Help! Predator quills

[Lord of the props]

Hello

Does anybody know where to find quills? I need that for my Predator masks.

Please let me know

 

[SgtFang]

Hello

Does anybody know where to find quills? I need that for my Predator masks.

Please let me know

Here's the quick and cheap way-

First find a feather with a quill the proper size.

Mark the feather at the proper length.

Find a block of medium firm modeling clay and stick the feather in it. if the feather pulls out with clay residue on it, you need the next firmest grade clay. When you find the grade of firmness where no clay comes out on the quill, shave the surface of the clay block down, about 1/16th to 1/8" deep, leaving about a 1/8" high wall around the outer edge. Now poke the feather into the clay block about 500 more times, to the desired depth.

When you're done with that, take some baby powder and literally fill the entire surface, holes and all, then shake it all back out, leaving a fine coating on all surfaces.

Now you're ready for the resin. For something like this you might want to pre-pigment your resin now, but you can also spray paint them black later. Mix up some resin thats at least room temp so it'll release any trapped air easier, and pour it over your impromptu clay block mold. Gently shake and jiggle the clay to work loose any trapped air and let the resin flow into all the pokes. The baby powder will break the surface tension of the resin and suck it down into every little nook and cranny.

When the resin cures all the way, you should be able to pull off a 1/16th - 1/8th thick resin sheet w/ 500 quills sticking out, that are ready to be clipped off, painted and mounted on your mask.

Take pics! I just made this up as I typed!

-Sarge

 

[frosty]

Ive not tried it myself but i hear sculpey bake and bend is a good substitute for quils, over on the hunters lair a lot of people use this on there pred masks, stays semi flexible and easy to work with

 

[SgtFang]

Ive not tried it myself but i hear sculpey bake and bend is a good substitute for quils, over on the hunters lair a lot of people use this on there pred masks, stays semi flexible and easy to work with

What is this "Bake and Bend" you speak of Earthman???

-Sarge

 

[frosty]

Sent you a pm, find it on ebay, similar to regular super sculpey but is flexible when its baked

 

[swpropmaker]

Ive seen a guy buy a bunch of combs... yeah the ones used on your hair... he cut the teeth of the comb out and used them as the quills they looked great.

Steve

 

[Darth Lars]

I am considering using "Bake & Bend" Sculpey for a completely different item, and I need to know: How durable is it?

Björn: I found single-packs (50g) of Bake & Bend Sculpey at Kreatima in Stockholm.

 

[Gigatron]

I'm not a predator guy, so maybe this is a dumb suggestion, but how about just using rounded toothpicks? It's like $4 for a box of 500. You can cut them to size, they're fairly sturdy and if one brakes, you have a box of them leftover.

-Fred

 

[Clutch]

I think toothpicks would not be big enough.

 

[Gigatron]

I think toothpicks would not be big enough.

They also carry those long toothpicks that you use for fancy sandwich making.

Or if length is a factor, they make those long, thin wooden skewers - slightly thicker than a toothpick (but not much) and about a foot long. Also very cheap.

-Fred

 

[Simmon M]

I think Streetjudge did a paint up once using toothpicks as quills and it looked pretty cool.

Neal Tracey used porcupine quills (cut to length) on my old Predator bust. Dunno where you get them from though ...

 

[PTK]

get some cheap porcupine quills on ebay. they are usually pretty cheap, and they have a more organic/realistic tapered and curved look (as opposed to something like toothpicks)
just stick a bunch of them in a chunk of foam or clay, spray them with some gloss black and trim them to the desired length when they are dry

some of them can be really sharp, so you might want to give them a quick sand with some 250-400 grit sandpaper to knock off the points a little

 

[Slave1]

Try this . . . get some Plumber's Putty . . . the two part kind that you kneed and it hardens up after a few minutes. Kneed a little and roll it into tapering lightly curved shapes. Make a bunch of varying lengths and tuck them into the areas where the quills go.

This works really well. You can't be banging around on the quills, but otherwise they'll hold up for display purposes.