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Strapping a head with a hard hat suspension

3/9/2021

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Picture
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(Please pardon the friendly local neighborhood middle aged geeks....)

There are a few basics to balancing and strapping a mask I have known since that very first maskmaking workshop I took at the dawn of time. The mask should rest on a wearer’s “third eye”, in the center of the forehead a little above the eyebrows. The strap should go from just above the tops of the ears to under the base of the skull/along the top of the neck. If you stop to think about it, you’ll notice that drawing a line around these points does not make a continuous circle, like a crown, but a bent shape with a shallow angle over the tops of the ears, as if someone had taken that crown and stepped on it.  
You can’t really get this bent-crown shape with simple mask straps, but it doesn’t matter much if the mask is lightweight and well balanced, as would be your standard paper mache Mardi Gras mask. But if the mask starts to get larger and more unbalanced, say, from a toothy long snout sticking out in front, it becomes both more important and harder to do. A simple strap that goes under the base of the skull will want to pull the mask down on the forehead, a strap that supports the mask directly behind the forehead will be too high on the head and want to come flying off.

 ​​After spending weeks trying to solve this problem, it dawned on me that someone years before me had probably already figured it out. I brainstormed lists of all the big awkward headgear I could think of, which ultimately led me to, the construction helmet. And lo and behold, construction helmet suspensions had that bent-crown shape I needed and were cheap and easily available on Amazon! And as a big added bonus, they are adjustable to fit just about any sized head. Now just to figure out how to install one.

(The black hoods in these pictures were an early idea  for installation. They didn't work. Well, except maybe to make us look even more geeky.) 




 One thing I learned, after much trial and error, is that the suspension needs to “float” inside the head. The suspension clips (those things that look like points on a crown) slide into slots in the construction helmet, leaving all the straps free to move and adjust to the size and shape of a wearer’s head. Attaching these straps permanently inside the mask distort them and keep them from moving as they should. I had to think of the equivalent of a clip slot in the head, and ultimately came up with the following.   









installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
Above, two straps made by cutting webbing (not elastic, we don't want these guys to stretch!) to about 12” lengths, feeding them through the two front clips, folding them in half and gluing the halves to one another.   No glue on the clips, they need to be able to rotate on the straps. The suspension will be (well) suspended from these straps inside the head, allowing it to move and conform to the wearer's head.

​Now, to make the "slots". The short story is, these two new straps will be glued between two layers of foam inside the head. I imagine the straps could also be riveted inside, or perhaps just glued to the bare resin, but foam sticks really hard to the scored-up inside of a head with hot glue, and the straps stick really hard to the foam so… Plus the foam provides a much larger gluing surface and therefore more security, in my mind anyway.

installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
​

Above, the first layer of foam, visible underneath the browband, has been glued into the head. Then, the the correct placement for the suspension is found, with the browband going across the forehead just above the eyes. The clamps are only temporarily holding the suspension in the correct place, the browband will not actually be fixed to the mask like this but will be able to move inside the head somewhat.  
installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
Next, the two new straps are glued on the foam directly underneath the two preexisting straps with which they share clips. I glue the straps all the way from the front of the mask to the back, where I  trim off any extra. The more gluing surface the  better.  Again, no glue on the clips! 
making a foam lining pattern for a resin fursuit head base
I start working the top layer of foam before the suspension is glued in, and finish it afterwards.  Above, making a pattern for this part using standard duck tape patterning procedures. I often use aluminum foil under the duck tape in place of the more standard plastic wrap as it is easier to handle, especially in a concave shape like this. 
installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
Next, cutting the slots for the clips into the pattern. Cut a little bit, try sliding the pattern over the clips, cut a little more, slowly but surely. Worse comes to worst the slots can be taped over and started over again.
pattern for a foam lining for a resin fursuit head base
Above, the finished pattern for the top layer of foam. 
 
installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
Above, the second foam piece has been cut out, laid into the head over the freshly glued pair of straps, and held in place with Wonder Clips. Working from one end to the other I'll unclip one Wonder Clip, smear hot glue around underneath the foam, and press it down until it cools. I work my way systematically across the head, unclipping each Wonder Clip in turn, putting glue under the foam, and moving on. The Wonder Clips keep the foam in the exact correct position while it's being glued. I'll cover the entire underside of the foam with glue, paying special attention to the openings for the clips. Lots and lots of glue, but again, none on the clips!!

