Creating a Custom Batman Helmet: A Step-by-Step Guide

To create a custom Batman helmet, one must first prepare the materials needed for the project. The author used latex for this project, mixing it with water to thin it out and adding some heavy body silver to it. The mixture was then sprayed on four or five coats over a couple of days to achieve a nice solid finish. This process ensures that the paint adheres well to the foam and lasts longer.

The next step in creating the helmet is to add details to the design. Batman's mask is one of its distinctive features, so the author decided to add some paper inside the helmet to create a more realistic look. The outline was then traced out based on images, and extra material was added around the other sides for a more authentic appearance. Two millimeter black craft foam was used for this purpose, which is thinner than regular foam but still provides a good texture.

The author used a tracing technique to create the shape of the helmet and cut it out with a knife. A barge tool was then used to smooth out any rough edges or bumps on the surface. To ensure even placement, the author lined up the center point of the trace twice before cutting out the foam panel. This process may seem time-consuming, but it pays off in the end when the finished product is revealed.

Once the helmet shape was complete, the author added some weathering effects to give it a worn and battle-hardened look. Black acrylic paint mixed with water was used to create this effect, which seeps into the defects of the foam and the cuts made during construction. A sponge brush was used to apply the paint in large areas at a time, and a wet paper towel was used to wipe off excess paint quickly. The author moved from panel to panel, adding texture and character to the helmet.

After completing the dark weathering, the author went back to add some highlights to the helmet using a technique called dry brushing. Bright silver paint was applied to the brush, which was then used to highlight the edges that had worn down to bare metal. This technique is easy to overdo, but just a little bit of dry brushing can make a big difference in achieving the desired effect.

Finally, the author added some glowing eyes to the helmet, which are a crucial part of Batman's iconic look. A simple circuit using batteries and LEDs was used to achieve this effect, with two double-A batteries powering six LEDs. The LEDs were secured inside foam panels that fit around each eye, and hot glue was used to attach these panels to the interior of the helmet.

The author also added some electrical tape to separate the leads of the LEDs, ensuring that they wouldn't short out when connected to the battery. Soldering was then used to connect the anodes and cathodes together, and two pieces of wire were attached to the battery to power the LEDs. The finished panel was hot-glued above the brow, where it sits comfortably on the head.

Despite the success of the project, the author notes that creating a custom Batman helmet is not without its challenges. The process requires patience and attention to detail, as well as a willingness to learn and experiment with new techniques. However, the end result is well worth the effort, as this custom helmet showcases the author's creativity and dedication to their craft.

The finished helmet was made using a form that was molded around the author's head sculpting, which provided a good fit but also caused some discomfort due to its tightness around the brow area. The LEDs inside the eyes can be seen pushing against the skin when worn on the head, making it less than comfortable for extended periods of time.

