Shadowing Practice: Making Agamemnon's Helmet from The Odyssey - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Today we're going to be making Agamemnon's helmet, beginning with a staple found in every ancient Greek army's arsenal, a 3D printer.
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No, but really, I realized one of my favorite designers, VEC3D, had this model available on their Maker World page, and the accuracy is incredible as always,
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so of course I had to make one for myself.
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I was able to print the entire cowl section in one piece on my printer.
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At first I tried printing the crown part laying like this, but it didn't like sticking to the support material enough, possibly because I was using ABS,
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so instead I rotated it more upright, which looks kind of crazy, but it shouldn't result in any more difficult post-processing than my original plan.
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This did actually print successfully and overall turned out to be a really clean-looking print.
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These main two pieces of the helmet are what I'm going to start working with.
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First was removing any support material.
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After that, the next thing I needed to deal with was fixing the nose on my helmet.
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It printed a little crooked, I guess the support material just had too much give, but because this is ABS I thought
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that chemically melting the piece with acetone to try
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and reshape it would possibly go easier than trying to heat it up enough to bend it back into place.
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Realistically I probably should have just cut the nose off at a certain point,
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printed a straight replacement, and stuck it back on the helmet because that would have been quicker than whatever this was.
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I did eventually manage to get back to a straight nose with the help of some UV resin as well.
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And next is on to everyone's least favorite part of a project, sanding.
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To make this process a little more enjoyable I'm of course using my tried and true foot sander,
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which yes if you're new here this is an electric foot sander for typically human feet, but you'll never find a better sander for 3D prints.
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This print itself was pretty clean so there wasn't anything that I really had to try and sand out to mask.
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There were a few areas I had to hand sand, but overall it was pretty straightforward, which means next we can move on to adding some filler primer to this helmet.
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This is going to help fill in any imperfections that I couldn't sand out.
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I always like to do a couple of layers of this, especially on the raw plastic.
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And while I was letting this paint dry, I went back to working on the crown piece to do pretty much the exact same process,
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sanding the ABS and then adding a couple of layers of filler primer.
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When the helmet part had dried, it still wasn't quite where I wanted it to be in terms of smoothness.
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This is a very smooth helmet, so there's really nowhere for imperfections to hide,
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so I hit it with a round of 180 grit hand sanding to try and smooth it out a bit more,
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and then also did another round of filler primer.
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Thankfully after this second round, I was happy with it, but before I add any paint,
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I like to sand the filler primer down once again with 400 grit sandpaper.
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This obviously is going to leave you with hopefully a really smooth surface to then start adding paint to,
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but I also like to do it just in case there's any overspray in sections.
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Because of how I want to go about painting this helmet, I first added some flat black primer to the filler primer base.
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This might vary depending on how you want to go about achieving the bronze or gold effect, and I'm going to be going over a few different options of how to do this,
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but in my case I'm going to have the helmet part and also the crown part both be that matte black.
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In between working on those helmet pieces, I also started to work on and print the vertebrae parts.
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There are quite a lot of these, and they're also very oddly shaped, so I just decided to resin print all of them.
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I was, however, paranoid that I wasn't going to be able to tell the 12 pieces
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that go on the top of the helmet apart, so I devised this plan of adding a corresponding number of
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heavy supports in a row to the bottom of the parts
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because when you try to remove these they will end up leaving little pock marks.
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And it worked, although I did realize afterwards
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that I could actually tell them apart because they kind of go in size order on the helmet.
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Once I had everything printed I then went ahead and cleaned and cured all of the pieces.
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pieces.
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Because these pieces need to come off as looking like real metal, they need to be pretty flawless surface texture-wise, and where there had been support material attached to these parts,
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there was a bit of like an uneven surface texture and pock marks, so I did sand those down a little bit to try
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and get them nice and smooth
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and then made sure to wipe everything down to get the extra resin dust off
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and attach them to popsicle sticks for easier painting.
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I'm going to be painting these same way that I'm assuming the real movie ones are actually painted.
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The more you get into screen accurate and prop replicas,
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you start to realize that literally anything that's supposed to look like metal is all painted in the exact same way, which is, for lack of a better term, the Beskar method.
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And that starts with needing a flawless glossy black base.
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Because these parts are smaller, I'm just using the Alclad gloss black base.
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If If I was planning on doing this to the entire helmet, then I would probably 2K clear the entire thing, which at that point, it doesn't really matter what finish of black you're using
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because the 2K is what's adding that really amazing shine.
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And once that's dried, it's onto the metallic layer.
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This time I'm using Duralumin Tuff.
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It's probably actually a Luma Luster, but I tend to reserve that for when I'm actually painting Beskar.
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There are a couple of other alternatives, but any of these paints that have metallic flakes suspended in a liquid are the kind
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that end up achieving this absolutely amazing metallic effect.