Trying it out. I'm pleased with how it works.
installing a hard hat suspension into a resin fursuit head base
Above, the suspension in the finished head. From these pictures you can get an idea of how it "floats" inside the head. It also makes the mask nice to take off and on, as once the back strap is adjusted to the wearer it's a lot like putting on a baseball cap. No straps to fasten and unfasten. 

I hope that this has been helpful to you. If you have any questions please feel free to ask! Thanks for looking!
​
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In Pursuit of Pointy, and In Search of Squishy

3/27/2018

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To date I've purchased teeth from other craftspeople to use in my masks, but I've always really wanted to make my own. Below, a pile of attempts made over the past couple of years, made with Monster Clay (a kind of plasticine), Super Sculpey and Apoxie Sculpt.(Skully is supervising. He is a very helpful skull.) A whole lotta nope right here.
jawset sculpting teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
I finally settled on the Monster Clay for making the prototype teeth. I got tired of waiting for the other two to dry and/or set up in between sculpting sessions, and I got REALLY tired of trying to smooth out the hardened model with sandpaper or a Dremel. Monster Clay can be frozen to make it very hard and  can be softened with a hairdryer or microwave or such to make it very soft, so it is adaptable for a variety of sculpting situations. It also smooths beautifully using rubbing alcohol or its more powerful big brother, isopropyl myristate.
sculpting jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
First, I made "plates" for both the upper and lower jaw, making sure they fit comfortably inside the resin head. Then, using Skully and reference pictures I found online, I sketched the placement of the teeth on the "plates". Using a lightbox, I then checked to see how the teeth on the upper and lower jaw would line up with each other (left). These would serve as "templates" for the jawset.
 
teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask





Now it's time to start sculpting! Left, rechecking the template in the lower jaw.





























​Gum line built up (and though it's hard to see) tooth placement traced in from the template.  
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
​



​Actual teeth taking shape. The whole thing is built on a thick piece of cardboard, so I can take it in and out of the mask's mouth without squishing it. Not too badly, anyway.
  
sculpting jawset teeth in resin wolf head fursuit mask
Above, looking to see how the lower part of the jawset is shaping up when viewed from the side. The teeth are just loosely stuck down to the gums at this point, so I can easily move them around if I need to.
sculpting jawset teeth in resin fursuit wolf head mask



​Now for the upper jaw. Left, checking the template for the upper teeth inside the resin head, using Skully and photos for reference.
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head maskPicture


​Gumline built up, roof of mouth roughed out, and tooth placement traced in, using the template. 
sculpting jawset teeth for resin wolf head fursuit


​And, roof of the mouth more refined, and actual teeth taking shape.
 
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask.
And tada! Above, a finished Monster Clay plasticine model, ready for molding. Silly me, little did I realize that this would be the first of three finished jawsets I would mold. Sucks being a perfectionist.
Sculpting tongue and jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting tongue and jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask
Above, beginning the molding process, and a tongue while I'm at it. The jawset has been firmly attached to a thin piece of plywood, which will serve as a mold board. Every little gap between the model and the mold board is filled in, as otherwise the mold rubber could find its way under the model, and float the model up on top of it while it's curing. Which would not make a very good mold at all.
making molds of jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
mixing silicone mold rubber
Left, making molds! I've used cheap Tupperware type containers for the mold boxes, attaching them to the mold boards with hot glue and cutting openings out of the bottoms for pouring in the rubber. 
pouring silicone mold rubber over jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
mixing resin for making jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
​And, casting resin into the new molds to make teeth! Wheee!!! 
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cast resin teeth jawset for fursuit wolf head mask
 