In conclusion, creating a custom Batman helmet requires attention to detail, patience, and creativity. With these skills and techniques, anyone can create their own unique version of this iconic superhero's headgear. Whether you're an experienced craftsperson or just starting out, the process outlined in this guide will provide valuable insights and tips for achieving success with your next project.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're going to turn this stuff into this Halloween is in just a couple of weeks so you still have plenty of time to make a costume out of EBA foam for me this is just a prop not a costume but all of the principles and the construction are the same let's get into it I'm using my life cast here but you could use a Styrofoam head and it would work just the same I covered the top of it with a big piece of aluminum foil and then sprayed on some spray adhesive to add more pieces I just wanted to make sure that I had full coverage all the way down to the bottom of the neck the foil will tear really easily so I covered the whole thing with duct tape this will help me cut it up into pieces for a pattern I learned this patterning technique from evil Ted Smith he's got a fantastic video about making helmet patterns go check it out it's linked down in the description I started by making marks for where my brow line was in the center of the nose the center of the forehead and then roughly drew in the eyes I drew lines where I thought the different panels should be and then made some marks across those lines so that I could connect them up later then I started cutting down the lines to get the individual panels to make the pattern from now this was a best guess in my case and I'll show you why this didn't really work in a little bit but the principle is the same I cut out all these different pieces but they were formed to my head so they needed to be flattened out I cut some darts in these pieces so that they would lay flat I'm not sure that I did this the right way but it worked pretty well once I got them basically flat then I laid them out on some EBA foam I use push pins to hold these in place so that I could trace their outline with a sharpie you'll notice I only made patterns for one side of the head I flipped these pieces over and trace them again to get the opposite sides through this entire project I was checking against images that I'd gotten online as a reference it's really important to get as many different views of whatever proper costume you're trying to make as you possibly can I cut all these pieces of foam out some with a knife and then I decided to move on and use the bandsaw just to get nicer cuts all of my initial cuts were at 90 degrees they're perpendicular to the material but some of these pieces actually needed to be beveled to get the shape that I wanted for this I use the belt sander to sand down and add a bevel to certain sides to assemble these pieces I used barge contacts you put it on two different pieces and let it dry for about five minutes then when you stick them together they are instantly bonded I also went over these with the heat gun that makes it easy to bend them and when you're reattaching these darts you need them to form into the curve that they originally had once I got these pieces put back together I need to attach them to each other and it was just more cement to get all of the seams lined up I started at one end and then press the seam together all the way to the other end and it was actually starting to take shape I had to do quite a bit of sanding and beveling to get all of the seams to line up but after a while I got them all stuck together at this point I had to start modifying my original pieces they weren't going to fit together and a lot of the things that I thought might work before actually wouldn't work I had to completely cut off the little ears just to glue up the main shape of the helmet I was starting to worry at this point if it was actually going to work out but I wanted to get the main helmet shape in place just to be sure I started adjusting things like the nose to try to get the more correct shape and I had to cut out an area in the chin piece I drew out another piece to fill in that gap and make it closer to the correct shape I cut a little notch out of the backside of this so that it could Bend without having a seam on the front and then I beveled the corners so that they would match up with the other chin pieces so far everything had been a bunch of separate flat planes but I needed a lot more definition to make it start looking the right way based on my reference images I drew in some marks where I thought the nose should be in the different parts of the eyes there were actually multiple levels of depth here around the eyes so I just drew them in with the sharpie I just used a knife to open these eyes up to get closer to the right shape I also used an orbital sander with some fine grit paper to try to smooth over some of the seams between the different panels I needed to remove some material on each side of the nose but it had to be a hard line I made a little sanding block with some spray adhesive and then I held a ruler up to the line that I wanted and sand it alongside it this guide helped me not to have a ramp but instead hard line sanded in the material we're going to stop right there I've worked on this for about a day and the more I look at it it's just not right so I compared the shape of this to the reference image and I figured out exactly what the problem is the patterns for this were made to match the contour of my head but the outside of the helmet that I actually want to make is not the same shape this one is far too rounded and the sides still go up far enough I could sculpt that in but I think I'm gonna actually start over I reached out to build a ran from punished props to ask him what he thought I should do and his advice was this he told me to build up the shape of the lifecast to actually get the general shape that I want the outside of the helmet to be then make a pattern off of that and create new foam from there so we're gonna start over okay so I've done a lot of work off-camera that I haven't shown you but essentially it's the same as the first helmet that I showed you the shapes are just a little bit different this is the fourth helmet that I've made of this design every one I've tried something different with the patterning this one is the closest I've gotten so far and this is the one I'm just going to go with to continue working if you do want to make this specific helmet the way that I found it works best is to put a seam right here have two panels on the front and