Experience the excitement of making a Viking helmet from three simple and easily obtained components: a baseball hat, styrofoam and duct tape. This hat can be made in an hour or less, embellished any number of ways and is sturdy enough to last a long time. Whether you're making a costume, prepping for a play, or just looking to tackle a fun DIY project, you'll enjoy the thrill of saying you made it yourself.
Steps
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Begin by assembling supplies for the helmet. Find a baseball cap at the thrift store, one that fits your head well and is deep enough to sit securely. At the dollar store, find a ring of styrofoam where the supplies for flower arranging are located. At the hardware or discount store, get a roll of ordinary, grey duct tape.
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Cut the brim off the hat with scissors.Advertisement
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Cut two five inch pieces from the styrofoam circle and taper and round out the ends of the horns with a serrated steak knife. Make them mirror images of one another, since they will go on each side of the hat.
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Test how the horns will look by holding them up to the sides of the hat using the seams in the hat as guides to get them symmetrically aligned. Try different heights and angles for the horns.
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Run wire through each horn to attach it to the baseball hat. Cut a 12" piece of #10 common, household wire and double it. Hold the two raw ends and push the wire through from the middle of the horn, and having it come out at the base. Repeat with the second horn. On all four raw wire ends, circle and flatten them and enclose each in duct tape.
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Tape the horns onto the hat using 3" pieces of duct tape you have torn in advance and lined up along the table's edge for easy access. Tape over the flattened wires encased in duct tape on either side of each horn. Criss-cross tape and flatten and mold with your fingers to make it lie flat. Use 6" Pieces of tape and spiral it around the horns, pressing and molding with your hands.
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Wrap the entire hat, horns and all, with 12" pieces of duct tape. Angle and criss-cross the pieces to stabilize the horns and incorporate them onto the hat, contouring, overlapping and molding the tape to the hat and around the base of the horns. Use a lot of pressure to flatten and contour the tape to the hat.
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Trim the hat with fur by hot gluing a strip cut from an old hat around the entire opening of the helmet.
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For rivets, use scrunched up 1" pieces of tape. Lay the ball in place and cover it with another 1" piece of tape. Mimic metallic straps by using contrasting colored duct tape crossed over the front of the like a metallic band.
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Look up Viking head dress or Viking helmet for ideas on how to finish and embellish the helmet. The possibilities are endless.Advertisement
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Tips
- You can reduce the size of the helmet by adding a hat band inside of tape similar to a sweat band.Thanks
- Fur can be found at the fabric store or thrift store on old hats, clothing, or as the bodies of stuffed animals. Simply cut the pieces you need and glue them to the helmet.Thanks
- No matter if the baseball cap you use has a cut-out at the back, just tape over it.Thanks
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