DIY Loki Helmet- Avengers

With the new Loki series that just came out, I thought it would be a perfect time to make a tutorial on a Loki helmet. I saw a lot of tutorials out there, but not many had a free pattern. So I hope y’all enjoy this tutorial! This is my first tutorial, so it’s not perfect, but I tried to make the instructions pretty clear, so that beginners can make this too! Let’s get started!

You will need:
6mm EVA foam (4mm or 5mm would work too)
2mm EVA foam
Contact cement
Gold spray paint
Black acrylic paint
Two 30mm EVA foam dowel
Elmers white school glue
Paper bowl
Spray sealer

Tools:
Scissors
Paintbrush
Rotary tool
Heat gun (optional)

Here is a list of the pattern pieces and what thickness EVA foam they need to be cut out of:
(For any of the pieces labeled 6mm, 4mm or 5mm would work just fine too)
Head back + side- 6mm
Side head- 6mm
Middle head- 6mm
Bottom head- 6mm
Side face- 6mm
Front detail- 6mm
Front- 2mm
Side detail top- 2mm
Side detail- 2mm
Horns- 30mm foam dowel

To start assembling, gather all your pieces and lay them out like the picture above. This will help you keep the pieces straight. First, take all of the left head pieces and align them as in the picture. Then, following the instructions on the contact cement, glue them together. It should start getting pretty curved now. Then, take all of your right head pieces and glue them together the same way.

To assemble the bottom portion of the helmet, take both of your head back/side pieces, and glue the darts closed. Then glue the longer ends together.

To finish assembling, take both of your head side pieces that you’ve already assembled, and glue them together along the long side. Then take your head back pieces and, starting at the seam at the back of the head, glue it around the sides.

This helmet was designed to fit a 23 inch head, however, during pattern designing the pattern shrunk slightly, so it now fits a 21 inch head. If you would like to adjust the size of the helmet to make it bigger or smaller, simply cut apart the middle seam, and either add or cut off a strip and glue it back together. Remember, start small, you can always add more or take away more later.

For the detail, you will need the side face and front detail pieces. Use the alignment marks on the pattern to help correctly align the pieces. Then glue them on.

For the details, take the side detail, side detail top, and front pieces. Use the pictures to align and glue the detail pieces. The front piece gets glued directly to the front of the helmet, on the part that sticks out. The side detail pieces align on the side face pieces and wrap around the back. Then the side detail top pieces get glued at each side of the forehead and wrap around to the back. On the side detail and side detail top pieces, you might have to stretch and manipulate the pieces to lay flat. (On the pictures, I ended up having to cut some off the ends of the side detail top pieces, and adding some to the side detail pieces, but I altered the pattern so you shouldn’t have a problem with it). After all the pieces are glued on, take your rotary tool and smooth out all flat edges, and if you want, round off the edges of the detail pieces like I did.

To prep for painting, using elmers white school glue, paint the entire helmet. Let it dry completely before adding a second coat. I ended up doing two coats, but you can play around with it if you want different results. (This step is completely optional, it just helps to seal the foam before painting, so I recommend doing at least one coat).

For the paint, I used gold metallic spray paint. You can also use acrylic paint, I just didn’t want to take the time to do multiple coats, and spray paint gave me the nice even coat I wanted. I simply stuck a t-post into the ground to hang the helmet from, so I could do all sides at once. You could also just set the helmet on a cardboard box and paint one side at once. I only ended up having to do one coat, however different paints yield different results, so I recommend testing your paint on a scrap piece of EVA foam before painting your helmet. After I finished painting, I sprayed the entire helmet with several coats of spray sealer, just to make sure none of the paint comes off during weathering.

For the horns I used two EVA foam dowels. I first cut the dowels to the right length, and cut one end of both pieces at a slant, to make them fit better on the helmet. Then I cut the opposite ends down to a point and used the rotary tool to sand them down fairly smooth. Then I cut different shapes and sizes of 2mm foam and glued them onto the end of the horn that would attached to the helmet, to give it a better taper. Then I used the rotary tool to sand them down smooth. After you get the horns as smooth as you want, you will want to cut slits out of them, to help shape the curve better. I used a combination of the slits and heat forming with the heat gun to get the desired shape. After you shape them, you will need to prep them with elmers glue as well. Then take both horns and mark on the helmet where you want them to attach. Then glue them on with contact cement, and seal them together with hot glue. (I also went back and heat formed the side face pieces and the piece that comes down over the forehead, just to make it fit better).

This step is completely optional, if you would rather your helmet look brand new, then skip this step. However, if you’re like me, and you want your helmet to look battle-worn and dirty, then you will want to weather it. First you will need to pour out some of your black acrylic paint into a disposable bowl. Then water it down so it’s not so thick. After you get a good consistency, you will just cover the entire helmet with it. (I recommend going section by section, so that the paint doesn’t dry.) Then take some paper towels and wipe some of it off. Keep in mind, the more you wipe off, the cleaner it will look, and the less you wipe off, the more weathered it will look. Same goes for how long to leave the paint before wiping it off. If you paint it on and immediately wipe it off, not much will stick. If you leave it on for a minute, then wipe it off, more will stay on. The fun part about weathering is that you can’t mess up, and you can completely control how dirty you want it to look. After you get the look you want, let it dry completely, and then spray it with one more coat of spray sealer. Congratulations! Your Avengers Loki helmet is complete! Now you are Loki of Asgard, and you are burdened with glorious purpose!