Arguably the most painful part of any Tali costume is her helmet.
It took a lot of research to figure out how to create the right shape for the helmet. There was not a lack of material to work with; the abundance of articles, forum posts, “how to” wikis and various other sources made researching pretty easy. From cardboard to craft foam as long as you can find a medium you feel comfortable working with you can make a helmet for any character you desire.
I decided to go with building a paper model then reinforcing it with Aqua Resin. Pepakura is a free Japanese paper craft model program that is easy to use and there are so many 3D models already unfolded for this program that is just makes sense to use it. Pepakura can be downloaded here.
I printed everything on card stock and used an x-acto knife with a ruler to cut clean, precise lines. Then I used a ballpoint pen to trace the fold lines, this made the card stock bend neatly and made assembly much easier! I chose to use a hot glue gun instead of regular Elmer school glue to add the extra support-plus it dries a lot faster.
Paper helm constructed, before Aqua Resin was put on.
Some finger burns and unpleasant words later I ended up with a boxy replica of a Quarian helmet. I chose to not assemble the visor part with the rest of the helmet and instead set those pieces aside.
Aqua Resin
Usually Bondo is a great go to for projects like these. Unfortunately you need a well ventilated area to use it and, during the winter, outside was really not an option. I found a nontoxic alternative with Aqua Resin. I followed a really useful tutorial by 405th.com forum member Caltec that can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naJ-O_lliYI
First layers of the Aqua Resin setting.
I highly recommend this product for costuming purposes. It smells like flour, is easy to sand and, with fibreglass, is sturdy and can take a tumble on the floor (proven theory!). I did about 4 even coats on the paper model and then played with the measurements to create more of a putty to get a smooth, round surface.
Dull grey primer applied!
I painted it in a dull grey primer and added some messy black marks to make it look more used. I wasn’t quite happy with the dull grey after that, so I used some Mod Podge to seal everything and give it some shine.(Not Shown Above!)
The Visor
I regretted not completing the pepakura visor at this point. To help the helmet stay symmetrical in its shape AND to give you a loose form to work with instead of something from scratch would have made this process a lot easier. To get an idea on how the material was to stretch and fit in the helmet comfortably I took all of my scrap paper from the pepakura process and pieced together a mock up:
Visor mock up using scotch tape and scraps of paper from pepakura cutting.
I had it in my mind at this point that I was going to take some purple coloured plexiglass I had purchased and shape it with heat and a solid version of my mock up. I will make this short and say that did not go well-I did however end up making a strange bowl.
The issue with the plexiglass I had tried to use was that is was thick and the shape I needed was unforgiving! So instead I took a face shield and shaped it with a heat gun:
Heat formed face shield
I was really happy with this-but it isn’t purple! After looking into lenses for lights, window tints, and a whole load of other “what ifs” I found a method that seemed simple to use and produced the results I was looking for.
Using a transparent acrylic pigment and liquid glaze mixture and watering it down allows a surface to be tinted without it becoming too solid and leaving it unable to be seen through. Pour a small amount of the mixture in to the center of the visor and rotate it till the surface is completely covered. Rest the visor upright and let all of the excess drip off. The first coat will look light, I repeated these steps three times till I got the pigment I was happy with.
Depending on how much water is added to the mixture drying times can change from 30 minutes to 2 hours! If you get any bubbles or uneven spots you can rinse it off, but doing so repeatedly will leave some marks on the plexiglass. On that note: keep in mind some smudges or scratches may happen because plexiglass is temperamental. While you can purchase most face shields with a protective covering, I had to remove it to make sure no paint got trapped in the front of the visor.
After leaving it to dry for a day I used a hot glue gun to secure it in the mask.
Afterwards I used weather stripping (I kid you not) to line the inside of the helmet to fit as needed. Weather stripping was helpful in that it compresses easily and can be cut and trimmed. It feels like wearing a bicycle helmet. To counteract the weight of the front part, so that it didn’t pull down when I moved my head, a piece of lead was cut and glued to the back of the helmet. The voice activated light was fit in the front in between padding and voila!
The 'Zorah Project 