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Now, because we do need to dye this in a gold color, I tend to like spraying this a little heavier.
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These types of paints are effectively translucent, so you can choose whether you want the finish to be a darker gunmetal color
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or build it up to be more of a bright chrome finish.
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I just find
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that it being on the brighter end of the scale of things tends to result in a more pleasant final result,
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unless you are trying to achieve a darker color.
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Now normally you would want to set this with a clear coat in between adding the color, but I don't feel like doing that today, so I'm going to go straight in with this alcohol ink
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that I like to use that creates this really pleasant gold effect.
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You know, it's not too yellow, not too orange, it's just like the perfect gold shade, especially when used in this method.
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If you plan on going with this metallic paint route, you will also want to set all of this with a clear coat so that the finish never gets damaged.
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I wanted to try out something a little more experimental on the rest of the helmet with using this rub
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and buff in quite aptly named Grecian gold over the entire thing.
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Agamemnon's helmet looks like it's still supposed to be entirely made of bronze, and then the black color is added over top, which is why the edges are what is gold,
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and basically it's from being rubbed off and it's now showing through.
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So I wanted to see if I could pretty faithfully create this effect,
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and to do that I needed something that paint wouldn't really like sticking to and Rub N Buff, which is a wax paint, seemed like a great option.
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Definitely on the riskier side of things since the entire purpose is
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that I am assuming that the paint that I'm going to add over top of this is not going to stick well.
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I did do a test piece, so this was not me just being a maniac and going full speed ahead on the entire helmet.
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It's also just really easy to use
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and easy to get this incredible metallic finish without having to go through all of those other steps.
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I found that applying this onto the helmet went the best just using my fingers, although you are going to want to make sure you're using gloves because you don't want this paint on your skin.
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You really don't need a lot of it, so I was using like pea-sized amounts at a time and just working that all over the helmet.
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You could just decide to put this in the areas that you're going to see it later, but I wanted the full effect and I also was concerned
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if I only added it in certain sections
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that you'd be able to see exactly where it was applied once you start adding the black over top of it.
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The only place I didn't touch was where I knew the
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vertebrae were going to be getting glued on later just because I wanted to make sure that glue would actually stick,
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but I have to say the full bronze Agamemnon helmet is a pretty cool look.
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After you rub all the paint on, as the name would suggest, you do need to buff it, so I have my super official t-shirt sleeve cloth that I'm going to use to buff this paint,
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which just makes it really shiny.
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I had worked in the paint really well to the surface, so it was kind of like half buffed as is,
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but this just makes it that it's like a really nice even finish across the entire surface.
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And I of course did the same thing to the crown piece.
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This time I did end up using a brush so that I could get into those recessed areas along the raised sections,
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but I still overall mostly relied on the finger painting technique.
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And I didn't bother doing the inner part of the crown
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piece since that's where the plume will end up going and also the bottom since, again, it's going to be where a lot of pieces need to be getting attached
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and I wasn't sure how glue would react to this paint.
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I also just wanted to mention, despite covering an entire helmet and crown part in this rub and buff, I think I used maybe 20% of the tube?
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But now it's on to adding the black over top of this
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and you really need to be careful when doing this because as I mentioned, the entire purpose of using Rub N Buff is because paint is not going to like sticking to it.
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I highly recommend you do a test piece to make sure
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that your particular paint reacts well enough to the Rub N Buff and isn't like a complete catastrophe.
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That is one of the reasons I ended up airbrushing this black on
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because I found you really want to be applying the paint in as light a coat as possible.
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The waxiness of the rub and buff pretty much repels the paint, so you do not want an excess amount of paint on your piece
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that then can't dry and just creates more of a mess for you.
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I ended up doing a couple of coats of this black
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so that there wasn't too much paint on the surface at any given point
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and to also make sure that the gold was entirely covered and not showing through.
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When I did my initial paint test, I didn't have an issue using a spray can, but when I tried use it on my helmet, this was the result.
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I don't know if it was because I maybe didn't buff my test piece as much as my helmet, but whatever the case, clearly the spray can ended up putting too much paint on this surface
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and it just did not dry evenly whatsoever.
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So yes, what you're seeing me paint here was the fully stripped, sanded, and re-bronzed version of this helmet.
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And yes, I still have a ton of that rub and buff left.
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So while this rub and buff technique looks great and is easier in areas, it is also inherently riskier than doing other methods,
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specifically when it of course comes to applying this black paint over top of it.
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As long as you're careful about applying the black paint in
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thinner coats then I think it might be worth it
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because it ends up being so easy to make this gold emerge from underneath this black paint.
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You can just try and scratch it off.
