The making of Raphael, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Thread starter Jessica
- Start date
EyeintheSky
Well-Known Member
Your child is really a lucky one having such a skilled mom!!! 
Zaxmon
Well-Known Member
Yeah I love it when my kids tell me my stuff is awesome. I tend to be my own worst critic and their enthusiasm is a breath of fresh air.
Darth_Knight1
Active Member
Very nice project and WIP pics. Excellent job so far! :thumbsup
Jessica
Well-Known Member
Last night I patched this sucker up. I tried to use bondo but the stuff stinks to high heaven. I scrapped that idea real fast. After tying the two halves together and gluing it shut, I used Apoxie to seal up the mongo cracks at the seam line...and then used baked clay with the positive texture to punch in the design and hopefully hide the seam. This morning, I poured in the liquid latex in there, and it's drying at the moment. Halloween is fast approaching, and this better work.
Jessica
Well-Known Member
Patience is not one of my virtues. Curiosity got the best of me, so I took out the latex before it was fully cured. It almost cured, but not quite. Where I put the Apoxie is where the latex was not cured properly...so it looks likes I'm going to have to go in there and cover up those areas of Apoxie with some more Ultracal30.
Maybe also because of the way I sculpted it...the access area where I could pull the latex out was very small. Let's just say it felt like I was birthing a calf trying to pull out the latex.
Anyway, I am happy with how it turned out, no matter how crappy, because there's still time to fix it. Plus it's a good learning experience.
This is the chin area that I need to concentrate on, and make sure that latex gets slushed on it.
Here's the seam that I tried to fix with Apoxie:
There really is no growing space, and this fits Ashton exactly. I need to invest in those mannequins I suppose since it's super fun to sculpt lifesize...it's just that they take up space, too. Anyway, it's great to see Ashton being so excited about something that looks so horrible. I'm going to cut out the teeth and replace with white cheesecloth and redraw the lines on with 3D paint, so the mask can be really vented.
Maybe also because of the way I sculpted it...the access area where I could pull the latex out was very small. Let's just say it felt like I was birthing a calf trying to pull out the latex.
Anyway, I am happy with how it turned out, no matter how crappy, because there's still time to fix it. Plus it's a good learning experience.
This is the chin area that I need to concentrate on, and make sure that latex gets slushed on it.
Here's the seam that I tried to fix with Apoxie:
There really is no growing space, and this fits Ashton exactly. I need to invest in those mannequins I suppose since it's super fun to sculpt lifesize...it's just that they take up space, too. Anyway, it's great to see Ashton being so excited about something that looks so horrible. I'm going to cut out the teeth and replace with white cheesecloth and redraw the lines on with 3D paint, so the mask can be really vented.
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Jessica
Well-Known Member
Darn you Raphael!! Where has time gone? Why are you giving me grief? I am working feverishly to make sure you are completed by tomorrow's Halloween parade at school.
My patchwork of the seam did not work...it looks really rough. Note to self--next time make it so there are no seams to deal with. I think that's possible if planned correctly.
There was a crack on Raphael's face after I tried to fix the seam, too. Anyway, I patched that up with some more Ultracal 30, and decided that as long as the turtle has no obvious holes, that would be good enough for me.
Currently gluing down the red mask (forgot to get red fabric, so I cut up an old t-shirt from Ashton's closet that he has outgrown anyway)....
My patchwork of the seam did not work...it looks really rough. Note to self--next time make it so there are no seams to deal with. I think that's possible if planned correctly.
There was a crack on Raphael's face after I tried to fix the seam, too. Anyway, I patched that up with some more Ultracal 30, and decided that as long as the turtle has no obvious holes, that would be good enough for me.
Currently gluing down the red mask (forgot to get red fabric, so I cut up an old t-shirt from Ashton's closet that he has outgrown anyway)....
Jessica
Well-Known Member
Here are photos of today's progress. This is mask after I pulled it out of the Ultracal mold. I don't know what's up with that dent on the lip area...it wasn't there with my first pull. Perhaps I dented it permanently while pulling out the mask from the mold.
The crap seam that I had tried to patch up with Apoxie, which I had to dremel off and repatch with more Ultracal 30:
The seam was not so obvious after I painted the mask with black pax:
Was too lazy to mix up red pax, so I tried to paint up the mask with rubber mask grease paint. Obviously, it wasn't working, and was only just background color anyway, so I gave up. The teeth I cut out and glued down a white fabric for airflow.
The black outline for the teeth have been sewn on. I couldn't find black yarn, so I plucked off some fringe material for another costume and used that.
This is the red fabric glued on top of the mask area. The seam really doesn't bother me as much after it's been painted up. Ashton won't mind, and anyway, at least it doesn't have holes now. I am just trying to clean up the edges by folding them under and gluing down.
The crap seam that I had tried to patch up with Apoxie, which I had to dremel off and repatch with more Ultracal 30:
The seam was not so obvious after I painted the mask with black pax:
Was too lazy to mix up red pax, so I tried to paint up the mask with rubber mask grease paint. Obviously, it wasn't working, and was only just background color anyway, so I gave up. The teeth I cut out and glued down a white fabric for airflow.
The black outline for the teeth have been sewn on. I couldn't find black yarn, so I plucked off some fringe material for another costume and used that.
This is the red fabric glued on top of the mask area. The seam really doesn't bother me as much after it's been painted up. Ashton won't mind, and anyway, at least it doesn't have holes now. I am just trying to clean up the edges by folding them under and gluing down.
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Jessica
Well-Known Member
uh...this is it! It's only the mask that I am making for Ashton. We have a store-bought costume because I didn't want to put more effort into his costume. :eek Tomorrow is the school parade.
I have turned the mask inside out to air it out...I'm going to dust it with baby powder before I turn it right side out.
Jessica
Well-Known Member
So glad I made the effort on Ashton's mask. Here he is among his classmates. Because I turned his mask inside out to air it out, the left eye hole was seriously misbehaving as it had become misshapened. I will have to try to figure out how to straighten it out so that Ashton can wear it this Sunday without problems. This is last moment stuff that I had not expected, but live and learn. The good thing was he said that it didn't smell anymore inside the mask.
I was really shocked to see how sweaty Ashton's hair was after he took the mask off. Eeew!
I was really shocked to see how sweaty Ashton's hair was after he took the mask off. Eeew!
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WardenTorBaaL
Member
I especially like the top pic where you can practically see the thought bubble of the "other" Raphael: "Man, I wish MY mom was that cool!"
Lonescout3718
New Member
Way to go! Jessica!