then big side panels then you have a large area that's relatively flat on the top and a back panel like I said this is not the final shape but this is a pretty good place to work from I continue to make changes based on the reference images there was still a lot of extra material and the overall shape wasn't quite right I used a knife and a sander to get closer to the shape that I wanted it to be the belt sander really helps you blend where panels join in case you don't need a hard edge based on the reference images I marked where I thought the little ears should go and then measured them I transfer those sizes to some foam and cut out some pieces that were roughly the right size I held them in place and roughly drew out the curve of the helmet then through trial and error I shaped them to fit with the belt sander once I had it basically in place I flipped it over and traced it as a reference and then made another one I glued them on with contact cement this helmet has a neck guard on the back of it so I cut a strip of foam and then cut the right angle on one side I figured out the length of this piece and then cut the same angle on the other end I used a metal ruler to draw a taper from the center point out to both ends and then cut them off with a knife when I was happy with the shape I just used some contact cement to get it in place to make the indentions on each side of the helmet I just made a really shallow cut with a knife along a straight edge and when you hit it with the heat gun it opens up and looks like an indention to fill the seams in between all these different panels I just use some caulking this stuff sets up in just a couple of minutes so you can keep working it's really good for filling in seams in between panels or sometimes there's just defects in the foam that you need to fill make sure to use a wet paper towel to get a nice smooth transition from the caulking surface to the foam surface at this point I tried it on and it was crushing my ears so I used a dremel tool with a sanding drum to remove some of the material around my ears it fit a lot better the shape was basically done so I needed to add some Battle Damage to do this I started with a sharpie and a straightedge and drew the lines and all the places that I wanted there to be cuts or indentions then I use the blade and cut along these lines and then use the heat gun to open them up just like I did before I wanted to seal up the foam so it would take paint and it would last a lot longer I use latex for this I mixed it with water to thin it out and then I added some heavy body silver to it I sprayed on four or five coats over a couple of days to get a nice solid finish Batman seems to be wearing a mask underneath his helmet so I put a piece of paper inside this helmet and then traced out the outline based on the images I drew what I thought this piece should look like and then added some extra material around the other sides for this piece I use two millimeter black craft foam it's the same type of foam it's just a lot thinner I traced this out on the foam and then I flipped it over and lined up the very center point of the trace it again and then just cut this piece out with a knife again I used barge to put this in place I just made sure that it was an even placement on both sides of the mask then it was time to do some weathering and to do this they use black acrylic paint mixed with a whole lot of water I used a wide sponge brush to cover a big area at a time I didn't want to leave it on too long so I used a wet paper towel to wipe it off I just move from panel to panel trying to add some texture the paint seeps down in the defects of the foam and the cuts that you've made it really adds an awesome character to it here you can see one side that's weathered compared to the side that's not after I finish the dark weathering on the entire helmet I went back and added some highlights this technique is called dry brushing to do this I used a bright silver paint put just a tiny bit on the brush and then went over the high points of the helmet this is basically supposed to mimic the edges that have gotten worn down to the bare metal it's really easy to overdo the weathering process you don't want to do too much or it's just going to lose its effect just a little bit of dry brushing goes a really long way the last thing to add was the glowing eyes first I followed the same process as I did before around the chin to make some pieces of foam to go around the eyes I trace the shape transferred it to foam and cut it out and one of the local craft stores I found these little mesh gift bags you can still see through them but at a distance they look like your solid white I folded them over to get double the thickness and then glued them on to the back of each one of these eye panels I used some spray adhesive to hold them in place first but then eventually had to use some hot glue to actually get all of the different layers to be held in place I trimmed off the outside and then glued these on to the inside of the helmet and that looked pretty cool but they need to glow for that I use some simple batteries and LEDs nothing complicated they use two doublea's and six LEDs here I made a little piece of foam to fit inside the brow and then hot glued the LEDs three above each eye I use some electrical tape to separate the leads of all the LEDs so that I could wire them up without worrying about them shorting out i soldered all the anodes together and all the cathodes together then i soldered on two pieces of wire that went directly to the battery this is a super simple circuit but an easy way to get leds then i hot-glued this panel right above the brow and I will say it's extremely uncomfortable on your brow but the eyes glue to protect the paint I put on a couple of coats of matte clear then it was all done I'm not gonna lie to you and say that this wasn't a huge amount of work but it was totally worth it it took four tries to get to this point but I learned a whole lot about the material and about the process of making a helmet which is just stuff that I didn't expect so next time I think I'll have a lot better idea how to use the form that I made to get the shapes that I want I did use my head sculpting to make this fit my head so with technically it fits but it actually doesn't fit very well and the LEDs up here pushing on your brow make it pretty uncomfortable I'll try it on for you guys but this is probably the last time I'll ever put it on it kind of fits but it's extremely uncomfortable up here on the brow I hope you like the helmet let me know what you think about it down in the comments below I've got lots of other project