Part 9: Duct tape, dummy

When you're making a fitted costume, it's a good idea to have something to work with to make sure it actually fits. Tailors can usually get away with adjustable dummies, but for a full body costume like Stranger, which will include heavily padded arms, legs and so forth, it's useful to have something a bit more complete, and a bit more personal. This is where the Duct tape Dummy comes in.

Once again a note on safety. A duct tape dummy essentially involves having a number of friends mummify you in duct tape. It needs to be tight enough to capture your body shape, but if it's too tight it can restrict movement and cooling to the extent you can faint, especially if you can't bend your knees. If you choose to do one for yourself, PLEASE take all necessary precautions, do additional research on safety, and be certain the people making it are trusted, reliable and you have a rapid "escape plan". I would recommend at least two people plus the model, as the longer you are in it the greater the risk of becoming unwell from the process, and of course don't attempt one if you think you would be unhappy being mummified in duct tape. This blog is not intended as a tutorial, I recommend http://latinvixen.phpwebhosting.com/dtd.htm for more information and a rather better technique than the one we ended up using


So, with that said, on to the pictures.

I worked over a disposable paper suit, intended for protecting ones clothes while painting and decorating. I had to buy a bunch anyway for doing fibreglass work, so it made sense to do it this way. I also wear old socks and a pair of disposable gloves, since I want the suit to include both my feet and my hands

Next, we prepare some lengths of tape, it just makes it a bit quicker to do the early steps and avoids spending too much time in the dummy

 Then, my assistants start work. In hindsight, they probably should have done the legs last as having my knees locked for so long almost caused me to faint and prevented me from sitting down, and the crotch ended up rather low from being pulled down by the taped legs, but never mind

Working in a criss cross pattern ensures a strong dummy, 2-3 layers thick.

The body and arms are taped up, with support poles so my arms don't get tired, holding your arms up at your side for any length of time is very hard without support

I don't tape the head, it's not needed and tight tape near the neck is not a good idea. Also make sure the body tape isn't too tight, and for female dummies, don't be too tight around the bust unless you plan to wear a binder while in costume

The dummy is then marked with lines where it will be cut and carefully removed. I like to have marks across the cut line about every 10cm or so, as they help line things up when the dummy comes off and is being reconstructed. The assistant needs to be super careful with the scissors during this step or they can cut or scrape the model. I like to use a spoon to aid with the cutting off, slipped under the tape and paper suit the bowl of the spoon can help prevent the scissor tips digging in to the models skin

That's the dummy made, now I let it air out for a bit. You can see I've marked the knees on this dummy, it can be hard to know exactly where the models kneed are in a stuffed dummy, and in a costume where the position of the knees is important, knowing exactly where they are is really handy

 Finally, using the cross marks from the marking stage, I start putting the dummy back together with more tape, stuffing it as I go. I was lucky enough to have a large amount of polyfill toy stuffing lying around from other projects, if this isn't available, screwed up newspaper is OK, though heavier and more likely to become lumpy and uneven.

And that's it. I'll be using this dummy to build the arms, get proper sizings for the big leg armour and the body armour, and generally putting the costume together without having to constantly try things on and adjust them. It's also going to come in handy for a bunch of other costumes in the future, I hope.

Part 8: tiny tiny darts

Sometimes the devil is in the details.

Over the 4 or so days it took to do the mold, there was a lot of waiting around while things dried, cured or settled, so in those gaps I got to work on the darts. What darts you say?

these darts right here

Stranger is a costume that mostly consists of large, bold pieces and broad strokes, so it's nice to get a chance to have a crack at doing more intricate parts and get a bit of detail going

without the hat finished I wasn't actually sure exactly how many would be needed, but there are seven in full view in that picture, so I figure 14 ought to do it

The darts are made from a bunch of found objects and some basic craft materials. It's always wise to keep an eye out for small objects and moldings that may be useful in a costume, in this case, nails and the swap-out tips of a laser pointer won at a fairground that never worked

To these were added vanes made from foamboard, with the foam carefully removed on one side and the edges glued together to create a tapered shape. 

A little work with a hacksaw (and when I got tired of that, a dremel) to remove the nail heads, a spot of glue, some apoxie putty in the middle and a lick of paint and varnish and we have a dart

a little more work and we have a whole buncha darts

Since I don't have anything resembling a hat yet, these are going to be carefully packed away for safe keeping for a while, but at least they're done now, and the time waiting for sealants to dry over the past few days of mold making wasn't wasted

Part 7: Making a fibreglass mold

So we come to the most stressful, difficult and dangerous step so far: making a fibreglass mold. When I say dangerous, I don't just mean that if it goes wrong you can end up erasing all your hard work so far, but in a more literal sense. The polyester resin and glass fibre matting, not to mention the various sealants required, are noxious chemicals and require some mid level personal protective equipment, and the powertools needed in the later stages are obviously capable of causing some pretty nasty injuries. I personally used a ton of disposable latex gloves, a respirator with replaceable filters, goggles whenever dust or shards were involved, a paper suit to protect my clothes as well as changing clothes to avoid tracking anything indoors, and I worked in a large garage, often with the door open and a large fan for venting.  Even so, I am not a health and safety professional. Please if you do take any inspiration from this blog and try anything for yourself, do your own research and look for advice from real professionals. Also, I am missing out a few steps, this is not an instruction manual on using fibreglass (though I hope it is still of use to people) 


