Team Shadowdragon Armourer Entry
by Keith "Saegan" Cronyn
This helmet had been an idea in the back of my head for some years. The concept was creating a helmet that emulates a cathedral by doing brick work along the outer portion of the helmet, and then using the pieces that were set in as stained glass windows.
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| Photo by View Staff |
It was hard to create an effect that looked like stained glass, but basically I tooled the windows into place, and hammered them so that it would have a look of hammered glass once the stain and glaze were in place.
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| Photo by View Staff |
Overall I'm happy with the piece, I did a style of helmet I hadn't don't before. I learned some new things about leather and stain, and I accomplished my goals as an armorer.
Team Shader Armourer Entry
by John "Gordon" Rescigno
When I found out I was going to be building a helmet, I was pretty worried. I had only ever built one helmet before, and it did not come out the way I wanted it to. For that helmet, I followed Prince Armory’s Fantasy Helmet pattern and tutorial. This was all I really knew, so this is what I worked with. The difficulties with this kind of helmet were the sizing and not being able to hear very well, because it covered the entire head, so these were the things I tried to improve upon in my design. Before moving forward with my design, I tried to search for some inspiration.
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| Photo Provided by Author |
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| Photo provided by Author |
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| Photo provided by Author |
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| Photo Provided by Author |
These were the two images that stood out to me, especially the blue helmet. The tooling on the bottom and the faceguard were my favorite parts. I omitted the upper visor for better peripheral vision, and shortened the design to avoid the hearing issues. This is where I ended up. The helmet sits around the brow with the help of leather headband on the inside, which helps you size the helmet to the model. The back actually has one less overhead panel than the original design to improve both ventilation and make the fit more comfortable, while still covering the appropriate amount of the head. This feature is hidden with the soft leather in the back that hangs over the neck and down the upper back.
With many helmets, the faceguard is incredibly important. It can, in my opinion, make or break the look of a helmet. The faceguard is what other players interact with, and can make you feel more powerful with that added anonymity as well as obscuring your facial expressions, which can give you an upper hand in a fight. However, I’ve noticed some faceguards muffling fighters’ voices too much at times, making fights harder to marshal or be a combatant in. My solution to this was to cut out some longer slits in the faceguard so that calls could clearly be heard, and the fighter wearing it could breathe while fighting, which I keep getting told is important to do.
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| Photo provided by Author |
Finally came the fun parts of the build. Structure is important, but being able to identify friend from foe on a battlefield is just as, if not more important! I am confident that with the black and gold being the most prominent features of this helm, you would be hard pressed not to identify the wearer of this helm as an Ashenmark fighter.
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| Photo Provided by Author |
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| Photo Provided by Author |
I had an amazing time stretching my skills and venturing outside my comfort zone to create this helmet, and i’m sure it will not be the last one I build. Stay tuned for more, and thank you to Rhiassa and Team Ashenmark for giving me this opportunity!!
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| Photo by View Staff |