwik seal works nice as a filler, but, unfortunately, isn’t really sandable, and has a different texture and is more shiny after it’s painted over. Fortunately, if your planing on coating it with resin it won’t matter. For me this was the case.

From what I’ve found, there are a multitude of things people use to coat eva; Plasti-dip, Mod Podge, wood glue, and Epsilon are some of the most common. The problem with most of these is either they have a hard shell and crack (wood glue and epsilon) or they are flexible but don’t really create a very thick coat. After watching this video on YouTube looking for an alternative, I wondered if Super Glaze could be used as an under coat rather than a top coat. I tried it out on a test piece of foam and it worked. Furthermore, it is both a hard shell and is flexible. From what I have found this is ideal for EVA.

So, using this newly discovered resin, I coated the helmet with two coats of super glaze sanding in between layers to remove drip marks and imperfections. I then gave it a quick coat of primer.

Then a coat of black. A black undercoat helps provide the best results for a chrome coat.

Then, obviously, a coat of chrome.

At this point I used a technique to created a chipped paint look, shown by many of my favorite prop makers, demonstrated here. I didn’t have any masking fluid so I ended up using toothpaste. I applied it to the areas I wanted to looked damaged, then sprayed the entire helmet with a few coats of white, then removed the toothpaste to reveal the silver.

Finally, I gave it a couple of washing with various colors of acrylic paint for distressing and then sealed it with some clear coat.

I was really happy with how this helmet turned out, a few of the process I hadn’t really tried before, and that they all turned out better than I expected. The only thing I think I would change if I were to make this again, is that I would make the chin portion of the helmet come down a bit farther. Depending how it sits on my head it can look a little short. Other than that I’m pretty happy with the results.

The Sword – Unlike the helmet, the sword I wanted to be more like a replica then something of my own. I really like the design of Finn’s new sword, so I thought a replica would work very nicely. Unfortunately, because I was working out of my apartment I couldn’t make it out of wood like I wanted to. So I ended up using EVA foam again.

First, I looked at some references from the cartoon along with some research about how long actual short swords are supposed to be. I took these measurements, and cut out a few long rectangles of foam like this.

I, then, glued them together with Barge contact cement. I placed a wooden broom handle to fortify it in the center and act as a hilt, and then secured it in with wood glue.

I took an old plastic dish I found at a thrift store and cut it out to act as the gem. I then attached it with hot glue.

Next, I began sculpting out the shape of the blade with a knife and a sander.

The finishing process is virtually identical to the helmet so I’m not going to go over it. The only exception is for the gem which I masked off and coated in a chrome blue paint.

Though this sword turned out fairly well, I’m not entirely happy with it and I will probably be remaking it out of wood. The EVA was really restricting for me because while sculpting it I didn’t want to remove too much which ended up compromising the design. I also made a few mistakes like the tip of the sword should be rounded not pointed. Along with the fact that the sword doesn’t look very sharp on the edges.

Either way I had a lot of fun working on this because it was the first real prop or costume piece I made that was inspired by a cartoon. Adventure time is a great show and hopefully the fans can appreciate these props. Check out the final product here.

If your looking to make EVA foam armor I highly recommend looking at Bill Doran’s E-books, His YouTube and Evil Ted Smith’s YouTube as well. they are invaluable resources and helped me greatly.

Thanks for reading!