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.

Making a Mask

The first Halloween project I would like to show is from 2012 (last year) and is probably the most successful and the most professional of all the halloween costumes we have made. The project was a silicone rubber mask of the character: the Red Skull, the villain in the movie "Captain America: the First Avenger". Here are some pictures of Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving, from the movie....





And here he is next to captain america


We had actually tried it the year before (2011) though the end result was not worthy of mention so, now that we had some experience, I decided to start over with a better sculpt and better everything else.

One of the problems previously was making sure that the sculpt was the same size as my head (I had just freehanded the sculpt before) so that the mask would be big enough. The first try had resulted in a mask that wasn't really big enough so I had to do it right for the new one. The way to ensure a perfect size was to make a mold of my own face, using a simple technique. I had my brother wrap my face with Plaster strips to make a close fitting "plaster skin" the same size as my head. I covered my hair with plastic wrap to make sure it didn't stick and then waited for the plaster strips to dry. Then the back half was cut off so I could pull each half off my face. The result was a decent, form fitting face mold that I could then use to shape the clay sculpt.

The next step to making the mask was to sculpt it out of clay, which probably took about a week to do (I don't remember exactly since this was a year ago). I used oil based Plasticina clay build up over a  styrofoam head. This time it was an accurate size because I pressed the clay into the plaster strip mold of my face.

Above is a progress sculpting picture and below is the final sculpt (I forgot to take better pictures), being prepared for the plaster mold. I stuck a separating wall, made of some pieces of plastic, into the clay it to separate the front and back half. Then I had to stick blocks under the wall so it could support the weight of the plaster on top.

Here is the final mold of plaster layered around the clay. I used burlap pieces in between the layers to strengthen the plaster. I also used vaseline as mold release to separate the two halves of the mold. Then The mold was pried apart ( you have to be very careful doing this so the mold is not broken) and then the clay sculpt was removed. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of these steps, but hopefully you get the idea.

Finally the mold was ready to be used for casting. It was my first time using silicone so it was a bit of an experiment and the silicone was difficult to spread evenly. On the left here is the the first silicone casting from the mold, obviously it was too thin and ripped easily so I would have to try again. I was still encouraged by the result though because of it's snug fit and flexibility. So I recast it with some more silicone, this time spreading it thicker with more layers. The result is on the right here and is even better than I hoped it would be! It had a nice, solid feel to it and could support the shape of the features.

The seam was of course not perfect but with some trimming and patching up it was easily fixed. I tried it on and it looked great! The mouth moved well but the eyeholes still needed to be cut bigger.

Now the only step left was to paint it. The problem was that at this point it was already October 31 so the painting had to be rushed and I used some red spray paint which ended up peeling off until the red was all a mess. Anyway, it still survived most of the night and I was able to scare some trick or treaters pretty good. It turned out to be a great first attempt for a homemade rubber mask though and I was very pleased with it. However, after a year now, it has had some wear and tear and unfortunately the silicone was not really very strong or tear resistant so the whole back has torn now and I will have to recast it this year.