For those of you who find this post looking for the second movie in the Spaceballs saga, I have to dissapoint you. I, as yourself, am looking for concrete evidence of the second Spaceballs movie. Instead, this post is about my second attempt at building a spaceball helmet.
My first spaceball helmet took me weeks to make. Just cutting the helmet took a few hours and was less than perfect. I had to use a hand-hacksaw, so precision cuts were nearly impossible. I also wound up cracking one corner of the cut out leaving me with a LOT of work touching up, patching, sanding, priming and painting. The whole process took about a week or two of actual work (which was spread out over 3 months or so). All this work ended when I took a hard left turn sending Diana sliding across the back seat of my car into the helmet. It was completely destroyed.
2 days ago I realized that this upcoming weekend is Shore-leave, a sci-fi/fantasy convention held in Maryland. I made plans almost a year ago to share a room with some friends of mine giving me 3 days to finish the new helmet. I already had the materials, but I didn’t have any of the tools. I called my father and asked him to bring home a dremel from work, and last night headed to Home Depot after work to pick up some bits. I grabbed a diamond cutting wheel and a few other odds, hoping that they would work, but to my dissapointment, my father had not brought home the dremel yet.
I called him from work today and thank god, he brought it. The diamond cutting wheel cut slowly, but acurately. I was even able to use it to bevel the edges of the helmet without cracking it! I cut out the face, and even made the opening a bit larger. I actually think it came out better this time as all the edges are straight, and clean. I glued the head-peice in (60 second epoxy is awesome! lol)
Tomorrow, I’ll rush to Home Depot again (only place open at 11:30PM) and pick up some primer and glossy white paint. I liked the way the first helmet looked when painted, so I’ll repeat that. This time I won’t have to worry about sanding bondo or electrical tape to make everything look good 🙂
Without doing any complicated math, I think this costume has cost me over $200! Possibly $250 or so even… lol. It is rewarding to work on this stuff yourself though. My next project is to get the rest of the Spaceballs body armor and then paint the helmet black 🙂 I dont think thats going to happen for a while though 🙂
pics please
🙂 I havent taken any yet. Once done, I will and I’ll try to get some of me wearing it at the con…
I’ll shoot a few if I have time tomorrow, but I’ll be rushing around a lot.
I’m painting it tonight, and pray it’ll be completely dry by tomorrow when I have to put it in my car and leave 🙂
What material was the original ball made of? I’m about to creat my own spaceball helmet and am considering different optinons. Also, what size is the original ball that you’re using?
I used a 12″ outdoor lamp fixture… tossed the fixture and cut the globe with a dremel. Mounted a headpeice inside and painted…