sculpting teeth jawset for resin wolf head fursuit mask

Above, getting ready to revise the jawset. Did I mention how I did this three times? Seriously though, it's easier to check the fit of the teeth in the head when they're in hard resin and not squishable clay. Above, a set of resin teeth that has been Dremelled down to fit the head better, and another set of clay teeth made by pouring melted Monster Clay into the mold, called a "borrowed casting". It's much easier to tweak the teeth from a borrowed casting than trying to make a whole new set from scratch. (If I wasn't such a chicken, I could have also resculpted my original set of clay teeth. But I wanted to keep them the way they were for extra insurance.) 
sculpting teeth jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting teeth jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask
Above, revisions. To the right in both pictures is the original sculpt, still on the moldboard. In the middle is a modified resin casting, and to the left is the resculpted "borrowed casting". This first go round I removed the "flare" thingy from the bottom jaw, as it only really served to complicate fitting it into the resin head. I also made the plate for the upper jaw more symmetrical. You can see how the original sculpt has a bigger "bulge" on the left hand side than the right. Why did I do this, you may ask. Well, I was using a reject resin head casting to fit the teeth in, and I forgot that the resin on one side of the muzzle was much thicker than that on the other so.... in order to center the teeth in the opening, the plate had to be a lot wider on one side. Definitely not going to be the case with the average resin head! Fortunately I realized this before I got too much further into this process!  A great big duh, but could have been a much bigger duh.
resin teeth jawset for fursuit wolf head mask
resin jawsets teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
Above, showing all three sets of revised teeth. The top set is the first one, the middle is the second and the set on the bottom is the final version. Besides changing the "plate" as described earlier, I did a lot of playing with the front incisors. I refined them in the second set but then realized I had also made the top ones too small, so I made them bigger in the third set. After re-checking my reference pictures of real wolves I also decided the gum area above the front incisors also needed to be longer, so I also changed that in the third set. I also did a lot of fiddling with the area circled in yellow in the right hand picture, with the way those particular teeth came together. The top incisor right next to the large bottom canine also underwent a fair bit of refinement.
nose and tongue for fursuit wolf head resin mask





Last but not least, a freshly textured nose and tongue, ready for moldmaking.
molding nose and teeth jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask with legos
And since I had spent so much time fiddling with the teeth, I decided to fiddle with the mold making method as well. At the suggestion of an acquaintance I made my next set of mold boxes out of Legos instead of Tupperware containers, so I could get the mold boxes precisely the size I needed them and save molding rubber. Molding rubber is expensive. They don't call it "platinum cure silicone" for nothing. (A good source of cheap used Legos is bricklink.com.)
making molds for fursuit parts with lego bricks
molding parts for fursuit heads using lego bricks
The rubber curing and then  being removed from the Lego mold boxes. I sealed all the little gaps between the bricks with Sonite Wax **except** the one between the first row and the mold board, with the results seen below on the left. Brain cramp!! Little rubber Lego bricks! Fortunately the hot glue attaching the Lego mold  box to the mold board kept the leak from getting out of hand, the worst effect being I didn't have quite the thickness of rubber I would have liked around the model at the top of the mold. 
molding parts for fursuit heads using lego bricks
 






​In the home stretch! Right, casting a nose and some teeth in the new molds.
casting parts for resin fursuit wolf head mask
casting parts for fursuit resin heads out of silicone and resin
silicone rubber fursuit nose and tongue parts for resin head
Above, the nose and tongue models with their squishy rubber counterparts. Wheee!!!
silicone rubber nose for fursuit wolf head
Checking out the fit of the rubber nose in a resin head. Lookin' good! The resin head on the right wants a rubber nose too. 
cast noses tongues teeth jawset parts for resin fursuit heads
fursuit head parts teeth jawset tonges noses silicone resin
And above, a pile o' puppy parts, ready for maskmaking!! I'm feeling good about the results of my endeavors here. Time to think about colors for fur!!
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Ears 

