wingnut65 Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) Patience, Grasshoppers. Perfection takes time... Or, maybe I was just out of town a few days last weekend. I took my mask with me back to Miami and some old friends thought it looked great and they all agreed that I was crazy enough to do this 501st thing. Just wait till I show them the finished costume! zhunter, I plan on some sort of sleeve to wrap around the legs and extend the wraps up from the shoes. I may use foam craft pieces or just some duck cloth since it feels pretty stiff. However I do it, I still want to be able to tie the shoe laces and then wrap the legs. Velcro is in the plans. Arcturus1020 and xalxe, great ideas. One cool part about costuming is that the final look is all that matters. Anything can be used for the shoes, just so long as they will look like the screen accurate footwear. I currently have an old pair of Reeboks that are so old, scuffed and show paint speckles that I won't wear them out for good shoes, only for working in the yard. I was planning on using them for my Tusken until the front half of the sole started flapping around right when we were walking into the local Florida Strawberry Festival (aka, big county fair). But, alas, there was a regular vendor that sells a miracle super glue. He fixed my shoe and I walked a couple miles before we left. (yes, I bought some as well) I think now I will include a couple wraps around the bottom of the shoes just to make sure the sole stays on while trooping. Hold on a little longer for a progress update, I'm typing almost as fast as I can think... For a little update, yesterday, I did received my gaffi stick and an original 1903 bandolier in the mail. But, I'm not sure which box is which...??? 081A Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) On 3/4/2015 at 9:48 AM, Arcturus1020 said: I'm anxiously waiting for another update as I just received a new helmet kit from Dustin because you've inspired me. Oh, and I know a LOT of Tuskens in our area who are using Crocs as a base for their feet - there's even one person who's using slippers. James, Congrats on starting a new mask project. I will be updating before too long and I hope I don't let you down. I taught myself how to create pleats to get my mouth leather looking good. Stay tuned! Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 1 Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 5, 2015 Author Posted March 5, 2015 (edited) As I proceed, let me just warn you that not all ideas are good ones. Please read this whole post before starting any of this work and then having to un-do it like I did! Fixing the Tooth Again... NOT! My last update was the dental procedure to lower the tooth. With the tooth aligned at the top of the snout, it is now lowered to about 90% of it being below the centerline of the tusks (aka, bloodspitters). 078 But, this left about 1/2" (13 mm) of the snout visible below the tooth. I could not find any reference screen shots that had this feature, so I lowered the tooth to be flush on the bottom! (Don't Do This!!!!) 082 By lowering it, now the tooth is completely below the centerline. At least I thought this was right, until other issues came to light! 083 Adding Leather, Finally! OK, it is really vinyl that most of us use to wrap inside the mouth, but the intent is to look like leather! I mentioned before that I found part of a roll of brown vinyl from a stool upholstery project up in my attic. It is the perfect color for many projects - mask, bandoliers! Since I don't want to ruin the leather that Dustin provided with my kit, I came up with the idea of using a strip of my found vinyl for testing how to wrap the mouth. My test piece for the mouth is 14" x 6" (355 x 152 mm) 084 If I decided to use my vinyl or the vinyl for the whole thing, I needed to get rid of the white edge that would be visible where the pieces overlap. (Some Clan members use a single piece of vinyl, but my testing wasn't working well with one piece to cover everything for me.) I used the same dark brown Krylon to paint the edges of the vinyl backing. 085 To wrap the surface behind the tooth, the vinyl was cut to fit the top of the mouth. I first glued the piece inside the mouth and to the face of the snout. 086 GLUE HINT: I want to mention that after the topic was brought up by Karpouzian, I decided to try contact cement (aka, rubber cement) on the vinyl. (This is instead of having to wait hours for E6000 to dry enough so that I wouldn't need to hold it.) The secret to using rubber cement to get a solid hold is to coat both surfaces with cement, wait for it to dry to the touch (5 minutes or so), and then put them together. Using this process, the pieces will only come apart if you try to take them apart. Now, back to the discussion! I cut wedges out to allow it to fold around the snout. I could have just overlapped the vinyl edges, but I didn't want an irregular surface to wrap the leather straps around it. Glue was applied, dried and the vinyl was folded over for a good grip. 087 Used a dental pick to open the screw holes and