videos and a few more phone ones that you might be interested in don't forget to subscribe to our mane and my second channel that's it for this one guys thanks for watching see you next time Marthahey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're going to turn this stuff into this Halloween is in just a couple of weeks so you still have plenty of time to make a costume out of EBA foam for me this is just a prop not a costume but all of the principles and the construction are the same let's get into it I'm using my life cast here but you could use a Styrofoam head and it would work just the same I covered the top of it with a big piece of aluminum foil and then sprayed on some spray adhesive to add more pieces I just wanted to make sure that I had full coverage all the way down to the bottom of the neck the foil will tear really easily so I covered the whole thing with duct tape this will help me cut it up into pieces for a pattern I learned this patterning technique from evil Ted Smith he's got a fantastic video about making helmet patterns go check it out it's linked down in the description I started by making marks for where my brow line was in the center of the nose the center of the forehead and then roughly drew in the eyes I drew lines where I thought the different panels should be and then made some marks across those lines so that I could connect them up later then I started cutting down the lines to get the individual panels to make the pattern from now this was a best guess in my case and I'll show you why this didn't really work in a little bit but the principle is the same I cut out all these different pieces but they were formed to my head so they needed to be flattened out I cut some darts in these pieces so that they would lay flat I'm not sure that I did this the right way but it worked pretty well once I got them basically flat then I laid them out on some EBA foam I use push pins to hold these in place so that I could trace their outline with a sharpie you'll notice I only made patterns for one side of the head I flipped these pieces over and trace them again to get the opposite sides through this entire project I was checking against images that I'd gotten online as a reference it's really important to get as many different views of whatever proper costume you're trying to make as you possibly can I cut all these pieces of foam out some with a knife and then I decided to move on and use the bandsaw just to get nicer cuts all of my initial cuts were at 90 degrees they're perpendicular to the material but some of these pieces actually needed to be beveled to get the shape that I wanted for this I use the belt sander to sand down and add a bevel to certain sides to assemble these pieces I used barge contacts you put it on two different pieces and let it dry for about five minutes then when you stick them together they are instantly bonded I also went over these with the heat gun that makes it easy to bend them and when you're reattaching these darts you need them to form into the curve that they originally had once I got these pieces put back together I need to attach them to each other and it was just more cement to get all of the seams lined up I started at one end and then press the seam together all the way to the other end and it was actually starting to take shape I had to do quite a bit of sanding and beveling to get all of the seams to line up but after a while I got them all stuck together at this point I had to start modifying my original pieces they weren't going to fit together and a lot of the things that I thought might work before actually wouldn't work I had to completely cut off the little ears just to glue up the main shape of the helmet I was starting to worry at this point if it was actually going to work out but I wanted to get the main helmet shape in place just to be sure I started adjusting things like the nose to try to get the more correct shape and I had to cut out an area in the chin piece I drew out another piece to fill in that gap and make it closer to the correct shape I cut a little notch out of the backside of this so that it could Bend without having a seam on the front and then I beveled the corners so that they would match up with the other chin pieces so far everything had been a bunch of separate flat planes but I needed a lot more definition to make it start looking the right way based on my reference images I drew in some marks where I thought the nose should be in the different parts of the eyes there were actually multiple levels of depth here around the eyes so I just drew them in with the sharpie I just used a knife to open these eyes up to get closer to the right shape I also used an orbital sander with some fine grit paper to try to smooth over some of the seams between the different panels I needed to remove some material on each side of the nose but it had to be a hard line I made a little sanding block with some spray adhesive and then I held a ruler up to the line that I wanted and sand it alongside it this guide helped me not to have a ramp but instead hard line sanded in the material we're going to stop right there I've worked on this for about a day and the more I look at it it's just not right so I compared the shape of this to the reference image and I figured out exactly what the problem is the patterns for this were made to match the contour of my head but the outside of the helmet that I actually want to make is not the same shape this one is far too rounded and the sides still go up far enough I could sculpt that in but I think I'm gonna actually start over I reached out to build a ran from punished props to ask him what he thought I should do and his advice was this he told me to build up the shape of the lifecast to actually get the general shape that I want the outside of the helmet to be then make a pattern off of that and create new foam from there so we're gonna start over okay so I've done a lot of work off-camera that I haven't shown you but essentially it's the same as the first helmet that I showed you the shapes are just a little bit different this is the fourth helmet that I've made of this design every one I've tried something different with the patterning this one is the closest I've gotten so far and this is the one I'm just going to go with to continue working if you do want to make this specific helmet the way that I found it works best is to put a seam right here have two panels on the front and then big side panels then you have a large area that's relatively flat on the top and a back panel like I said this is not the final shape but this is a pretty good place to work from I continue to