So with that slightly paranoid diatribe out of the way, onto the actual processes and pictures

I begin by sealing the sculpt with clear lacquer, I used a brand intended for wargaming miniatures. This seals the still somewhat wet clay, gives it a non porus surface for the clay wall to stick to and the resin to sit on, and makes it a little more durable and less liable to taking surface impressions from the pummelling it's about to endure

Next I have to decide where the dividing lines between the parts of the mold will end up. Fibreglass is pretty rigid, so I can't afford for any individual part of the mold to have any substantial undercuts. In the end I went for four pieces, on advice from a friend and my own ideas, two for the face and two for the back of the head. Each part of the mold needs a substantial lip, so we make clay walls from cheap water based clay along the dividing lines

making the wall resting on a scaffold of scrap wood and plastic. I didn't do this too well to be honest, but it seemed to just about work

the clay wall has small clay "keys" so the parts of the finished mold match up when it's bolted back together

on areas where a scaffold can't be built, the wall is braced against the sculpt using more clay. The sculpture is sealed with the spray lacquer mentioned earlier, so these buttresses should just life off when I remove the wall

Next, I seal the sculpt again with PVA sealant (poly vinyl alcohol, related to kids white glue but NOT the same stuff, you get this from fibreglass suppliers), applied with a spray gun. The spray gun and compressor both belong to my roommate who was also instrumental in telling me exactly how to do this, and helping out on those few steps where two pairs of hands are necessary.

After a final spray down with a wax mold release, it's time for the first coat of resin. The base layer on this mold is a "bondo coat", made from a mixture of car body filler (I actually used a non branded version) and Polyester resin, with both catalysts added after mixing. These are mixed in a ratio to obtain an emulsion paint like consistency, (for me it was on the order of 50:50 though it may vary by brand), then poured onto the sculpt and worked in with a soft brush

this is actually the bondo layer on the *second* stage of the mold, but I was so stressed and unsure when doing the first half I forgot to get any pictures

After this, once the bondo layer has mosty but not completely cured, the major indentations around the nose, eyes and sharp edges of the clay wall are filled with resin thickened with cabosil (fumed silica), a peculiar fluffy powder that is extraordinarily lightweight and when mixed with the resin gives it a toothpaste like consistency. This avoids any big gaps in the fibreglass layer, or the risk of having large volumes of polyester resin without any strengthening fibreglass, as the resin is very brittle when used alone and the cabosil adds a lot of strength

The next step is the fibreglass. Because polyester resin is sticky and dries quite fast, I wasn't able to get any progress photos during this stage, but there are plenty of filmed examples online. In any case, I applied three layers of chopped strand matting, with polyester laminating resin which is worked in with a paintbrush like a kind of stinky irritating papier mache. In case anyone is interested, I catalysed 2-3% at 10 degrees C, which seemed to work well. Oh and by the way, the catalyst is also an explosive, if this didn't sound dangerous enough already.

chopped strand matting, this comes on a roll like fabric and can be torn into small pieces for laminating. The strands are only loosely attached to one another and slip easily, making this form of fibreglass easy to tear by hand and suitable for covering quite convoluted shapes

there are still a lot of fibres sticking out of the edges of the mold piece here, that's fine, we'll be trimming those off later

After completing one part of the mold, The process is repeated on the other sections. The clay walls need to be removed and the resin underneath cleaned, then everything is sealed with more PVA and sprayed with more wax. I also add a few small clay lozenges to act as "pry points" where a screwdriver can be inserted once the mold is completed and trimmed

Each time I complete a "lip" on the mold with fibreglass on both sides, I drill a few holes and bolt it together, to prevent shifting while working on the rest of the piece. In this case I used M6 (approx 1/4") bolts and wingnuts which can easily be tightened and loosened without tools. Eventually all four edges are bolted up like this.

Finally, to make the back of the mold, the entire piece has to be tipped forwards. I was lucky that my work space was made from two old wardrobe doors (found in a skip), so the front lip was able to rest in the gap between them, with the front of the mold resting on two large foam pads and the back of the lifecast elevated on pieces of scrap wood. This was one of those two person steps mentioned earlier, between the plaster base, the clay and all the mold making materials this thing is HEAVY. In general, when doing large heavy molds it's always handy to have a bunch of scrap around, literally everything I used to support this mold was salvaged material from skips or neighbours throwing it away. Fibreglass and resin will pretty much wreck whatever you are working on, so it's wise to try to reduce costs and waste by using things that were destined for the bin anyway and giving them one final lease of life.