mounted the tooth. The vinyl turned out well! The tooth, well that is another learning step! 088 089 Next Up, How to Wrap the Mouth! Edited June 5, 2019 by wingnut65 Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) Testing How To Wrap The Mouth Since I have already learned how NOT to do it, I think I now may have it figured it out! 059 After trying several different methods, this upcoming method I tested resulted in acceptable pleats. Starting at one end of the piece, I folded the vinyl back and forth in 1/2" (13 mm) folds. NOTE: Both exposed ends facing out need to be the back of the vinyl so it can be glued down! EDIT: Have the exposed ends facing out as the top of the vinyl and it will look like another pleat when glued down!!! 090 Folding the pleats continued until reaching the other end. 091 The pleated vinyl was inserted in the mouth far enough to be able to fold over and glue inside... 092 .. And then worked it to evenly spread out the pleats. EDIT: Those ends could have been folded over to look like another pleat if garbz had given me the idea sooner! 093 Put on a rubber band to hold it and then take a look! Not too bad! How does it look with the leather straps? 094 Oops! That gap between the tooth and the leather will never pass inspection! So much for my idea of lowering the tooth to get rid of the space below it. 095 Here is where that Contact Cement comes in handy. It is easy to remove when you want to, but won't just fall off. You can see the two rows of holes showing how much I lowered the tooth. That is how much more plastic surgery is needed. 096 I grabbed the standard Imperial Issued Dremel tool with armor penetrating metal saw blade and cut all the way through the snout. (These tools are very versatile!) 097 I loosened the plastic at the top of the mouth, realigned it and glued it back in place. Covered it with another piece from the 'For Sale' sign and let the patient recover! 098 I glued the vinyl back at the tooth and continued with adding more vinyl around the eyes and blood spitters. I put contact cement on both sides and waited before attaching them. Here, the vinyl is already glued to the face of the eyes and I'm adding glue to both surfaces and let them dry. TIP: Adding this vinyl is why I really didn't need to paint the mask brown! 099 I carefully pushed the vinyl down to make just a couple pleats. I cut the pleat open so the vinyl would lay flat on the mask. I'm not worried about multiple layers here since this area gets the cloth wraps. 100 - Wow, I didn't realize colors were so different with my phone and my camera, but this is the accurate color of the vinyl! Here it is with vinyl on both sides of the mask and at the tooth. Now let's go wrap that mouth!!! 101 Next Up, Cutting The Bolts And Finishing The Mouth Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 1 Quote
Tusken RTT Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 Wraps look great! I had to do that as well, getting the folds done first then put the material into the mouth. I see what you mean about the tooth and the gap. Did you try angling it down slightly, so the tooth is anchored up higher to hide the gap, but would appear to be lower? Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) TRTT, The only lowering I did was the plastic surgery for cutting and lowering the snout. 067 That did lower the tooth as well as angle it downward a little. But what I did not realize until I had the vinyl on the snout, was that the surface of the snout is taller than the tooth is. I'm sure it would not be noticed with all the other elements of the mask, but I went ahead in the steps above and removed the extra space below the tooth. This picture shows how much space there is, but I didn't realize it at the time. 053 Here is how it turned out, although it doesn't show the space below the tooth. I do have better shots in an upcoming post where I will point out the results of this adjustment. 102 Edited June 5, 2019 by wingnut65 photo links 2 Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 14, 2015 Author Posted March 14, 2015 (edited) Mounting The Spikes I haven't mentioned yet of a little challenge I encountered when mounting the head spikes. The mask covers the front of the hard hat and earlier I had to cut the front edge of the hat to clear the eyes. Now, when I tried to mount the head spikes, I realized that there are two layers of plastic to mount through. (Reminder, I'm using screws, not glue) If I would use a long screw, it would pull the plastics together and deform the mask. So... 103 From the outside of the hat, I first drilled the mounting hole for the spike, all the way through the mask and hard hat. Then from the inside of the hat, I drilled a hole larger than the head of the #6 screw just though the hard hat. This oversized hole was 3/8" (9 mm). I taped the screw to a screwdriver and mounted the spikes. 