I'm fairly sure that most brooms have a twisted wire configuration to hold the bristles in. The bristles are bundled with wire - DO NOT CUT THE WIRE!! You will make a mess and make it much more difficult to mount. The brooms I found were a bit expensive in the dollar store - around 2 dollars. The BROOM!!! (images 1-4)I cut apart 2 brooms since I found that one didn't cover the area that I wanted. In the end, it looks fine, but I'm still overly critical of it. This part was rather difficult to make it look how I wanted it to look. Use anything that will sufficiently and easily curve your cardboard. (image 2) I used my shins to make the main curve of the cardboard.

(image 4) Pay attention to the direction of the corrugation (the lines) in the paper, this will help keep your cardboard smooth and crease free.

If you don't, you'll end up with a folded (and creased) piece of cardboard. (image 4) Other pointsOne crucial point in forming the shell is to flatten the cardboard as thin as it will go, this will allow you to mold the curved shape into the paper. I cut long slits down the center of it so I could curve it and fold the flaps over. (images 4-8) I wanted this to fold over and act as the curved section of the helmet. Get started, get gluingAfter I knew what shape I wanted to create, I curved a piece of cardboard so it fit most of the way around the circumference of the helmet. I'm a firm believer of test-fitting with tape, then secure it permanently. I taped these in place to get a feel of what the sizes would be like.

Rough it out (images 1-3)I sketched out a few ideas of what I wanted the helmet to look like (I should have looked at some real images on the web) and cut out a few pieces of cardboard.

Roman centurion helmet