Building a real-size alien egg - help me

[vykos]

Hello all

My husband built a colonial marine costume and won the qualifier round for a cosplay contest. Now we need to improve said costume for the finals.He wants to recreate a scene where the alien egg opens and a facehugger pops out. so...
I have been searching all over for help, I don't know if anyone has seen/made what we are trying to do:

we are building a real-size alien egg, and I would like it to be a functional egg, meaning it would have to open the "petals" just like in the movies. The egg is built in pepakura+fibreglass up to 3/4 of the height, and I will be using EVA foam to make the "petals" (I'm sorry, I'm having a mental blockage and can't think of a better word for the egg's upper part).
I was thinking about using cables attached to each individual "petal" and pull those cables using a servo, possibly controlled by an arduino (or something similar). Probably I am overcomplicating, but I am lost and running out of time.
Has anyone done or seen this? I have seen tutorials, but for smaller eggs, the size of a party balloon, that open manually.
Thank you for your help and I apologize if this post is in the wrong thread

cheers from portugal

 

[CaptChunkyChew]

Here ya go! to summarize, judging by what you already have, you need to run fishing line from the outside of the "petals" through the foam, and down the inside of the egg. These should come out of a tube at the bottom, and when someone offstage pulls them, the pull the petals open, if that makes sense. Not sure about how to make the facehugger come out though...

 

[vykos]

I was thinking something like placing a platform with a spring under the facehugger that is released once the strings are pulled all the way... not sure it will work, though, we will have to finish the egg and try it out

 

[CaptChunkyChew]

The one problem I see with that is that you'd need some pretty big springs, also, when the facehugger is released, it isn't very aerodynamic, so it will spin and go all over the place, and not be like the movie...

 

[vykos]

well... yes, but the plan is to have the colonial marine looking at the top of the egg (read: with his head almost stuck inside ) when it releases, so it won't spin all over. also, we are incorporating a skeleton-like structure into it so it cradles on the face easily, and then he holds it in place, in a way that (hopefully) makes it look like he's struggling

 

[CaptChunkyChew]

Maybe an elastic catapult? with a catch released by another fishing line, coming through the same hole as the others, but operated separately, so he can stick his head in the way!

 

[vykos]

something like that, yes. I can't wait to have this done, i'll post a link to a video, or something as soon as possible
thank you so much for your feedback