2/26/2017

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My daughter loves Max and so do I, but...
​I want Maxine's (aka Head #2's) ears to be better than Max's. This is at the top of the list of improvements I want to make this time around. Not only is the fur going the wrong way on Max's ears, growing towards the base instead of towards the tip (in spite of the fact I *did* mark the fur direction correctly on the pattern!) but IMO the ears... flap around... too much when the mask moves. You can see this especially clearly at .018 minutes in this video.
resin wolf head made with dream vision creation parts
Above, the nascent Max with his freshly designed Foamy ears. (And the cat hair mustache my daughter made for him.) I think part of the issue is evident here- the ears have too much height in relation to their width at the base. Theory being, a wider base would provide more support and hopefully, less flapping.
snip from DVC ear tutorial
snip from dream vision creations ear tutorial
snip from dvc ear tutorial
Above, snips from one of Dream Vision Creation's ear making tutorials (used with permission.) I referenced these often making the patterns for Maxine's ears. The ears on this mask are a bit wider at the base than are Max's. If they were his ears, the bottoms would come to the point where the top half of the hinge is glued to the head, not to nearly the center of the hinge as they do.
snip from dream vision creations ear tutorial
making ear pattern for Sans Souci Studios fusuit wolf head
Above, using a snip from a Dream Vision Creations tutorial (left) as pattern reference for Maxine's ears (right), aiming for the correct width at the base.
making ear patterns for Sans Souci Studios fusuit wolf head
finished foamies ears for Sans Souci Studios fursuit wolf head
.Above left, the paper pattern in progress, and right, the finished Foamy ears. Looks like I initially made the patterns a little bit **too** wide at the base, and so narrowed them down a bit in the final version.
ear patterns for fursuit wolf head
Above left, the pattern piece (tan) for the back of Maxine's ears, and right, the pattern piece (green) for Max's. (See, I DID mark the proper fur direction on Max's pattern piece!!) As it turns out, both pattern pieces are 6 1/2" high, but while Max's pattern piece is 7" wide, Maxine's is nearly 9" wide. 
fur patterning for fursuit wolf head made from dream vision creations dvc parts
fur patterning for fursuit wolf head made with Sans Souci Studios resin base
And since Maxine isn't finished yet, this is the closest thing I have to a side by side comparison of the two- Max is the green one and Maxine is the tan one. (Credit where credit is due- Max is made entirely with DVC parts, where Maxine is made with my own resin base and DVC nose, teeth, tongue and eye blanks.) So far I like the ears with the wider base much better! I think there'll be other things I'll need to do to prevent flapping, however... stay tuned!!
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Testing testing 1-2-3...

1/28/2017

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Moving jaw test for Maxine the Mask. Thank you to the long suffering hubby for his patience!!! I'm pretty happy with it.
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Putting It All Together

12/30/2016

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Sans Souci Studios resin head with DVC teeth nose and tongue added

​My own resin base! My own sculpt, my own mold, my own cast! So excited I can't stand it! One day I'd dearly love to make my own teeth, tongues and noses too, but for this time around at least I'm using DVC parts. (Click here to read more about moldmaking and here for casting the base.) Putting it all together, though, definitely gave me ideas about how I'd sculpt a head differently the next time.

Left, eyes, teeth and nose glued into the base. The DVC teeth took a little fiddling to get them to work with my head. I wound up dremelling off part of the front of the upper part of the jawset, so that the teeth wouldn't sit too far back in the head, and dremelling off much of the back of the lower jawset, so the teeth could fit into the head at all. Fortunately the base colored DVC jawsets are solid color all the way through, so this little bit of surgery didn't show as much as it could have. (Needless to say I did this before I painted the teeth!)


​​I also wanted the teeth to sit up much higher in the lower jaw than they did in my first head, as they kinda disappeared into lips and fur after I got it assembled. I played a lot with layers of Foamies underneath the teeth to get them exactly where I wanted them, and so far I'm happy with how they look.
Sans Souci Studios resin head with DVC parts, eyelids and lips added


Left, eyelids added. I love the moment afterwards when the eyes become follow me eyes! It's as if the mask has magically come to life.

 


