1/1 Jurassic Park Velociraptor Head Puppet

Kohrsfilms

Kohrsfilms

Member
Hey everyone! I'm new to the forums. I wanted to show off my latest project so far and get some input. I've kind of hit a road block.

Since May of '10 I've been working on scuplting my raptor head with the intent of turning it into esentially an oversized hand puppet. I started out building a base out of green floral foam and then sculpted on a thin layer of clay over it.

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After months of sculpting, I finished it, as you can see above.

I then proceeded to make a 2 part plaster mold using UltraCal 30. After some trail and error I was able to get a useable mold from my scuplt.

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But unfortunately the floral foam base, which I was going to reuse later as the form for the final puppet, didn't survive the demolding process.

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So I'm kinda stuck right now not knowing what to do next. My plan A failed and I don't have a plan B yet.

I need to make another lightweight form that I can eventually slide the silicone rubber skin onto. I'm just not quite sure how to go about that in the cheapest way possible.

Any suggestions?
 
^That's a possibility I'll have to look into it further. A few days ago I did a small scale test with Great Stuff expanding foam insulation. Even though I sprayed down the scrap piece of plaster with mold release the foam still bonded to it!

So I'm a bit worried cause if I damage my mold I'll have to start all over from square one. That's not a road I want to go down after investing this much time into the project so far.
 
Does it have to be foam?
Can you not use a soft concrete (like hydrocal) for some solid bases to work off?
 
You can just use the approach we use to make cores in the biz. Get some wet/water clay (it's mad cheap) slice it out into sheets however thick or thin you want your skin and press it into your hydrocal mold, creating a layer that will eventually be negative space. Once you have this pressed in around the entire thing, mix up more stone and put it in or use the foam at that point. If you want it to be a puppet you'll probably want a fiberglass skeleton/core that you can make moveable and then slip the skin over.
 
Heck, if you, cant build a puppet you could always do latex busts out of that mold. The sculpt looked fabulous.

Perhaps build up a "skull" out of wood and foam and place a latex skin over it...
 
I've been looking for someone who might be doing puppets of the JP guys for a bit.

For a base how about bending something like a tomato cage to the proper shape and putting your skin over that ? A lower jaw could be made from the same thing. You could also possibly use chicken wire , bend it into the right shape and then coat the interior where the hand will be with bedding foam. My walmart sells it for about 15.00 a bag... I've built some props for actors to use out of it and it works alright.

Are you looking to even do a hinged mouth ? If so you will have to add teeth and a mouth interior as well. If you just want a puppet of this closed mouth version..just cast your latex pieces, glue them together and use that bedding foam on the interior as a support leaving just enough room for your hand to fit.

You may also consider doing fiberglass busts..pop some taxidermy eyes in them like you have in the clay versions and they'll def sell. ;)
 
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^ I was looking to do a hinged mouth. I already have some resin teeth cast, painted, and ready to eat people. And when I find time I'll be scuplting and molding a tounge.

IMG_0747.jpg


I think I may go the route of making a fiberglass form as mentioned earlier in a previous post. Fiberglass is a material I'm familiar with, having used it in previous projects.
 
Since you already have the gypsum mold, I would consider making a clay slip, using slip clay (probably available at the same place you bought ultracal). This is similar to making A latex slip for s mask. Let it dwell in the mold until it is the desired thickness, then dump it out just like a latex mask. Once it firms up make a slush cast inside of the clay slip for your core.

Good luck!
 
Kohrsfilms said:
^ I was looking to do a hinged mouth. I already have some resin teeth cast, painted, and ready to eat people. And when I find time I'll be scuplting and molding a tounge.

IMG_0747.jpg


I think I may go the route of making a fiberglass form as mentioned earlier in a previous post. Fiberglass is a material I'm familiar with, having used it in previous projects.
Click to expand...

You do fiberglass I might just be interested...so far ship fees from other countries and sellers with bad reputations have kept me away from a 1/1 JP Raptor.
 
Great job! I think a simple solution would be to press a few layers of aluminum foil tigthly against the mold so that it retain the same shape. Then you can remove it at paint it inside and out with melted hot glue. I did this with a thin latex mask and it worked real well, and far less messy and less fumes than using fiberglass.

I would be interested in buying one of these myself. What would you sell a latex 'skin' for? What are the dimensions?

Good luck with the project!
 
^It's dimensions are 24 in from nose to neck and 13 in (at the thickest point) from top of the head to the bottom.

I haven't thought about doing a run of these yet so I can't say how much at the moment. But there seems to be a lot of interest so I'm seriously considering it. I just want to get my puppet making situation figured out first.

I should have some time next week to get the fiberglass form constructed.
 
This is so cool! I've wanted to do a full body raptor costume and have the person in it chase some people around at a con. That or have some JP rangers chase it through a con trying to capture it. Great work.
 
Had a lot of time over this last weekend to work on the raptor and made a ton of progress since my last update.

I made a fiberglass form with a moveable jaw. It is supported on the inside with expanding foam.

IMG_0748.jpg


IMG_0749.jpg


I also casted the skin using Plat-Sil Gel 10. The skin fits onto the form very nicely. The mouth is still a little bit floppy but I haven't glued it down to the form yet.

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I still need to do some clean up work on the seam line.


Now I need to work on the mouth interior and paint the skin. I wanted to now if anyone had any suggestions for paints that would work well on silicone, cause I don't think regular acrylic paints would work would they?
 
^I don't think they would.

I think I may just have to get some PsychoPaint and pigments from Smooth-On. It looks like what I would need to paint it.

But I'll have to hold off for a while. I just had to replace the tires on my car a week or so ago. So I'm financially drained at the moment.
 
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