I know it’s not customary during medieval times to have tin cans jingling behind the wedding transportation, but if your going to have a medieval wedding but you still what to do the whole tin cans thing, medieval helmets are the perfect thing!
To make Medieval Wedding Car Tin Can Helmets you will need…
Tin cans in assorted sizes. But Baby milk tins are good because they are nice and big and made of thin metal that you can bend. Cappuccino stick tins are also good, and disposing of the contents is rather enjoyable. The number of tins depends on how many you want to trail behind. I made 9 helmets to trail off 3 lengths of string.
You will also need silver paint,
Black Humbrol paint,
String,
Beads,
Tin snippers,
Marker pen,
First you need to empty the tins, wash them out and leave them to dry.
Then take a hammer and a big screw, and with the tin upside down, make a hole in the base of each of the tins.
With a marker pen, measure about 7cm up from the open edge of the tin all round. Mark one point on the open edge on the tin – This is the front, its best to have the seam of the tin directly behind. Draw a straight line from this point to the base of the tin.
From this point measure 3cm around the edge on either side of the point.
Now go to where the line crosses the line around the tin. Mark 5cm around the tin and mark on the line on both sides of the crossing point. Then join up the measured points to make a ‘roof’ like shape on the tin. This will be the helmets mouth guard.
Use the tin snippers to cut out the roof shape and to cut along the line around the tin. Discard the left over bits of tin.
If you want to add shape to your tin, simply bend down the front edge line of the helmet, so that that line has a bit of a crease.
Then spray paint your tins Silver. Keep the tin of paint moving whilst you are spraying and try to make the coats even. You may need a couple of coats to get it covered properly. Follow the instructions on the spray paint tin and make sure you are in a ventilated room.
When the paint is dry, you can use the black Humbrol paint to paint on the helmets features, eye holes, and holes in the mouth guard. I pained each of my helmets differently. Again leave to dry.
Next you need to thread the tins onto string. I tried threading onto ribbon, but the tin cuts through the ribbon in next to no time. The tins still do cut through the string, but it is more durable then ribbon, and takes longer, giving the bridal car time to get down the road before they start to loose helmets. Make yourself a makeshift needle with some wire to make life easier.
First tie a knot in the string where you want the tin to rest, and then thread a bead on, and then thread a helmet on, then another bead and then make another knot. Leave a foot or so, and then make another knot, bead, helmet, bead, knot for the second helmet. And repeat the process for the third helmet. This spaces the helmet tins out so that they look nice, but they can still jangle together.
Then simply tie the string ends to the centre of the back bumper.
