The Lion King Broadway musical - Simba mask foam build

Headed to Mickey's Halloween party over in Disneyland in a couple of weeks and thought I would pay tribute to my favorite film of all time in a unique costume for the event. I made a version of Simba's mask from the Broadway musical to ask a girl to prom in high school about five years back. It was made from paper mache and looked okay but I'm a bit more experienced in craft work now and decided to try and make one out of foam.
Here's a photo of the mask from the show:

Here's the one I made back in high school. Only picture I could find of it. Excuse the poor Photoshop removal of my ex's face. The mask kinda reminds me of Angelica's doll from Rugrats, but it was a solid attempt!

Finally, here's where an hours worth of playing with foam has gotten me.


Planning on cutting up a wig for the mane and potentially just sandwiching the hair between two thin layers of foam. I would like to make a way for the mane to be removable to make traveling easier but I guess I'll see what happens. It'll all be mounted onto a bill-less baseball cap once it's all finished. Would love to hear feedback and see if anyone else has tackled this unique project!

Looks like you're off to a great start!

Sidenote: Was Anne Hathaway a good dancer?

MattgomeryBurns said:

Was Anne Hathaway a good dancer?

Click to expand...

Not as good as you would have expected, actually.

Didn't add much tonight. Went over the whole thing with heat again to make sure it holds its shape, then I just cut some pieces of 2mm foam to go over the brows and make them a little more organic looking. Also glued the nose on there. Reminds me of the Nolan Bat-symbol... Working on the eyes and painting details this weekend!

Finished up details and whatnot!

First VERY ROUGH coat of paint. Realizing this is my first time painting craft foam with acrylics and not spray paint or plasti-dip. Everything I had put in pen as a sort of guide-line is still showing through quite vibrantly! Hahaha. We'll see what a few more coats do tomorrow...

Thought I should update this with the finished product!

After another coat of paint, I cut another piece of 12mm foam in the outline of the mask to place the mane onto. I cut up a cheap blonde wig and sandwiched each piece with glue between layers of foam. Glued the bad boy onto a bill-less baseball cap and voila! Here's a picture of the full costume.

It was a bit odd; I don't think I've ever worn a piece of clothing on my torso that doesn't go over my shoulders, so that was a new, odd feeling. But I had a lot of fun and the costume was a huge hit! The employees of the park really enjoyed it. Even gave my group some free fast-passes to whatever we wanted to do!
Overall, this was a much more successful journey than my last attempt at the mask. Had a lot of fun working on it and hope at least someone got a kick out of seeing it!