Coolest Homemade Spartan Costume

I made this homemade Spartan costume for my 22nd birthday. I had spent most of my summer without a job and decided to be creative.

I spent large amounts of my time making the helmet and shield as the cape was relatively simple as was making the grieves.

The helmet started as a strip of cardboard wrapped around my head and it took shape from there. Cutting out the shape and then building up from there.

It sounds simple enough to sort of build a skeleton of what your making to begin with and then add on to it.

Paper-mache was used extensively to bulk up and thicken the helmet shape. To make the slot where the bristles would stick out the top of the helmet I made a cardboard wall and again used a lot of paper-mache to strengthen it.

I bought three fence paint brushes and put the bristles in the top of the helmet. To finish I used a primer coat of spray paint before using metallic silver spray paint covering the bristles with a carrier bag to avoid painting them. I then used a knife and scratched in the cut mark and filled it in with black paint.

The shield started as one big circular piece of cardboard with several gradual smaller pieces glued on top of it to get a sort of dome shape though leaving a flat edge on the outer edge. Once again a large amount of paper-mache was used to give the shield a decent dome shape. Handle loops were attached to the back so I could hold it.

Once this was achieved I put strips of cardboard on to make the upside down ‘V’ and and more paper-mache was applied. Once I was happy with it I coated it with a primer spray paint and then used a metallic gold spray paint.

I used watered down black paint and lightly brushed it on the edges of the upside down ‘V’ to give a sort of metallic battered effect. Again I cut marks into the shield and filled them in with black paint to give the battle effect look.

Please let me know what you think of my creation :)