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I found that in some areas I was accidentally scratching right through the gold
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and so the best method that i found was using some 70 isopropyl alcohol
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while it has no issue removing the black paint it doesn't affect the surface of the rub
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and buff whatsoever like not even the sheen of the metallic
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which is crazy it does take a little bit of rubbing
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with something like a cotton swab to remove the paint so
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if you accidentally get some of the isopropyl alcohol on parts that you don't particularly want the black to be removed on.
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You don't have to worry too, too much because it does take a little bit of friction.
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I used the same technique for the helmet portion, although I did start using the middle wooden section of the cotton swab to help scrape the paint off.
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I just found
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that the hardness of the wood was doing a really good job at creating nice clean marks along the edges.
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I'd of course recommend that you look up reference photos of Agamemnon
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so that you can see exactly where the wear of the black is showing through the most.
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It is really just on the high points and the edges of the helmet.
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I know for some people it might have seemed excessive to color the entire helmet in
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that bronze gold color for how much of the gold actually ends up showing through in the end.
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An easier method would be to go along these high points with a gold marker,
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but I really wanted to try out this new technique and also approach this project as authentically as possible, so that's the method I went with.
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Of course, we now have the slight issue of a helmet with black paint that technically doesn't like sticking to it, so I decided to go over the entire thing with a satin clear coat,
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which we are again going to want to apply carefully.
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I know this footage kind of looks horrific with the amount of spray on these pieces, but it does dry okay.
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The one thing with adding the satin coat is
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that you are technically mattifying the rub and buff a little it will not necessarily quite have that brilliant metallic sheen.
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At least on the helmet it's not super noticeable.
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On the crown piece I did go over the larger gold sections with a little more rub
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and buff just to bring that shine back.
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But now it is time to start tackling the plume.
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I bought a few different options to try and make this, this first one being this actual Trojan helmet plume.
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This was not nearly going to be enough hair for this helmet though, so I also picked up these carpentry brushes that looked promising.
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They had much longer bristles than a lot of other paint brushes and more hair-like bristle things that I could find.
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I mean, I did pick up a couple of brooms to try, but they were too plasticky because ultimately this does need to at least mimic horse hair.
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This plume was really nice, but it was absolutely not the right curve, which is why I'm dismembering it.
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I'm going to be using all the hair though in this printed piece that is what actually sits within the crown.
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There are a couple of versions of the model.
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I went with the one that has the holes in it
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because I figured it was going to go the best
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if I actually stuck the hair in these holes to create this plume.
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So the plan that I came up with, at least for mine, was to use this nicer hair around the outer edges of the plume,
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extra in the front, and then to take apart this particular carpentry brush
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and use these tufts that you can basically just pull out of it.
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They're stabled in place.
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But use these thicker, stronger bristles within the middle section of the plume.
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They were going to take up a lot more space.
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You also weren't going to really be able to see them
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because the edges were going to be covered by the nicer hair.
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Of course, these were the wrong color and I needed to dye them.
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For this, I just used some leather dye.
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It's what I had around.
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It does seem to have worked.
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I don't know if it would hold up to a rainstorm, but I also don't plan on having this helmet leave my home.
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And I of course dyed a lot of these little clumps, but it was really handy that they were already in these sections of hair bristles,
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whatever we want to call these.
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I ended up just closing the staple around the bundles to keep all of the bristles in place, and I didn't bother trying to stick these in the holes themselves.
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I just hot glued them onto this inner plate.
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For the outer sections, I was really careful about trying to have there not be any glue visible,
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so all of those little tufts of hair actually went within the holes on the plate.
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And I have to say, this plume making process is not for the faint of heart.
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I spent more time on this blasted piece of hair than I did the entire rest of the helmet,
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even when I had to strip and repaint the entire main helmet piece.
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So I was very happy to see this done.
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Before installing this into the crown piece, I decided to go ahead and install the vertebrae.
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I figured it was going to end up being easier
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if I did it in this order so that I didn't have to deal with the hair sticking out of this piece.
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Now, I know I showed the entire process of painting these earlier, but I didn't think about the fact
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that they were going to be sitting under something
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that was painted using an entirely different product and have a completely different finish, and I didn't like how much they didn't match.
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So I went ahead and added some rub and buff on top of the gold that I'd already painted, which did mostly work.
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Obviously, I wouldn't go out of my way to do the one technique and then add that over top normally, but this did save the color matching issue that I was having.
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Back to the actual plume though, I ended up adding some extra hair onto the front of the crown piece just
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because how I wanted the insert to be sitting, there needed to be some more hair in the front
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and I also needed it to be as long as it possibly could be.
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I ended up hot gluing this into place, but that's what we're working with.
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As you can see, I did leave the one end short hair
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and that's because I knew I was going to need to trim this.
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I didn't want to waste full lengths of hair on the back of the crown, but it also gave me a good guide of the lengths that I needed to blend together.