As with the previous head, I've been referring to the DVC tutorials online as I work on this head, and much to my confusion they've started redoing that series- when I did the first mask, the lips were applied last, after the airbrushing, and now they're applied early in the process, along with the eyelids. Maybe they were done last in the first series so that airbrush overspray wouldn't get on them, but that's easy enough to paint over with black paint. In any case it was a pain to apply them with fur already there, and so far I like this way better.
​
Sans Souci Studios resin head with a crooked jaw
Sans Souci Studios resin head with a crooked jaw
​I also learned the hard way it's best to cut the cast up right before assembling it. I was so excited to get a good cast I couldn't wait to open the eyes up and hinge the jaw, and then I let the head sit, and sit, and sit.... and the jaw warped, shifting to one side. Now the head has an expression kinda like this: :-/ Nothing that can't be fixed with a Dremel and some epoxy, but still, something I'd rather avoid in the future.
planning for straightening jaw on resin head
Planning for straightening lower jaw on resin head
Above, working out how to resculpt the jaw to make it look straighter. I often take a photo of an area I'm working on, print it out and draw on it, to help visualize what I should do. In the printout /drawing to the right, I've decided to dremel off the lip outside of the thick blue line. Another point for adding the lip early on- it gave me a way to tweak the jaw I wouldn't have had otherwise.
Silly picture of Sans Souci Studios resin head with DVC parts
(And... one day I went down into the basement to work, and I found my daughter had gotten into my packing peanuts....)
Sans Souci Studios resin head with straightened jaw
Sans  Souci Studios resin head with straightened jaw
Above, the lower jaw resculpted and straightened out a bit. I think it looks much better. Neatening up the edge of the lower lip helped a bit too.
silly picture of chiffon in tear ducts of Sans Souci Studios resin head
Above, chiffon added to one tear duct but not yet the other, as modelled by my packing peanut loving daughter. Freaky deaky!
checking vision in Sans Souci Studios resin head
Above, straps and padding added, checking the vision through the tear ducts. I like the rather naturalistic angle of the nose. Right, hubby is DONE with trying the mask on to see how it works, and he is REALLY DONE with getting sh*t about how silly his hair looks after he takes it off!!
grouchy husband with Sans Souci Studios resin head
​Two takeaways for the next resin base sculpt:

First, make sure the areas in which the eyes will be glued are as flat as possible and in the exact same plane with each other. Any crookedness or unnevenness in these areas will be greatly exaggerated when the resin eyes are in place, and gives the mask a rather wall-eyed, inbred expression. Next base sculpt, I think I'll use metal or rigid plastic discs of the correct size to mark out these areas and leave them there while moldmaking, to make sure those areas don't squish out of shape. I was able to glue the eyes into this base to my satisfaction using bits of resin and hot glue to level them out, but care taken with the next sculpt could definitely make the process a lot easier. 

Second, sculpt the next head so that it can easily take a nose with a flat back. DVC noses, and I suspect any other noses that are cast separately and glued on to a base later, have flat backs. I suspect they are made in one piece molds, the backs of which are open so that the casting material can be poured in, which then levels out as it sets. When I removed the nose on this base to accommodate the DVC nose, I was left with an awkwardly shaped hole into which to glue it. I re-sculpted the area a bit with epoxy so that the nose would fit (the thick black band behind the nose in the pics is epoxy for the most part) and so all is well that ends well, but again, this is something to take into consideration for future head sculpts.

Next, ears!!

​
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Adventures in Fursuit Head Building

7/5/2016

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Looks like I've neglected my blog for.... two years??  I've been busy though, mostly with my first attempt to build my first fursuit-style mask. Especially since I knew neither how to sew nor airbrush before I started out, it was quite the undertaking. Here are the chronicles of my adventures.
dreamvision creations resin wolf mask parts
watching dreamvision creations tutorials with cat
Above left, my freshly ordered mask parts from Dreamvision Creations on Etsy. I didn't want to make any of my own parts this time around, to try to limit the number of variables should something go wrong. Above right, Ezzy and I watching the Dreamvision Creation tutorials online. Ezzy wanted to make sure I didn't miss any important details, he is a very helpful cat.
handpainted resin wolf eyes with reference picture
Left, a reference photo and freshly painted resin eye blanks. This was probably my favorite part of making this mask.
assembled dreamvision creations resin base
handpainted resin eyes showing follow me effect
Above left, a dude who seriously needs to lay off the coffee. Hinges have been added and all the various parts glued into the mask base. Above right, eyelids added. It's so cool how the eyes seem to follow afterwards!
assembled dreamvision creations resin base with ears
Left, straps, springs and chiffon over the tear ducts have been added, as well as Foamies ears. I also figured out how to fill in the space between the upper and lower jaw of the base with  Foamies, something the Dreamvision Creations tutorials didn't cover! The cat hair beard and mustache are my daughter Isabelle's work.
color sketch for fursuit wolf head
patternwork on assembled dreamvision creations resin base
Above left, a sketch of my idea for the color and pattern of the mask; above right, the actual duck tape patternwork for the fur. My daughter called the mask at this stage "Green Anubis".  I thought I was so smart to use wet erase markers to draw the patternwork, and maybe it made fiddling with the pattern a little easier, but predictably some important reference marks got wiped off. Six of one, half dozen of the other...
cat sleeping on laid out pattern for fursuit wolf head
 

