# Horns attached to a box cap? (seeking advice)



## Neekko (Feb 25, 2011)

I know close to nothing about creating fursuits and I am not a suiter, but I wouldn't mind wearing a bit of my character at cons by way of horns on a box cap. I want to take a stab at making it myself before seeking a pro suit-maker.

Below is a crude sketch of what I have in mind:






Now, I would like to know how best to execute this thing. I want the horns light in weight so that the hat doesn't topple off my head. I also want them to be made out of a hard, solid material and not cloth or fur.

*Materials?*
At first I was thinking Sculpey, but it would be hazardous to bake if the core is made of foam. Not to mention that Sculpey isn't lightweight. Also, what _would_ work best as a core, if I even need a core? Do you think it would be effective with hollow horns? If so, what kind of material?

Color? What kind of paint is best? I would like to have a gloss to them. Spray paint? Acrylic? What is a good finish?

*Attaching the horns to the hat?*
What should I do? Sew them on? Glue? Would a base on the inside of the hat provide suitable foundation? Maybe I could sculpt the horns onto a separate base, then cut out holes in the hat and put the two together? Would I have to attach the horns to a headband and then wear the hat over it? (I kind of want to avoid a headband if possible)

Also, if anyone has tutorials on what I want done, please do link to them! I tried looking at the resources in the stickies, but I couldn't find anything specifically pertaining to my potential project.

I am a total noob, so I really want to get this right. All advice is appreciated, even if you think the idea is complete bollocks.


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## dinosaurdammit (Feb 25, 2011)

You could try resin. Light weight resin. Look up beetlecat. She makes resin antlers and such. Look up tutorials. You want to make them hollow as well to keep it light weight. As for the holes- go for it. It looks bad ass with them poking through the hat. Attach them to a headband under the cap and vola.


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## Neekko (Feb 25, 2011)

dinosaurdammit said:


> You could try resin. Light weight resin. Look up beetlecat. She makes resin antlers and such. Look up tutorials. You want to make them hollow as well to keep it light weight. As for the holes- go for it. It looks bad ass with them poking through the hat. Attach them to a headband under the cap and vola.


 
Nice! I managed to find a horn tutorial through the link you've sent.

Thanks!


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## sunandshadow (Feb 25, 2011)

I had a lot of success making horns out of stuffed naugahyde.  Can't get more light-weight than that, and it's pretty easy to get both horns looking the same, compared to a sculptural method.  In that case you sew the base of the horn onto the top of the hat (duplicate this in miniature for the little tine on the horn), then optionally put a ring of material around the join to get the look in your sketch.  But, if that's not hard enough there are other options.  Foam rubber or mattrass foam is easy to get (any sewing supplies store), easy to work with, and very light.  The challenge with it is getting it smooth and painting it.  Because it's porous, it would require several coats of paint (acrylic) to get a smooth horn-like surface.

Sculpey, if you want to build it around a core aluminum foil is what people usually use.  In that case you'd want to make a flange at the base and put them through holes in the cap, then you could ass a piece of tough fabric under that to keep the horns in place and protect the top of your head from them.  I haven't worked much with resin - I used it as a coating on a wooden sword, and I've seen beautiful sandcastles made out of sand-filled resin, but I don't know how difficult it would be to cast or carve horns out of it, or how heavy the result would be.


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## Foxfairy (Feb 25, 2011)

This is a pretty cool tutorial for horns that I plan to use in the future:
http://www.komickrazi.com/costumes/tut5.html

I'm pretty sure you could skip the yarn step and end up with some pretty sweet horns that are lightweight too!


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## Deo (Feb 25, 2011)

Fleece. Trace the shape you want, cut two and sew them together. Stuff with polyfil. Anything else (like glue and cardboard, foam, plastic, and resin) will just weigh too much.

On a box hat any weight at all is going to make it shift and move and either fall off or look suoer funky. So you'll also want to add some support to the top of your hat to keep it flat so that your horns stay up by sewing a layer or a few layers in of a stiff fabric on the inside.

These are done on the same method I mentioned but with a different fabric and not fleece (thus the wrinkles):


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## Jesie (Feb 25, 2011)

I agree about the fleece. I can see resin for horns that size getting heavy and setting funny on the head. You'll have to give them a good base to sit on if you do go the resin route.


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## Deo (Feb 26, 2011)

Also I like the idea of the holes in your hat like the horns are popping out rather than them being strange fungi growing out of your hat.