104 (Ignore the duct tape that I was using to hold the padding on for test fitting) Cutting The Mask Mounting Bolts TIP: Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment! With those words of wisdom, here is some experience I earned while cutting the bolts holding the mask to the hard hat. (I know they are technically a #8 machine screw with a nut, but calling it a bold helps me to differentiate these from the sheet metal screws I used for all the resin pieces.) When I first attached the mask to the hat, I used three bolts to hold them in place. From all the build time and handling the mask, three were fine. Now is the time to mount them permanently by cutting off the extra bolt length and mounting with the nut on the inside. So, I break out the standard Imperial Issued Dremel tool with a cut-off wheel and started cutting the bolt... 105 ...Halfway through the cut, the bolt got very loose. I then remembered how all those sparks from cutting the bolt were signs of all the heat that was being generated. I stopped, got it to cool down and found that I had almost melted a hole through my mask. Uuuuuuurrrrrggggg!!! 106 It is nothing that an oversized washer can't cover! For the other two bolts, I marked the cut line with a marker, removed the bolts, put the mask inside the house on the kitchen table so it wouldn't be anywhere near the heat from the cut, and then went back in the garage and safely cut the bolts to the new size. I used thread-lock on the nuts to make sure they don't come loose when attacking the Rebels or capturing droids. A drop of glue can also work. 107 And we have finally made it to... Wrapping The Mouth The idea of pleating the vinyl and inserting it in the mouth turned out pretty good. Now let's go ahead and glue it to the mouth! I wasn't convinced that just folding the vinyl would keep the pleats in place when I try mounting it, let alone after hours of trooping. So, using the 14" x 6" (355 x 152 mm) piece of vinyl that I spray painted the edges, I decided to coat the back with contact cement to hold it together. 108 After the contact cement had tried to the touch, I started folding the vinyl into approximately 1/2" (13 mm) pleats. And kept folding... EDIT: Have the exposed ends facing out as the top of the vinyl and it will look like another pleat when glued down!!! Not like I am showing. 109 ...Back and forth, back and forth... 110 Until it was all pleated. NOTE: Both exposed ends facing out need to be the back of the vinyl so it can be glued down to the mask! NO!!!! EDIT: Have the exposed ends facing out as the top of the vinyl and it will look like another pleat when glued down!!! Not like I'm doing it. 111 I put contact cement on the inside and outside of the mouth and let it set up. Then I inserted the pleated vinyl into the mouth far enough to have about 1" (25 mm) to fold over on the inside of the mouth. NOTE: It would have been easier if I had not mounted the resin pieces to the mask. 112 I carefully fanned the pleats out so they were evenly spaced across the mouth. 113 Then it was just a matter of folding them down to the bottom of the mouth. This did take several times to adjust them so they were to my liking. This view also shows how the vinyl pleats are folded over and the glue on the back side is holding them firmly together 114 As I continued, I cut the black screen to fit the back of the eye stalks. A little drop of hot glue on each to hold them in place and then mounted the eyestalks. NOTE: If you want the screen to both be horizontal, or matching in pattern, adjust them now before gluing! 115 I used E6000 to wrap and glue the inside of mouth vinyl. I used clothes pins to hold it down overnight. 116 All done on the inside, except for the padding. 117 I glued a piece of leather over the nose to see how it looks. Not too bad! For the record, this piece of leather did not make it to the final version. 118 EDIT: Just to be clear, where I noted above that I should have had the exposed vinyl on the outsides of the ends as I made the pleats, I would not have this visible edge of vinyl showing (blue arrows), but would have what would look like another pleat (green arrows). I'm not fixing mine, but you can have yours more improved than mine! 118A Thanks for checking in. Stay tuned, there is more to come! Next Up, Wrapping the Mouth Leather and Dyeing the Fabric Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 photo links Quote
mutter Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 Enjoying following the progress of you build. Great job! 1 Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 21, 2015 Author Posted March 21, 2015 You nailed the wraps- great job! Thanks, Scott. I really hope this is good enough for approval! Enjoying following the progress of you build. Great job! Glad you like it, Greg! It has been a fun project. I just wish I would have more time available to finish it and to get all these updates posted in a timely manner. Sit back and relax, there is more to come! Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 21, 2015 Author Posted March 21, 2015 (edited) Before I continue with the mouth leather, I want to point out that I added a piece of duck cloth to close off the back of the hard hat. I decided to make the length long enough to align with the bottom of the mask. This means that I will need a fabric wrap around my neck. Other builders have extended their mask down several more inches so they don’t need a neck wrap. I also added a square of fabric under each head spike. All this fabric was hot glued in place. EDIT: I wish I had extended the back of mask down another 3" (76 mm). Most of the time that I am looking down at kids, the back of my head can often be seen, even with my neck wrap. 119 Wrapping the Mouth Leather Looking back to the reference photo, it is clear that the leather wrapping the mouth leaves about 1/4" (6 mm) of the tooth exposed above the individual teeth. I must admit that the first time I glued the leather, I had it flush with the teeth with nothing else exposed. Ooops! Good thing hot glue can be removed without any damage! 120 The first layer of leather is on, So how are the other two layers going to look? Ummmm, No! 121 And I'm not impressed with this either! 122 Maybe that small under-piece of leather is not really needed on my mask. Let's go back and try this again... Off it comes! 123 Before I show the leather wraps, here is a little work I had to do on the first leather wrap to get it to sit correctly over the tooth. Since I performed major dental surgery, the area over the tooth now slopes forward slightly. To get the leather to form correctly, I had to stretch the back edge of the leather. A little soak in water and a little forming over a tin can... 124 ...And it is ready to go! I let it sit overnight to make sure it was dry before installing. I was so impressed at how well this was coming out that I just kept working so fast that I completely forgot to get any finished shots of just the wraps. I'll show you how it turned out in a minute... Using the new hot glue gun makes quick work of these details! 125 My nose piece was just a little bit un-round on one side. It probably would have been hidden enough that it would not have been notice, but I just had to fix it. A little off the edge with the new X-Acto blade was all it needed. 126 But, since the leather was previously stained, I exposed the unstained edge. A little dried up black shoe polish and it looked much better. I eventually hit it also with a Sharpie to make sure it was all a dark color. 127 Here it is after I wrapped the first two strips of leather around the mouth. Using a piece of paper to make a template of the space between the eyes, I trimmed the nose piece to fit. This also exposed unstained leather that I had to use the shoe polish trick. 128 A soak and a little forming of the nose piece so it conforms to both curves of the mask and it was ready to go on. 129 Top it off with the small strip of leather and the top of the mouth is DONE! 130 But, the bottom of the mouth still needs work. This is the best I could get using the hot glue gun. I want this to really stay down and I used the E6000 to close the gaps. 131 Once everything was glued, using the old leather strip I removed from the nose and a block of wood, I tightened it all down with a c-clamp and let it sit overnight. 132 Much better. I will touch up all the exposed glue with some brown paint. Now to fill in the space on the bottom of the mouth. 133 A little more hot glue and the mouth project can be stamped DONE! Note: I intentionally offset the ends of the leather in hopes they could help reinforce the seam below. I don't know if this was a good idea or not, but I am sure the Tuskens out on Tatooine would not have tried to get their seams to align perfectly. 134 Next Up, Dyeing and Applying The Cloth Wraps Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 1 Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 27, 2015 Author Posted March 27, 2015 (edited) I hope this project finishes soon, I have some trooping coming up that I would really like to participate in! Dyeing The Cloth Wraps This is where the fabric wraps all started. Six strips of fabric that I think were 8" long (2.4 m) and range from 3-4" (7 - 10 mm) wide. 005 Following the advice of others who have gone down these roads before, I tried a sample batch of my coffee dyeing mix before I tried them all. I picked up a pack of the cheapest coffee our grocery store had. Turns out to be Espresso, which I hope means a strong brew for a dark dye. I added about 10 drops of Olive Green, but it really didn't add anything to the mix. I let this pot soak for about 15 minutes. 135 Here is the result while they are still wet. I did realize that I should have brewed the coffee, instead of just adding it to the pot. The coffee grounds did brush off when dry. Left is Osnaburg, center is from my kit and right is Duck Cloth, 136 So, here are the 'Before' and 'After' comparison. The Osnaburg is from my inner robe. I bought a couple yards of Duck Cloth in case I needed more strips. This sample piece became the back portion of my mask. Results look promising, but I want to brew it stronger and soak the wraps longer. 