Complete Pyramid Head Helmet Tutorial

Jun 4, 200713 min read

Deviation Actions

Published: Jun 4, 2007

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Introduction
Okay everyone, here is the long awaited Pyramid Head Helmet Tutorial! Unfortunately, I do not have step by step pictures, nor do I have measurements of the actual frame or the foam-board panels, just the finished product. Also, I did not sketch out blueprints when I made the helmet, but I used pictures as references. I'll describe later how I did that. As a matter of fact, that might be more helpful to you than the actual measurements themselves. But anyways, lets get started. Use the following links as reference throughout the tutorial:

Measurements: www.deviantart.com/deviation/4…

Photo References: www.deviantart.com/deviation/4…

What you will need
The first step is to go to the hardware and craft/art supply store and pick up your supplies. Remember when buying supplies to allow for mistakes, so buy extra. This is what you will need:

From the art store:
* 6-7 sheets of ¼" foam board
* 1 sheet of ½" foam board
* ½ gallon of Gesso (canvas primer)
* Plaster of paris (only a small amount is needed)
* Black, Red, and Gunmetal acrylic paint (buy other metallic paints if desired)
* Glue gun & multi-use glue sticks
* Masking tape
* Elmer's Glue
* Wood glue

From the hardware store:
* A roll of screen (for screen doors)
* A sheet of wire mesh (I'm not sure exactly what the stuff is called. See figure 6 in photo reference)
* Drywall tape (looks like masking tape, but with no stick, and a crease down the middle)
* 8 or so planks of 1½" craft pine wood
* Small wood screws
* Small nails
* 2 part Epoxy
* 8 PVC 45̊ elbow joints (See figure 9)
* 4 PVC 1" pipe ends (See figure 10)
* 2 Galvanized steel 1" pipe ends (same as the PVC ones, just steel)
* Air conditioner foam strips (the white things taped to the inside of the helmet in figure 7)
* Electric coduit pipe (it's plastic, baby blue, corrigated tubing)
* Duct tape (no project is complete without this vital asset!)
* LEATHER GLOVES (you will hate yourself if you don't buy these, trust me)
* 2 Shades of Metallic spray paint, medium grey and dark grey. Get about 2 of each.

Tools you will need:
* Hammer
* Screwdriver
* Drill
* Hack saw (Bandsaws are definitely preferred, but those are expensive)
* Wire cutters
* Exacto knife with plenty of fresh blades
* Jar of mayonnaise
* Eye protection
* Paint bushes
* Dremel Routery hand tool thing

I believe that is all you will need. If I forgot something, I will add it later.

Getting Started: The frame

The first thing you will need to do is build the wooden frame. Now again, if I had blueprints for this I would post them, but unfortunately I do not. Now before we get started, I want to talk about how I designed this. I don't want to sound like I'm trashing other PH cosplays here, cause I'm not, but most of them I see are horribly mis-proportioned. When waffle-iron-mag and myself decided to do this cosplay, we wanted it to be as accurate as possible. We spent a long time studying pictures, and saw the movie 4 times (once just to look at the helmet) just to make sure we got it down. Actually, I would love to see someone make a more accurate helmet, now that the Making of Silent Hill is out on the dvd. So I'm going to talk about different things as far as positioning goes (corrugated tube placement, shoulder exposure, etc.), and I just want to let you know that these are all based off observations I've made while making the helmets. Here are the basic rules for the wooden frame:

1. The bottom tip of the frame should not go down past your naval.
2. The cross bars going over your shoulder should line up somewhere in the inner half of your shoulder. When the helmet is finished, the outer third of your shoulder should be exposed (See "Pyramid Head Cosplay 05" www.deviantart.com/deviation/3… ).
3. There should be a plank of wood going up the front (between the eyes), and one behind your head (See figure 7)

So what you want to do (and this is just what I did, you can do something else if it works better), is take two pieces of your craft wood, and cut the two ends at I think it was a 35̊ angle (edge side up) and wood glue + nail them together into a V shape. Use the pieces you just cut off and glue them together in a wedge shape, and glue + nail them on the inside of the V (this is for extra support). Now rest the V shaped piece of wood on your shoulders. The tip should not go down past your naval, and the tops of the wood should not to past the outer half of your shoulders. One thing I will note right now, is this frame is not the outer lip of the helmet you see in figure 4 and elsewhere. That is added later. Next, you will add the shoulder cross bars. Make cuts on the V shaped piece so that these shoulder bars, when laid edge up against the wood, will be flat against the tops of your shoulders. Now drill pilot holes in these pieces, and screw + glue them onto the V piece. Now the next step is basically the same thing you just did, except going from the top of your shoulders and down to your shoulder blades. Drill pilot holes before screwing them on so the wood does not split. Next, is attach the cross bar connecting the two shoulder blade pieces. Drill, glue, and screw it in place (see figures 11 and 12 to see what the finished product should look like.)

So now you should have the bottom portion of the frame completed; next is the verticle beams (figure 7). Basically all you're going to do for this is rest the bottom frame portion on your shoulders, and from the tip of the frame take a piece of craft would and angle it from the tip running between your eyes to above your head. Cut the proper angle at the bottom end of the piece and screw it onto the bottom frame. So the front verticle piece will be resting on your forehead; you'll be attatching foam to it later for comfort when wearing the helmet. The second verticle beam will be attatched to the horizontal shoulder bar and connect to the top of the front verticle piece (figure 7, 8). This bar will be resting on the back of your head and will also be covered in foam, so be sure to leave some wiggle room. Angle cut the two verticle beams so they make a point at the top. It doesn't have to be perfect, because the actual tip (figure 2) isn't part of the frame itself.

