Sculptor Dave Wilson and cosplayer Dale Harvey walk us through the process behind the helmet of the Queen Myrrah cosplay for Dale’s wife, Kim Harvey.

Queen Myrrah Cosplay Project

by David Wilson

Much like every other helmet I’ve sculpted I began by building up the larger shapes on a replica of my own head (made in plaster and fiberglass, to serve as a mannequin). Using soft clay I was able to quickly build up the general shape of Myrrah’s helmet, using concept art from Google as my main guide. It was not long before I had something resembling the helmet, and could begin to refine shapes and work on the symmetry of the piece.

Eventually I managed to get it to a stage where I was happy with it; everything was symmetrical and nicely laid out. From there I began the heavier detailing phase, cutting all the recesses into the piece and I began using the inside face of a broken car light as a texture stamp to portray the patterns seen in the varying recesses in the helmet. Safe to say, this was very time consuming!

After I managed to complete this section of the build I had to then go in and add all the circular details, which was probably the easiest part of the entire build. From there it was a quick wash with Isopropyl alcohol and a final smoothing and I moved on to mould making.

I masked off one side with clay, poured the silicone on that side making sure to get every detail, masked off the other side and poured that side. When I pulled the silicone off I had to slice along the ‘wings’ in order for them to come out, which presented the problem of tearing occurring, but with care it all worked out well.

Then it was on to the casting process, I use a special two part plastic mix that cures extremely quickly and is very good for roto-casting (more jargon). The end product of this (with some cleaning up of flashing and overflow) can be seen in the pictures. The casting was then boxed up and sent off to Dale, to await his wonderful paint job and lighting work!

-David Wilson (Aka, XxCALIBERxX or XxDaveyWaveyxX)

by Dale Harvey

Since David had done such a good job with my last request I had full faith that he was going to be able to pull off, what at first I just saw as a awesome gift for my wife. As soon as I started seeing his progress pics I got really excited as to how I would paint it, and what else I could do to make things really special for my wife, as she always takes care of me while I cosplay. Let’s let her get in on some of the fun!

Before David’s final cast arrived I started making my wife a few pieces of locust armor inspired by Queen Myrrah for her to wear at Pax East if she wanted. Just a few pieces of Thigh, Forearm, Belt, and Shoulder armor for her to able to slip in and out of quickly if she so desired. I got lucky and got all the pieces finished right before the helmet arrived, and when I pulled it out of the shipping box, all I can say was that it was lovely.

Like giddy little Kids, I quickly had my wife try her new haberdashery on, and found that we only needed to make a few adjustments to the sides, and the opening at the bottom. After a few hours of cutting, sanding, and fitting and refitting, we found the sweet spot where she could wear the helmet comfortably and have full range of motion with her head.

The next day I started to paint and color match the helmet, mixing a primer gray with a metallic gray spray paint that was supposed to have a “hammer” metal finish to use as the base, and then finding and using Jacuard paints to give me just the colors I wanted for her helmet.

I’ve been asked why I don’t do much weathering of my props, and the best answer I have is that I feel that over the course of time that they will be in used that they will get scratched, dinged, broken, fixed and repaired so many times that they will start to get that “weathered” look naturally.

While the paint was drying, I started working on the lighting, and wired four red LED lights to two coin batteries. I started planning a way to stow the batteries and wires in her helmet without them being affected by heat and sweat. To accomplish this I coated the exposed contact points with hot glue, and then glued the wires into the inside of the helmet. Problem solved for the moment. After the paint was completely dry, the LEDs installed and a thin layer of padding were added to the inside.

I want to give a huge thank you once again to David Wilson, as his raw cast of the Queen Myrrah helmet was the real star here, I’m just glad I was able to add something special to it and make it unique for my wife.
-Dale Harvey