And the patternwork laid out on the fur. Ezzy approves.
regretsy sewing machine
But... (OMG!!) SEWING!!!!! This was pretty much my view of a sewing machine at this point.
sewing machines and more barre vermont
Note the part on this sign that says, CLASSES! The owner of this store hosts Open Sew classes twice a week, I'd take my sewing machine and fur there and sew under her supervision. If I got stuck (which was often) she'd be there to offer advice and help out.
sewing together fur for fursuit wolf head
front of hood for fursuit wolf head
sewing together fur for fursuit wolf head
fur partially sewn together for fursuit wolf head
back of partially assembled fursuit wolf head
Sewing sewing and more sewing. Top row left, I bravely start pinning pieces together while Isabelle works on a chibi Cthulhu. Top row right, hubby models the front half of the hood. Middle picture, I have finished sewing the face together while Isabelle makes faces too. Bottom row, one ear and the back of the hood sewn on. I later ripped the ear apart and re-glued it, as I didn't like the way the bottom edge was so much thicker than the top edge. Bottom row right, the back of the hood showing the Velcro cover over the zipper, and seams that need picking out.
fur sewn together but not glued down to resin base
And finally, the fur is all sewn together. Here, draped over the base....
fur glued down to resin base
And here, glued down. This was one of the more harrowing parts of the process. I wound up getting rid of my old Ad Tech glue gun and buying a Surebonder glue gun with interchangeable nozzles instead. I needed the glue to flow when I pressed the trigger, and I needed it to STOP when I released it! Ezzy provided moral support.
crazy lady shaving fur on fursuit wolf head
CRAZY LADY WITH CLIPPERS!!! Shaving down and adding some shape to the mask. This part was almost as harrowing as gluing down the fur. It's very easy to make bald spots with the clippers by accident!!
epoxy lips and dreamvision creations jawset and tongue on fursuit wolf head
Epoxy lip added. The tutorial recommended getting the lip more or less on and nicely detailed, and then testing to make sure the mouth opened and closed properly. I found out the hard way to MAKE SURE THE MOUTH WORKS PROPERLY ASAP.  As the epoxy was setting up and getting hard and crumbly, I  was tearing it off and reshaping it, trying to get it to fit right! Fortunately it all worked out okay in the end.
husband wearing unpainted fursuit wolf head hugging daughter
The mask, fully assembled and modelled by my ever patient husband Brian, loved up by daughter Isabelle. Time to get some paint on this puppy!
sean avram airbrush awesome shop flyer
sean avram awesome shop storefront
However, I could airbrush about as well as I could sew (which is to say, not at all) so I decided again some classes were in order. I took a one day, six hour 1:1 intensive with Sean Avram which helped enormously. He told me that airbrushing was largely troubleshooting, and for the next six hours we would see how many ways the airbrush could be clogged and unclogged again.
fursuit wolf head before airbrushing
Here is the mask with black hand painted around its eyes. Its buddy "Leo" is a sacrifical....lion... to warm up on before I actually airbrush the mask.
fursuit wolf head partially airbrushed
Black airbrushed inside the ears and around the nose and lips. Next, airbrushing some brown around the edges of the ears and back on to the forehead where it had gotten shaved off previously. Leo looks like he needs a shave too.
fursuit wolf head partially airbrushed
 Brown airbrushed along edges of ears, around the nose and on the forehead. I'm feeling rather pleased with myself for matching the paint as closely as I did to the brown fur on the neck and shoulders. I've also added a little grey shading around the lips.
fursuit wolf head after airbrushing
Lastly, areas of cream/light tan airbrushed under the eyes. Many of the wolves in my reference photos had these kinds of markings. I'm happy with how I've matched the paint on the cheeks with the color of the fur on the bridge of the nose.
fursuit wolf head finished
And finally... TA DAAAAAA!!!! All done. Looking forward to making the next one!!


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Adventures in Resin Casting

8/24/2014

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Smooth On Smooth Cast 65S curing inside silicone mold
resin wolf head base pulled out of silicone mold
I feel like a traitor. After all these years of casting in paper mache, I am seriously considering switching to resin.

