Sir Wolf,
I suppose the size of the material veil part (can`t remember it`s name) depends on the size and shape of your helm.
The size of the lion was dictated by whatever I could get hold of from e-bay in such short notice lol
The lion is painted, carved wood, the veil is blue linen lined with yellow felt. The roll is scrap wool rolled then covered with the blue linen with a gold flecked blue ribbon. The whole lot was then attached to a ply wood base with a selection of screws, pins and threads, this was then drilled to point it to the drilled helm.
I basically just used bits I had lying round the house to keep the cost and time down.
G