Plastic Stageplay Helmets

The nearest town to where I live, Ronneby, was routed in 1564 by the Swedish king Erik XIV; an event noted in the history books as "The Bloodbath of Ronneby". It's a fitting moniker, since most of the population was actually killed. My home province of Blekinge wasn't Swedish at this point in history, it was Danish, and the Swedes and the Danes were embroiled in a 7-year conflict. The Swedish king hired Finnish and German mercenaries to capture Ronneby, which they did in just one day.
Every year some theatre group stage an outdoor show recounting the bloody events, and this year's production wanted to add as much historical detail as possible. Some years back, a rusty morion helmet was dug up in Ronneby. Obviously someone of the mercenaries had worn it. The play director, Johan Westermark, wanted two morions to be worn in the play, but he didn't want any pristine steel reproductions. I was asked to produce two slightly beat-up morions in plastic, so they'd look right AND wouldn't be heavy to wear.

I did one helmet sculpture in Chavant clay, based on the rusty morion found in Ronneby.

It took about a full day to create a silicone mould for the sculpture, adding layer upon layer of DragonSkin FX Pro silicone. I used a thickening agent for all layers but the first one. I added a two-part support shell for the silicone mould by using thick plaster bandages. After peeling off the cured silicone mould, I could let it rest in the plaster bandage "cradle" when casting the plastic.

I used a plastic called SmoothCast 65, which is sold by SmoothOn. It's quite sturdy and bends rather than breaks. It cures bright white, but I added black pigments to create a greyish metallic look.

After cleaning up the plaster casts I painted them with a high-gloss chrome spray paint. Over that I covered the helmet with an airbrush varnish, which created a more worn, satin look. The chin straps were just second hand shop-bought belts. The studs were also plastic, and created by casting Friendly Plastic thermoplastic into a silicone mould I made from a coat button. Roundhead fasteners were pressed into the curing plastic studs, and then threaded through the helmet to keep the studs in place. 

If I had enough money I'd love to try and create my own fantasy armour, but it'll take a lot of clay and a lot of silicone and plastic. Dracula's crimson armour from the prologue of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" was made this way. I've worn real armour and I know how heavy and cumbersome it is. It also takes forever to get in and out of it. The thing is, I have an idea for a video project requiring armour that doesn't look like anything out there, and I'm racking my brain trying to figure out a quick, cheap way of building it. More about that later, I'm sure.

Imitating Life

I'm a member of UFO Sweden, an organization researching strange anomalies encountered and reported by people. UFO Sweden is led by the indefatigable Clas Svahn, journalist and author. We publish one magazine for the general public, and one for the investigators. Several years back I drew a comic for the internally published magazine, portraying Clas and his colleague Håkan as Men in Black. The comic was called “The Y Files”, and made fun (rather innocently, I thought) of the sometimes very weird and crazy UFO movement. Some loved it and some hated it bitterly, arguing that this single jest undermined the whole purpose of our organization. Eventually I grew tired of the crybabies and put the comic to rest.

I decided to give Clas a surprise Christmas gift this years, and sculpted a figurine of his “Y Files” alter ego, about to be grabbed by a stalky-eyed alien.

I created both characters in Chavant clay, and built up silicone molds around each figure separately.

 

The finished figurines were cast in SmoothCast 325, my favorite plastic, and painted with acrylic airbrush paints.

Clas had a really bad Christmas. Both his mom and his father in law passed away within a few days of each other. I hope my little gift gave him cause to smile a bit, and I think it did.

I also made a small sculpture of my uncle Ingvar as a gnome, since he’s interested in folklore and old traditions, but not least because he’s actually seen one!

When I make my silicone molds, I just build up a clay wall as closely to the sculpture as I can, so no excess silicone will be wasted. Also, I don’t want the molds to be too thick. If there’s a good enough thinness, without making the molds to soft and wobbly, I don’t have to make many, or any, cuts in the silicone to remove the sculpture, and later, the castings.

The camera wouldn’t give us any sharp images today, but I hope you get the general idea.

Something about the props for "The King Who Sought Immortality"

For this film I wanted some really distinctive props, stuff that couldn't be bought or rented. This meant sculpting and casting quite a bit of stuff. I'll show you some examples here.

This very simple Chavant clay sculpture, with added pearls and buttons, was duplicated in plastic from a silicone mold. I added a big safety-pin on the back of it, painted it gold, and voila; A cape clasp. I made about eight different clasp in this way.

This neck piece for Ishtar started off as a clay sculpture. I made a plaster mold for casting latex, since I wanted the neck piece to be soft and comfortable. In this photo the latex piece has been painted with brown PAX paint. Below it's been dry-brushed with gold paint.


This Chavant clay sculpture was also reproduced in latex and used as a bracelet for Ishtar. The rounded arcs with their straight centerpiece are actually an old Sumerian symbol of divinity.

Now for some complicated stuff; the king's sword. I read that some of the very first swords ever made were made out of gold and copper. Bronze apparently came later. I wanted a short, simple sword that was also light and easy to use. I decided to cast the sword in durable plastic (SmoothCast 325 from SmoothOn.com). I have an old African (?) spear head I bought long ago that was the perfect lenght and shape for the blade. I sculpted the grip in Chavant clay.



I brushed a layer of Dragon Skin Q silicone all over the sword and let that set. Then I made a makeshift mold brace out of cardboard and filled it with more silicone, and lowered the sword into the goo. After the silicone had set I removed the sword by cutting through the middle of the mold, almost all the way down.

The silicone mold itself is very jiggly, so I had to add some kind of support when casting the plastic in it. I simply duck-taped it up against a wooden board and that worked. The finished sword came out nice and straight. Maybe I was just lucky this time.

The plastic sword, with its thin blade, would have been to wobbly on its own, so before pouring the plastic I lowered a thin piece of coal fiber (the top piece of a fishing rod) into the mold. This added the needed strenght and stability. In this photo a coat of brown / green color is airbrushed on.

A mix of purple and gold has been airbrushed on to highlight the sword. Finished!


Well, nearly finished. The sword needs a sheath, of course. I made mine out of sturdy cardboard, reinforced with ducktape.

On the top and bottom parts of the sheath I sculpted clay fittings, later reproduced in plastic from silicone molds.

Before adding the fittings, the sheath was covered in leather-imitation PVC cloth.

And when finished and in the hands of a king, even a plastic sword can kill demons and chop of octopus tentacles.