How to Make : Skyrim Iron Helmet (Dovahkiin)

I think that almost everyone knows the iconic dovahkiin iron helmet in Skyrim. Which is you can find it easily in the game from local blacksmiths, random loots, chest, and even from bandits. The iron helmet isn't my favourite actually (well, i would like to make nightingale's armor) but ever since i thought that this is the easiest to start papercrafting, then why not? :3

How to make Skyrim Iron Helmet : Finished Look

Iron Helmet

1. Pattern
What you need to do first is download the pattern or you just can trace it in pepakura by yourself, well mine... i download it in here : [download] it took nearly 3 days to gather all the pattern, so yes you need to be patience afterall. The rule of papercrafting is every edge of the pieces are numbered, where there's another piece that has the same number on an edge, that means they stick together. If you have never done this before, try to read and watch the video about papercrafting [here] 

Papercraft

 You can use PVA glue to stick it all together and after all the pieces are done, since i don't have any resin, i coated with PVA glue, it will harden the paper so yeah, it works. You'll need 2-4 coating tho if you spread it with PVA glue.

2. Hardening

The second coating is using shredded newspaper, it will strengthen the construction but after that you'll need to strehgthen it again using Dempul Plastic (Some people like to use plaster or body filler tho) Of course every materials has its negative and benefit, and the benefit of using dempul plastic is they are really cheap and also dried quickly (which is also a problem) if you blend it right, the time of drying will be just perfect but at another time... well it's catastrophic. And also, dempul plastic is lighter than using plaster and it doesn't break easily. The disadvantage is beside it dried too quickly sometimes, if you didn't smoothen it from the beginning, you'll have a hard time to smoothen it in the end but you can still use coarse paper to fix it. 

p.s if you want to, don't forget to give it a little scratch when the dempul plastic is still moist, so it will make a realistic battle scratch!

Coating with newspaper & pva glue

coating with dempul plastic

 3. Detailed Structure

Before you started giving the details, what you need to do is paint the helmet first using black matte pylox / spray paint, you need to do this because it will make you easier when you are going to paint the whole thing! My favourite material to give the detailed structure is EVA foam. It's cheap, light and easy to bend (i use the 2 mm) and you can see, you can actually designed your own personalized helmet. 

 

detailed with EVA foam

4. Painting

dundundundunnn and after that, it's time to paint the helmet! I'm using acrylic paint to paint the details~ first, using gray (just leave it a trace of black from the base painting) and spray it a little with silver spray paint.

Painting process

 p.s a little tips from me, if you want to make it look more real,
 try to give a shadow effect using black colour behind every EVA foam line

FINISH! 

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It's really easy to make it, so why don't you start by yourself :3