Captain America Helmet and Shield

So I really wanted to be the WW2 Captain America for Halloween but I wanted a quality shield and helmet. Now, if you have had the same idea I'm sure you figured out that it is A - impossible to find a good shield for a good price that isn't a 400 dollar replica and B - just plain impossible to even find an actual CA helmet and not some crappy mask.

So what do I do?  Well I have never sculpted before so that is kind of not an option. I can't cast mold one because, well I don't have template to make a mold. So like most of the stuff I have posted I like to build off of and modify things that already exist to reach my goal. Lets start with the shield.

 

I shopped around for a decent shield on amazon and came up with the Captain America Adult Movie Shield by Disguise. This is is honestly a total piece of flimsy crap but that's why we modify it right? So I cut off the original arm straps and build and insert made out of black foam board and white foam disks. Basically I built a foam shield and glued it to the back of the actual shield.

 

Before I glued it I inserted these old army straps left over from an old project and custom fit them to my arm. Then I painted the entire back with silver acrylic paint to give it an old brushed steel look.

 

From there I just decided to and paint the bullet mark details and what not with black and silver acrylic and of course, clear coat. Now the helmet.

The helmet took quite a bit of trial and error to get right. The main piece is an actual little kids mask. On amazon once again, I found the Marvel Avengers Movie Hero Roleplay Mask Captain America by Hasbro. From there I went to Toys R Us and bought a little kid's Tony Hawk skateboard helmet, gutted it and cut about a quarter of the front off and riveted them together. I'm sure from the vents in the helmet you can tell its a skateboard helmet but hey, no bodies perfect. 

I use automotive paint for almost everything. For this project I used Ford Royal Blue.  

I hand painted the wings because I could not find decals anywhere on the planet. It kinda looks like crap but I can live with it. Haters gunna hate. 

Here I added some actual leather where the gap is in between the skate helmet and the masks fake leather. If you do decide to do something like this, drill ear holes in the leather so you can actually hear stuff. Anyway, I had extra leather and a plastic clasp so I went ahead and added the chin strap.

So here is how horrible it looks on the inside but it gives you a good look at how everything was modified together. A plus from the skate helmet was that it also provided me with the padding, which is nice, so don't throw it away if you go this route. 

All in all this project, not including shipping, took about three days and cost me roughly 120 bucks for both the shield and helmet.