137 I've read that the proper wrap sizes are between 2 to 2-1/2" (51 - 64 mm). The ones in my kit were much wider. I tried ripping the strips by hand, but I guess I am either too old for this, or just couldn't get a good grip. So, I came up with an easy way to split the strips. Keeping an eye on the threads, I tried to split them straight down a thread line, without wandering too far. Then pull a few more threads off to create the tattered edge. 138 Here is the secret. Warning, this is sharp and I only nicked myself twice while splitting all my strips. I ended up with about 120 feet (36.5 m) of wraps. Thanks, Dustin for giving me everything I needed! 139 I brewed two pots of 12 cups of coffee (2.8L), using 10 scoops of Espresso per pot. I put the strips in the brew and moved each one around to make sure they were loose and completely soaked. I threw in my gloves (bottom right) and the sleeves I cut from a long sleeved t-shirt that I will be using to wrap my arms (visible just under the gloves), 140 Everybody in the pool and soak for about 30 minutes (762 mm) 141 Take them out to the garage, wring them out and hanging them up to dry. 142 Note to self: Wringing out hot coffee from fabric with bare hands is really hot, so do it fast! I did use the gloves, but they got soaked and wearing the hot, wet gloves didn't help too much. BTW, My hands smelled like coffee for two days! 143 Not too bad! The different fabrics soaked the coffee differently. Let's see how they look when they dry! TIP: Use only round pipes, handles, etc. for drying the fabric. The bottom two pieces of aluminum bar resulted in irregular colors settling at the corners of the bars. 144 The next day, I ended up re-soaking the fabric that had these bad colors. Not that the big pieces of fabric would be visible when finished, but they turned out better. This time, I pinned them to let them all hang dry. 145 I thought I might need a couple narrower wraps, so I split one of the wider wraps into two and pulled a few more threads off to create the tattered edge. This clearly shows what happens to the loose threads while soaking. One side is frayed and tattered and the other is a neat line of threads. So, back in the pot! 146 I also stripped some Duck Cloth so I'd have a few extra wraps, just in case I may need them. Threw them all in a pot and added another pot of Espresso coffee. 147 Here is a close up of the results. All the cut threads are nicely frayed and tattered. Duck Cloth is on the left and the two-soak mask wraps are on the right. 148 Next Up, Some Assembly Required! 149 Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 photo linx 1 Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 28, 2015 Author Posted March 28, 2015 (edited) Thanks, Scott. Let me know how this turns out... F I N A L L Y - Applying The Cloth Wraps The fear of doing it wrong will always be there, but then again, this is just some fabric and some hot glue. If it doesn't look right, it can be pulled of and try again. So, here goes... But first, I wanted to see how the wraps would look. Are they wide enough? Too wide?... I started by laying a few wraps across the head. 150 Then there has to be one that is frayed for over the nose... Yep, this may just work out. Let's get started! 151 I had the reference shot next to me to as a goal to aim for. 001 It was easy and went so well that I almost forgot to take any pictures. My assistant came out and caught an action shot... I worked a few inches at a time and put a small bead of glue down both edges of the fabric and set it in place. I made sure that any end that would be visible was a frayed and tattered end and not a cut end. 152 I wrapped the bottom end inside the mask. I was careful not to cover the side vision slots. This was about the part where I realized I needed a narrower strip to go between the vision slop and over the edge of the eye stalks. Using a wide strip would either cover the vision slot or cover too much of the eyes. 153 TIP: Before cutting the side vision slots, try a mock-up using one of your cloth wraps. If I had done that before, I might have moved the vision slot backwards a half inch or so. (12 mm), You will recall that in my previous post, I showed where I cut a couple cloth strips narrower and had to re-dye it so get the frayed edges to look right. That resulted in those being a two-dye process and they came out slightly darker than the ones already on the mask. So, I brewed more Espresso and put it in a spray bottle give the mask another dye bath. EDIT: This image shows how short the back of my mask is. I REALLY wish I had extended the back of mask down another 3" (76 mm). Most of the time that I am looking down at kids, the back of my head can often be seen, even with my neck wrap. 154 Fully soaked and time to let it dry. The objective of the first layer of wraps was to get full coverage. Then I would work on the visible wraps around the face to try to match the screen sample. 155 The color match is not too bad! 156 Wraps are all on, now I just have to weather it. 157 I really need to take some pictures outside to get a look at what the real color is. 158 159 160 161 And to wrap it up with a TIP: For the screen for the mouth, only glue the top half down solid. Leave the bottom unglued and it can flap open for a straw to have some nice refreshing beverage during trooping. At least, that is how it is supposed to work… 162 Next Up, Wrapping the Arms and Boots Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 photo linx 1 Quote