I confess, I have no love of paper mache as a thing in and of itself, although I have come to appreciate its many qualities- strength, light weight, safety, low cost, and a long and interesting history. When I started out maskmaking I investigated many material possibilities but found none could match the qualities of paper mache.(Check out my earlier blog for the gory details.) The downside of paper mache, however, is how long it takes to cast anything with it-  up to a week for one of my larger masks. That's a lot of time not spent sculpting or painting.

Either a lot of things have changed or I've been living under a rock for the past eight years, but when I discovered fursuiting (and just how far ahead of  me the furries were materials wise) I learned of a new material, Smooth-Cast 65D, that could be slushed into molds to make masks.
Instead of taking a week, I could cast a mask in.... fifteen minutes.

Above are pics of my first couple of attempts, using the silicone mold I made in my last post.

Some finer points I learned during my experiments:

The temperature makes a *huge* difference in how fast the material sets up. My first couple of attempts were done on a sunny porch on an 80+ degree day, and the material set up way too fast, as in I was happily slushing along, turning the mold this way and that, and the resin just set instantly in a huge gloppy wave in the middle of the mask's forehead or someplace equally inconvenient. The instructions say to cast at about 75 degrees F, and they mean it.

It's OK to use a plastic spoon to help distribute the material around the mold for the first few minutes after it is poured in, but the spoon should be set aside once the material sets up enough to start to stick to it. Otherwise the curing resin may grab onto the spoon more tightly than to previous layers of resin, which can cause the new layer to delaminate.

It really makes a difference to measure out Part A and Part B in two cups and then to use a third cup to mix them together. Otherwise, the mix ratio can be thrown off by material left behind on the inside of the cup that was poured from and/or extra material inside the cup that was mixed in, and result in an improperly cured cast, one which is very sticky and gooey with uncured leftover material. I found this out the hard way on my second cast. I was able to salvage it somewhat after a call to the Smooth-On tech department and much cleaning and scrubbing with rubbing alcohol, but it would still be something I would not want to sell.


I have to say, I'm struck by how *similar* the resin and the paper mache masks look like each other (at least from the outside) when they are finished- same color, same weight, same feel. They even warp the same way if they're not cast thick enough. I'm looking forward to learning what other experiments will bring.
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More Adventures in Moldmaking

8/3/2014

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first layer of silicone for wolf head mold


And... on to a Mold That Matters. To the left and below is a sculpt that will ultimately be a base for a fursuit style head, with the first coat of rubber thinly brushed on. (The "halo" around its head is part of the mold, not part of the sculpt.)

This mold is made of silicone rubber, not urethane rubber as was my last mold. I want to cast resin into this mold, and urethane resin and urethane rubber, I've been told, do not Play Nice together. Among other things, a Runaway Exothermic Reaction may occur, which generates a lot of heat and results in the mold and the cast being irretrievably fused together. Not good.

More specifically, this mold is made of *platinum* cure silicone rubber, not *tin* cure silicone rubber. The former is much more expensive than the latter, but supposedly molds made with it will last a lot longer as well. 

Platinum cure rubber is also supposed to be more prone to reacting with the model material. Sealing the model is strongly recommended (the very nice tech support at Smooth-On recommended using Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Sealer)  and a small test on an inconspicuous area is also recommended. Silicone reacts with some kinds of wood, latex (wear vinyl gloves, not latex gloves, when using it) and most famously, sulfur. For this reason any modelling clay used to sculpt a model needs to be sulfur-free. 


Both silicone and urethane brush on molds need to be applied in layers, usually around four, to a total thickness of a quarter inch. One beauty of silicone rubber, as opposed to urethane rubber,  is that its' possible to apply additional coats anytime after the most recent coat is no longer sticky to the touch.  In contrast, once one layer of urethane rubber is no longer tacky, another layer will no longer stick, and once a section of a urethane rubber mold is started it must be finished. Stress!!! Working with the silicone is much more relaxed and easygoing on one's nerves.
first layer of silicone for wolf head mold
second layer of silicone for wolf head mold
To the left, the sculpt with the second coat of rubber brushed on. I've lain it down on its back to minimize the rubber "boogers" dripping off its nose that I got with the first coat. I've also dyed it a lovely shade of pink with Smooth On's Sil Pig, so I can tell more easily that I've covered the orange first coat thoroughly. 