And that's it. All the wet stages of making a fibreglass mold. Next we finish bolting the thing together, trim off the excess then pry the mold off the sculpt, followed by a good wash, a week or so sitting out to finish outgassing, and a lot of fiddling and cleanup, but this entry is already long enough so I'll leave it here.

Part 6: the finished sculpt

Just a few more pictures of the completed sculpt with better lighting and in more detail, then we get on to the meat of todays updates: mold making.

Next: THE MOLD!  

Part 5: Sculpting the head

The scary bit. If the head doesn't look good, the whole costume is a waste of time. I was well prepared, would I be able to do justice to that preparation?



Having set the heavy plaster lifecast on a rotating base purchased from a sculpting supplier and given it a rub down with mold soap to help with cleaning once we're done, we start by blocking out the basic shapes. The material I used for the head is WED clay, a water based clay with a few additives developed by the Disney company for sculpting creatures and props, the added oils and glycerine make it particularly smooth and slow drying. The other option for this kind of work is an oil based clay, which doesn't dry at all, but it's generally harder than water clays and has to be warmed before it is workable, so it's much slower for building large pieces like this, and is also far more expensive

A wooden block is incorporated across the eyes of the lifecast, to make sure there is space within the head for the mechanical parts without interfering with the performers face

A metal eyebar rests on the wooden block, the plaster eyes then rest on this bar, helping to keep the sculpt symmetrical and the eyes at similar depths and distance from the centre line. Few creatures have perfectly forward facing eyes, so the ends of the bar are bent a few degrees backwards

Lots more blocking out. WED is a very soft material and can be worked easily with the fingers, so these steps are surprisingly fast

From this point on, it's the slow painful process of capturing the smaller shapes, and keeping the two sides symmetrical. This tends to take much longer than the initial blocking out, and requires a lot of measuring and eyeing up. Perfect symmetry is almost impossible, but getting it as close as possible is important if you want your creature to look real

As the above pictures show, there's also a continuous process of smoothing and refining shapes going on at every step, using the fingers, tools, sponges and brushes. The face piece of this mask will be cast in movie grade silicone and will have very little fur, so it's vital that the sculpt is as perfect as possible

And this is the final sculpt, ready for the mold making process

I'll take some better lit pictures showcasing some of the detail (mainly around the eyes, mouth and nose, most of the rest will be covered in fur) just before I start the mold making process. Until then, this will have to do, hopefully this post has been useful or at least interesting to some of you guys. 

 Next, I dunno, maybe molding? But that's scary, so maybe something a bit less daunting. Ciao for now, don't be a Stranger. 

Part 4: Preparations for a head

The head piece for this costume is the most complex thing I've ever attempted, by far, so before getting started it was vital to be as prepared as possible. Having never made any animatronics before, I started at the bottom, with an excellent instructional video from http://www.daniele-tirinnanzi.com/ , augmented with information from the Stan Winston school website, and plenty of advice from more experienced friends

As well as instructions, it's also vital to have the best reference images possible. For stranger I was very fortunate, there are some lovely CG movies within the game, and some good screenshots of them online and easily findable via google. As well as this, the publicity shots for the game are excellent, and the recent HD remake was accompanied by some very detailed blogs and some great character model shots, including several in greyscale with no texture mapping (surprisingly useful when sculpting in grey clay without fur). Finally, google furnished a few good quality images of gorillas, to fill in the blanks and provide inspiration for additional details such as fine wrinkles. All these pictures and more were printed out and put in plastic folders to protect them from the ravages of working with wet clay, and pinned up around my sculpting work space

As well as looking at reference art, it helps to create some of your own. I built a maquette of the head, a miniature sculpture made to test proportions and get a feel for the final piece. Mine was sculpted over a small porcelain ornament of a phrenology head, to make sure it was actually possible to encase a human head inside this alien head without messing up the proportions. I used this head for reference as I sculpted the full size one, and though there are some considerable differences now, it was still very useful.

The head itself would be sculpted with the eyes included, but I wanted to avoid damaging the expensive glass eyes I had purchased for this project. I made a mold of one of the eyes using silicone and made a number of plaster copies which could be incorporated into the sculpt without worrying about damage, or indeed used in other projects requiring the same size eye

A sculptor needs tools, ours are a mixture of commercially available clay working tools and home made ones created from wire, brass piping, guitar strings, pins, bits of foam and sponge, and just about anything that can be used to work soft materials

Finally, if you're going to sculpt, you need something to sculpt ON. In this case, a lifecast is absolutely essential. The one used for this project is actually cast from a friend, four of us spent a full day last year putting this thing together and it's one of the most useful objects a mask maker can own. Without a lifecast of the intended performer or at least someone with a very similarly sized head, you are forced to use things like shop dummies or wig display stands, which are almost invariable much smaller than most real people and frequently lead to heads that are too small for the wearer or which look out of proportion even if they can be forced to fit on the head

With all this in place, next time: the head sculpt.