mutter Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Outstanding job! Been following your thread closely, gathering great tips for when I build mine. 1 Quote
Arcturus1020 Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Nice work! Can you take a photo from about 6' away at a similar angle to this image? I ask because I'm a little concerned about the top of the head and there not being enough height. As it is now, it's looking a little more squat like the RotS version Tusken. I just hope I'm wrong and the images are distorted because you're taking them too close to the mask. Quote
Tusken RTT Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 After seeing the ref photo, you could also slide the side wraps on the eye stalks back a bit, but you would then need to cut or glue them for your periph. vision. Quote
jtechlove Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Nice work! Can you take a photo from about 6' away at a similar angle to this image? I ask because I'm a little concerned about the top of the head and there not being enough height. As it is now, it's looking a little more squat like the RotS version Tusken. I just hope I'm wrong and the images are distorted because you're taking them too close to the mask. Here's a pretty good side view of the hero Tusken. You can see how much height there needs to be from the top of the head to the eye stalks. It's really hard to get the dimensions right on these masks because the present day makers didn't get the dimensions right themselves. Most masks are "Tusken-ish" at best and the scale and shape of the masks are off. Godzilla is the only person that's gotten very close to accurate, however it's on a mask that was only used for promo shots, posters etc. it's rumored that Andrew Ainsworth/Nick Pemberton were responsible for making the 4 masks. If you watch Andrews YouTube vids online, he talked about what helmets he used for the other characters besides storm troopers. Getting the right helmet is the starting point for a screen accurate mask IMO. If you have the right helmet then u can scale the rest of the face from it and it'll look closest to what was used on the screen. Quote
wingnut65 Posted March 31, 2015 Author Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) Not sure if it was the perspective, or the wide angle lens on the camera. I was sitting pretty close and did not have to zoom in to take the shots. Here are a couple shots from about 10' away in a similar angle pose, It is hard to get that exact pose as it looks like my head spikes may be taller than the hero mask, Either way, this is how it is. With all the variations of builds from all the various kits out there, I'm not too concerned. Edited June 5, 2019 by wingnut65 photo linx 1 Quote
wingnut65 Posted April 3, 2015 Author Posted April 3, 2015 (edited) Correction for Folding Mouth Pleats! garbz has set me straight in my thinking how to fold the pleats around the mouth and I must correct myself so others can do it correctly! Way back in my Posts 54 and 57, I mentioned that I folded the pleats to have the back of the vinyl facing out so that it could be glued down. I did this and ended up with two edges that I need to paint to really make it be less noticeable. DON'T DO IT THAT WAY! On 3/27/2015 at 12:47 PM, garbz said: My next step was the snout/mouth wraps. I followed DarthHair's YouTube instructions but hadn't a clue on what to do with the end piece.. I folded over the end to make it more like a ripple.. I missed the ripple!!! If I had folded the pleats with the brown vinyl facing outward, then gluing the ends down would look like just another pleat, instead of an exposed edge! Great idea, Aaron! Thanks for mentioning your ripple in your built post! Note: I've edited my original post to note this error of my ways. Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 Quote
wingnut65 Posted April 7, 2015 Author Posted April 7, 2015 (edited) Drinking Straw Update: It was discussed on another thread if the screen flap inside the mouth for the straw really worked or not. Yes, it works fine for me! With my mask on, the mouth and flap are about 2" (51 mm) in front of my mouth. I'm good! EDIT: This was a great idea in concept, but this was the only place to install a computer fan. I now just lift my mask and take a drink Wrapping the Arms Using my resourcefulness, I found an old blood donor long-sleeve t-shirt that has gotten too small in the shoulders and I cut off the arms. I did buy the 5-pair pack of white 'Cotton Canvas Work Gloves' at Harbor Freight for $4 (actually $5 and a 20% off coupon) (HF Item # 66290). That is just 80¢ each! The wraps were left overs from doing the mask. 163 I found the easiest way was to put the sleeve on and start wrapping. Since the sleeve was loose, I really didn't have any time that the glue burned me. 164 I added beads of hot glue and pushed the wraps into it. Turned the arm wrap and continued. Yes, the gloves are separate from the arm so I can remove the gloves as needed without really getting out of costume. 