Hold onto your helmets, it's another tutorial 4...

As any Tank Girl fans out there will know, our gal can often be seen wearing customised army helmets. They’re a super fun accessory, so I decided a few months back to have a go at making one. I started off by picking out a couple of ones I liked in the comics and worked out a design. There were a lot of sticky out bits, so I had a feeling putting it together was going to be easier said than done, but I’ve never let that stop me before and didn’t this time. I could have taken the easy route and bought a plastic helmet, which would have been soooo simple to attach things to, but me being me, I decided to go with something authentic, namely (and I quote) a ‘genuine vintage Bulgarian army M72 steel combat helmet’ which was going cheap on good ol’ ebay 👍👍. I was totally expecting to have to drill holes in this for some of the attachments, but as luck would have it, there were some readymade ones 😊. These are the other bits I used…

• 1 x plastic creature head – I was looking for something which resembled the head on one of my reference pictures and stumbled on something perfect while rummaging through a box of random toys in a thrift store.
• 1 x neodymium magnet – Used to fix the creature head onto the front of the helmet.
• 1 x dart – To stick in one of the holes. My only complaint here was I had to buy a pack of 3 and don’t know what to do with the other 2. Maybe I can use them in some future cosplay project.
• 1 x wooden rod + craft feathers + 1 x plastic wall plug – Used to make an arrow to poke in another of the holes. I had to make my own arrow, as none of the ones I saw for sale would have fit.
• 1 x kitchen fork – Another thrift store find which looked like it would be a good stand-in for a protruding knife if I chopped the top off.
• Some straps and buckles from an old bag – Stitched together to make a carrying strap for the helmet (which I needed to hang things off).
• 3 x old bullets for decoration
• Some bits of leather to make a bandolier type thing to hold the bullets.
• 1 x old cigarette box for decoration.
• 1 x gun keyring – This was an impulse thrift store buy, which wasn’t in the original design, but I thought would be another good decoration (there were actually so many impulse buys like this I couldn’t use them all and ended up making a Tank Girl baseball cap for the overflow – more about that another time).
• One of my old teddy bears (Flapjack) to hang from the knife (really a kitchen fork) handle.
• 1  x old white shoelace to make a hangman’s noose for my teddy (poor Flapjack 🎻).
• Acrylic paint and brushes - I’m sure y’all can guess what these were for.
• 1x target sticker – I bought this in a craft store, because it looked just like the target on the helmet in a couple of my pictures and I wanted to save myself a tricky painting job.

It took me a while to get all of that together (as you can imagine), but eventually I was ready to go. I eased myself in gently by sticking on the target sticker. Then I did the painting bits. I seem to be getting better at this, as I managed to get through it with no major screw-ups😊. I left the paint to dry for a day and sprayed on some fixative to protect it. It seems to be doing the job, though I have no clue how long it will last.

I made my arrow from the bits mentioned above and sawed off the top of the kitchen fork to make my stand-in knife. Then I worked out how I was going to attach everything. As I said, I used a magnet for the creature head. I stuck the arrow into one of the holes and the dart into another with a plastic bung on the other side to hold it in place. For the knife, I pushed a long screw through the last hole and screwed it into the top of the handle. You can see the screw from some angles, but it was the best I could come up with and it does the job.    

I hung Flapjack from the knife handle, clipped on the carry strap with its various decorations and that’s pretty much it. It’s not a bad take on the Tank Girl originals if I do say so myself, though it takes some getting used to. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bashed one of the sticky out bits on something when I’ve been walking around. Also it’s heavier at the back, so it has a tendency to slip off. As always, this isn’t a proper tutorial, but maybe it will be helpful if anyone out there is thinking of making their own Tank Girl helmet. Have fun if you do. I’m on Ko-fi if anyone is feeling generous and wants to support me in my cosplay adventures… ༻ko-fi.com/christabelq༺ It’s always super-appreciated. Bye for now. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