make changes based on the reference images there was still a lot of extra material and the overall shape wasn't quite right I used a knife and a sander to get closer to the shape that I wanted it to be the belt sander really helps you blend where panels join in case you don't need a hard edge based on the reference images I marked where I thought the little ears should go and then measured them I transfer those sizes to some foam and cut out some pieces that were roughly the right size I held them in place and roughly drew out the curve of the helmet then through trial and error I shaped them to fit with the belt sander once I had it basically in place I flipped it over and traced it as a reference and then made another one I glued them on with contact cement this helmet has a neck guard on the back of it so I cut a strip of foam and then cut the right angle on one side I figured out the length of this piece and then cut the same angle on the other end I used a metal ruler to draw a taper from the center point out to both ends and then cut them off with a knife when I was happy with the shape I just used some contact cement to get it in place to make the indentions on each side of the helmet I just made a really shallow cut with a knife along a straight edge and when you hit it with the heat gun it opens up and looks like an indention to fill the seams in between all these different panels I just use some caulking this stuff sets up in just a couple of minutes so you can keep working it's really good for filling in seams in between panels or sometimes there's just defects in the foam that you need to fill make sure to use a wet paper towel to get a nice smooth transition from the caulking surface to the foam surface at this point I tried it on and it was crushing my ears so I used a dremel tool with a sanding drum to remove some of the material around my ears it fit a lot better the shape was basically done so I needed to add some Battle Damage to do this I started with a sharpie and a straightedge and drew the lines and all the places that I wanted there to be cuts or indentions then I use the blade and cut along these lines and then use the heat gun to open them up just like I did before I wanted to seal up the foam so it would take paint and it would last a lot longer I use latex for this I mixed it with water to thin it out and then I added some heavy body silver to it I sprayed on four or five coats over a couple of days to get a nice solid finish Batman seems to be wearing a mask underneath his helmet so I put a piece of paper inside this helmet and then traced out the outline based on the images I drew what I thought this piece should look like and then added some extra material around the other sides for this piece I use two millimeter black craft foam it's the same type of foam it's just a lot thinner I traced this out on the foam and then I flipped it over and lined up the very center point of the trace it again and then just cut this piece out with a knife again I used barge to put this in place I just made sure that it was an even placement on both sides of the mask then it was time to do some weathering and to do this they use black acrylic paint mixed with a whole lot of water I used a wide sponge brush to cover a big area at a time I didn't want to leave it on too long so I used a wet paper towel to wipe it off I just move from panel to panel trying to add some texture the paint seeps down in the defects of the foam and the cuts that you've made it really adds an awesome character to it here you can see one side that's weathered compared to the side that's not after I finish the dark weathering on the entire helmet I went back and added some highlights this technique is called dry brushing to do this I used a bright silver paint put just a tiny bit on the brush and then went over the high points of the helmet this is basically supposed to mimic the edges that have gotten worn down to the bare metal it's really easy to overdo the weathering process you don't want to do too much or it's just going to lose its effect just a little bit of dry brushing goes a really long way the last thing to add was the glowing eyes first I followed the same process as I did before around the chin to make some pieces of foam to go around the eyes I trace the shape transferred it to foam and cut it out and one of the local craft stores I found these little mesh gift bags you can still see through them but at a distance they look like your solid white I folded them over to get double the thickness and then glued them on to the back of each one of these eye panels I used some spray adhesive to hold them in place first but then eventually had to use some hot glue to actually get all of the different layers to be held in place I trimmed off the outside and then glued these on to the inside of the helmet and that looked pretty cool but they need to glow for that I use some simple batteries and LEDs nothing complicated they use two doublea's and six LEDs here I made a little piece of foam to fit inside the brow and then hot glued the LEDs three above each eye I use some electrical tape to separate the leads of all the LEDs so that I could wire them up without worrying about them shorting out i soldered all the anodes together and all the cathodes together then i soldered on two pieces of wire that went directly to the battery this is a super simple circuit but an easy way to get leds then i hot-glued this panel right above the brow and I will say it's extremely uncomfortable on your brow but the eyes glue to protect the paint I put on a couple of coats of matte clear then it was all done I'm not gonna lie to you and say that this wasn't a huge amount of work but it was totally worth it it took four tries to get to this point but I learned a whole lot about the material and about the process of making a helmet which is just stuff that I didn't expect so next time I think I'll have a lot better idea how to use the form that I made to get the shapes that I want I did use my head sculpting to make this fit my head so with technically it fits but it actually doesn't fit very well and the LEDs up here pushing on your brow make it pretty uncomfortable I'll try it on for you guys but this is probably the last time I'll ever put it on it kind of fits but it's extremely uncomfortable up here on the brow I hope you like the helmet let me know what you think about it down in the comments below I've got lots of other project videos and a few more phone ones that you might be interested in don't forget to subscribe to our mane and my second channel that's it for this one guys thanks for watching see you next time Martha\n"