Knight’s Helmet

How to Make

1. To make the helmet base shape, fold a piece of A2 card in half then gently press along the middle to make a crease, without pressing down too hard.
   Leaving the card folded, mark a point in pencil on the fold, 24cm from the top. Mark another point on the open edge, 21cm from the top. Join the 2 points with a line. Cut along the line then unfold the card.
2. Brush silver paint over the helmet base shape and over a large and small cardboard plate. Leave to dry.
3. Brush gold paint over 2 pieces from a Helmet Face Mask kit (1 x eye mask and 1 x mouth mask). Leave to dry.
4. Fold the gold eye mask in half then open it out. Place the eye mask over the helmet base with the central folds matching up and the top of the mask in line with the top of the card underneath. Draw through eye slots in pencil, marking their positions onto the silver, then remove the mask.
5. Fold the gold mouth mask in half, taking extra care along the thin middle strip, then open it out. Place the mouth mask over the helmet base with the central folds matching up and the bottom of the mask overhanging the edge of the card by 1cm. Draw through the mouth slots in pencil, marking their positions onto the silver, then remove the mask.
6. Fold the silver helmet in half. Cut out the eye slots following the pencil lines. To make this easier, cut across the middle so the slots are removed as a single curved piece.
   Cut out the mouth from the helmet in the same way, cutting across the middle fold, following around the edge of the pencil lines to make a single hole.
7. Open out the silver helmet and place it flat on your work surface. Glue the gold eye and mouth masks over the cut out holes and leave to dry. Use either a complete eye mask on the helmet, or cut it down in size to create a thinner shape to cover the eye slots, as shown here.
8. To make the top of the helmet, mark pencil lines around the edge of the large painted plate, make the lines 1.5cm in length and spaced 5 ribs apart on the plate pattern. Cut along all the lines then fold over to make a series of tabs.
   Brush plenty glue onto the folded tabs then carefully curl the silver helmet over the top. Press around the top of the helmet base so the tabs on the plate are stuck down.
   Push your fingers through the gap at the back of the helmet to press on the tabs. Check the plate is straight then leave to dry.
9. To make a decorative strip around the top of the helmet, gently fold a silver card crown in half, brush glue on the back then stick it down, pressing the strip with your fingers until it is stays in place.
   Glue the smaller painted plate on top of the helmet.
   As extra decoration, stick on gold and silver self-adhesive pearls and paint a pattern onto the helmet.

Fitting the helmet:

If the helmet feels too big or loose, try taping a couple of tightly twisted tissue paper strips inside.
To pull in the back of the helmet and make it a tighter fit, glue a 2cm x 10cm card strip to one of the bottom corners at the back and leave to dry. Stick a piece of self-adhesive velcro to the end of the card strip, with the facing piece stuck onto the helmet. The velcro can be used to adjust the helmet at the back, so it doesn’t slip.

Top Tip

To make the helmet sturdier, the 2 eye and 8 mouth slots can be cut out separately, with adult help. The simplified version described in Step 6 requires making only 2 holes, which can easily be made by cutting across the folded card.