Finished Halloween Mask: Kurse

So, it has now been a year since I made my Kurse Halloween costume and I have only just now finally finished the mask in time for 2014 Halloween! I didn't get to do much work on Halloween stuff this year so finishing the mask was really my only goal this time. Last year I had left the mask partially painted with non-permanent acrylic paint airbrushed onto it. Also it was missing the foam horns because I didn't realize until the last minute that nothing will glue them to the silicone rubber, except more silicone rubber! So this year I fixed all that and I took some pictures to document the changes.

The first thing I had to decide on was how to attach the horns. I didn't really want to have to spend much money on the mask this year so I was hesitant to buy more Platsil Gel 10 silicone rubber (which i previously purchased from BITY Mold supply) because that stuff is not too cheap and I wasn't planning on using much silicone for now. So instead I did some research and found that some people suggested using basic silicone caulk for painting RTV silicone rubber. Now the pros of silicone caulk are: it is much cheaper (usually $6 per tube), it can easily be bought at any Home Depot, Lowes, etc type store, it is flexible and stretchy (depending on what type you get), and it comes in different colors (in my case I needed clear). The problem is that silicone caulk is lower quality, thicker, and weaker than RTV silicone. However I still believed it could work sufficiently for the purpose I needed it for which was to use it as "glue" as well as paint. So I bought some silicone caulk (pictured below) to do some tests with it. The trick to using silicone caulk for mask making is thinning it our until it is very liquidy using Naptha or other mineral spirits. That allows it to be spread thinly and mixed with paint. so you can see some test pieces I did of silicone caulk mixed with oil paint. The two to the left are pieces of RTV silicone that I tried painting it on. For the darkest one there, I had tried some red dye in the silicone caulk but it didn't come out with a strong enough color, just very translucent.

After the testing, I determined that silicone caulk would be an acceptable substitute for RTV silicone when used as paint and glue. So next I mixed up some clear caulk with a bit of Naptha and began applying it to the horn sockets on the mask using a plastic knife. It was not easy attaching the horns though because I had to keep supports under them for a good 15 minutes or so before the caulk was solid enough to hold them on its own. I was rather surprised at how successful it turned out using the caulk as glue, and I was very happy when I realized the mask looked much more like the a Kurse (From the movie Thor 2) mask with horns attached. The caulk technically takes 24 hours to fully cure but it is usually cured enough to handle 12 hours later. The next step was to paint the mask.

I forgot to mention that before attaching the horns, I had to wash/scrub/scrape off as much of the old acrylic paint I had temporarily airbrushed on last year. I also poured a bit of Naptha over it afterwards because that is recommended for cleaning dirt and oils off to allow the silicone paint to stick better.

So next, I mixed up some caulk with plenty of Naptha and a bit of red oil paint. You need to be careful when using oil paint with the caulk and make sure that you only mix in a very small amount. Oil paint has very strong pigment so a little bit will go a long way. The color I needed was a dark red so I also put a bit of black in too. Also keep in mind that silicone caulk has a short working time so I needed to do this rather quickly. When I had a good color ready, I began applying the silicone caulk/paint to the mask using a plastic knife. I didn't want to use a paint brush because the brush strokes show up too much in the caulk. After that I mixed up a few more colors, I also added some acrylic paint to the horns since they are only covered in latex instead of silicone. when I was finished the mask looked like this...

I did not put any paint on the back

I have to say I was pretty happy with it because it actually did look unmistakably like Kurse now!

While overall it does look good, I know its not as good quality as I could have made it if I had more time and enough money to get all the best materials. The paint job is a bit sloppy and not that neat, but I think it works for a homemade Halloween mask.

The rest of the pictures posted were taken on halloween. I decided not to bother using the rest of the costume I made last year because it wasn't in good condition, so instead I just wore all black clothes with a black cloak. Some of the trick or treaters couldn't tell if I was real and wouldn't come up to get any candy, so I guess it was a successful scary mask!

then I have some pictures of my other Halloween decorations

My next Halloween costume

This year for halloween I have decided to go bigger with my halloween costume than last year with the Red Skull mask. I will be making a new silicone rubber mask as well as a full body suit based on the character pictured below.

This is Kurse, from the new movie Thor the Dark world, which is being released on November 8 in the US. The problem with making a character from a movie that hasn't been released yet is that there are very few actual pictures of him, so until a few days ago when the above image was released, all I've had since I started this project at the beginning of October were action figure pictures to use as reference. This is one of those pictures of the action figure to give you a better view of the full character.

So with these pictures I was able to make a 3d model visualization of the mask I planned to make, just to see the general size and shape in real life.

So this picture below is me with the image of the 3d model over my face.

Now that I had an idea of what I was going to do I got started on the mask sculpting process. This was done the same way I had done it last year, except for a few improvements. First I bought a $10 styrofoam head, which was much better proportioned than the one I used before, and taped some plastic wrap all around it. By doing this the clay won't stick to the styrofoam when pulling the mold apart which would just make everything easier.

Next I stuck some clay on the front and used this plaster gauze mold of my own face (see earlier post for more on that) to press the clay into the shape of my head. This is very important for creating a sculpt accurate to my head size.

I did that for the front and back, but The clay layer didn't need to be too thick since the styrofoam head was already close to my head size. All I needed was a general shape to sculpt the features from.

Next I started adding more clay to build up spots on the face and begin making it look like Kurse.

I plan on making the horns separate parts and attaching them later so I just made the spots where they would grow from.

Here I realized the head was shorter than mine so I cut some clay off the top and put some tin foil filler underneath and then stretched the clay back over it.

The facial features were coming along well, so I stuck some tin foil horns on the head just to give a representation of what the whole head would eventually look like.

Once I was happy enough with the sculpt, I began preparing it for mold making. It was going to be a 2 part mold (front and back) so I used some stiff foam board to create a dividing wall. I did this by cutting out the sillouette of the middle of the head and then cutting the board into a left and right side so the board could be easily stuck around the head.
Also I taped a tin foil wall around the base of the back half in order to have something to contain the plaster.

Here are some close ups of the final sculpt so you can see the detail better.

I would have added more detail if the movie image of Kurse had been released before I began putting plaster on, but I guess the likeness is still good enough, despite the fact that it was based on an action figure.

these are picture of the back half just before I started putting plaster on.

And that is the plaster I use, before it is mixed with water.

The best method for plaster is to pour the plaster dust into the water and mix it evenly as it is added. The ratio is about 1 part water to 2 parts plaster but I just estimate it with my eyes. Also the ratio must vary slightly depending on the consistency it needs to be. ( the first layer should be thin and watery in order to fill all the detail areas while the later coats can be thicker.
An important detail in this picture is small lumps of clay I stuck to the foam board right next to the head. these are called keys and will allow the two halves of the mold to realign correctly later.

After I covered all the clay with the first 3 or 4 coats I began putting pieces of burlap in to strengthen the mold. It would be very bad if it snapped in half while prying it apart later so the burlap is a vital part of mold making at this scale.

Eventually after more burlap and plaster I had a back half that was about an inch thick all the way around so now I could lay it face up and begin the front half. before putting plaster on the front, there are some other very important steps of adding some mold release (I use vaseline/petroleum jelly) all around the inside edge of the plaster mold. This must be done if you want to be able to separate the two halves, otherwise the plaster will stick to itself. Also I stuck some wedge shaped clay pieces in 3 places along the edge. these are necessary for prying the mold apart because those spots are where you can stick a screwdriver or some other prying tool in between the 2 halves. Once all that was done I started pouring more plaster on.