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Obviously being very careful since I can't miraculously add length back onto this if I accidentally cut it too short.
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In general, I also just needed to trim and try
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and make some of the hair tufts more even since they were in like a million different tufts of hair
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and they weren't all necessarily sitting at the same length.
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But here is how my finished plume turned out and now is on to attaching this to the helmet.
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I just used some super glue for this.
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Some of the vertebrae have tabs that sit within the indentations of the helmet, so that's how you line it up.
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But we are still not done with the hair work on this helmet
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because next we have to deal with the ponytail and the vertebrae that go onto it.
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I bought this ponytail extension since it wasn't very expensive and also in general just seemed perfect for this application.
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It has this piece of velcro at the top
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that I ended up connecting it onto itself and creating this roll that fit absolutely perfectly within the hole on the crown.
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This ponytail is way too long and also way too thick at the bottom for the vertebrae to fit onto it.
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There's quite a large size difference between the largest and smallest vertebrae that needs to go onto this ponytail.
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So I thinned out the bottom section and I also knew I was going to need to pad the upper section.
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Literally half of my time on this ponytail was spent just
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figuring out how on earth I was going to get these vertebrae onto it
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because shockingly not a lot of experience in that department.
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What I ended up doing was feeding on all of the vertebrae
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that would actually fit onto the ponytail as it was and of course they ordered they needed to be in.
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Next I glued the ponytail onto the helmet which was extremely nerve-wracking because there was no going back from this moment.
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Because of how I took the ponytail and wrapped it around itself, it created this sort of tube of hair that I started to stuff with those foam pieces.
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And then I would slide back up the various vertebrae in place
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and then continued to stuff them so that they would actually stay where they needed to be.
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Do I think this was the best method?
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No, probably not
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if you were planning on making this for cosplay then I would definitely suggest finding a more permanent and strong solution,
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probably looking up various anime wig techniques, but this was the best that I could come up with myself after like a 14 hour day spent on that plume.
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The bottom of the ponytail was once again another problem I needed to solve.
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On the thickness of my particular piece of hair, I could fit the top five vertebrae, but not the bottom three.
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So I ended up using a combination of some glue to try and keep the hair down and in place,
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and also some cling wrap to try and keep the hair nice
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and smooth so that I could slide these vertebrae on easier
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and just in general be able to get all of the hairs through them.
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Again, not a perfect solution.
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Somehow it did end up working even though removing the cling wrap was an entire other problem.
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After I miraculously managed to get all of the vertebrae on, I did end up trimming the ponytail down to the correct length.
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The last thing I did was weather these vertebrae parts with some brown and black paint.
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Really nothing too dramatic, just a little hint of color in some of the recessed areas of the vertebrae
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and around some of the under edges.
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It just helps to sell the idea that this is a helmet being worn
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and of course there's going to be some dust and dirt accumulate in these various parts.
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And here is the finished Agamemnon helmet.
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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?
Ever wanted to talk about 3D printing, crafting, or even ancient Greek helmets while improving your English? This video is a goldmine for real-world speaking practice. The speaker’s casual, step-by-step narration—filled with problem-solving, tools, and process details—mirrors how we talk about hobbies or projects in daily life. Using the shadowing technique here lets you mimic natural pacing, pauses, and conversational tone. Whether you’re describing a DIY task or troubleshooting a print, the video’s context helps you build fluency in practical, engaging scenarios. Plus, the mix of technical terms (like "filler primer") and everyday phrases ("everyone's least favorite part") makes it perfect for expanding your active vocabulary.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Let’s break down key structures to boost your speaking:
- "I realized one of my favorite designers... had this model available": Past perfect tense ("had available") shows a prior action before another past event. Use it to explain sequences, like "I noticed the printer had jammed before I started the project."
- "This did actually print successfully": "Did" for emphasis. Add it to highlight a surprising result: "The sandpaper did smooth the rough spots, even though I was worried."
- "Because of how I want to go about painting this helmet": "Go about" means "approach a task." Practice it: "How do you go about fixing a crooked 3D print?"
Common Pronunciation Traps
Watch out for these tricky words as you try shadowspeak:
- "Acetone": Pronounce it "uh-SEE-tone," not "uh-SET-own." The stress is on the second syllable.
- "Vertebrae": It’s "VUR-tuh-bray," not "VUR-tuh-brah." The final "e" is silent but changes the vowel sound.
- "Primer": Say "PRY-mer," not "PREE-mer." The short "i" sound is key here.
Using the shadowing technique helps you nail these nuances. Repeat the speaker’s lines immediately after them, focusing on stress and rhythm. Over time, shadow speech will make these words feel natural. Ready to try? Hit play, pause, and mimic—your pronunciation will thank you!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are actually painted · is added · being rubbed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | straightforward, which means · way, which is · top, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.