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## Neekko (Feb 27, 2011)

sunandshadow said:


> I had a lot of success making horns out of stuffed naugahyde.  Can't get more light-weight than that, and it's pretty easy to get both horns looking the same, compared to a sculptural method.  In that case you sew the base of the horn onto the top of the hat (duplicate this in miniature for the little tine on the horn), then optionally put a ring of material around the join to get the look in your sketch.  But, if that's not hard enough there are other options.  Foam rubber or mattrass foam is easy to get (any sewing supplies store), easy to work with, and very light.  The challenge with it is getting it smooth and painting it.  Because it's porous, it would require several coats of paint (acrylic) to get a smooth horn-like surface.
> 
> Sculpey, if you want to build it around a core aluminum foil is what people usually use.  In that case you'd want to make a flange at the base and put them through holes in the cap, then you could ass a piece of tough fabric under that to keep the horns in place and protect the top of your head from them.  I haven't worked much with resin - I used it as a coating on a wooden sword, and I've seen beautiful sandcastles made out of sand-filled resin, but I don't know how difficult it would be to cast or carve horns out of it, or how heavy the result would be.



Not sure if I like the idea of pleather 'cause it'll make the horns  soft. I would like to avoid the soft material route.

Oh, duh! I knew foil would be used for Sculpey but at the time of  writing it didn't cross my mind. X(



Foxfairy said:


> This is a pretty cool tutorial for horns that I plan to use in the future:
> http://www.komickrazi.com/costumes/tut5.html
> 
> I'm pretty sure you could skip the yarn step and end up with some pretty sweet horns that are lightweight too!



Yeah, I just saw that and I'm definitely bookmarking it. 



Deo said:


> Fleece. Trace the shape you want, cut two and sew them together. Stuff with polyfil. Anything else (like glue and cardboard, foam, plastic, and resin) will just weigh too much.
> 
> On a box hat any weight at all is going to make it shift and move and either fall off or look suoer funky. So you'll also want to add some support to the top of your hat to keep it flat so that your horns stay up by sewing a layer or a few layers in of a stiff fabric on the inside.
> 
> These are done on the same method I mentioned but with a different fabric and not fleece (thus the wrinkles):



Fleece... I keep thinking of the woolly lining in winter coats, but I assume you mean another kind of fleece?

The more I think about it, I should probably attach the horns to a headband (even though I really am not fond of wearing one) and wear the hat separately. That should be strong enough?


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## Neekko (Feb 27, 2011)

Jesie said:


> I agree about the fleece. I can see resin for horns that size getting heavy and setting funny on the head. You'll have to give them a good base to sit on if you do go the resin route.


 
Yeah, thinking about going with a headband now, though I am reluctant. Oh well, appearance over comfort!



Deo said:


> Also I like the idea of the holes in your hat like the horns are popping out rather than them being strange fungi growing out of your hat.


 
I feel that way now, too. Seems more realistic.


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## Ataraxis (Feb 27, 2011)

Sculpey sells a product called Sculpey Ultralight, which as I understand it, is sort of a foam-like oven bake clay. They advertise it on their website as a good replacement for tinfoil cores on sculptures. I haven't worked with it myself, but Super Sculpey over a Sculpey Ultralight base seems like it would be worth trying. As for attaching it to the hat, I like the idea of them poking through the hat material, but I agree that it would be nice to go without a headband. I think I would recommend cutting a piece of thin sheet metal to the shape of the top of the hat, bolting the horns on to it, and hot gluing the sheet metal into the hat. You could bake the nuts right into the horns, so bolting them on should be fairly simple. Also, the sheet metal could be replaced with a sheet plastic for more flex. 

I stole your image and edited it a bit to show you what I mean. Let me know if anything's unclear.

Edit: Hold on, can't get images to work. Give me a second.

Edit 2: Gosh Dang, I just can't get this to work. Here's a link to the image on ImageShack. LINK


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## sunandshadow (Feb 27, 2011)

Stuffed naugahyde isn't really soft, it's as firm as nerf foam.  I'm not sure why it's important that the horns be hard though - it's not like you'll be able to headbutt anything with them, they might break, and would almost certainly give you a headache cause it would feel like a double punch to the top of the skull.  But, if the hardness of them is important to you for authenticity, then sculpey does sound like the best bet.


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