Above left is the British 15th Light Dragoon's officer's helmet, 1763 - 1784, which served as the inspiration for this helmet. On the right is my drawing of what I planned on creating, using the baseball cap as a starting form. I would do some fancy tooling on the two red sections. You can see a dragon drawn on the crest.
What follows is a step-by-step process of how I went about building a dragoon helmet out of leather. I had never made this particular helmet before, although I've made some that are similar. The text was written as I went along, without knowing if it would turn out or not (in fact, something did go wrong!). I took photographs along the way to illustrate each step. The basic method that I use of casing and forming vegetable tanned leather can easily be applied to other projects.
Soft plastic baseball cap which I will fill with plaster of Paris.
I found a baseball hardshell hat at a yard sale, and have decided to construct a fantasy helmet based on a historical dragoon design, using it as the hat form for the leather. When I turned it backwards I noticed that the bill would make a very nice neckpiece, so will use it that way.
It will be of formed leather with a crest with horsehair and a front upright piece of molded leather in place of a visor.The photo of the 15th Light Dragoon's helmet from Great Britain is part of my inspiration, especially that front piece (I don't know what it's called). I plan on doing some fancy decorative leather tooling on that front piece.
In the pictures I show the side view of the baseball cap, and then my altered plan of it (which I created in Corel Draw). It is preliminary, and always subject to change, especially once I'm into the construction and discover some opportunity or limitation. If the leather doesn't do what I want it to, I'll just go with what it does. Assuming it can be made beautiful. At any rate, I'll begin by filling the baseball hat with plaster, and splitting it down the middle using a bandsaw. Then I'll stretch the leather over it to create right and left halves, and then stitch them together.
On the left is the baseball cap filled with plaster, and bandsawn in half. On the right is the tracing of the crest which will be transferred to the other half.
In the next step of my dragoon helmet, I filled the baseball hardhat with plaster, and after letting it set for one day bandsawed it in half. Normally I would pop out the entire plaster piece and leave the hardhat intact, but since this one was made of a soft plastic (that I knew would cut easily), and because the hat is a little small, I decided to leave the hardhat on the plaster when I go to shape the leather.
Of course that means I won't be able to reshape the plaster, but I feel the shape is fine the way it is, and so I'm leaving it as is. Next step will be to cut out the crest shape for forming, and to mount the two halves on plywood along with the crests.
Above left are both halves of the hat forms with insulation board crests (in white) on plywood "L"s. On the right is the revised crest (see page 2).
I cut two pieces of ¾" plywood for each half, and hotglued, then screwed them together in the shape of an 'L'. I drew out a pattern for the crest and bandsawed two crest forms in ½" thick sheet material (normally it would be plywood or particleboard, but I had this insulation board so I used that). I realized that it was critical that the left and right sides line up pretty well, so I laid a piece of cardstock behind one set of forms set in position as I wanted them, and traced the outline. After cutting it out with scissors, I traced it back onto the plywood 'L's—both sides—ensuring that the crest would sit in the same spot on top of the crown pieces.
I put two screws through the crest forms into the plywood, which pretty much locked the baseball hat in place. Now I do have some concern about whether or not my 8-9 oz leather will be able to conform to this shape, so I have prepared the forms for vacuuming. If hand manipulating the cased leather doesn't succeed in getting it to lay down tightly over my form, I can place a plastic bag over the form and leather and suck out the air with a vacuum pump. It can be very effective.
To that end I have bandsawn all around the form, and rounded off all edges. I also may use a Pony clamp to get the crest leather to lay flat. The leather will want to bridge between the crown and the crest, and not pull in tightly. Either the vacuum or the clamp should take care of that. Next step is to case the leather and stretch it over the form. I can get a much better idea now of what the helmet is going to look like.
How I made the Rus Viking helm |
How to make an American Dragoon helmet |
Making a British Dragoon helmet
How to make faux ivory buttons |
Leather Helmets |
The Sigurd Viking helm kit
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