Second Step: Cutting the shell panels

Okay, here's the part that really takes time. You'll need an exacto knife, lots of foam board, lots of hot glue, some snacks, and some good music always helps too. What you'll be doing here is cutting and glueing together the actual shell that will be supported by the frame. In other words, it's what others will be seeing; the actual helmet. So make it look good! One thing I will warn against right off the bat, is be VERY mindful of semetry. Even if you missalign something by a quarter of an inch, it is noticable upon close examination. So start off with your ¼ inch foam board, and start cutting the pieces for each panel. Now notice in figure in figure 7 that the main side panels (the ones you see out of) are comprised of 3 pieces and are reinforced together. Because I didn't make blueprints for this project, you're just going to have to wing it like I did and make due, though hopefully the measurements I have will help out some. Use the reference photos to see all of what kind of panels you will need to be making.

Now here is where you will probably get hurt. Pyramid Head demands your blood, and blood he will get! Take your big piece of metal mesh, your wire clippers, and start cutting out the triangle pieces for the sides (figure 6). You may want to cut out two per side with the holes running opposite like I did. Now unless you have leather gloves, I can promise you that you will cut up your hands doing this, this stuff really sucks. Cut each piece with about a 1 inch seam allowance so it can be glued to the frame. Do the same with your screen sheets: cut out about 8 triangles (4 per side) with 1 inch seam allowance. The screen is so you can see out of the helmet but no one can see in, so it is very important.

Now the next pieces you cut out are going to go over the mesh and screen (figure 1, 2, 5). Take your ½ inch foam board and cut out pieces according to the measurements provided (or according to your helmet's proportions). You may have to do it in three pieces like the side panels. Now what you will do with these pieces is you're going to carve lips into the inner edges of the piece to set in the screen and mesh. MAKE SURE YOUR CARVING THE LIP INTO THE CORRECT SIDE, otherwise you will have to make entirely new ones. After you carve the lip, set the mesh and screen, glue you're whole piece onto the side of your helmet panels. Again, MAKE SURE they are semetrical. Now might be a good time to attatch your shell to the wooden frame. Next you're going to make the bottom lip of the helmet out of two pieces of wood laying horizontal (figure 4). Epoxy and/or screw them to the bottom portion of the wooden frame.

Now that your panels are finished, it's time to move onto the clean up and priming.

Clean Up: Glueing and priming

As you probably noticed, the seams of the shell you glued together are probably not that clean. This is where the drywall tape comes in. This kind of tape is actually used for smoothing out corners, conveniently enough. Take strips of this tape and paint over it with a mixture of water and Elmer's glue Do this wherever is nessicary for clean up. This is also how you'll be making the top of the helmet: take some of this tape and shape it accordingly into the time, fill it with hot glue, and set it atop the helmet. This will make the tip a little spongey and a little more shock resistant. After all, this helmet isn't just designed to look good, but to take a good degree of punishment. It's amazing how many Pyramid Head helmets you see with bent tips because of bumping into things or dropping them. Heck, at the con I accedently crushed my helmet in the trunk of my friend's car, and it barely did a thing! Anyways, once the tip is set, slother it in Elmer's to paste it to the shell.

Next you're going to take your gesso canvas primer and mix it with plaster of paris; about 8 parts gesso and 2 parts plaster. Prime the whole helmet in this (except the part you'll be seeing out of obviously), and try to lay it on thick. When it dries you can sand it and get a nice metal-grain effect. Not much else to say other than that, it's pretty simple.

The Details: Nobs, tubes, and gashes

This part is fun. First thing you'll want to do is make the tubes on the sides of the helmet. If you're going for accuracy here and not any real artistic lisence, please pay careful attention of the length of each tube (figure 1, 6). Take your PVC elbow joints and corrigated tubing and make each tube piece by cutting the tubes and sticking elbow joints on each side. Cut the tube pieces in half lengthwise with a bansaw so that they can lay flat on the sides of the helmet.

Also take your PVC pipe ends and glue them onto the sides of the helmet. Notice the "sloppy" glueing technique used to attatch the PVC ends and tubes: let the hot glue slop around a bit so when you paint over it it looks like a sloppy weld. Take your metal pipe ends and glue them in the same fashion to the back. I tried using metal pipe ends to help balance the helmet, but I'm not sure if it actually makes that big a difference.

Now that everything is glued on, take a dremel tool and start hacking away at the helmet! Put as many gashes, knicks, and cuts in it as you see fit, but within good taste. You don't want too much or too little.

Painting: Spray Paint and Antiquing

I recommend using many different shades of metalic paint for use on the helmet. Light, medium, dark, and maybe even some coppers and other colors. Experiment with it and see what suites your look best. After you spray down the whole thing, you're going to do what's called an antique wash over the whole helmet. Basically what you do is get some black paint and smother it in all the cracks, wiping away the access with a rag or paper towel. What this does is make the surface look old, and it makes it appear like it's weathered and has dirt in all the cracks. It's amazing how much better you're helmet looks if you take this step. You could even try doing this with reds and browns for a dry blood effect.

Final Step: Attatching the foam

This is pretty much self explanitory. Try on your helmet and wear it around for about a half hour plus. If you're wearing this to a con, it has to be comfortable, so apply foam where needed (like on the shoulders and head area mostly). Other than that, your helmet is now finished!

Conclusion
Well, I hope this tutorial helps you all out, and I want to appologize for not finishing it sooner, especially since I know a lot of you have been waiting for it to work on your costumes. My life this past year has been very hectic, so I appreciate your understanding. Also, I would love to see your finished products! Send me a note or email me at Metroid4086@yahoo.com and send me your pictures. If any of you have questions, please leave a comment here so that others can see your question and the answer given. Thanks, and good luck!

Dark-Felix