165 WARNING: Do Not Wrap Too Tight!!! Wrap this loosely so that it will slip over your hand. How do I know?? One of my sleeves is a little tighter than I'd like it to be... 166 Since I used the actual sleeve end of the t-shirt, the elastic around the end is perfect for tucking the glove under. If I find I need more, I will add some Velcro. EDIT: This works just fine as planned. No Velcro is needed! 167 When I got to the top of the sleeve on the first arm, I just stopped the wrap. On the second one, I decided how to finish it off... I just ended the wrap back on top of itself... 168 ... and then cut off the sleeve just inside the wraps - Before and After! 169 Not too bad for spending 80¢ and a few hot glue sticks! Now they just need to be weathered! 170 Wrapping and Boots Before I reveal the process and get the discussions going, let me first reveal the first time modeling them. Some were skeptical that my idea would work, including me, in a way. Well?? I know one is sitting higher than the other, but that has been fixed. And add the weathering... 171 The CRL says the boots or shoes must be covered with cloth wrappings matching the mask and extending up the leg until concealed within the robes to conceal all skin on the legs. These seem to comply, but still need to be weathered. EDIT: My Boots were APPROVED with no issues! Here is what I started with - an old pair of shoes, more left over wraps and some white craft foam. But I didn't use the foam... 172 I started at the toe... 173 ... and continued around the sole, and then over the top 174 I had to be sure to keep the wraps loose over the tongue so I could get the shoe open enough to put on. The laces are concealed with a loose wrap and a Velcro dot. 175 Not too bad! On to the leg wraps. To keep from slipping all over and embarrassing the Clan, I only wrapped the tops, except for one strip I'll discuss later. 176 I bought the craft foam to use as the stiff base for the leg wraps, but as I was measuring and cutting to fit, my leg was sweating. Change of plans! I pulled out the extra Duck Cloth that I had and cut a 12" high strip for my leg wrap. The Duck Cloth is a fairly stiff fabric to start with, but adding all the hot glue, this worked out fine. I folded both ends over and sewed a hem to keep them from falling apart more than I'd like. Hey, I now know how to sew! 177 On the front, I just glued the wraps down, overlapping the previous one. The first few had to follow the curve line to fit over the front of the show. BTW, the first starter strip I glued on the left side was not needed at all. 178 Looks nice. Actually too nice! I may have to throw these in the washer to get a lot more frayed. The Velcro pieces were to figure out where the wraps would be fastened. 179 Here is how the inside looks. The curve was cut to allow the leg wraps to fit seamlessly over the shoe and make it look like continuous wraps 180 All wraps are glued! 181 I used a full strip of Velcro that will fasten up the back of the leg. 182 After wearing these around a little while, there were a couple spots that would start to show some black of the shoe. I used a hammer and punch to put a hole in a little piece of wrap to cover the area around the shoe laces. I also added another row of wrap around the whole back of the shoe as well that you will see in later pix. EDIT: I added a second Velcro dot on each lace cover strip. 183 I've been wearing these old ragged shoes around to make sure they still fit and would survive a troop. Well... Last month, I wore them to the county fair, The Florida Strawberry Festival to be exact, to spend the day eating fair food and to watch an awesome Hunter Hayes concert . About 5 minutes after we got in the main gate, the front of my sole separated from my right show and started flapping. Uuuuuuurrrrrggggg!!! Luckily, there was a vendor selling "Sinbad" Super Glue. He fixed my shoe and I bought a bottle. (Pretty good stuff!!) The shoe has held up fine since then, but what about the future... So, I decided to wrap one of the wraps all the way around the whole shoe to make sure the soles won't start flapping during a troop. And wouldn't you know that with that little bit of fabric on the sole, I was slipping all over the house. So, a thin layer of Shoe Goo, evened out using an ice cube, and all my slip sliding problems were solved! 184 All they need is a little bit of weathering, and we are ready to go Trooping!! 185 Next Up, The Neck Breather. Or, is it the Moisture Collector... First, I gotta go finish up some Reddi Wip... Got any Pie? Edited June 8, 2019 by wingnut65 Photo Links Quote
Ghalgor Posted April 9, 2015 Posted April 9, 2015 Such fantastic work and an inspiration for my build. 1 Quote
garbz Posted April 9, 2015 Posted April 9, 2015 I've yet to delve into the world of footwear for my build. I like this idea!!! 1 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.