In between coats, I mixed rubber thickened with Thi-Vex and trowelled it into undercuts, eye sockets, etc and built up a cut-seam ridge using a popsicle stick as an applicator. That's another advantage of silicone. Thi-Vex is relatively benign, while Cab-O-Sil, the thickener for urethane, is made of finely ground glass. It blows around very easily and you really, really don't want to breathe it.  
To the right, the rubber all but finished. The last step was to make keys to help the rubber mold register with the Plasti-Paste mother mold. I did this by mixing up a small batch of rubber, splatting it down between two paint sticks and then cutting it up into squares when it had cured. I then stuck the squares onto the mold using more thickened rubber.

Here I also learned that Smooth On's instructional videos do sometimes leave steps out of the process that would be useful to know. The particular video I'd been watching over and over again did not show keys at all, and I assumed for a long time it was due to some special property of the Plasti-Paste mother mold material. 

 

adding keys to silicone for mother mold
 When I called to double check on this, the support person said that no, it was just to make the instructions easier to follow. If anything, I really could have applied more keys than I did.  
building dividing walls for mother mold

To the left, getting ready to apply the Plasti Paste mother mold. I've trimmed the edge of the rubber, applied a dividing wall made of Klean Klay and covered the wall with tinfoil. I then applied Sonite Wax and Ease Release over the whole thing. 

There's another difference between urethane and silicone mold rubbers- they each need their own kind of release. The universal release spray used with urethane is made with silicone- if it's used with silicone rubber, it will act like a glue instead!
To the right and below right, half the Plasti Paste mother mold applied.

The chief advantage of a Plasti Paste mother mold over the traditional plaster is its much lighter weight. I was planning on hand-slushing resin in this mold, which means holding it and turning it for fifteen minutes while the resin sets up. Something not easily done with a 40# plus plaster mold!  

I was dreading using this material as the instructions said it was very sticky, set very fast, and got very hot, but all this turned out to be manageable. The trick was to learn to mix only what could be applied in ten minutes. A saving grace was that, like silicone, additional coats of Plasti Paste could be applied after previous coats are fully cured. Whatever didn't get covered in one pass would get covered in the next, no big panic. It should be built up to be about 1/4" thick; in larger molds such as this one it should be more like 1/2" thick. 

As an additional bonus, it wasn't as stinky as I feared it would be either.

  
first half of mother mold for wolf head

The instructions also said to smooth the Plasti Paste down with wet paper towels or denatured alcohol before it was fully cured to avoid "an aggressive surface". And when they say "aggressive surface", they mean it. This is one downside of this material- even smoothed down, it is fairly "toothy". I nick my fingers on the edges routinely, and rip my rubber gloves while casting. I need to find heavier gloves!

first half of mother mold for wolf head alternate view
clay dividing wall removed while making mother mold for wolf head

To the left, the clay dividing wall removed, under the careful supervision of the Feline Assistance Department.

Again I applied tinfoil over the Plasti Paste, and applied Sonite Wax and the release spray over that. Supposedly the tinfoil keeps the two Plasti Paste halves from sticking together, and helps to mark the parting line when separating them. The downside of the tinfoil is that it very badly wants to stick to the uncured Plasti Paste and pull away from the cured material, making a gap in between the two halves. Fortunately it did not turn out to be at all critical, especially since the halves were bolted together.

Below, holes drilled through the two mold halves so that they later can be bolted together.  And then, time to remove the mold from the sculpt- the moment of truth!
holes drilled for bolting together mother mold
Houston, we have liftoff!!!
mother mold removed from silicone inner mold for wolf head
finished mold for resin wolf head removed from sculpt
There is definitely room for improvement for next time. The "halo" could be about half the width it was, in order to save on both weight and cost of material. (I made it that wide because the video said to!) The Plasti Paste shell could be more uniform in thickness. Most importantly, the cut seam down the center of the sculpt's face is not really needed, the sculpt is fairly simple, the rubber is flexible enough it will just peel off like a glove, and it's nice not to have to worry about seam lines. But for right now, I am very excited to have a functional mold!
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    I make masks. Because art is more fun when you put it on your head.

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