Soldier's armor for the Courage of Kings Vacation Bible School 2012.
For instructions on how I made the embossed faux metal, look under the photo for the breastplate.
Cut cardboard in a length long enough to go around head and add an extra 1-1/2 to 2 inches. I did not add enough extra and the inside diameter of my finished helmet was a lot smaller than I wanted. Be sure that when you are making these pieces you cut them so that the vertical corrugation will always be going in the right direction to get the curve you want.
Cover and adhere embossed faux metal to all cardboard prior to doing any cutting. After cutting the first headband part of the helmet, cut out another circular piece that will be used for the upper part of the helmet. It needs to be cut smaller than the headband piece so that it will fit inside it. In the photo you can see that the upper part of the helmet is cut in strips and gradually folded and pushed inward to form the top of the helmet. I used a hot glue gun for a lot of this. When I was finished with the upper helmet piece, I slid it inside the bottom headband piece and used duct tape to adhere. I was going to add some red tassel to the very top but I couldn't find anything in my scraps so just crimped a piece of the faux metal and glued it to the top.
This is the one piece that was the most troublesome to make, but my troubles were all mainly due to my mistake in cutting the headband piece too small. It fit around my head perfectly, but when the top part of the helmet was slid down inside of it, the helmet became a lot smaller. I had planned on making a third piece (a pair) that would have covered the ears but because the helmet was so tight fitting I opted to just cut into my finished headband piece in hopes of making it easier to get on.
I'm sure you could make this without too much difficulty, especially now that I've shared my mistakes with you. And if you have kids, they can help you. My 13-yo daughter glued all the punched tags onto the breastplate.
I was in the VBS classroom for 3rd graders, and I really wanted to make armor that was authentic looking and would get the kids excited. When the other teacher and I were talking about the armor of God from the book of Ephesians, we would pick one of the kids to stand up front and wear the particular piece of armor we were talking about. Luckily there were a few kids in the class who had really tiny heads and could get the helmet on!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking and will post some comments and/or questions if you need some help making your own armor.
Date: Thursday, July 19, 2012 GMT Views: 318
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